Stock Car Mafia

Easter weekend took away some time from the car but it allowed me to hand off my suspension parts to my brother so he could sandblast and prime them. I already got a picture from him that he is sandblasting today. It's always good to have people in the family that enjoy the same type of stuff!

Are you going to have the car ready for Saturday? Weather is looking ok'ish and I think I am going to meander over to the AutoMotorPlex.

What is disassembled from the front of the car right now? I know you could get that car put back together in no time! If you haven't drove the car since last year, I know hands down it would make you smile again!

This community is the best! I hope to contribute long term like some of you other guys have.

Flares look really good dude! Did you go 9.5" on all 4's? I am curious to see more pics! How high did you mount your flares? The ride height looks killer

Thanks Rossman. You've been nice enough to give me a parts list but the diff does turn nice so I think I'm ok. I am going to get a pulley puller to get the companion flange off and then slide hammer again without it rusted to those splines. That's where I think the axle is getting hung up on.

Sounds good. Are there shims available for it? I'm sure I could have a shop make some. When I rebuilt the rear end in the Mustang you shim it enough to snugly fit in there and this one is really pressed in. I was able to remove the driver side stub axle and flange but I am struggling with the passenger side. I have heated and slide hammered like crazy with no success. Any suggestions? I might just use a puller to remove the flange and then just sand and paint this one myself.

I took the bearing caps off the CLSD R200 diff on Thursday and the carrier shims are just stuffed REALLY tight in there. I would guess that there is too much load on the bearings and this will smoke them up. I haven't taken it apart any farther, but are carrier shims available for this diff or will they have to be custom made? If anyone knows the rebuild kit or bearings part numbers for a full rebuild that would be greatly appreciated. Today's goals are to take apart the rear brake assemblies and axles for sandblasting. I have the front bearings and seals already pushed out today.

I have the following coming in from Z Car Depot: Stub axle nuts - I am waiting for Chequered Flag Joe to give me a call back when the shortened axles and flanges are in. Pinion nut - I plan on swapping flanges from my open diff to my CLSD R200 that I picked up. Hawk brake pads - To replace the shitty stock ones. I think this should be adequate for the street for now and I will get my rotors turned. 2" wheel studs - I will press these in to replace the short stockers. Front wheel bearings - I will replace the rears another time as they are expensive AF and seem fine. Braided stainless steel brake lines - The rotted rubber ones have to go. Stainless bolts for the dust shields - I am not sure if I posted up on here but the stockers were seized in the hub. I stripped one out but got the rest out with a torch and a vise grips. I really wish there was a differential rebuild kit for new races and bearings. I think it is quite pricey just like the rear axle kit. Hopefully this sucker holds up. More updates to follow. I might have a few minutes to work on the car tomorrow but I will be mostly out of town.

This is starting to be a tall order to get all my suspension parts prepared for Easter Sunday. My brother is coming up to my mom's this weekend and I want to get him all of the parts. I have yet to disassemble the rear axles or brakes yet. I spent the majority of the night fabbing up the front differential mount for dual exhaust. I wanted to keep the piece as symmetrical as possible. I borrowed some 4" stainless tubing from work and only needed a 3.5" section to match the thickness of the mount. I used a combination of a cut off wheel and a sawzall to get the initial cut done. I ran out of my cut off wheels and barely had enough to finish this! I notched it to the center eyelet to make it easier to make an angled cut. I will not be bolting the diff from the bottom anymore so it isn't important that I leave this open but just for future reference, I did leave enough room if I ever choose to mount the diff from top and bottom and really rattle my teeth. Doing some test fitting, I cut the tube almost in half to give me the right depth. I left an extra 1/8" on each side so I could grind that down smooth after it was mocked up. I set the stainless semicircle on each side and marked where to grind down to. Then I just used my carbide bit to get it close. I had some gaps but I wasn't worried. I welded in section to prevent as much distortion as possible. It was warping a little bit since this section is pretty thin, but I test fitted it after I tacked it in place, had 50% of it welded, and then again once it was complete. Another fabricated piece that I am quite happy with. I am really enjoying the perks of having this equipment to do this work!

Man this is a read! Trials and tribulations dude! Good to see you aren't losing focus. And by finding a woman that supports your hobby will only keep you happy! That grinder incident is knarly....I have never experienced something like that, but I really pay attention to stay away from the plane of the blade. Those things freak me out! Keep up the grueling work and it will pay off. This thing will be beautiful!

Keith, thanks a bunch for those numbers! I added them to my build sheet for future reference. I think my built sheet notes is up to like 18-19 pages now O.O I'll have to measure how high mine are up form the mounting surface. I know mine are 6 inches up from the hub casting. And by the way, your car is beautiful! I have a lot of your pictures saved from when you did your fender flares and also referenced others. I hope mine can look that sharp someday.

Awesome! I'm not sure how different your 240z will be but it can't hurt to know! Flares will be marked with the car on the ground. I haven't read about it yet but will be in short order. Wouldn't it be nice if I quit sidestepping and just got the car running? haha

Man, I am so excited to see what you have in store!

Ha Keith, I am still a little freaked out! I won't feel comfortable until they are back on the car and the ride height is set. To me, the 2 things I am more concerned with is the short threaded adjuster and the fact I have 10" springs and not 12". I am not sure if the 10" springs will get me high enough, but those are cheap. The fenders will be cut for flares as well.

