m1ghtymaxXx

Thanks! So is the shaft diameter is standard for that model Rabbit? Honestly that never occured to me, I just figured it was a Bilstein thing as they often have overly large pistons, shafts, etc. My concern about sectioning the struts was that I'm not sure I'll be able to do the work within proximity of the car, otherwise I'm sure I could figure out where I need to be with some careful measurements once I have all the parts on hand.

I'd be happy with the "clean up your own" route, unless you'd be able to offer finishes I wouldn't be able to produce myself, like chrome. The Fairlady badge is mighty enticing!

For automotive use, I wouldn't hesitate to get a 110V if it suits your work space better. No doubt a 220V machine is more flexible, but in my case for access to 220V is limited, and my 110V Lincoln is rated to 3/8" IIRC in one pass, plenty for any automotive jobs, and I can use it anywhere. Just my $0.02

Rotor to LCA interference seems to be a common issue with big brake kits. We had the same issue on our Evo rally car. Went to install the our Willwood big brake kit a week before the event only to find there was about a 4mm interference, seems like a bit much to grind away from the control arm that close to the ball joint (fortunately the Evo III has cast iron LCA's which are certainly handle more to grinding than the earlier stamped steel pieces. I scrambled to draw up some CAD drawings of rotor and caliper spacers which the local engineering faculty cut from 1/8" aluminum the next day. It left about 2mm grinding to be done, far better than had we done without the spacers. Cooking the balljoint boots never occurred to me though. I wonder if there's room to fab a small sheetmetal heat shield to help with radiant heat... Unfortunately the S30's brake design with the rotor mounted to the backside of the hub doesn't allow for a simple spacer to move things out. Edit: I suppose a proper brake ducting setup with a backing plate would work wonders for keeping a steady stream of ambient air flowing between the hot rotor and ball joint, helping to minimize radiant heat transfer.

Well there's a lot of misinformation in this post that may only further confuse people. The exact definition of a coilover could and has been argued to death, and I won't call you wrong, but the widely accepted definition is a height adjustable spring and damper assembly. The sectioning of the strut tube is not necessarily to make the damper cartridge fit. A stock sized cartridge will fine with no modification, and a shorter than stock cartridge will fit with only the addition of a spacer. The reason for sectioning the strut tube is to lower the ride height without affecting the travel or preload of the suspension. and this is often done in combination with a spacer to get within a desired range of height adjustability. How much you cut has everything to do with what your minimum and and maximum ride heights will be, and any adjustments to height from there out (ei: moving the threaded spring perch up and down) will affect whether your available spring travel is in droop or compression. Careful how you try and "simplify" things for people.

The emblems look great! Any plans to sell some?

Sure looks good, my only comment (similar to above) is that with the large lip, you wouldn't really be able to tuck a wider tire in the well versus a a stock unrolled fender. I'm not sure how exactly you've constructed those, but I presume there's a solid bit of fiberglass creating the radius between the wheel arch and the fender sheet metal? if you could find a way to open it up you would get a lot more functionality with this modification. You could always make a mold if your flare and recreate it from fiberglass, then trim the sheet metal and bond it on. Is there a reason you state in your first post you wanted to avoid cutting the quarters?

I'm getting close to ordering the parts to replicate the OP's build. first, 2 questions: 1) Can anyone who has sectioned coilovers on a 280Z share how much they removed and what the resulting ride height range of adjustment was like? Please specify spring length and top mount/camber plate setup. The car is currently on Eibach Street springs and I figure that's a good maximum ride height to shoot for. I figure if I can go 3" lower than that, that's plenty. 2) Are there any top hats out their that would fit the Bilstein shafts? Doesn't look like a big deal to modify them as shown, but if there's something that would fit out the box, it would be good to know. It sounds like your camber plates may not have thrust bearings in the assembly so that that weight of the car and steering loads are both being handled by the pillow ball mount. Details/pics of your setup would better show what's going on.

I'd love to offer them up, however I'd like to hang on to them until I've got a new setup in hand...and I have a long list of things to do before then!

