mn240 Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 7,200 if i remember correctly. I'm only 16 so thats quite alot of money for a kid working for minimum wage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuperair Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 Wow! I think you're doing real well having that kind of money at 16. I'm guessing that he got tired of holding on to it....since I paid $7250 in August. I figured it was worth the money considering it has all documentation since new, was an original owner car (just months before we saw it), and was from Arizona. Not many one owner Arizona cars showing up here in the frozen "rusted" north as you probably know. I couldn't resist it, even at that price. Looking at the cars on Ebay these days, I feel very lucky to have this clean a car at that price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mn240 Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Thanks i worked 2 jobs over the spring and summer to get the money for it working about 30 hours a week. That car was without a doubt the nicest one i looked at i just didn't want to blow my whole budget on the car. Nice work on the bumper and front end. Awesome parts list by the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuperair Posted November 2, 2008 Author Share Posted November 2, 2008 Just thought I'd post up some pics of the camber plate install for the coil overs. I got the coilovers and plates from Arizona Zcar...and after quite a bit of waiting my welder buddy was finally ready. I took the car up to his place about 40 minutes from here, and proceeded to tear apart the struts...I'll post pics of that later. Once the strut towers were dropped out of the mounts, it was on to the cutting aligning and welding. AZcar shows a cutoff wheel being used to remove the tower cap....I like Al's method better. Much cleaner cuts with very little finish ginding required. Here's the driver side cut out, with the plate and shock gimbal.... He aligned the plates (Super Important) with a solid aluminum bar he uses as a straight edge...took quite a while to get it exact. Measuring from the firewall, as well as the core support put the bar in the exact "square alignment" position. At that point he tacked in the camber plate and checked alignment again (and again). This is a shot of the pass side being checked for alignment after it was tacked in.... Double checking the free play of the shock gimbal on the driver side before final welding... Once we're happy with the alignment, the plate is welded in completely.... Once they're finish welded, he grinds them down to a point where I can finish them smooth for paint. Once painted, it will look like it came from the factory like this.... We'll be doing the rear camber plate install this week, I'll also be posting up on the strut tower dis-assembly, cutoff, and modifications. Can't wait to get it all in, but things are moving along pretty much right on schedule...ok, maybe a couple weeks behind, but with any build...we'll count that as "on schedule". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woldson Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Very nice work!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuperair Posted November 10, 2008 Author Share Posted November 10, 2008 Ok, so I was able to bring the car home last night. We worked on it both Saturday and Sunday to get the car finished with this step. Once I got to Al's on Saturday morning, first thing we did was assemble the front end. Al had already cut the strut tubes and welded the new adjustable ride height coilover collars to the strut tubes and spindle housing. From there, it was a matter of merely assembling the front. AZ Zcar instructs the front collars be welded flush with the strut tube base, and the rear they say to cut at 7 1/2 inches above the tube base. After the front is assembled they recommend assembling the rear loosley, then setting the car down on the suspension to see how much more may need to be trimmed to accomplish a level car, while leaving maximum height adjustability. So, I figured I would set up each corner with identical thread depth into the collar, and identical spring preload. So, I set the spring preload to 5/8", and since the adjustability range is 4" (their collar is actually 5 inches long), I screwed the coilovers into the collars 2 1/2". I figured this would give me the best look at where I am given this system, and given that from this point I would have 2" of up adjustment as well as 2" down. So, now moving to the rear. The rear camber plates were first up. The rear towers are assembled from the factory in such a way that there are several different layers of metal. Cutting them with the air saw wasn't an option here...so the small cutoff wheel had to be used. Doing it this way leaves a lot more finish grinding on the work list...but there doesn't seem to be anyway around it. Cutout before the finish grind.... Welding in the rear plate.... After the Camber Plates were welded in, we moved on to the Strut Towers, and modifying them to accept the new coil over collar. Firstly let me say that removing the pinions in the rear A arms so we could remove them entirely was an absolute @#$%*. Supposedly (by the service manual) you just remove the locknuts, remove the set bolt, and then just pull it out. LOLOLOLOLOL ROFL .... Now, my car has been amazingly clean and easy to work with throughout this project. Original owner, Arizona, yada yada yada.... tell it to the pinions. So, figuring that we'll be using full billet A arms and new pinions, our solution was a ton of heat, and a real big hammer and an air hammer. Once