Has anyone ever seen a s30 cut in half?

[ragefear]

I guess you could always do lexan for the windshield but would it pass inspection in your state? The windshield is a major support in cars. Definitely would need to support the body, I would say a roll cage would do the trick.

[drwharton85]

Thanks for all the opinions guys and very useful information.

[blue72]

I've thought about this before, but haven't taken the time to dive into the logistics of it though. If it were me and I had all the money and resources at my disposal I'd widen an S30 body. Inside I'd recommend a complete tube chassis with the original exterior welded onto the outside of it. You'd need at least one parts car to come up with all of the extra sheet metal you'd need. Those compound curves would be extremely time consuming to recreate. Another thing needed would be a great working relationship with a pro body man. Moulding all of those pieces of metal together with that much of a stretch could consume months and months of time. The roof, hatch, hood, cowl, splash pan, and rear of the car would probably have to all be worked over by hand. Then you would need a custom windshield, hatch glass, and rubber moldings for those. The hood and hatch might be easier to make in a composite material like carbon fiber or fiberglass.

At the same time you are widening the body I'd go ahead and chop the roof like I've seen from two different people. That way it looks extremely exotic, and it knocks down wind resistance. All the small pieces would have to be remade like the trans tunnel, firewall, core support, etc... Then you'd have to source or custom make wider front and rear suspension, engine and transmission crossmembers as well. With widening/customizing the suspension there would come rear tubs at the least. Then most likely custom rims to make the backspacing correct.

That's just the bare minimum for bodywork and suspension. Then would come the drivetrain of your choice along with its own custom requirements. If you did it right, with the right stance I think it would roughly approximate the dimensions of a new Corvette, but have the unmistakable body lines of a Z. It would cost more to make than a C6 Z06 though.

Tell you what, when I strike it rich I'll build this car and tell you how much of a pain it was.

[jack280]

Two years ago, i started with my project. The plan was just paint it and drive it. After removing all the rusty spots, i made new frame rails to get a straight floor to lower the car 95 mm, after that i made steel fender flares to add 25mm in front and 40mm in the back. After that i was thinking of a top chop.Two weeks ago it happened. I cut out the front window frame and raked it 5 degrees back, lowered the roof with hood in one piece. after a day and a night welding and grinding, the stock windscreen still fit in its frame. The result is that the car is looking much wider than stock and most of the orig parts still fit like hood, bonnet ,suspension and crosmembers. My only problems to solve are the door and quarter windows from bend lexan,because i want to open it like original and i still use the stock modified frames and rubbers. After putting the car on the wheels, the height of the car is 1150mm and the lines of the car are only getting better. This is still al lot of work to finnish this job, but to cut the car from front to the back will be much more work.

 

Good luck with your projekt.

[rturbo 930]

Two years ago, i started with my project. The plan was just paint it and drive it. After removing all the rusty spots, i made new frame rails to get a straight floor to lower the car 95 mm, after that i made steel fender flares to add 25mm in front and 40mm in the back. After that i was thinking of a top chop.Two weeks ago it happened. I cut out the front window frame and raked it 5 degrees back, lowered the roof with hood in one piece. after a day and a night welding and grinding, the stock windscreen still fit in its frame. The result is that the car is looking much wider than stock and most of the orig parts still fit like hood, bonnet ,suspension and crosmembers. My only problems to solve are the door and quarter windows from bend lexan,because i want to open it like original and i still use the stock modified frames and rubbers. After putting the car on the wheels, the height of the car is 1150mm and the lines of the car are only getting better. This is still al lot of work to finnish this job, but to cut the car from front to the back will be much more work.

 

Good luck with your projekt.

Not to hijack, but do you have any pics of this?

[jack280]

some pics from the top chop

[Daeron]

Wow!! thats amazing!!

 

Maybe it wouldn't be so difficult as I thought.. If you stick with the fender flare idea that I mentioned earlier, of using front fender panels and rear quarter panels welded on to the unibody, spaced out from normal position.. then just left slightly recessed doors...

 

..THEN, you could tub the front and widen the suspension to wherever you needed. Use the top plane of the first fenders, and then the entire second fender, to finish the edge you decide. Wrap sheetmetal to the stock door/windshield/fender meeting point, and leave the stock doors, windshield, and fenders. You would have to have awkward rocker panels sticking out.. maybe? maybe just taper it back to stock "wasitline" around the hood/door section. Stock hood and hatch. Outside in the rear, what you do is fair in the tops of the additional quarter panels to stock roofline locations.

 

This is done to accommodate the widening of the chassis.. which I can begin to picture but not well enough to describe. I am almost beginning to find it possible, but you would basically be just cutting the corners off of the car, spacing them out from the center a bit, and building new frame to hold it all together. It would be a strange job, but I could see it working.

[garvice]

Have you thought about photoshopping/drawing what your planning first?

It would be a real let down to build it stand back and go, crap, that doesn't look anything like what I was thinking. Just an Idea.

[frank280zx]

Wow!! thats amazing!!

 

Maybe it wouldn't be so difficult as I thought..

