Crazyoctopus 1972 240z build up (long first post)

[icapture]

sexy sex sex sex came in today

 

I cant wait to start documenting the install!

 

MASSIVE thanks goes to 240zdan for these beauties!

 

haha, I'm gonna have the same reaction once i get my coilovers in. Make a glorious write up for all of us stock suspension running bloaks to enjoy.

 

enjoy man.

 

Adam

[crazyoctopus]

Ask and ye shall receive...

 

DAY 1, front install

 

So I headed over to YoshiFab this morning, and we started the process of slamming the car; MASSIVE thanks to Josh for the great work and for letting me lurk around the shop taking photos of the process, and to 240zdan for making such a beautiful conversion kit!

 

YoshiFAb is primarily a Volvo tuner btw...

 

 

Side note: this is the first time that any of my cars have ever been to a shop.

 

 

Close up of the unloaded fender gap for future reference

 

 

Front struts removed from the car

 

 

Prepping for welding the front mounts.

 

 

Outlining the cut for the mount

 

 

Plasma cutting, because it is frikken awesome

 

 

Holed

 

 

Test placement

 

 

Josh being magical and making smoke

 

 

Springs removed

 

 

Struts sectioned at the top of the lip. It is VERY VERY important that you cut that low due to how the sleeves are machined.

 

 

Strut cleaned off to give a proper welding surface

 

 

Rear bung ground off to give clearance for the sleeve

 

 

De-burred the strut top

 

 

Pressed on with a gap left to make sure that the weld would have a good surface area to meld the sleeve and the strut

 

 

The coil-overs threaded into the sleeve this is not maxed out by any means, I think I still have another inch or so of lowering possible at its current depth.

 

 

This is the underside of the front mounts; notice the lip on the bottom and how close they come to the side bolt sliders. In my case this caused issues with the max amount of camber that I had available, so I talked it over with Josh and we thought the best thing to do would be to grind down the lip a bit and modify the top mount on the Megan coilover.

 

 

The Megan top was cut right after the center section. You could do it on both sides to get more positive camber available, but I really doubt that it will ever be an issue.

 

 

Installed without anything connected… this is the droop height, and I can still go lower

 

 

Welded on the brake line tab

 

 

However there is this awesome thing because of the amount of lowering that has been done.

 

 

Clearance of the sway bar and tie-rod end

 

 

Roll center adjusters/strut spacers are on their way to the house now so this will be corrected a bit. In the next month or so I’ll get some bumpsteer eliminators (adjustable tie-rod ends); actually once I source all of the parts needed to do it I’ll install em.

 

Wheels put on. These shots are of the unloaded wheel.

 

 

The difference in unloaded fender gap from front to rear…

 

 

 

The only we could do to get the lift off of the car was to put the fronts on some 2x4s, the rears are loaded right now (not settled, but loaded)

 

 

I’ll be heading to the shop later tomorrow as most of the things that need to be done to the rear are pretty much the same; only difference is that the rear struts can be sectioned 2-3†up from bottom of the strut tube, instead of at the lip. Have no worries though the documentation will still be awesome.

Edited May 6, 2010 by crazyoctopus

[RB26power]

Great job, and great pics!! Kudos

[misturmoneybags]

Lookin' gooooood

 

I'm really excited to see more!

[awoz87]

looking good man! oddly enough i lived with josh for a few months when he lived in san diego, awesome guy.

 

side note: still planning to pick up that engine, i finally bought an engine hoist

[19762802+2]

I can't wait to see the final product!

 

[Globerunner513]

FANTASTIC write up! Excellent description of everything you did. Thank you!

 

This will be very helpful when explaining things to the shop that should be welding on my sleeves when they become available for 280z's.

[crazyoctopus]

holy **** awoz, We were talking about you today. Appartently we look exactly alike, have the same voice, and have the same fondness for flat green as well... frikken nuts.

 

thanks for compliments!

[datsun723]

I am in awe of your Z's stance...love it.

[jdizzy204]

Looks like its coming together quite well. Awesome job man.

[crazyoctopus]

The teaser shot while I am sorting through the photos and making the write up.

 

 

sadly, this is not the final ride height. It couldn't move more than 5 feet on a completely flat surface without tyres rubbing the fender, or the exhaust hitting the ground.

[palauoriginal]

welcome to the low z car life. =D

[awoz87]

The teaser shot while I am sorting through the photos and making the write up.

 

 

sadly, this is not the final ride height. It couldn't move more than 5 feet on a completely flat surface without tyres rubbing the fender, or the exhaust hitting the ground.

 

 

No no. Just switch up the exhuast and cut the fenders more/move the flares.

