JMortensen

Come on guys, stop flaming the newbie.

Why don't you just mess with the shifter instead of the console? My shifter does a 90 degree bend right out of the transmission, then heads straight back for about 3 or so inches, then does another 90 degree to come straight out the middle of the hole in the console.

That would probably be OK for someone looking for a wider rear track than front. I bet it would look GREAT. I'd rather have them even or preferrably a wider front track, so it wouldn't work for my purposes.

I think the bandsaw would cut through 1/4" thick stuff just fine. I cut some 3/16" 2x3 tubing with mine. Pics in this thread close to the bottom of the page: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=106974&page=3 What it will not do is cut fast. That cut probably takes 45 minutes, if you were cutting straight across maybe more like 25-30. A bigger saw would do it faster, but that is a $160 machine that made that cut and if you compare it to a torch or a chop saw, there is just no comparison. The way I figure it is I could spend the time cleaning up a crappy cut, or I can wait for the finer cut. Larger bandsaws are better, will make even nicer cuts and have cooling systems for the blade. What I have is bottom of the barrel, it is the absolute bare minimum metal band saw, and still it is SO MUCH BETTER than what you'll get out of a chop saw or a torch that it's not even funny.

Wow, that is surprising advice. I made a LOT more money flat rate than I did hourly, but I guess that was because they gave me a much higher rate at flat rate than they did hourly and the shop was always busy. Some of the guys that I worked with made $25/hr flat rate. If they went hourly I doubt they would have gotten $15/hr. I quit wrenching because I got pissed off at spending 1/2 my paycheck on tools. I finally stopped buying any more tools and was working out of my boss's box 1/2 the time. He wanted me to get my own stuff, I knew I wasn't going to do this for the rest of my life so I told him no, and that was the end of that. Not to mention he was 50 years old and falling apart. He had back problems, fluid in his knees, all kinds of crap. No health insurance was a biggee too. I just looked at him and all of the other middle aged guys I had worked with over the years and decided that I wasn't going to go down that path...

I really like the front end on the 940Z kit that John Washington sells. The front end looks a lot cleaner to me than the YZ kit. Unfortunately I don't think the flares are as wide, but for aero purposes and if money was no object that is the one I would choose. Other than that I love the MSA street flares which are NLA. I just bought MAS bubble flares which are close to the street flares, so hopefully they'll do the trick for my car...

The hole through the rocker was the way I was going to go. Someone else suggested it to me a while back on one of my threads, sorry can't remember which thread or who it was. Basically you can put the hole up higher so that you don't need the jack to fit under the car, and then you can make a jack pad that is on a post that slides into the hole, kind of like a BMW in a way. Also it is possible to make stands that plug into the holes like rally cars use in servicing. I thought that the stands might be pretty useful too...

It's usefulness depends on the size of the stuff you need to cut, but for my needs a metal cutting bandsaw is the way to go. I have a chop saw and I don't think I've used it in over a year. As soon as I got the bandsaw the chop saw got put away and never used again.

The car was low before. It's going to be lower when it goes back together, but this time it will have some suspension travel. I will have to look out that I don't scrape the body on the ground before bottoming the suspension, but I think it will be to the point where that will be a real concern.

No, the spring won't coil bind. I'm using a 10" spring, and right now the rear springs have 6.38" of travel before they'll bind according to the Eibach website (10" x 2.5" x 250 in/lb). When I up the spring rate that will give even more travel before binding. I cut down the bumpstops, so the total travel to about 1.25" tall, and the strut itself compresses a little more than 6" if I recall correctly. I do think that I'd have a hard time compressing the suspension that far (especially after I up the spring rates) but coil bind is not going to prevent this rubbing from happening.

I was pretty surprised today. I cut the fender out 2 1/2" above the lip, then threw a wheel on and compressed the suspension and the inside of the tire hit the inside of the fenderwell. I put a .25" spacer on and it hit the outside of the fenderwell. With all the guys trying to stuff the biggest tire they can in the back I was pretty shocked that my 250/45/15 doesn't fit within the CUT fenderwell. I guess it was probably worse when I was running the car previously, although the car was probably bottoming before the tire got all the way up in there previously. Anyway, all you guys with sectioned struts and big tires should be checking for clearance. Here I was thinking I was pretty much done with one side, now I have to do it all over... I can't be the only one...

