luseboy

They look very similar to the msa camber plates

Haha sounds like you're good to go. The only other problem I can see is the bottom of the balljoint hitting. My balljoints have zerk fittings on the bottom, I'm a little concerned that they'll hit my wheels. Idk if an s130 is different, but you may be able to remove the zerk and put a bolt/plug in there instead should that hit the wheel. If it's really bad, you might have to shim up the balljoint if possible (by grinding/filing the mounting tabs down a bit), or you might be able to grind the bottom of the balljoint a bit. I don't think it will be a problem, but you never know! I say buy the rca's and give it a try. Or you could make a really primitive RCA out of wood or something and just test fit it in there and see if everything clears, wouldn't be a bad idea. Haha it's kinda funny talking to you on here, you're the one who got me into Z cars and you're the reason I bought an s30 (I have the same screename on slamburglars and you replied to my topic when I said I wanted a car from the 70's) Haha people on there were mainly assholes and said I'd never do it so I stopped going over there. But anyways thanks for introducing me to the amazing world of datsun's lol.

Update on the fenders. They arrived today, about 2 weeks faster than they said they would. I couldn't believe how great they look, just pushing them against the fender and qaurter panel, they push right into the body lines and don't appear that they will need any trimming or anything. There was no gap just holding them up, and I assume there will be none when they are screwed into place either. I can't believe it, these things are perfect! They seem pretty strong too, and weigh almost nothing. They are a good 3/4 of an inch wider than the og jdm ones, but I don't mind that, gives me more room to fit a big brake kit. I'm extremely satisfied. I don't think I will even need to put any welting on these. Though I may in the end. Anyways I will probably get them installed pretty soon here, need to order riv nuts and hardware from mcmaster carr. But I think these things are perfect and I highly reccomend them. I'm seriously shocked right now, I was expecting them to be pretty low quality.

I wouldn't think they'd work with 14's... But MSA makes some that supposedly work with 14's. You may need to file down the tie rod end on the offending corner to get it to clear the rim though. As far as I know, that is the place where the rim gets hit. You could always just relocate the inner LCA pivot and get rid of bumpsteer that way, as many guru's such as John C from beta motorsports would suggest. I say try the MSA ones.

Been a while... Don't have too much to update at the moment, but I should have my wheel wells and engine bay done and my front suspension installed by the end of next week. If I'm really working hard I'll have the rear end taken apart too and the rear coilovers basically done. I bit the bullet on some ZG flares too so once I get the rear end taken apart and those test-fitted, it's time for paint (rattle can done right). I'll update more with pictures when I have something significant done.

MSA sells just the thing. http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/PIC05/50-4201

What else can be done to avoid lift-off oversteer? Would bumpsteer spacers/relocated LCA inner pivots have any affect on it? I'd assume not unless you were lowered. Is it basically alignment settings that make the difference? I'd assume maybe a softer rear(or front?) sway bar would have something to do with it... I guess what I wonder is if the problem can be fixed by tightening the nut behind the wheel? Seems like you shouldn't have a reason to lift off unless you're in some wierd corner or you're about to hit someone/something. The one racing driver I've talked to in person at length about driving on the track said that keeping your foot steady on the gas during corners is good, then put the power down at the apex. Assuming you're used to the track and everything you should have your braking and slowing down already... This is coming from a non-racer who's never driven on a track so I'm no expert haha.

I've been really thinking of what to do with my battery lately. I'm at the point now where I'm almost ready to paint my engine bay, I just need to finish stripping off the rest of the old paint and figure out my battery situation. Basically what I was thinking was that I could just cut a hole under where the stock battery tray used to be, and make it have sides and a bottom to put a battery in, then just make some sort of strap type thing to hold it down. I acctually think it would be easier to just make a little shelf there, level with the frame rail. I couldn't figure out a reason to have space open under there, am I mistaken that there is no reason to? I need to figure out what battery to get first. Has anyone used a braille battery? The diehard battery I had planned to use weighs 60 lbs so I decided I want something lighter. But I am building my car for the street so I need something I can DD with. Any recommendations?