Reading through the strut sectioning FAQ, they do mention the rear measurement should be at about 15". This is from the bottom of the inside to the lip and Mine is almost right at 15". I praying I am fine! I had time to cut out the steel collars in the front and rear LCA's. Now I'm debating dissassembling the rear brakes and axles so the can be blasted and painted. I have to put the companion flanges in the near future and I am hoping to aligns with when I get my parts back. The next task before the weekend is cutting and clearancing the front diff mount for dual exhaust. I have the RT style diff mount so the OEM diff mount will be just used for LCA mounting. I am going to make sure I don't remove too much rigidity however.

I have the Tokico's. BZ 3099's for the front and BZ 3013's for the rear. I really am hoping you are wrong too! I was on the phone quite a bit with Ground Control when I bought the kit back in June. I told him the size of my wheels and tires, motor swap I was planning and any other question he had. I really gave him a shit ton of information to get me the best setup. The "directions" they provided seemed rather generic though. The backs I won't be using camber plates so the stock uppers are reused I believe, so I shouldn't lose any ride height there. Good news is, I saved my sectioned pieces and if worse comes to worse, I am not afraid to weld more.

Bramagedained had a set of the rear LCA bolts that he wasn't going to use so I bought and received them yesterday. They fit so now I just need the nylock nuts! I had the pleasure of burning out the old bushing in the suspension parts last night. All of them are gone and I can see there is a steel collar in the LCA front and back. Looking at the bushing kit I am assuming I need to cut these out and I won't be running an outer steel collar anymore with the Energy Suspension kit? Also, I am looking for suggestions on the right path to take for coating the front and rear wheel wells. Since the suspension parts will look "new" after they are painted this part will stick out. I don't want to do this half ass but I am assuming the best process would be to sandblast, prime, seamseal, and then recoat with X paint/bedliner. I DON'T want this car rotting out down the road so I will continue reading. I would really like to try the lizard skin on the inside of the car down the road as well.

Very nice work sir! I've enjoyed reading all of this but you are making good progress! Can't wait to hear about more to come.

I was gone all weekend for a concert but got time Monday night to finish the project as I had the day off to recover I don't think I mentioned before but the kit did come from Ground Control. I cut off the stock spring perches. This was as simple as cutting around the section right above where it is welded on. It took some time to grind down the welds to prep them for cutting. Once I got them close to smooth I finished them with a flap disk. I didn't take pictures of my measurements with the news shocks. You need to drop the shock in and almost tighten the gland nut. Using a sharpie, mark the shock where it is flush with the gland nut. Then lift the shock up so it sits flush and tight in the top of the gland nut and make another mark. This is your measurement for how much to remove from the strut. I removed 36-37 mm from the front and 80-81 mm from the rear. I found a large pipe cutter from Menards to do the cutting. I have a circular saw, but I wanted a nice flush cut so I could weld them straight without a gap. Tip #1: Make you section cut on a portion of the tube you have not grinded on. The grind spots made the tube uneven and the cutter wanted to put threads in the pipe and not stay symmetrical. This lead to several broken blades as well. I made my cut at 7 inches for the front and 9 inches in the rear. I next cleaned out the burrs on the inside of the strut and chamfered the outside edges of the sections that will mate and be welded together. I then made sure that my sectioning was the right amount by putting the shock back in and tightening the gland nut. Everything checked out on my end! The tubes are roughly 3/16" thick so this "exceeds" the welding capabilities of my MIG. Angling the edges of the pipes and also using the "pull" or "drag" welding technique will give you more penetration for the thick walled tubing. I used a pieces of angle iron and a couple c-clamps to hold the sections flush and straight. Redneck ingenuity at its best! They were tack welded in 6 spots and then reassembled to triple check my measurements. I then welded in 1/6th sections and alternating the sides I welded on to prevent too much distortion. There was a lot of heat being thrown at them! The rears were done in the same fashion. Last night I took the time to grind down all the sectioning welds to make room for the new spring perch and threaded part of the coilovers. The perches were tacked on at 6" in the front and 8" in the rear. The setup I have has 10" springs. I measured about 6 spots around the tube for where they would be welded on. This is where the bottom part of the perch should be welded. I needed something to hold the perch level so I made a circular piece of cardboard and this did the trick. I used the same pulling method for welding these thick plates on. Last year I read about tacking and notching the threaded collar to prevent it from spinning when the ride height is adjusted. I put the tack on the backside of every tube so they would be out of site, out of mind. And just for the pleasure of seeing the "complete" part of the project, I had to install the springs for looks. I definitely dig this! I will focus the rest of my time now removing old bushing and getting my front struts cut for the camber plates that will be installed as well. After my suspension parts are taken apart, I will be bringing these to my brother so he can sandblast and possibly prime them. I haven't decided if I will get the parts powdercoated yet.

Very cool history on this car! This will be really cool when completed.

I got all 4 corners shortened/sectioned before I had to leave Saturday morning. It was quite the easy task but just took some time. Monday night I should be able to grind down the welds and get the spring perches on.

Just a little update, I was able to remove the stock shocks and grind off the stock perches last night. I'll wait to add any photos until I have the full coilover setup sectioned and welded. I am finding little tid bits of helpful input along the way.

One of the sickest Z's out there!

I'm just curious how these bolts are working? I will be probably buying the bolts here in the next few days in preparation for reassembly.