we destroying the bushings and the pinions, and oh yeah, removing them...we cut them off at the suggested 7 1/2" up the tower tube....here they are with the collars resting on them (not welded). From here, we just loosely mount them back into the A arm, screw in the coil overs into the collars 2 1/2" so they'd be identical to the front. Al then tacked them so we could loosely bolt up the wheels and set it down to check level of the car. So we set it down, and oddly...it was like almost 2 inches too high in the rear. I had measured the height of the car from the ground on all four corners using the rocker lip as a guide. Front measured out at 7 1/2" off of the floor....rear was 9 1/4". So, we pulled it apart after grinding off the tack welds, and cut another 1 3/4" off of the rear tubes...re-assembled them both...tacked them in again, loosely assembled the rear to bolt up the wheels, and dropped it back down. Badda Bing!!!! Level. After settling, the measurement was 7 1/8" front back, left right. AWESOME. At this point we dis-assembled the rear again so Al could do the final weld on the rear collars. After the final welds were in place, it was time for final assembly. I didn't bother assembling the brakes in the rear since I'll be doing the Wilwood brake mod this week....so this saved me about 20 minutes or so. Also, it made for a bit of fun driving it into the trailer with no brakes. We had it figured out pretty well, but it was a little funny doing it that way. Thanks for all the help AL!!!!!!! Anyway, that ends the AZ Car Coilover and Camber Plate install assembly. Holy #$+% is it stiff!!!!! Have to play a bit with preload and settings on the shocks...but man is it cool!!!!! Stay tuned....since my metal guy is off hunting this week...I've moved up the AZ Zcar Billet Chassis mods, along with the Wilwood brake mod, and the Skyline 3.90 LSD diff. Going to be a fun week!!!! Any input would be appreciated! Thanks, z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mn240 Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 I know this totally random but is your name related to super air nautique line of boats? I wakeboard alot over the summer and your name caught my eye. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuperair Posted November 12, 2008 Author Share Posted November 12, 2008 Good eye!!! Yeah it is....I've got a SuperAir Nautique with a 502 in it. Bought it new as a matter of fact. The wake is SICK! I've also got a Ski Nautique closed bow...live on a lake, livin' the dream. I used to be pretty closely tied to the industry, but these days it's all about the fun. Maybe next summer we should rip the Z's around a bit, and do some ridin'....I just pulled my boat off the lift last week. Finally had to call it. Now the lake needs to freeze so we can take out the Ice Bikes. If it's liquid I like it best, but frozen....we still tear it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mn240 Posted November 15, 2008 Share Posted November 15, 2008 man you are living the dream. I got a Malibu vtx and I love it although I'll never turn down a ride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mn240 Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 I got a small world story for ya. I was at work yesterday (retro in loretto) talking with my manager Justin Mills saying how there was this guy that bought a car i was looking at and wakeboards. Any who i show him this thread and sure enough he knows you from motorcycling. Any who just one of those crazy small world stories. Oh yeah my names Devon BTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuperair Posted November 19, 2008 Author Share Posted November 19, 2008 I got a small world story for ya. I was at work yesterday (retro in loretto) talking with my manager Justin Mills saying how there was this guy that bought a car i was looking at and wakeboards. Any who i show him this thread and sure enough he knows you from motorcycling. Any who just one of those crazy small world stories. Oh yeah my names Devon BTW. That's hysterical !!! Small world for sure...I've been riding with Justin plenty. Lots on the street and lots on the Ice. Still bummed about his bike being stolen. Us Italian bike owners stick together...and us Loretto-ites. Hopefully he'll get a new bike to ride for next year. Right now I'm hoping he gets an Ice Bike setup. We'll be riding soon! Thanks for the note Devon, who would have 'thunk' it... z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlatBlack Posted November 19, 2008 Share Posted November 19, 2008 mad props for you guys up north riding in the cold... are you guys just wearing full wet suits? All Ive got is a 2mm upper so the season ends in October for me I dont know what year 210 you have but the 206s were so much easier to drive... the 210 just plowed through the water haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuperair Posted November 19, 2008 Author Share Posted November 19, 2008 I dont know what year 210 you have but the 206s were so much easier to drive... the 210 just plowed through the water haha No doubt the 210's plow, woooohoooooooo It's a '99 with a big bad 502 with 510ft/lbs of torque. Makes moving the weighted pig up and out on plane really easy! I rode in just standard gear through september this year....but most years I'd say about mid sept. I'd start wearing a shorty with a neo shirt, two/three weeks of that then I'd just put on my drysuit. Not the full baggy tho, I've got an O'niel that is 3mm neo on the bottom and then the full loose baggy top. That thing's awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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