Interesting to read the facts of my assumptions haha. I guess I was wrong on a number of points there but the general message is that for the ultimate in handling and customization, a sleeve type coil-over kit such as the one you and ground control sell is really the best choice. Not to say the AZC and mckinney stuff isn't good, but to me nothing beats the simply fantastic handling that has been proven for decades by the sleeve type coilover. Good point on needing more travel on a bumpy track. The nice thing is you can very easily raise up the suspension for said bumpy track and gain more travel then lower it back down and get the less travel for the smoother track. Haha no need to be sorry, like I said, all of that was based off of my own... assumptions I guess is what you'd call it, but really based off of the conclusions I made from reading up on stuff. I guess I coulda done a little more reading, but you are in fact the expert here and I'd rather look like an idiot but have the facts out there than otherwise.

Mikekelly tells the truth, however I'm sure illuminas are better than the megan struts. It did say not to use springs over #250 in that thread about a million times which is why I didn't mention that. I'm using #225 fronts and #250 rears. If youre using konis and you're planning on doing some track driving, you might want some stiffer springs. I went for the #225 and #250 because that's like the maxiumum you can run on an illumina safely, and I wanted fairly stiff suspension but not too stiff because my car is pretty much going to be a street only car that may see a couple auto-X's, and perhaps a couple track days but probably not many. They may be a little harsh for the street, but I could be mistaken. The spring rate makes a bigger difference than the shock when it comes to that.

Lol I assume you're referring to the post being really long... didn't realize how long it was till now haha.

Have you checked pricing on illumina's? They're probably a lot cheaper, and the adjustment is on the top of the shock (the koni's have to be removed to adjust them). The thing about megan's is that they're really designed for street driving for drift kids who want to slam their car. Not saying that's the only person who uses them but they aren't necessarily built with racing in mind. As I understand it, road rally really tests supension, so that's something to take into account. The nice thing about a GC kit is you can get shocks made for racing and then choose a spring rate that will be nicer for the street, so you kind of have the best of both worlds. I'm pretty sure you can buy new megan struts alone, and they can also rebuild them. But it's much easier if you can buy something in Australia and it only takes a couple days to ship versus odering something from here (America) and waiting for them to ship (must be at least 2 weeks?). Not to mention the turn around of getting struts rebuilt. The AZC does sound like a nice option, but I personally wouldn't run them. Don't ask me why, but I just don't feel like they're really a good set up. Again that's just my opinion and it's not based on any facts or real world experience. Technically the GC way of lowering is worse because you lose travel from lowering. With the megan set up, you can lower and still have the same amount of travel. Lowering the way you do with a GC set up technically wears out your shocks faster, and makes you bottom out more. The way I see it though, is that if you're lowering, having less travel isn't bad really because then you don't rub on as much things since you will bottom out before the frame rails will hit ground (in most cases), plus if you're on tarmac, you don't really need all that much travel. Also, it puts you a little farther into the dampening circuit (assuming your shocks use progressive dampening, which I think most do?), so you get the suspension a little stiffer. The concerning part is that if you top out the shock (3-wheeling into a steep driveway) for a little bit of time, there is a danger that the spring will go crooked and not sit into it's perch and could cause some damage. How realistic of a fear that is, I don't know... And if you're running sway bars, it probably wouldn't happen anyways. I decided that it's no big deal, that many people run this set up on the track and on the street/dirt without problems. I am however running a poly bumpstop un-cut so that the suspension can ramp up enough when it comes close to bottoming. I felt this was plenty of insurance against a harsh bottom, and if I hit something hard enough to do any damage to the shock, it'll probably cause other damage anyways. I say go for the GC kit if you can figure out how to get it cheaper. You can always piece your own set up together for a lot cheaper, but the GC kit is all US-made and is super high quality. Haha funnily enough, GC used to be in my hometown (like 15 years ago) and some people I work with were buddies with the guy who owns the company. I was very impressed with the quality of my coilovers.

What is your goal with coilovers? Racing? Lowering as much as possible? Auto-X? How much track time is the car gonna see? All 3 of these kits are the "best" for different things. The arizona Z car coilovers are nice but a little specialized and a bit pricey... I don't know much about them but I have heard they're very nice. The megan/mckinney kit will probably get you lower than any of the other kits. And making your own (or a GC kit) has the advantage of being fairly inexpensive, and you can customize it as much as you want. If you're looking to slam your car, the other option is integra dc2 coilovers. These will have you banging frame rails, but if that's your thing, then go for it. I read through many hours of forum posts and write-ups and reviews on the different options and decided that sectioning my struts and getting the ground control kit was the best option for me. The thing I like about it is you can choose any spring rate you want, and any shock insert you want. I also realized that most of the guys who I consider Z guru's are running something similar to a GC kit. Also if you blow a strut it's pretty easy to get a single new one. All in all, it really appealed to me. It's up to you which one you decide to go for, but you really can't go wrong either way. Answering the questions above will give everyone a little more of an idea of what you're after with coilovers.

