RebekahsZ

Ok. Here are my measurements: I have 12" rear coils. My rear spring seat is 8" above the top of the hub casting where the tube is welded into the hub. My total length from the top mounting surface of the DP camber plate to the bottom of the hub casting at the bottom of the tube is 23-1/2" to 24". My lower rear spring seat is roughly 8" above the top of the hub casting. In front: I have 10" front coils. The total length of the strut assembly from the top surface of the DP plate to the bottom where the steering knuckle bolts on is 22-1/2". The spring seat is 10" up from the steering knuckle mounting surface. If you run shorter springs, just raise your seats accordingly. With Koni's, (which have a lot less droop than Tokicos, there is a little pre-load on the coils at full droop. With Tokicos, my rear springs were just snug against the spring seats, but my fronts had so much droop that my springs were about 2" dropped away from the top seat and I had to be careful to adjust the spring manually as I lowered the car off jacks. Below is the ride height of the car with the struts assembled as described. Not that this picture was taken with good traction and the car is in a right turn, so at rest, it might not look this low. Second photo is going in a straight line. 16" front tires, 17" rear tires.

I will measure the total droop on mine and post it for you. I switch back and forth between 12 and 10". With they made 11". Like you said: springs are cheap. Be sure car is level on the ground when you do your flare marking. My car had the ass up on jacks and my flares are rotated a couple of degrees.

I bet you are fine. My rear tubes are 14" from the top of the hub casting to the gland nut, so you should be good. I was afraid you had cut to fit the Koni's. If you cut to fit Tokicos that were originally meant to fit in the front of a Z, you should be fine. Sorry I freaked you out. Plus, Tokicos have tons longer droop.

Hate to sound stupid, but could you just take the brace back off? Maybe warm the tires up? Switch the tires from front to rear? I had a set of tires age-out over the winter a few years ago, and they were terrible simply from age. New tires and I was good-to-go!

What brand shocks are you gonna run? If you run Koni's, you may have some trouble getting enough droop out of the rear to achieve a reasonable ride height if you cut the tube to the length of the shock without inserting a spacer. If running Tokicos, you may be ok because they allow greater droop. I'm concerned that you may have sectioned too much from the rear tubes....time will tell and I hope I'm wrong. Damn nice work and welding!

No-you've done enough. I can figure the rest out myself. I will just look at the year/model plates on the door frame and grab the one I need from my buddy's stash. Your info keeps me from taking the wrong one (which would in-waterproof a chassis in his swamp/junkyard). I will source from his riskiest 75 or 76. Thanks!

Where are you located? Wow-thanks for a great reply!!!!

I have a 75 280z I just bought that is missing only the driver door window glass frame. I have a buddy with a Z salvage yard, but I try to not take parts off his nicer cars. Anybody know what models/years I can get a door glass frame (the stainless piece that forms the upper window track) off of for my 75 280z?

Thanks!!!!!

Recommended oil capacity specifications vary considerably on the LS family. Look up the spec for the motor that the oilpan came off of. Fill to that capacity. Run the engine a bit. Mark the stick.

A thorough google search demonstrates that this does not always solve the problem. Sage advice often offered, but does not always resolve the issue.

Just used the 4-post with sliding air jacks to change a tire on a Ford F150 4-dr truck. Worked like a charm. The sliding jacks that BendPak makes sit completely flush with the ramps. I love them and am really glad I bought them. Too much crap stacked around the 2-post to use it right now.

Will try to copy you. My doors have broken sheetmetal around the latch screws just like yours. Also a '72. Thanks for posting your solution.

I'm looking at transmission lifts to use with my 2-post lift. I want one that is foot operated so I can keep my hands on the tranny guiding it down. I also want one that has a 2-axis tilting mechanism. These lifts cost between 400-700 dollars. I found one that has those qualities but is also air/hydraulic operated to speed raising the jack (it takes a lot of foot pumping to get these all the way up. Does anybody know if these air/hydraulic units can be also used WITHOUT air? Aka, in the hydraulic-only mode? I want to be able to use the jack even if air isn't available. Any other pointers? The jack I'm looking at is at Greg Smith model HTTL6200. Thanks for any advise!

