billseph Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Cool! I'm gonna go ahead and do the strut housing sectioning and coilover deal like you did pretty much for the sole purpose of adjusting my ride height. I want it low (not slammed) but want to be able to raise it back up if necessary. I had originally just thought "oh I'll just cut the springs" but I got to thinking about it and thought "well I don't wanna cut brand new springs" Really it's only a couple or few hundred more $ to go with the GC setup so after much contemplating, you're build thread made up my mind that I'd go with coilovers. I'm in essentially in the same spot as you with your build. Just gotta finish making all the suspension and underside of the car look pretty then it can go back together (I gotta drop the turbo motor in too after I finish putting all my goodies on it) And I'm dying to start driving the car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted January 4, 2012 Author Share Posted January 4, 2012 Cool! I'm gonna go ahead and do the strut housing sectioning and coilover deal like you did pretty much for the sole purpose of adjusting my ride height. I want it low (not slammed) but want to be able to raise it back up if necessary. I had originally just thought "oh I'll just cut the springs" but I got to thinking about it and thought "well I don't wanna cut brand new springs" Really it's only a couple or few hundred more $ to go with the GC setup so after much contemplating, you're build thread made up my mind that I'd go with coilovers. I'm in essentially in the same spot as you with your build. Just gotta finish making all the suspension and underside of the car look pretty then it can go back together (I gotta drop the turbo motor in too after I finish putting all my goodies on it) And I'm dying to start driving the car Haha I came to the conclusion that it's pretty much the best way to do it on a Z with the exception of doing the AZC kit. But at the cost of that kit, I decided that the GC kit is the next best thing, and is really a better kit for street driving. Plus it's been proven for many many years and is what all the fast racers do. Feel free to PM me with any questions or anything, I really don't mind helping out! But ya I want to have my car pretty low, but not slammed. I don't like slammed cars much, unless they're drift cars, then it kinda makes sense, but I'm not a drifter, and Z's aren't drift cars haha. Cutting springs is a big no-no in my mind haha, I originally was gonna do the s13 coilover conversion, but that really is just about the worst way to do it in my opinion, unless of course, you plan on slamming your car haha. Glad I could be of inspiration . Buy your kit from TTT, they are near here and won't take long to ship, only took 2 days to get here, so probably 3 to get there. Haha it's a wierd time of the build, it's acctually really amazing that I don't feel overwhelmed. I seriously have like 20 different little projects going on at a time haha. Turbo motor I guess you'll have a faster Z than me haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billseph Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Yeah man you're kicking' ass on your car. I'm at a much slower pace, but it's getting there. I'd been thinking about piecing the coilover kit together, but TTT having it all together will make it 10x easier for a novice like myself. I'm guessing with the couple hundred extra ponies I'll have that I'll be a tad faster LOL. I just figured what the heck, I'll make my Z stupid quick (for me) My family car is a Lexus IS 350 and that's already gone from fastest car I've ever driven to BLAH...I guess you just get used to it. But the Z being loud and eveything else ought to never get old and always put a grin on your face. I figure I should bust your chops a little a tell you that I'm gonna use a PIPE CUTTER for my strut sectioning LOL it's gonna be a fun project making that cut 8x. Your back and forth in the other thread was fun...I'm tempted to use a chipsaw but I'm in NO hurry so I'll just bust out the pipe cutter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted January 4, 2012 Author Share Posted January 4, 2012 Yeah man you're kicking' ass on your car. I'm at a much slower pace, but it's getting there. I'd been thinking about piecing the coilover kit together, but TTT having it all together will make it 10x easier for a novice like myself. I'm guessing with the couple hundred extra ponies I'll have that I'll be a tad faster LOL. I just figured what the heck, I'll make my Z stupid quick (for me) My family car is a Lexus IS 350 and that's already gone from fastest car I've ever driven to BLAH...I guess you just get used to it. But the Z being loud and eveything else ought to never get old and always put a grin on your face. I figure I should bust your chops a little a tell you that I'm gonna use a PIPE CUTTER for my strut sectioning LOL it's gonna be a fun project making that cut 8x. Your back and forth in the other thread was fun...I'm tempted to use a chipsaw but I'm in NO hurry so I'll just bust out the pipe cutter. Haha well I'm 18, and still in highschool so I still have the drive to get the car on the road haha. I realized basically that once I'm older I won't really have the energy and drive to do what I'm doing, which is basically spending every waking moment working on the Z or researching about different parts or upgrades. I thought about it too, but to get something that high qaulity is pretty tough without spending about the same or more. Plus ground control is a great company and they really stand by there products. Haha yes, you will definitely have an edge on me haha. Haha well I wanted to learn the car without killing myself. Plus I'm not that much of a power freak haha. Haha ya I used to think my mini was quick, and I used to think it handled really well. Well the Z will be more powerful, and it will handle better haha. Haha well it's not going to be as loud as most Z's, but it will certainly put a humongous grin on my face Haha well I would've used a pipe cutter but the guy at work has a super nice chop saw and he said I could use it and to me that just seems like a better option. However, if I didn't have access to that, I would certainly have used a pipe cutter. Be warned, that metal is thick stuff! Haha well I always get people against my way of doing things, and I pretty much always prove them wrong haha. Haha well it wasn't so much that I was in a hurry, but the chop saw just makes such a nice, clean cut. It was pretty cool to watch the metal get blueish from the heat about a cm before the part where it was acctually cutting through. Plus that thing cut the tube like fricken butter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 I really want a G nose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 G nose is a go. I called Showcars body parts this morning, and left another message. During english class I got a call from a random canadian number and what do you know? It was the owner of showcars. I am either going to buy his kit or the Z force productions one, haven't decided. His is about 400, 2 piece. The Z force I can get for about 600 shipped. I will be buying Z force hood hinges either way. What's the deal with these hinges? I've read lots of people saying that they're super hard to put on? What's the deal here, doesn't seem too bad to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rturbo 930 Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 Do not touch showcars bodyparts with a 100 foot pole. Search, and you will see why. Avoid them like the plague. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 Do not touch showcars bodyparts with a 100 foot pole. Search, and you will see why. Avoid them like the plague. Oh ****. Thank you so much, I owe you big time. Jeez I knew it was too good to be true, good thing I don't have the money to spend anyways haha. Anyone know anything about the Z force G nose? It seems pretty nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 Well I pieced together some new hardware for my X-member and steering rack mounts today. Using some black oxide metric allen head bolts from mc-master, which are grade 12.9, and some nylock nuts from them as well. I also got my tie rod ends off, taking half my left thumbnail off with the... can't remember which side, the one that's reverse threaded. Hurt pretty bad haha. I'm starting to rebuild my steering rack. I'm also going to be replacing the little rubber bushing on the U-bolt thing on the steering rack with a piece of poly cut out of a poly bushing I got for free, it goes to the rear wishbone on my mini, but I don't want to use it since I am trying to sell that, plus then I have some poly I can cut up and use for various projects. It's acctually a $70 bushing kit too which is interesting. Also a guy from work gave me a really cool looking older wilwood proportioning valve, it's pretty sweet. He only wants $35 for it too, but he just told me to pay him whenever. And besides that I have just been stripping the paint in my engine bay. Oh and I'm getting my engine back home on monday, since it's pretty much done. I'm going to adjust the valves, finish installing the rear main seal, and re-paint the block before I drop it in though. That will be in quite a while anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 (edited) Wow I haven't updated in a long time... Well here's some updates: My parts room now has a finished engine in it... however... look closer and you see this: Yaa... my engine fell about 3 feet straight onto asphalt. We decided to try and load it into the back of a truck using a ratchet strap instead of a chain, and well... The strap snapped. So that was a heart attack and a half, but the only damage is the crank pulley (good thing it's a harmonic balancer!), and the bolt on my engine stand (it was still bolted to the stand) which bent all the way over. I got extremely lucky. It's one of those things that everyone worries about happening but they never have happen. Well I'm an exception to that rule haha. I spent $950 in the past couple hours on parts for the front suspension/steering. I ordered: -TTT front LCA's and T/C rods -Strut mount insulators -Strut bearings -Tie rod ends -Poly tie rod end/ball joint dust boots -Aluminum RCA's off ebay -Steering rack boots -ABS steering coupler Pretty excited to get the front end back together. I just need to finish stripping all the paint out of the engine bay, figuring out a battery tray (ripped out the stock one to get to some rust), and undercoating the wheel wells. Then the front suspension can go back on. It will all be coming over the next week, but I'll be in tucson visiting my best friend. I decided on a color: the super silver that comes as an option on '12 GTR's. Won't look that nice since it'll be rattle-can, but it'll be a nice color. It will go well with the purple engine bay and red interior it will even go well with the aleica's in pink if I choose that color. I will paint once I can get the rear suspension off, and get some ZG flares for cutting/riv-nutting. This will be after I finish the front suspension, and then the car will be pushed into my driveway, cleaned underneath, and pushed back into my garage backwards. Edited February 20, 2012 by luseboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 Right so I got a fair bit done so far. Finished stitch welding in the driver's side front wheel well, and sprayed some new undercoating under there. It looks fantastic. Words of the wise: undercoating takes about 3 days of heavy washing to come off of skin and out of hair. I also found my reaction disk floating in my booster so I glued it back in place, and painted the booster body. I've been working more on stripping the paint out of the engine bay. It's being pretty stubborn but I've got the majority of it out. I need to strip the undercoating out of the passenger side wheel well and then weld that up and deal with some rust, as well as filling in the holes where I drilled out the pinch welds for the battery tray. Then I need to make a new battery tray. After I finish that and the engine bay, I should be able to put the front suspension back on and get the car into my driveway for a few hours so I can clean all the crap from underneath it. I will then put it back into my garage backwards so I can get the rear suspension out of there. Hopefully I will be at that point in the next couple weeks. If I can sell my damn daily driver it will kick me into gear. I will then probably buy a 521 pickup and drive that/get parts with that. Anyways I'm beginning to see the light on the horizon. Haha is anyone even reading this anymore? As a bonus, here's a random pic of my engine bay. Oh and I got my X-member all assembled today with the TTT LCA's and all the parts. I don't have a pic on the computer but I can get one on here soon. You can also follow my progress (and other random pictures) on instagram. Big surprise, I go by luseboy on there too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perfect240z Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Im reading! Right on! Keep it up man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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