[crazyoctopus]

Day 2: Rear install

 

I arrived at the shop around 2pm and thankfully they hadn't started on the car; Josh was prepping his car for the long trek up to Sacramento for the next LeMons race. So after a bit of time we started to tackle the rear sleeve install

 

 

The spindle pin wouldn't budge so we just let it droop.

 

 

Once they were out of the way, the tracing of the top bracket started.

 

 

Again with the fantastics of the plasma cutter.

 

 

Holed

 

 

Cleaned

 

 

Test placement of the bracket on the hole.

 

 

Boom

 

 

I’ve got a Josh in mah trunk!

 

 

Plates installed

 

 

Rear strut sectioned

 

 

But it was too much of a PITA to get it on at the 2"-3" that dan suggested, so we cut it shorter.

 

 

The passenger side kept giving us issue after issue, so we decided to leave it as is for now and come back to it after we finish the driver side.

 

 

Sectinoed driver side

 

 

Because the tolerance of the rear sleeve was so close to the strut tube, Josh suggested a slight grind down on the driver side to make his life easier.

 

 

Cleaning

 

 

Then the driver side started to give us issues... So Josh brought the heat.

 

 

At this point I think Josh was thinking “F this gameâ€

 

 

Once the driver’s side was completed, it was back to full attack on the passenger side.

 

 

We bolted everything together and I set the initial rear ride height

 

 

But after we put on the wheel it was rubbing against the ZG flairs so we had to raise it an inch.

 

 

Car was too low to get off of the lift

 

 

Even with the rears raised an inch while we were adjusting; the driver side rear tyre was rubbing the ZG flair so I had to remove it for the time being. While I was driving out I got high centered on this…

 

 

I scraped my exhaust on the smallest of lips getting out of the shop. Tried to get out of the parking lot but that was just not going to happen.

 

Here is a bad photo of the ride height that was causing me issues.

 

 

I reversed it back to the shop; needless to say it was rubbing and scraping on EVERYTHING. Then I drove it up on some 2x4s to get the floor jack underneath the front cross member. And sadly, I had to raise the front of the car an inch so that I could actually get out of the parking lot and to the house.

 

The drive home was slow to say the least. The awesome lifestyle of slammed cars forced me to make sure that there were no imperfections in the road at all so that I wouldn’t be scraping parts off my car. The rear fender is about 1/4†away from the top of the tyre, and I do not want to re-cut my ZG flairs as they are made for a specific location.

 

When I finish getting the ride height of the car perfected I’ll post the photos. I also get in the roll center adjusters today so I’ll have some updated photos of what the LCA angles are.

[UofA_ZCar]

Nice work. Your car is really coming along

[MREDDLE]

VERY NICE...

[silverarrow27]

So it drops the car low but how does it drive?

[silverarrow27]

Sorry, double post.

Edited May 8, 2010 by silverarrow27

[crazyoctopus]

i'll have some photos up tomorrow at its current ride height; although in the week i'll probably be droping the front a 1/2" and raising the rear 1/4" just so i get a better look all around.

 

the ride quality is perfect. right now i have everything set at max stiffness and it reall isnt bad. i'll be dropping them to medium tomorrow and see if there is a difference in feel.; but as it stands... I am completely in awe of how much better the car feels.

 

btw... this is not my first car with a stock to coil-over swap, this is however the biggest improvement i have felt on a car because of it.

[crazyoctopus]

So I was able to get some shots of the car yesterday morning to show you how low the rear of the car actually was, and how it was driven home.

 

 

Here is the angle of the front lower control arms.

 

 

Angle of the rear lower control arm.

 

 

Initial ride height was...

 

Front headlight point

 

D - 21.5"------P - 21.25"

 

Rear bumper hole height

 

D - 14.125"---------P - 14"

 

Measured from these spots because there would be some inconsistencies at flare; where as if I used chassis points there would be none.

 

I put back on the rear flare and raised the rear ride height by 1" so that there would not be any chance at all of rubbing. Thankfully there was none at all. Drove the car around to make sure that the suspension was settled and measured the rears again; they were both at 15.5". Checked clearances one more time and was completely fine with how the rears look.

 

I did not adjust the front just yet as I was waiting to get the roll center adjusters installed. Thankfully they arrived today, and I'll be installing them Monday.

 

 

The new rear lower control arm angle with the rears raised up an inch

 

 

and how low the exhaust/header is to the ground...

 

 

Here is the height of the zg flares from the ground, if you didnt already notice how low it is on the profile shot...

 

Front

 

Rear

 

After I replace the header I am going to be raising the rears a 1/4" and lowering the fronts 1/2" to remove that fender gap in the front and give the car a tad bit of rake. Also when I get the new header I will be cutting it a bit shorter to get that exhaust tucked in a bit more to give me more ground clearance.