I think I'm gonna bite the bullet on these. Great price, reviews check out good. They're a little wider than the standard ZG (3" in the back) but that's ok, they look great. edit: just pulled the trigger. Looks like it'll be another month before they get here but that's alright by me... I've got a long ways to go before I need them.

Interested to know about this as well...

Haha for what you get, it's a hell of a deal. But yes it is pretty expensive.

lol your credit card company will thank me later haha I have decided that the best kit out there for a hot street car is the silvermine stage 4. It will fit under 16's without a doubt. Uses toyo vented front 4 pistons, and vented mustang rear single piston w/ e brake.

What kit are you going with? 16's will clear anything short of like the modern motorsports extreme brake kit. That's the beauty of coilovers! I think you've made a nice decision!

Haha I can never decide. I love 15's don't mind 16's and kinda like 17's. Sometimes I feel like 17's look best. But idk. I think I'll be happiest with 15's so long as the big brake kit i want will fit under them haha

Haha sorry.. should've explained better. Now this has been covered about a million times but oh well, a million and one can't hurt. For your front struts, order the tokico bz3099 (mr2 aw11 rear strut inserts) and section the strut tube to fit them. For the rear shocks, order the tokico bz3015 (240z front) and section to fit. This is the best set up because you get a new gland nut that fits the stock Z tube.

Haha the rb's aren't my first choice but my friend here has them on his 260z and they look way better in person. There's a roadser by my school with real panasports and i can't tell the difference between the two haha. I acctually thought they were rota's all along until I was stuck in traffic this morning and glanced over at it like i usually do and noticed the center cap says panasport haha. You sound like you want the same as me. Go with 250# rear and 225# front springs with the aw11 mr2 rear shocks in the front, and 240z front shocks in the rear, and you should be plenty happy!

I'd run 245's all around. Staggered wheel set ups aren't good on a Z because of how balanced it is. I will be running 9" wheels on all 4 corners. However I'll be running 225 tires since I fell in love with some wheels that only come in 15" and there's like no decent tires available wider than 225 without having a stupidly tall sidewall. I'm still a little unclear of offsets myself. FWIW, I will be getting -25 rears, and -15 fronts and spacing from there as necessary. Haha that's funny that it's a track car you'll be driving on the street, that's the same thing I'm doing lol! Like I said earlier, you can totaly customize what springs you want to run. You can acctually get softer springs than the tokicos should you want to. I'm sure you can even get some that are softer than the stock springs...

Cool! I'm sure you'll get a good set up sorted out. Should be awesome! If you are gonna run ZG flares, might as well take advantage of it and run 9" wide wheels. But that is up to you. 8" isn't bad either.

Cool, good choice! Well the GC kit is 400 (all 4 corners), each illumina strut is... lets say 125, factor in new isolators if needed ($50 each). So without new isolators, you're looking at $900. Johns kit is: $88 per pair of coilover threaded collars, 147 per pair of springs, then again the illuminas; it's $970. However you'd still need to source an upper hat. You won't need them but they wouldn't be a bad idea. I personally chose to use new oem isolators and take care of my camber needs with my techno toy LCA's. If you want him to build it he can, but it will be pricey to get it done. He sells the parts on his website.

They sell a DIY kit basically where you have to cut off your stock spring perch and weld on their new perch. I was gonna link you to techno toy tuning where I bought my GC kit from but it looks like they no longer carry that. Instead they make bolt-in coilovers which basically just replace the stock strut completely, they include shocks, springs, the coilover kit, and the whole strut casing. It's a bit pricey though, being about $800 per pair (front or rear) I'm sure it's nice, but that's a bit excessive for what it really is. There's honestly not much you can really mess up. You could also buy a similar coilover kit from beta motorsports and do the same thing, or even have John from beta motorsports make coilovers for you. He's kinda the suspension guru of Z cars. Filling out those flares will be easiest with coilovers. And the best part is that if you change wheel sizes sometime down the road, you can just change the height of the car and fit those wheels in nicely. You'd definitely be best off doing coilovers from the sounds of it. Edit: I happened to read a little blog post from techno toy saying they still carry all the same parts but some things haven't been added to the site yet so they may still have the gc kit.