Well I cut the fenders and bolted up a wheel and pulled the suspension up and the tire hit the inside of the fenderwell before the strut bottomed. I did have the camber plates all the way in, so I put them in the middle, roughly in the same area where I ran them before. Tried again and the tire hit the outside. So now I am going to recut the fender another inch farther up. I have to wonder if there aren't a lot of guys running around with setups that are screwed up so that the tire hits the fenders. I was really pretty surprised, seeing as how my current 5" BS wheels are somewhat "normal". I guess this means that I should go to a 4.75" BS when I order new wheels...

They don't even know what STATE you're in, and they want lessons from you??? IT'S A SCAM.

Retail was $200 or so, I think I paid $85 at shop +10%. One of the few things I miss about being a mechanic.

EDIT--Sorry guys. 15x10 is the wheel I'm planning on. I think that's the info I needed Pete. I was able to space the wheel out about an inch and 9/16, and I was thinking that I needed a bit more. I just haven't had any luck with backspacing so far, so I was a bit worried... I bought a HF 16 ton tubing bender and didn't have any luck with it, so the cage is getting set aside for the moment. I'm trying to get all the bottomside stuff done and painted so that I can move without exposing all my work from the last 3 years to 1000 miles of road grime and rain and whatever else there happens to be along the way. When I get back to it I think I'm going to buy a real tubing bender (should have listened to dr hunt on that one) and then I'll do it up. I have the 4 point roll bar basically done. The thread on that is here: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=102715. I think I know what I want to do though. The cage I've got in mind is going to be pretty extensive with a 6 point in 1.75 x .120 and then all the ancillary stuff with thinner walled tube, probably 1.625 x .065.

Did you see what I did on mine? Cary's idea. Came out pretty damn good if I do say so myself... http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=105596

I think he already did. I'm basically head down working on this thing til I move, he kinda sounded like he wanted to go for a drive, which I obviously can't do at this point...

Wouldn't that be a KV25? NGK's are 7mm I believe. I don't think I've ever seen a 2.5, but I have seen a 5mm wire on my old Toyota 22RE. They worked fine and I had a Toyota tech tell me to stick with the thin wires rather than replace with a huge wire, FWIW.

That is a good idea, but the car is on a rotisserie and doesn't have the front suspension on it at all, so kinda hard to do right now. Since it is obviously not an emergency, so I could wait and do that later if need be.

If hacksawing the fender works then I'd assume that jigsawing it would be less stressful...

I really suck at this stuff, so I'm hoping you guys can help me out. I'm hoping someone out there knows this right off the top of their head. Working with 3" flares front and rear. Old wheels were 15x8 with 5" backspacing. That amount of backspacing should be about right as far as keeping the tire close to the coilover. What I want is I would like the rear tires about 1" INSIDE of the flares. On the front I want the tires to fill the flare. I will use 1" wheel spacers up front so that I can have the same rims on all 4 corners. I have coilovers and 10" springs, and I'm running a 23.5" tall tire. Anyone know what I should be looking for?

OK, took a look at where and how much to cut. I measured from the top of the tire to 6" above it where it hit the fender. This just happened to be at exactly 2" above the fender lip. Then I looked at the inner fender, and it appears that you can cut about 4" up before you hit the very top of the inside of the fender where the inner and outer fenders are welded together. Not sure why my car would be different than Vinh's, but it is what it is. So I tacked on an extra 1/2" or so to my 6" measurement from the tire (where the lower line is in the pics) just for good measure. I could easily add another 1/2" of height and get away with that too, that way if at some point down the line you can't buy anything less than a 17" tire, then I don't have to redo the thing, maybe just add a longer bumpstop or something. Does that sound like good logic to everyone? Also, what should I use to cut the fender. I have an air saw but it sucks, and I have a jigsaw and some metal blades but I'm worried about screwing up the fender. I could use a cutoff wheel, but they don't do curves too well.