G-E

Coleman are rip-off artists... any good machinist can make custom hats for less than they charge.

Why not offer caliper shims instead?

Just to be clear, z32 calipers are 40.45mm pistons. And the other factor would be pad size, though I don't have actual pad area info...

The bilstein is inverted, that massive shaft is the strut body, the narrow piston rod (and it is narrow) including the bumpstop are hidden inside the painted housing... So to replace the bumpstop you have to unbolt the rod from the housing and remove everything. It's not magic

No you wouldn't want to get into buying or even making them, there's too many different thread pitches used. I was thinking to limit yourself to making a flange with a lip, basically emulating what a cut off strut tube base looks like, without being quite as bulky... And yes I was thinking of the megan/bc/stance or any other kits that use a threaded tube welded to the spindle, not because they are so awesome, but because people are buying them already... Sometimes the ideal solution isn't the best solution, I know that from experience producing parts ----- Also as an aside, any "race" coilovers have a short lifespan between rebuilds, aiming to use koni yellows is by far the best compromise in life/quality, or make your tubes compatible with both?

Just a thought, why not just create a strut tube sized stepped disc with appropriate bracing to allow people to weld on any of the numerous coilover sleeves? This might lower your cost not having to add strut tubes to the kit, and allow people more suspension options...?

There's also a second part of the equation... When I made my Z31 BBK, the hats almost-but-not-quite fit over the hubs they were intended for, the bolt-on kind, just like the 240Z-280ZX, because they aren't exactly round. Now in my case, the trimming required is about 2-3mm depending on the casting roughness, just take a simple hand grinder to each of the points, but this tiny extra work caused a disproportionate amount of resistance from buyers. Even though 240SX guys regularly have to grind calipers or spindles to make brake kits like the evo or srt8 calipers fit, we're talking about a market that doesn't have much respect for their cars. The Z market is a little more finicky. Do the z32 rotors fit over the points of the front hubs? And what's your plan to solve the fact that the rotors won't have hub-centric bores?

Not to poop on your parade, but you should realize that there is an acceptable price for everything, and if that seems low, you should rethink your gameplan...

Someone used to do the same thing for the Z31 world, redrilling stock cam gears for about $65, the increments were 3 degrees though, and realistically this made them only good +3 to -3, not fine tuning... As long as you can better that, say at max 2 degrees, you should be ok?

Pretty sure he's not providing any of that, so it would be up to you to get either stock gears or adjustable aftermarket ones...

The z32 subframe will be ridiculously wide relative to what was in there, if you're going widebody this may make sense, otherwise I'd recommend opting for one of the narrower ones, specifically s14... Post some pics of the progress they made? The "Steezee" approach isn't exactly a clean one, it was rejigged a few times throughout the build. I actually produce a subframe swap kit for the S12/Z31, it really simplifies the process if done right, and while I'm not suggesting it would help you a whole lot (hell I don't even know what you have yet), I think you might want to at least see it... http://responsetype.com/shop/gazelle-s12/subframe-swap-kit-2/ Replicating the mounts and notching the body will let you swap between s13 and s14 subframes using their offset solid bushings, the S13 has more anti-squat built-in, which is great for drifting, the S14 is favoured by road racers. The Z32 subframe geometry is somewhere between, but closer to S13, and a whole lot wider.

Funny how accidents make the world better eh?

The clamping ability will be better than the S12+8, not as good as the S12W... from the information I've seen. This of course ignores thickness and weight, the toyota calipers are monstrously heavy... The brembo should also be able to take either 30 or 32mm thick rotors, assuming you can make some work, or go custom, the rotor thickness will be fairly critical to use these calipers.

Sorry As you might have guessed, I've been less than impressed with most of the "experts", once they know I know what I'm talking about, I get the Wizard of Oz treatment, as in they start preaching about how awesome they are and how little experience I have... Little do they know, I eat "impossible" for breakfast

Printed makes a lot more sense, revisions or upgrades could be rolled into the design with no extra tooling cost... Derek, you should also try kelford cams down under, I had spoken to them about some custom projects once upon a time, they seemed interested enough. BTW talking about chatter, if you do gentle passes for a base diameter for the main journals (as long as nothing is larger?), the machining could be done entirely between journals starting right at the chuck, the first 3-4" should be rigid enough as long as the end is in a rolling center?

Xnke I wasn't recommending unhardened cams as finals, just that 4140HT is adequate to make test cams, at least prove the K20 profile works on the chimaera The same machining code (assuming cnc lathe) can be reused later for whatever grade steel, 1060 would be a decent material to use for finals with proper through-hardening. No sense investing in $2000 cam cores from a supplier that's really not interested in doing custom work, seriously that's the "FU! leave me alone!" price... JWT sells cam blanks for various Z's for a few hundred, it's obviously doable to keep the budget reasonable.

Derek, starting with a bar of 4140HT (pre-hard) would be a decent place to start with cam cores, easy enough to machine at high speeds since it's about RC30... You can start by making basic blanks, leave oversized lobes, just focus on the main journals, and any small-ID locations between things, then send it off to Isky to do their magic -- I wonder how close to the factory K20 profile you'd end up staying, I imagine it would work, but you'd need to figure out what the engine likes ultimately. I wouldn't worry about the heat treating at this point, use it as a proof-of-concept cam, you can easily run the engine with it for testing, keep the rpm below 4k -- just show a running engine?

Nitriding is not expensive, I sent 6 vg cams in for nitriding and came to around $25/ea... For the better grades like 4140, nitriding is excellent, but for the 10** series steels, you'd be better off induction hardening.

Clean and lube or possibly rebuild your calipers if they need it (easy job).... But beyond that, why not start with better pads? Maybe you don't actually need an uprade?

Have you tried sourcing 13" slick replacements for when you kill them? Seems rather silly to setup your car around a one-time deal...

Swapping the diff side stubs to opposing axles may work on the open diffs, or any "open" replacement, but it most certainly won't work with VLSD...

You'd have to pull back the seal and measure with the piston pushed out slightly, but eyeballing, looks like a 36/40 caliper...

You'd have better luck drilling and cutting some shims from sheetmetal, they might carry that flexible aluminum sheet stuff for diy patches, that would be about 1mm...

You likely got one of the made in china re-cast calipers that parts chains sell as "remanufactured", so quality will be hit or miss, try exchanging it with another first.

Whitehead up here in canada makes some cast aluminum rear sump pans for those to fit into s30's too... Alternately Enjuku (who offers pat's pan) also carries a mckinney one for s30.