tonycharger72

Seats look really good mate! Do you have any pics of how you did the seat rails?

Really? I had a Charger with non power assisted brakes and it was terrible, sit there stomping away on the brakes with nothing happening! Why stop at non power assissted brakes though, go for a mechanical clutch linkage and remove the bushes, that will give you left leg a workout to go with your right leg ! Like have an engine sitting in the garage ready to be popped in when you want to go for a spirited drive ? Seriously though, if you go down the Supercharged route, besides loss of fuel economy, think you could probably have the best of both worlds here, not cheap though! I dont think there is any difference in what the bottom ends are made out of, just the earlier 1UZ's, I think 1991 and early 1UZ's, used rods with thicker castings, so apparently stronger! Don't know if you needed to do any of that mate, these things are fairly bullet proof, you can rev them silly and if you blow one apart, go and grab another one for $1000AUD, throw it in and continue ! They really are well put together!!! There was a VVTI head for the 1UZ, but not to sure what is involved in swapping it over! When you say 4 speed are you talking about the original Z 4 speed manual transmission or just any 4 speed manual transmission? I think the 240z z 4-speed manual transmission would sh$t itselt behind the 1UZ even in its stock form, this would mean that if you wanted to retain a 4 speed you would most likely need to use a different gearbox, which will require you to possibly make your own gearbox mount or gearbox crossmember! If you are looking for better mileage its probably better choosing a transmission that will give you an overdrive gear, get a T56 and you get two ! If you are chasing serious HP, ditch the W58 and go with an R154 or T56!

That saw really looks like the sort of thing you would cut wood with! For alluminium and steel use I would be getting something like this if you want to save $$$! https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/Horizontal-Bandsaws And for the best cuts, something like this if you have 3-phase power and $$$ ! https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/Metal-Cutting-Coldsaws-Ferrous https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/Metal-Cutting-Coldsaws-Non-Ferrous But if you are just cutting alluminium tube I would be getting the bandsaw, remember reading another hybridz member mentioning a cheapy bandsaw they bought from harbor frieght! Think it was this one, Its cheap as and has a 1hp motor! http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93762

The stuff Gab sells that you have mentioned above looks to be of good quality, I have only purchased the Ground Control Coilover Kit from Gab, but honestly his customer service can't be beat, I have sent a never ending barrage of annoying questions his way and he is always quick to reply and always helpful, that has got to count for something !!! I was possibly thinking of purchasing his backing plates, but making some mods to it, remove the connecting piece to the strut and then use an RX7 front strut instead of what they sell and weld in a new connecting piece so you end up with a double sheer arrangement connecting TTT's backing plates to the RX7 struts! I say use the RX7 S4/S5 lower strut because it is basically exactly what you would need in this instance to create the double sheer, the top strut in the below pic!

I am not an engineer and don't have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, But from my own experience, when I first put my car on the rotisserie I did it before I cut out the floors and installed the new frame rails (Box section that runs the entire length of the underbody and connects the front to the rear), I found it very difficult to open and close the doors, actually pretty much impossible - getting them open was ok, but closing them was a real nightmare, I remember reading other people on here have had similar experiences with their Z's, this would suggest a bit of flex in the chassis, After I installed my new floors and frame rails, which are similar to Alterzed Z's (he has a great website with lots of great information regarding the installation of new frame rails) and Mull's, the car appeared to flex a lot less, doors now open and close ok! I would think without this sort of modification or a cage, that the car is probably going to flex quite a bit on the rotisserie, so I would probably avoid seam welding it whilst it is up there!