I'm currently leaning towards splurging for the Wolf Creek setup. I generally try to keep things as cheap as possible, but after reading countless threads about people having trouble fitting 280/300ZX axles with MM/CF addapters, it seems worthwhile to spend a few hundred more for the tried and true Wolf Creek setup. The biggest hassle seems to be installing the safety wire. I'm open to ideas though as I have a pair of turbo and non turbo axles collecting dust.

Interesting...anyone know if 280Z's have these threaded holes? I was planning to build a roll bar in the near future for the purposes of harness mounting, side impact and rollover protection, and bracing the rear strut towers. It seems common to mount the main hoop to the wheel tubs, but it seems near useless without hefty floor plates, something I'd like to avoid in the name of not "molesting" the chassis. Thoughts on tying the main hoop into a cross bar mounted to these holes, then braced to bolt-on floor plates on the floor behind the seat (or maybe on the rear deck), with rear stays tying into a beefy rear strut bar?

What about laying out some ribs with adhesive backed foam (sold as weatherstripping) and then fiberglassing over it? Might need to cover the foam in foil to prevent the resin from melting it, but it seems like an easy way of adding rigidity with minimal weight and retaining some flexibility.

If overall performance is the goal, it's hard to be beat a lightweight but powerful aluminum four nestled up against the firewall. The RB sure ads to the the exotic factor, but the advantages over a turbo L28 might not be worth the time and expense if budget is a concern. Just my 2 cents.

Certainly different, but from what I can find, the Previa's 4WD system is of a typical truck with separate diff, transfer case and front diff, just mid mounted with a goofy toppled offer I4. Weight and packaging would probably be an issue.

I like the idea of plastic or urethane. It seems like it would be beneficial part to have some flex built in for fit and ruggedness.

I would LOVE to see this done, however I see a few issues with the idea. The most obvious is the traverse engine in a small longitudinal bay. It seems unlikely the the engine and trans would fit between the rails, especially since the staggered bores makes the the vr6 a bit longer than traditional V6's of similar displacement. . Then I think you would be limited in engine placement by the front axle outputs of the transmission. I'm not sure how flexible they are, but I imagine the axles have to be more or less perpendicular to the car, mean the engine/trans placement will be dictated by the spindle location. Then of course there's the spindles. You would have to adapt some sort of fwd uprights, and sort out compatible flanges and splines sounds like a royal headache in itself. I would think the best way to make it happen would be a full tube frame front end for clearance, or graft Z car bodywork to a TT/R32 RWD VR6 swaps seem to be becoming more and more prevalent. I'm not sure what people are using for transmissions, but I swore I saw a VR6 project on here, and a friend of a friend is building a turbo VR6 S14.

You must remove the backing plate and press out the stub axle to leave the bracket intact. Many writeups here on how it's done.

+1 for R1R's. That's what we run on our Targa Newfoundland Rally car, a tarmac rally through one of the wettest places in the world (raced through hurricanes 2 years in a row until last year)

This is supposed to be a joke right?

Pretty basic, but have you checked your grounds? A corroded ground caused a myriad of problems on my 83, included sensitivity to load (voltage gauge would dance when the signals or wipers were going), overcharging at high RPM, eating through batteries and alternators, and eventually melting the fusible link box.

I'm hoping to build some coilovers by summer but have a hard time justifying the expense of the Konis as a more casual autocrosser. I've been thinking about the Bilsteins, but I hear sourcing gland nuts to fit the Datsun struts can be near impossible. Is there any reason the stock Datsun gland nut can't be turned down to the proper profile and opening as the Bilstein?

Wish I had seen this when Mcmaster & Carr told me they couldn't sell me a private order to Canada. I ended up making my own spacers by cutting ribbons of 20 ga. sheet metal and heating and rolling them into sleeves. It was hateful.

They were there from the factory (at least on my 77), but they get brittle with age and tend to no longer bolt up. Perhaps someone has a source for new ones?

Can't picture the "long bolt" and the "block with a threaded hole", but 280ZX's came tripod axles (similar to CV's) with splines at both ends, so you won't find any 280ZX R200's with stub axles unless someone stuck some 280Z stubs in there. Have you confirmed that there's no groove to hold the circlip?

Have you ensured all bearing caps are properly oriented? A friend installed the rod caps backwards in relation to the rods and it seized the motor, destroyed the rod bearings in the process. I image the same can happen with cam and main bearing caps too.