Justin's 77 280z

[JustinOlson]

 

 

 

[JustinOlson]

[JustinOlson]

Picked up a MSA Type 3 front air dam last night. I also worked on plating the rocker where I will be attaching the floor section of the cage. It looks horrible right now, but I think I have my method figured out. The passenger side will go much faster now. I just need to make sure I don't deform the structure of the car while modifying the rockers. The floor is completely gone on the drivers side and half gone on the passenger side.

 

The rockers are filled with tar so I have to burn that out before I can weld the new rocker plates in. Slow going, but its going. I'll mount the type 3 bumper this weekend, along with welding in rocker mounting plates. I need a level to get everything square. Pictures coming soon once I patch up this rocker. Its UGLY right now and I'm a bit embarrassed to have cut so much away

 

Justin

[JustinOlson]

I have a little time to start welding in the plate to narrow the rocker. This will give me more room and place the cage further out. I hope this extra 1.25" per side will help make my ride safer. Once I finish both sides, I will start on the floor section of the cage. Also, I started filling in the marker lights holes.

 

 

 

 

[JustinOlson]

[JustinOlson]

Direction:

 

[JustinOlson]

A little update. I'm about to order a set of YZ fenders front and rear. I'm going to retain the MSA type 3 air dam, and modify it to work with the YZ front fenders. I will be running the MSA type 3 in the location pictured below.

 

 

I'm also working on figuring out my Bilstein R36-5022 inserts. I'm currently struggling like many have to make the techno toy tuning front camber plates to work on these bilsteins. There just isn't much room for the thrust bearing. The upper ball joint can't articulate with my current clearances. I have some ideas, and will be discussing with my machinist friend ways to retain the thrust bearing.

 

In other news I have purchased a 99 honda civic to get around in. This is helping a lot as I'm not attending school 5 days a week, working 5 days a week, and caring for my grandparents in my spare time. Life is definitely busy right now, but I'm making the best of it. Hopefully things will get sorted out so I can make time for the Z on the weekends. I will be getting my welder back from my cousin at the end of this month hopefully. He's been using it for the past 3 months to build up is Land Rover project. You can see that here:

 

http://seriesiiirover.blogspot.com/

 

Also, I nearly forgot that I ordered JSK front rotor hats and mounting brakets. I still trying to decide on a set of calipers to use, but that should be soon. I want to do the brakes at the same time I section the struts. I have to figure out what I'm doing for my rear brake setup. I'm torn between doing a solid axle now, and retaining the IRS. There just aren't many reasonable options for a strong 4 lug stub axle. I think its pretty crazy to spend the money on the Modern Motorsport R230 axle conversion, and billett stub axles. I may sell my R230 diff and axles, and go to a ford 9". Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.

 

Justin

[JustinOlson]

Here are my 17X9.5 with 245/40 Bridgestone RE-01R's. I will get them mounted today and hopefully take some pictures. I wanted to go wider, but I could not pass up these tires at half off from Tire Rack. I think if I ever make an upgrade from these it will be to 285/30-18's all around on some 18X10's.

 

 

 

 

 

Justin

[JustinOlson]

This is at a current rocker height of 5.75" front and 6.5" rear. I think I'm going to ZY fenders front and rear to help get the car lower. Once I get the car down to the height I want it at, I will redesign the suspension pickup points to make it work. Overall I'm really happy with these Rota's. They look great on these Z cars!

 

 

[JustinOlson]

YZ Fenders are ordered. I'm really excited to finally make the jump and do these fenders. They are what got me excited about building a Z car way back in 06. Finally my car will have a set :)

 

I need to figure out the best way to widen the track of my car to fill out the flares. In the front I will likely space out the struts an inch on each side. In the back, I'll likely run wheel spacers until I decide on my rear end upgrade.

 

The nice thing about the front YZ fenders is the ability to run the tires much closer to the top level of the fender since it doesn't curve away like the factory fenders. No dealing with mounting the ZG flares high enough now. Hopefully I can get the MSA Type 3 widened, as I'd really like to retain it.

[JustinOlson]

I installed my Techno Toy Tuning roll center adjusters. They are 35mm thick, and everything clears fine with the 17" wheels. I then removed the factory springs to see where the front struts would bottom out at. On my car, I'm at 5" at the rocker up front with the springs removed. This is a 280z w/ 24.5" tall tires. So that places my hub centerline at 7.25" above my rocker. I'm looking at lower the car an additional 2.5", while retaining ~2" of bump travel. The floors are going to be raised, along with the rockers. I figure I'm going to raise the rockers 2.5". The floor will be flush with this height. So I'll end up with ~ 5" of clearance throughout at static ride height.

 

Also, I acquired a Wilwood pedal assembly this weekend. Its a triple master setup with a balance bar. Should be nice I think

 

 

 

Justin

[JustinOlson]

Here is the one picture I snapped today.The MSA is mounted in its standard position. It has 3.5" of clearance in this picture. Since I'm lower the car 2.5" more, but raising the MSA T3 4", I'm going to end up with 5" of clearance for the air dam when all is said and done.