Besides my welder, which is a middle of the road, 10 year old piece of equipment, which really needs more settings , all of my equipment is mostly hand tools! I have been ummming and arrrggghhing about purchasing a mill or decent drill press, horizontal bandsaw and lathe - but this is all hobby stuff, so its tricky to justify all the expensive, so I just give my Ryobi angle grinder a real workout - go through them every 3mths or so - but just take it back to Bunnings (Local Hardware Store) and get a new one as its still under warranty! Different story with my Metabo items, nothing it seems is covered under warranty!!! But all of this stuff is trial and error, I used to take me at least 2-3 goes to get most things right, well it would annoy me and I would have to re-do it, but I find that now, just with practise I am getting much better at this sort of thing, usually get it right the first time! Yeah, and the RX7 has a couple of degrees of built in Caster, I haven't measured accurately yet, but from memory its about 3deg on the RX7, its a bit tricky to tell from the above photos, but there is certainly some caster already in those struts! Camber is really up to how much you cut out of the RX7 crossmember as the LCA's for the RX7 are pretty much identical in length to the Z LCA's and the wheel offset is very similar as well! I am using some BA Falcon Rotors I had lying around, they are 298x28mm, I just opened up the centre to suit the RX7 hub - but if you wanted to you could use the RX7 S4/S5 brakes or even buy a big brake kit for these things - have seen a few kicking around on EBAY, but lots of options there which ever way you go with it!!! The coilover kits I am using are a 10" spring with a 7" collar that are suited to a 51mm OD strut, I bought them from Gab at TTT (awesome customer service) to suit originally my 240z style struts! Just so happened they were also the perfect diameter for the RX7 strut tubes, just to long! But once I found a suitable insert, the Celica 1989-94 Fronts, I was able to graft the top of the 240z strut to the bottom of the RX7 strut, which gave me adequate length for the 7" threaded collar! Gab would have done a swap for me if needed slightly shorter threaded collars, which was awesome, but as it turned out that wasnt required because of the Celica inserts I ended up using! The celica inserts are great as well, you can purchase them in Koni's, AGX's, and plain old KYB Excel-G's! Also - there is a few companies that do cheapy coilovers - they are sh#t apparently, but Ksport will sell you bits and pieces individually! Here is a link! http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/85-91-RX-7-FC3S-Ksport-Pro-Coilovers-Springs-Shocks_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ72Q3a570Q7c66Q3a2Q7c65Q3a12Q7c39Q3a1Q7c240Q3a1318Q7c301Q3a1Q7c293Q3a1Q7c294Q3a50QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem58810908d3QQitemZ380121974995QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories What I was going to do originally was purchase the shocks from these guys and the lower hub spindle mount - the massive benefit to this setup is you cut out the strut insert, just like you would if you were installing Koni's in a stock RX7 S4/S5 strut tube (Koni has instructions on their website of the process), but the strut tube is threaded so you are able to raise and lower the ride height of the vehicle without changing the relationship with the spring collar and the insert itself! They also have adjustment in the hub spindle bolt holes, which allow for a little bit of camber adjustment! However, these are illegal locally and I would find it very difficult to get my car registered with them on my car!

The problem with fitting these wheels wont be that you will necessarily need to flare out the guards, your wheels will whack into the spring perches, particulary on the front, but most likely on rear as well! My experience has been very different from that of other Z owners, but I ran a 17x7 with a 20p offset and it just cleared the spring perch, so thats about 120mm of backspacing - the wheels you listed above have around 140mm of backspacing! You will need spacers and the 9" wheel on the rear will poke out past the guards I would be guessing!

Yeah, it's a bit of stuffing around, but overall really not that bad at all!!! But using the RX7 crossmember actually worked out easier than making my own deisgn! Haven't even tried connecting it up yet, but the RX7 LCA's are pretty much identical in length to the Z LCA's so sway-bar wouldn't be far of fitting................maybe !

Hey mate, what radiator are you using there?

Hey mate, Have a read of this, http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=139981 Two places in Australia makes lots of different bellhousings to suit the 1UZ, google, Dellow, Castlemaine Rod Shop, Speed Technology - EFI Hardware Rush Imports Bullet Cars

Here is some pics of the RX7 Crossmember! This is some of the Mods I made to it! Like it was never apart ! Here is some pics of the RX7 Crossmember in the car, this is before I cut 25mm of the top, but it is basically the same! I kept the Subaru Rack in the same position as the RX7 rack, which positions the rack ends quite a bit higher than the LCA pivots, in-built bump steer I guess! This was my original design, which would have worked I guess - but once I saw the RX7 Crossmember and took some measurements decided to go down that path! Not really, the stock struts from the RX7 have very wide springs - they are very wide at the top, plus the RX7 strut tops are massive, easily twice as big as the Z strut tops - the overall length was pretty close though, You couldn't just bolt the RX7 struts in, BUT...........you could do this easily enough, Just a custom spring! I didn't bother going down this path because I wanted the adjustable collars and I will eventually throw in some Koni's! But you could also look at getting some Teins and using them with Z camber plates!

That fellow is running a VH45 and (I assume) for similar reasons he wanted to use a crossmember that was shaped like a "K" so you more easily mount the engine as the mounts are far back on the block! Mine sort of evoled from there, I originally built a crossmember very similar to his, but then got my hands on an RX7 crossmember and decided it would fit nicely - with massive mods ! I was going to try and use S4 RX7 LCA's but it was awfully difficult to fine a balljoint that I could use with the Z strut, he mentions a "Mitsubishi" ball-joint, but no local parts stores had anything on the shelf, so ditched that idea and used the lower half of the RX7 strut and upper half from a 240z! I am using a Subaru Rack - the RX7 crossmember is way to wide, so I cut a section out and changed the LCA pivots to be 630mm apart, 30mm increase over stock Z crossmember LCA pivots, 15mm increase a side - this was to suit the Subaru Rack, then I removed 25mm from the top of the RX7 crossmember because the LCA pivots were about 105mm down from the chassis rails, which gave the LCA's a near horizontal plain, as you can see from the above pics they slope downwards to the balljoint after removing 25mm! The RX7 LCA's are pretty much identical to the Z in length and the hub offset is very similar to that of the Z, overall there was an increase because I kept the LCA pivot distance to 630mm, not 600mm (which is what they are on original Z crossmember is), so track change should be slightly wider than original, with relative increases in camber! I will post some pics of it's transformation of the crossmember!