 

Note that Jack has magic hands and works as a panel beater welder constructor (craftsman) at one of Hollands finest pro rally fabrication shops ...

This isn't easy by any means .. he just makes it look easy, just like Joe DiMaggio makes baseball look easy..

 

Jack just knows how to work with metal .. and actually that is not all . He raised the floor 5 cm to get more bottom clearance .. it has custom coilovers, he reset the pivot points to stop bump steer .. it is stiffened up up front (seamed in place like the rally cars in the shop), there is cage tubing in the frame rails .. and so on..

 

 

We dutchies .. we are just crazy

[Daeron]

I had intended the statement you quoted to carry the meaning of "not as impossible to attain" not as, "not as hard for me to do in my backyard"

 

I had initially posted in this thread with a block of major skepticism, and I had (before seeing the windshield on that yellow car) pictured what might be done to add a little beef in the rear section.. I haven't made an attempt to draw it out yet because I haven't had much time at my PC and such an undertaking would take me about two hours. I am not extremely skilled at digital graphical manipulation; but I DO have fairly high standards, so a "quick sketch" would be something of a time investment.

 

When I refer to the concept of adding quarter panels on top of the existing ones, is everyone with me?

[SHO-Z]

I think this would be easier starting with 2 cars and cutting each of them just off center. This way you would only have one area to be concerned with. I have thought that it would be neat to do a 250 GTO with a wider fender set up about 4” on each side and change the suspension to something like is used on the kit cobras. I think every Hybirder around has there day dream on how they would change the body here and there.

 

Find 2 old Cheap Zs and start cutting. And from experience of cutting up a Z it will take about 2 to 3 beers to work up the courage to make the first CUT!

[Datsun350Z]

All that work for just 3 inches?

[ragefear]

All that work for just 3 inches?

 

 

hahaha, yet look at your sig! All that work for no roof?

 

I agree, I think I would just widen the body panels

[Careless]

some pics from the top chop

 

I'm in love with this. you got me thinking, it that's how you've done it, I think it's a great idea

[Careless]

AS for the widebody.

 

have you concidered doing what GI Jonas has dnoe? his idea is the best way to get a widebody, I'd say short of cutting the original panels and riveting fibreglass onto it.

 

Raff.

[Guest 302 ZED]

These guys do fiberglass panels including the roof, a-pillars and rear quarters. As well as all of the hung panels

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhome.att.ne.jp%2Fsky%2FFairladyZ%2Findex.htm&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

 

these could go over a tube framed car. I think it would be easier (with money) and stiffer to go this route rather than cut a monocoque in half.

[ragefear]

These guys do fiberglass panels including the roof, a-pillars and rear quarters. As well as all of the hung panels

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhome.att.ne.jp%2Fsky%2FFairladyZ%2Findex.htm&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

 

these could go over a tube framed car. I think it would be easier (with money) and stiffer to go this route rather than cut a monocoque in half.

 

and what are the chances of being able to get them in the states? That company is in Japan

[m1ghtymaxXx]

some pics from the top chop

 

 

excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor. Thats downright spectacular!

[frank280zx]

some pics from the top chop

 

dit you tell em it is photoshop yet ?

 

LOL

[capt_furious]

If you're going after more width for the wheels, your efforts should be concentrated in the wheelwells. Everything else works around this.

 

Widening the entire car is a novel approach, but it breaks down in many areas, and most of them have been pointed out.

 

Jonas has the right idea. Pull the outermost sheet metal outward, and leave the rest of the car alone. No need for custom glass, you're not chopping the whole car down the middle.

 

Done right, you're essentially sectioning the car longitudinally, in two places, pretty much right along the belt line. Jonas' approach works great in the quarters, and if you're good with sheet metal and a little trickery with mechanical bits, you could probably pull the door skins a few inches outward to match, as well.

 

The biggest problem is in the front fenders, and getting them to blend into the headlight buckets. Do it wrong, or make too many compromises, and it'll look terrible(remember the wide body kits that used rectangular headlights? YECCCCH!). Do it right, and you should get a nice wide fender without having to resort to making a lot of custom pieces or over-fabricating things.

 

You'd have to carefully cut the front fender down the top of the beltline and progressively taper it outward as you move back along the car. The hard part is covering the outside front of the wheels, which is an aerodynamic issue if you've been following along in the aero section.

 

So, attack from another angle, add a section down the outside edge of the hood. This would require steel headlight buckets and adding your 3" section to the inboard side of the bucket. Move the scoop and lamp assembly outward.

 

I'd whip up something in Photoshop to illustrate this - I was, actually, and had a nice fat computer crash - but it's late, and I've got other stuff I should be doing.

 

In short, don't make more work for yourself than you need to in order to accomplish what you're after. If the outer wheelwells are preventing you from fitting wider wheels and tires, widen those, not the entire car, unless you're after a wider track...at that point, you might as well start with a different chassis. Section the fenders and quarters much as Jonas has done, and move them outward. The only dilemma is blending the rear edge of the door to match, and moving the headlight buckets and front valence outward. The back of the front fender can be left open for air extraction out of the wheelwell and engine bay.