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Mike Kelly's Zcar Project


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You might end up with stiffer rear springs. Overall that setup sounds a little pushy to me, but you won't know for sure till you get some more track time and feel it out.

 

First step is determine where it's rubbing. On my car the rub point isn't at the top, it's at about the 10 and 2 o'clock position. You might be able to shorten the rear lca's and move the top of the struts in to gain clearance and maintain camber, or you might just need to do a litte more trimming under the ZG's.

 

jt

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Couple comments here...

 

I'd hope by now that you'd think that I'd not be a noob in such a situation to just "blindly" throw stiffer springs on the car... I use this blog as a way to throw out ideas and get info back, but I assure you that the last thing I will do is go "blindly" into the night. The fender lips on this car were cut off completely. There is no rolling of the lip, as there is no lip and the fender has been opened up quite a bit. I believe that if you go back a number of pages, there are pics to show this very thing...

 

One of the first things I did was reach out to John C. who has given me excellent advice based on what he knows to work first hand. I'll also bend the ears of people like John Tedder and Mark Icard to see what they use... This much I do know: the 300# springs in the rear, using AZ Car camber plates & control arms, with camber set to 2.5 negative caused significant cutting on the inside edge of the outer most tread block from somewhere in the previously cut fender opening. The wheels are TSW Thruxstons in an 18X9.5 and I don't remember off hand the BS or OS. I am running a 1/2inch spacer to clear the suspension in the rear. The tires are Kumho Victoracers in a 265-35 profile. The plan is to move to another wheel as I'm not happy with the weight, but this may accelerate that issue!

 

 

JT1 (john Tedder) thanks for the info and I'll look at those 10&2 locations specifically. I've already ordered some 350# and 400# springs, per Mr. Coffey's recommendation! I'll get the car out of the trailer in the coming days and we'll see what's what!!

 

I'll get more info up later, but I am lead to believe right now that I'm going to need to clearance the fender openings even more AND use stiffer springs on the setup.

 

Mike

 

What size tires, wheel offsets, wheel width, camber plates? Did you roll the fender lips? There is more to this than just springs/height. Don't choose springs/height to fix a clearance issue. That's asking for trouble directly.

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Here are a few pics from early in the project showing how "opened up" the fenders are...

 

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The pics are with the old Mustang 8 inch wheels on it. But you can see that there is a lot of space there between the tire and wheel well.

 

Mike

Edited by Mikelly
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Might want to hit up Evilc, Clive. He has a pretty similar setup, and at his first track day with the EVILZ, I got plenty of video of him behind a grinder, with his head in the rear wheel wells. I don't doubt your knowledge Mike. I just was hoping you hadn't lost sight for a second, which can happen with such an in depth project.

 

Some footage of Clive grinding away at WGI.

 

 

 

Edited by cygnusx1
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Here's the video from my second shakedown run.

 

 

The first session was two laps, one under caution, and then on the second one I brought it in.. So this one has me giving it a little more gas and going a little quicker!

 

 

 

Mike

Edited by Mikelly
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Mike.. I have soft springs using Illumina struts. I can't use much more than 275# springs with these struts. I cut the rear fender so high it has next to no turn down on the inner wheel well. Basically this is the limit unless you remove the inner wheel wells and tub the back. The cut will be significantly higher than the body lateral line you used as a guide.

initialcuts.jpg

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That's about what I expected!!! :lol:

 

bjhines, I'm going to remove the fender flares today and see where we are on the damage. I'm going to also go with a stiffer spring because the car needs to be lowered some more... And based on what John C., Mark I. and others have mentioned, the struts I'm using will handle a MUCH higher spring rate.

 

Mike

 

Maybe this will help:

 

 

 

:D:D:D

 

jt

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The biggest rear wheel cut I ever did was about 3" above the body line. Essentially up to where the inner wheel well goes horizontal. That was to fit 285/30-18s on 10.5" rims on a 240Z that ran a 5.5" front and a 6" rear ride height. And that car occasionally scraped the rear tires on some super wide ZG flares even with 375 lb.in. rear springs. Its just kind of the nature of any beast with a rear strut suspension.

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Here are a few pics of the driver's side damage I found when removing the flare...

 

You can see the damage to the fender lip in the pic...

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This is a close up of where it bent...

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some of the rubber collected in the wheel well...My inner fenders are painted silver/aluminum. That's a lot of rubber in there...

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The cut tire is pretty bad. Pretty sure the tire is toast. What were the odds that it would catch it right on the the seam at the end of the treadblock?

 

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So I've already got more springs in a box... ordered them Tuesday evening. I also have some sway bars for the rear, but haven't installed them yet... I've got a 5/8th and a 3/4 unit. I'll probably run 350# rear and 400# front to start with on that 5/8th rear bar, and go from there... Hopefully this will cure that issue. Also found the rear of the oil pan leaking. Fortunately you can see the rear main seal due to the McLeod Bellhousing, and it's the seal on the pan. So I'll have to unbolt the motor mounts, unbolt the pan, jack the motor up and get to the rails on the oilpan with some sealer... these rubber "self sealing" gaskets... yea, not so much.

 

Mike

Edited by Mikelly
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So today, I had a little time on my hands and needed to relieve some stress, so I did this:

 

Drivers side only so far...

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I also picked up some materials today and made some cable pulls for the door handles. Since the doors are gutted, I don't have door releases from the inside, and copied what was done on the SpecMiata. Missed taking pics of them, but I'll snap some later. Pretty simple to make, actually!

 

Not sure what lies ahead in the coming weeks. My father was sent home from a Dr's appointment on Friday and told his options were checking into the hospital or having hospice come in to take care of him until he dies. I knew he was sick, but was a bit surprised that he's that far along. His heart is simply to weak and they don't expect him to be here much longer.

 

Anyway, Hope to wrap up the fenders soon as possible. The fenders are going to be flush from the inner fenderwell to the outer edge. I should now have plenty of clearance.

 

Mike

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Guys, I truly appreciate the sympathy. My dad would appreciate the fact that I deal with stress by keeping my mind and my body busy. He spent his off hours his whole life in the shop tinkering, where he's actually choosing to spend his last days, sitting in his shop and chatting with anyone who will listen...

 

This evening I needed some time in my own shop to be distracted. I got a bit done this evening... Swapped in the 400# rear springs and cut out the rear passenger fender....

 

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I also dug out my rear 5/8th swaybar... Going to post a question in the suspension section on "parts" for this bugger...

Mike

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Few minor updates...

 

Bought a shift knob from summit racing, had to add helicoil to size it down as one of the inserts was missing in the package... typical white ball with the five speed pattern on it... Hurst like. Got that installed this afternoon... Also did this:

 

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Took an hour to clean the area, tape off the car, mark the centerline and then mark each spot and double check everything before I installed them...According to the instructions, the outer fin is at 0 degrees, with the next being 5 degrees, the 3rd in being 10 degrees, and the two closest to center (from each side) being at 15 degrees. I'd put the fins themselves up, and forgotten where I put them. Took a while just to locate them!!

 

Mike

Edited by Mikelly
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So due to the opressive heat, I was in the shop at 0530, on a Saturday morning... I got the fenders tach welded to the inner fenderwell/patch material, the holes drilled for the new flare loctation, and I got the 500 pound springs on the front of the car.

 

Here's a couple of pics to show where the ZG flares used to be, how much material was cut out, and where they will be now.

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104 degrees here today... it's stupid hot out...

Mike

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