Hey guys, just thought I would post some pics of my new front suspension and steering rack, it has a bit of everything thrown in , I have used a highly modified RX7 S4/S5 Crossmember, RX7 S5 Lower Control Arms, stub axles and lower portion of the strut tube, top half of a 240z strut tube and some TTT threaded collars for a 51mm ID tube, Just so I could bolt it all in place I have used the stock rubber insulators! Initially I mounted the crossmember slightly to low and the LCA's were about at horizontal when the car was at rest, so I cut 25mm of the top of the Crossmember, which effectively moved the LCA pivots upwards 25mm, I would have just re-drilled the LCA pivot, but couldnt because the design of the RX7 Lower Control Arm! Enjoy! Top of the Z Strut! Sticking them together! Ground down! Snap-Ring for the Threaded Collars, All Together and in the car! & the LCA Angle!

I use cardboard, quick and easy to mock up what will fit!

It is a Macpherson strut design, but the strut detaches from the stub-axles via 2 bolts, the hub, stub axle and steering knuckle are all one piece (the hub does detach though) and the strut is another! I will post a pic so you can see the difference in knuckles! But it is basically just a Mac strut design, I was going to use the Subaru Rack - how can I find out if this rack will be suitable for the rather long RX7 steering knuckles? I would use the RX7 rack, but its just way to wide to be a practical choice!!!

On a similar note, I have been playing around with some S4/S5 RX7 stub axles - when you look at the RX7 crossmember, steering rack and stub axles (which have the steering knuckle in them) compared the the stock Z stuff there is a weird difference that you guys might be able to explain for me? The S4/S5 RX7 Lower Control Arms are the same length as the Stock Z LCA's, the rack's both sit about 50mm in front of the crossmember measured from the rack ends back to the outta LCA pivot hole, BUT..........the RX7 steering knuckle distance from the ball-joint is HUGE, like 135mm, from memory, a good 40-50mm longer than the Z's ball-joint to tie-rod end distance on the steering knuckle! Is that factory design'd in Ackerman? or Am I not getting this concept? Another odd thing is the position of the LCA pivot relative to the rack end, its easily, 30-40mm lower, also the tie-rod end position on the RX7 stub axles is a good 20mm higher than the ball-joint location - factory built in bump-steer I guess?

Did you get it running? did your diagrams work out mate? Are you using the stock 280zx rack and 1UZ PS unit? Love to see pics of your remote oil filter setup, think I will need to do something like that as well! Nice work mate, sounds like your making good progress, I keep getting side-tracked with other crap and changing crossmembers, so I think I am about where I was 6mths ago

When I did mine I raised the floor about 1", the original frame rails were about 10mm deep from memory and the new frame rails were 70x35x2mm, so 25mm deeper! Instead of having the your feet whacking into the frame rails or having them 25mm lower and thus, lose 25mm worth of ground clearance I just decided to raise the floor an 1", there is plenty of scope for this with the seat mounts so you can retain adequate head clearance!

Sorry mate, I might have been unclear in my reply, I have an Angle Grinder with a buffer attachment on it, it's purpose is to help buffing a car after you have wet'n'dried it - it's a big 9" Angle Grinder, but its not an ordinary Angle Grinder, it runs at 2800-3200rpm all the way down to about 500rpm, not a fixed 11,000rpm like my "normal" 9" Angle Grinder, it runs at this very low speed because it is designed for buffing, not grinding/sanding - sure this is probably what your saw been used on the boat? I will get a pic of mine for you, your in Australia? you should be able to get the same one as what I have from most Automotive Paint Shops for about $100AUD!

, wish I was the one who made them, I just attached them - guy who made them for me charged $200AUD/side, which for hand made flares seemed quite reasonable, but I don't think they would be massively difficult to make, just the guard lip - stuffed if I know how he did that!!! I will have to get out some mild steel and bend it around and see what I come up with - however, think I will still need an English Wheel to get the desired end result! Couldn't find any videos on Youtube !

The hit it with a rattle gun, be off in 2 seconds!!! - I had to do this with a car I purchased, just bought 4 new lugs after I was done removing the old ones!

How you going with the conversion mate? any more progress pics to post?

Good work mate, cross bracing from the frame rails to the rocker sills is a good idea!!! Awesome dash as well!!!

When I painted my car I bought a power buffer, which sounds like what you are describing, I firstly went to SuperCheap and there's was sh$t, then went to a specialty Automotive paint shop and purchased an Angle-Grinder type power buffer, big 9" sucker! They are not like ordinary Angle-Grinders though, they only spin at 2800-3200rpm, and are designed to buff your polish, they differ from a normal Angle-Grinder, which will spin at over 10,000rpm and ruin your paintwork ! Should be able to grab one from any Automotive Paint Store!

Hey mate how did you vent the paint spray in your garage? I painted a car in my garage with the door closed and everything covered with drop sheets and ended up with all the paint settling on the car! In retrospect, as it was acrylic I would have been better just painting it outside, Very nice job by the way mate!