mikey

Tiny update tonight, I finished dressing up the third strut tower. Damn I'm sick of doing those. One more to go.... Also, after chatting with you guys & thinking about it. I'm just gonna carry on with matty-b. Anything bigger than 9.5J isn't an option with 16" Watanabes so I'm just gonna forget about bigger wheels. Which just leaves front tires; 225/45s?

You have a Z?! Show it to me! Tiny update tonight, I finished dressing up the third strut tower. Damn I'm sick of doing those. One more to go....

Sweet, I'll give him a buzz.

True that. I forgot. In which case, I should probably just forget about it and chill out. You may be interested in this fucken rad. That's like $2300 WITH tires. I knnnnnnow! Nah, I'm still on the fence bout the g-nose. I'm more air-dam with brake ducts at this point. If only my wife saw it the same way....

Solid colour fo sho. I'm planning on the same graphitey colour that's on the rears. I am pretty pumped about getting them. In fact, it's probably the most exciting thing EEEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVER! Where-the-hell-are-ya? If it's anywhere near Auckland/Taupo/Hawkes Bay I can probably swing by at some point before you buy. Annnnnnnnnd if I do decide to ditch the fronts we might be able to work something out. For some reason in Japan they sell a lot of second hand Watanabes in pairs. P.S Your car is dope. Get it on the road. egg.

Reminds me a bit of Yuta's 240z. It's supposed to look like a Jap fighter plane: Looks dope if you ask me. But I'm not sure I'm _that_ extreme

Samsies. I mean, it looks choice. But I just wonder if it's tired. It's been done and done in the States. But on the up-side, I dont think I've ever seen one in NZ. Oh, and it's fricken awesome!

I wanted to keep it a surprise but I can't help myself. These are currently sitting in the port patitently waiting for me to collect them. Watanabe R 16 8.5j -6 and 9.5j -19 Once I clean the jizz off I'll get tires for the fronts. I'll keep the existing tires on the rears to save coin. So first question is what tires for the fronts? I was thinking Toyo TR1's and around this much stretch, whaddya think: Those are 225 45's aparantly. I'll get the front rims painted to match the rears one day.... Arrow Wheels want a crafukzy $170 a rim, yoinks! So that'll have to wait. I'm also getting flares and was thinking - dare I say it - matty-b. So it'll start to look a lot like this: Or am I just being a dull twat? P.S I'm nervous I've got too much skinny so if that happens I'll have to put the 9.5j's on the front, 10.5j on the rears and sell the 8.5j's. Which'll suck arse 'cos it aint cheap!

I'm definitely there for the next one. The suspension will be finished and I'll have my licence back by then...

Figured someone may be interested in my NSU I rebuilt a couple of years ago. Day one: Getting there: It runs: Finished, it looks nicer than it really is:

Another fricken epic day in the shed. Today I had a helper who was actually helpful, so got heaps done. I didn't take many photos; you've seen it all before. But Dave sectioned the final strut pretty much by himself. I got the one I did the other day buttoned up properly. And we cut more meat outta the strut towers. I also did some of the best welds I've done in my short welding career, which was nice. This is the ride height with captive springs, but it's not gonna stay that way for long: So there's not a lot remaining to do for the suspension. Just tidy a few things and button it up. Then it's on the the next radness, stay tuned.

Where'd you get your seat done?

Probably not a scared as I was when doing it!

Nah, I got it from a guy in Tauranga. But I think I may have checked out the one you're talking about. A girl in her early 20's was selling her old mans 240z last year, she was from the shore but was living in Remuera. It was a real rust box cos it was sitting outside for yonks. I think it was Maroon.

Small update; I started work late today and managed to section one of the rears:

That's good to hear. The old fuddy-duddies on another forum thought I'd cut way to much out. Thanks!

Will this get a cert or have I fucked myself. I still have the rears to do... Build thread: http://www.oldschool.co.nz/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=27264

Best idea of the day: Get 4 inch cutoff wheel and cut into junior cut off wheels for the Dremmel. I owe dave a new set of Dremmel bits BTW. Cutting and filing the camber plate holes took around 2 hours per side and it wasn't much fun. I'm pretty sure the neighbours hated it even more than I did. Connect the dots: Grind, file, get really tired, make a racket: Sweet: Before: After: Clever readers will note that I've only managed to complete the front and haven't even started on the rear. No idea when I'll get another free weekend to do them, plus I think I'll take a break from the car for a while. I may even do it in stages; section the rears but do the camber plates some other time.

Discussion thread, yay.

This is today's efforts: I'd hoped to get the front completed today but alas that didn't happen. Sectioning was pretty straight forward; the Koni's easily fitted my struts, which makes me wonder if I have the larger 280 struts in my 240, hmmm. The tricky thing will be getting the holes cut for the camber plates. The hole saw I have is not up to the task. I tried using a dremmel but the discs keep shattering. I think I'll have to use a jig saw. That'll impress the pants off the neighbours. I also learnt lesson about cleaning your metal before welding. The first strut I used a flap disc to clean it up before welding the lower ring, the second I just sanded by hand before welding. The difference in the weld quality was night and day, I'll definitely be more careful in the future. Something tells me I'm not gonna get this finished this weekend.....

Right, now we're up to speed, yesterday I got this awesomeness in the mail: I've spent ages researching what to get and decided on the Koni 8610-1437RACE shocks and Ground Control coil-overs and camber plates. They're not cheap, but I really don't want to do this twice. I chose the Koni's over the Tokico's after realising that nobody who races Z's uses Tokico's and reading this excellent site Autocross to Win. The gist of it being that Koni's give sweet performance, are rebuildable, handle higher spring rates and affordable. Tokicos by comparison are only affordable. Other options were Bilstiens and Penske, but they super-expensive and not super-betterer than Koni's. The Ground Control stuff looks great and it sounds as though it's one of the best designs, but I'm no suspension expert; far from it! So the next two days are going to be spent cutting, welding, grinding and swearing. I'll keep you posted.

Discussion thread: http://www.oldschool...hp?f=18&t=27265I bought my car around 10 months ago. Since then I've done shed loads of boring but important shit to it. One really bad thing I did was install a VLSD. To get things up to speed this is how it went:Firstly, I would recommend against anyone doing what I've done. In short, I've ended out with a VLSD in my 240z for $923. Had I known it would cost this much I would've put a _real_ LSD in.Tony(?) from Steelie Gears told me as much when I'd phoned him for help, but I'd already bought the diff and it was too late to turn back.My main goal was to get my car back on the road after the spider gears in my open diff gave up. Then I saw a longnose r180 VLSD on TradeMe for $350 so figured I'd grab it as an upgrade. It should be stronger than my original 2-spider open r180, and it's LSD-ish.Anyhow, I pulled the input flange of my old diff and bolted it up to the new diff with no worries. The major hurdle was converting the output flanges to uni-joint ones. Basically I got the VLSD shafts cut off their CV cups, and welded them to the uni-flanges from my old diff.First I took them to Taylor Automotive in Newmarket who totally wasted my time. They cut the shafts off and then gave up without calling me.So in the end I got Colin at Gillespie Engineering in Penrose to do the machine work. He's was a good dude and happy to help. They did an excellent job, see pics. It only took around 3 days but it cost me way more than I'd hoped; $573. But looking at their work I can see why it cost that much.