sorealsosurreal Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 From what I hear is your are just daily driving the car and dont really care for performance. Get the tokico HP's and springs and some 16x7's with some 205 tires. That will save you some money and meet your needs. The extra cash could go to something else the Z may need. Just my 2 cents. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galloguy05 Posted May 13, 2010 Author Share Posted May 13, 2010 This car is not daily driven. Although it coul be. But for arguements sake we will say it is since it is not used on the track nor will it ever be. It's a weeked cruiser. It has the completely stock 280z suspension as well. I believe I will just go with the hp's and springs and then if need be I will add the 240z top hat to give me the extra 3/4 inch drop. Inreally would like to avoid the cutting of any springs and special fabrication of coilovers. So I have made my decision and it is the tokico HP's with eibach springs for an overall drop of 1inch. The final cost of these will run me about 450 I believe and I will just use the extra money to put toward my paint and air tools. Thanks guysfor all the help I much appreciate it. I will be sure to make a build thread for my car in the near future now that I will hve something that will be presentable. Haha thanks again everyone! Ps. Pray for me that I am able to post again tomorrow evening, I may be in the hospital when my girl finds out that I plan on spending nearly 2k on my car tomorrow. Haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zmanco Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 If you are going for the lowest price and not worried about who you buy from, I would suggest you check ebay for illuminas and tokico spring packages. It used to be that you could buy the package for about the same price as the struts alone, at least that's the way it was a few years ago when I bought mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galloguy05 Posted May 13, 2010 Author Share Posted May 13, 2010 Yeah that's where I've sourced them. The springs and struts are only 360+45 shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZR8ED Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 I better chime in here and clean something that is a bit misleading. Only the rear top hats on a 280z are thicker than the 240z's. The fronts are the same. So leave that part alone, or you will get mixed up trying to figure out ride height. Street car, with some fun driving.. I have used Illumina's for years on my 280z, and they handle just fine. I'm using cut chevette springs in the rear and cut stock rear springs in the front. (my setup is very customized for my car due to years of experimentation) There are lots of tried and true setups. Here is my 02 cents. Cut stock springs and illuminas. Its been done hundreds of times, and I have never heard anyone complain, unless they want extreme mods down the road. The rest of your car is pretty stock, so anything beyond maybe aftermarket springs is overkill...unless you plan on future mods like sway bars, brakes, and lots of HP. 1.5 coils. Stiffer ride, yet still streetable, it is not the "best" setup, but it is a very noticeable improvement. I ran my car years ago on the track before and after these same mods, and I was grinning ear to ear after the mods. Save the $$$ for the rest of the car...you'll need it. BTW MY experience comes from the days when a coilover "kit" didn't exist for our cars, and when it did, it was more $$$$ than what people paid for their cars, and even racers didn't "ALL" use coilovers, and they ran plenty fast, and won a lot of races. Oh man did I sound old saying that?! Goodluck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galloguy05 Posted May 13, 2010 Author Share Posted May 13, 2010 ZR8ED- you have a valid point with your post and I have read your other posts about this as well. It does make sense to get the more "expensive" illuminas over the HP's and then cut the stock springs. As with the more durable illuminas I'm assuming can handle more load than the hp's can (I basing this solely on the price since usually the cheaper the product the less durable it is I HAVE NOT compared specs so please don't flame me). I WILL be ordering my set-up sometime today and everyone ere has very viable solutions. I have,again, ruled out coilovers because of price and complexity and the fact that I don't really need them. So I think what I am going to do for now is just order a set of illuminas and cut te springs ad see how the stance is and test the ride for a few days or a week. If I do not like it, I plan on putting her under the knife for body wrk and paint in the next few weeks anyways so I will just order the new springs if I am unhappy. If anything maybe I will try ZR8ED's set up since I love the stance on his car. Also I figure it's better for my safety if I have a little extra moneys left over to spend on the house/gf to divert her attention away from all the money going to parts and tools into my car. She LOVES my z but doesn't understand why I'd rather spend 7k on a 35 year old car than buy a newer more comfortable one...lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zmanco Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 It does make sense to get the more "expensive" illuminas over the HP's and then cut the stock springs. As with the more durable illuminas I'm assuming can handle more load than the hp's can (I basing this solely on the price since usually the cheaper the product the less durable it is I HAVE NOT compared specs so please don't flame me). The illuminas are adjustable, the HPs are not. I have never seen claims for durability of either one by Tokico, nor have I read any stories that suggest either one will last longer than the other. One of my illuminas started leaking shortly after installation and was replaced under warranty. I was careful not to scratch the exposed piston during the install too. In any event, since then they have been reliable and have more than 25k miles and at least a dozen track days on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 Cutting springs is not "bad." Its done lots of times and I recommend it for those that want to run the Tokico 280Z springs in their 240Z here: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php?/topic/88025-installing-tokico-280z-hp-springs-in-a-240z/. The number of free coils in a spinrg is part of the spring rate calculation. Cutting 1 to 1.5 coils (typical) only increases the spring rate by 10 to 12% in a 10 free coil spring. Again, a lot of you guys in this thread are posting stuff you've just read on other forums and you're mistaken. Until you have hands on, practical experience with this, please be careful with spreading mis-information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galloguy05 Posted May 13, 2010 Author Share Posted May 13, 2010 Johnc- I apologize if anything i may have stated was incorrect. I have no idea of spring rate numbers besides what you have posted here and on another thread about cutting coils where you gave that guy the same advice as you did here. I have no hands on experience wih this and that is why I am here. I have purchased the tokico blue HP's and have decided to cut my stock springs by 1 coil. If I dislike the ride, I will simply purchase the eibach springs and install them and leave it be. If in the future i plan to run a wider tire or something of the sort then i plan to go with coilovers. For now, thought, for MY specific needs and uses for my car, new struts and cut springs are going to be the way to go. Thanks again everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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