 

I plan in the future to get a set of road racing slicks. I've been looking at the Hoosier 275/35-15's. Those have a diameter of 23", which would allow me to lower the car more. I could potentially end up at 3.5" at the raised rocker height, or 1" if the rockers weren't raised just for reference.

 

[JustinOlson]

My 280YZ fender set came in today. God these fenders are wide. I'm going to have to widen the track 5" in the front and 4" in the rear. This equates to ~ 71.5" width front and rear. Also, my current total height from the ground to the roof is ~48", I will get this down to a total height of ~45".

 

Justin

[JustinOlson]

Found a small turbo today for $370 that is interchangable with my S480 turbo. I'm going to pick this up and run it first. I will move upto the S480 after this, or I may run them in series to get killer midrange power, and keep the revs low. Seems like a better method then spending a bunch of money re engineering an engine to turn higher RPMs then it wants to. The new turbo is a S464 which is non extended tip. Supports 650hp. Compounding them should be able to yield 1000lb ft I think. Just need enough octane to get there.

 

Here are the specs on the turbo:

 

 

• High-flow S400 model, with compressor flow over 64 lb/min. Will service 600+HP. Also commonly known as an S464 and S364.
  
• Wheel Dimensions: Compressor: 63.5 mm inducer, 91.4mm exducer. Turbine: 83.5mm inducer, 74mm exducer. Cast in Inconel 713 for high-temperature operation.
  
• Housing A/R: Compressor .63, with 5.0" hose-type inlet, and v-band-type discharge. Turbine: 1.10, with 'divided' volute, featuring 'T6-style' turbine inlet flange (4.438"x2.75"), and quick-release v-band discharge flange. Cast in ductile iron.
  

[JustinOlson]

I've got one side of the car near my goal ride height. Right now I'm just trying to get the stance correct, then figure out the proper chassis mounts for the suspension. In the back I'm going to have to cut out the fender wells completely, as at full bump, the tires would rub on the inner fender wells. I'm contemplating doing a custom upright in the rear to incorporate the 300zxTT hub. This would allow me to run the factory 300zxTT axles and diff. I currently have these parts, so that is the direction I'm leaning. I've been looking at doing a 5 lug to 4 lug adapter in the rear so that I can retain these rota RB's. All of the off the shelf adapters like this are fairly clumsy. I might just go to 15X10 5 lug rear drag wheels and run the RB's up front on the street. I may also sell the rota's with tires, and go to a 5 lug wheel front and rear. This mocking up is fun, but I can't wait to have my tools back to get to welding and building. Gosh I'm excited. I've been making a lot of progress lately because I am now driving again. I was cycling daily for the last couple years, and that had made it tough on me getting much done on the datsun when it wasn't located at my house. Now that I can get to my workshop in a 15 minute drive, I'm really there so much more often.

 

Beyond the datsun, I'm taking two classes at Portland state. I'm also working 30-40 hrs a week at my design job. Life is busy, and constantly changing for me. My father is moving to Tuscon. My grandfather and I are batching it since grandma has gone into a home. I have baby turkeys and chickens with my girlfriend. All of these changes all at once. Its overwhelming at times, but that's life I guess. I'm trying to make the best of what I have right now.

 

No more real updates on the car for a few days. I have midterms this week, and need to really focus on school. After that is over, I'll be back on the datsun working away. I get my welder back on the 8th, so I need to settle on a chassis design by then. I'll try and model up the suspension parts, rough out the dimensions of the engine/transmission. Lots to do before I do any really building. I'm excited to be working on this project. I just need to make sure I'm not going in more directions then I can handle all at once.

 

Justin

[JustinOlson]

I wasn't making much progress studying so I decided to go to the shop for a bit. This is at a rocker height of 2.75" front, 3.5" rear. The yz fenders are going to be cut at the front so I can raise the MSA T3 flush with the bottom of the hood. Obviously I'm going to need wheel spacers with the current layout. Subframe is going to have to move up 2-3" to. Engine is moving back and up as well. New transmission tunnel. Differential is being raised. Whole new floorpan pretty much. Gotta do it though. I love the look that I will have in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JustinOlson]

I wanted to highlight the issues I've run into thus far with lowering the 280z to its current static ride height. The idea is to work around all of these issues so that I can retain 2" of bump travel from the ride height seen in the previous post.

 

 

 

[JustinOlson]

So Ive decided to put the ultra low ride height and YZ kit on hold for the time being. Ive got a ZG flare kit that I will be putting on the car, along with the rotas, headlight covers, 5 inch rocker height. Ect. I just want to drive the car this summer.... I found a shell for the next level of this build that I wont be afraid to cut apart and do a tube chassis. More on all this over the next couple days

[JustinOlson]

Pulled the front struts last night to finally test fit these 36mm Bilstein inserts. I got the gland nut off one, but couldn't pull the insert out with my hands. I'm going to pick up the upper nut and hat so I have something I can hit with the rubber mallet. Hopefully that gets these inserts out.

 

Justin

[JustinOlson]

 

Red = 1.625" X 0.083"

Green = 1.25" X 0.065"