I have just bought a '75 280z with perfect sheetmetal aft of the firewall. But, the frame rails forward of the firewall have several kinks in them from a front impact. Anybody got a chassis with good frame rails that they would cut off and sell me? Looking for the rails from the firewall to the radiator support.

Were you on the track when the fire started? How much damage?

Just found out that the regional Porsche club is gonna have their annual autocross here in Florence on April 15-16. I need a tough deadline to force me to get the blue car off the jackstands that it has been holding down since July. I'm gonna get back on the project of putting the front end back together to try to make that event. I need a kick in the pants of some kind. Talking to a couple of the turbo smart guys on the site about a turbo to go ahead and get so I can start planning some routing.

Yeah, after spring break beach trip in a couple weeks I'm gonna buy a case of beer and get my two fabricators to come over with it up on the lift to advise me on which way to go: tube chassis or try to salvage what is there. If it was meant to be a street car I would just drive on like it is, but I'm hoping this car has the front tires coming down from above on a regular basis.

I don't think anybody has an info. Put them on your car and make history! Or put them up for sale and make money.

I can try. It's kinda hard to capture. Basically, I'd want to cut off everything forward of the firewall.

Guys, I need a pep talk. The more I'm under this chassis, the more buyer's remorse I have due to the amount of work done (and still to do) forward of the firewall. From the firewall back (to include the battery tray), this is a straight, rust-free pristine chassis. But, probably early in its life, this car was hit really hard in the front. It is decent body-shop work with all the door gaps and fender gaps looking good, but the TC boxes got a pretty good whollap and the passenger side rail has waves all the way down it and there's a big stack of washers on one side of the passenger side LCA. It looks like the body shop put a jack between the frame rails back near the firewall and pushed them out from one another hard enough to crush them a little. I was really hoping to make this a 200-220mph car with a back-half treatment, but the front end was to remain stock S30 (with coilovers, springs, shocks, lotsa caster, etc). Now Im thinking the front frame rails are gonna need replacing. Can somebody talk me thru that a little? I really wasn't planning to tube chassis this whole car, and if it looks like that will be required, I may just try to sell this chassis off and get back to my deuce roadster land-speed dreams....if it's gonna be the same cost, learning curve and effort, I may as well go for the big dream. Can new metal be safely grafted into the frame rails and retain good structural integrity?

Another aftermarket company that hires chicks to be sales and tech reps. I'm sure there are wonderful exceptions to my machismo, but don't expect Deana to ever follow up with you. The old guy with no teeth who knows the answer to your question got fired last year because his health insurance got too expensive, so she can't find him to ask him what a centerbore or offset is.

Part of why I went ahead and moved on this chassis was to rescue it from the idiot who owned it. It was original paint except where his brother in law had taken a DA sander to it, then left it bare for 20 years. Now that he sprayed primer all over it "to protect it," I will have to clean all that gray crap off of it to find any rust I need to grind away. For those who don't know: primer isn't water proof and does nothing for rust! I'm hoping that it comes off easily, because where possible I would like to leave the original factory metal prep. The planned color scheme is all white-top-bottom-inside and out. Then to do vinyl wrap in the color of choice, probably a blue similar to my other car. What I don't know now is whether to get the existing rust blasted clean, then prime and paint just for rust protection while in storage, OR to just clean up any water trapping dirt, then store it in the dry and let prep wait until I get ready to really start on it. Before I start on this car I hope to take the '72 to 200mph.

Went looking for a rust-free 510 and found a rusty 240z. The rest is history. I'm really a street-rodder who lost his way...

I'm glad I don't have to keep those clean.