Getting the last of it together. The Nismo diff bush retains an OEM isolator arrangement which I like. I have SPL upper control arms, traction rods and HICAS delete, and Ikeya Forumla lower arms assembled with new high tensile fasteners and locking nuts throughout. Also have new axles with new OEM fasteners. SPL stuff fits well and the hybrid adjuster system is nifty. The Ikeya arms fit very poorly. The build quality is excellent but my goodness for the amount I paid they should have fit without the amount of hammering and maneuvering that it took to get them onto the frame. I have installed several sets of Chinese lower arms for customers and very sorry to stay they fit much better than what I had thought was the best of the best OG Japanese gear. Would not recommend sadly. Anyway just need my hubs back and we’re ready for install.
Loving all the updates Rob & the level of your build, impressive stuff! So when's it going to drive again haha?!
Thanks mate it’s actually nice to knuckle down and start getting things done! That’s a good question; my goal at the moment is to not be the one holding things up...
Getting close to putting the rear back in and the car on the ground. Did a little wrapping and painting just to tidy up the underbody while I have access. I won't win any prizes for my painting but it looks a lot better. Got my hubs back as well. Very much up against the clock so I took these to Peter at Road and Race Performance in Rydalmere - really good guy and got them done for me with SFA notice. Doesn't drink though, so if you were thinking of dropping in a case of beer as a thank you, don't... Anyway hubs have Nismo bushes all around and SPL spherical bearings for the steering arms. I had intended to use Nismo bushes for NA hubs but while the length was OK the flange on the bush would have sat inside the hub rather than locating on the edge so that was not so good. Also have new wheel bearings. The frame is back together and hand brake assy reassembled. Shoes are just as much of a pain as I remember but hey it’s done.
Frame back in today. I fit the rear brakes. These are big! Pic below shows the old Brembo front callipers (which weren’t small) and the Endless rears lol Anyway here’s everything together. Will need to shorten the lines but otherwise a good fit. The floating rear drums are cool too... Ikeya lower arms fit like balls on the hub side as well as the frame side. I really like that they’re beefy and all that but I’m going to have to take a grinder to the hub when I get the chance to pull it apart again. The SPL solid bushes come with spacers so that you can set the frame at stock height (good for anti squat) or raise it closer to the chassis (good for roll centre). I want traction more than I want to turn corners so went with stock height. I really don’t like that these spacers are just sandwiched in with nothing to secure them but the tightening torque but I guess we’ll see how that goes. And back on the ground for the first time in many years. Desperately needs a wash.
Great updates, looking very, very good. Surprising about Ikeya stuff, but I had heard SPL was pretty top notch for the suspension arm stuff. Rear looks sensational!
Thanks - been a while getting around to it lol Yeah the SPL stuff fits well. They don’t do lower arms though unfortunately. Nagisa Auto is another Japanese manufacturer that does front and rear lower arms for the Z. Many years ago SPL were buying these and selling them in the USA as “SPL” lower control arms but it’s been a while since they’ve been available. I am reluctant to use them anyway as they have been known to fail (snapped rose joints). Re the Ikeya stuff the jam nut fouling on the hub is a pain but an easy fix with Mr Grinder. The only way to avoid that would be to use a smaller diameter thread on the rose joint and then we start to compromise build quality... or put the adjustment on the inside like the Nagisa arms I mentioned above. The poor fitnent on the subframe side is fairly unforgivable though when you’re paying $1200 for a pair of control arms... anyway I’ll see how it all sits after a proper alignment.
That's super annoying about that Hex nut. Before you go grinding look up DIN439 aka half hex nuts any good fastener store should have them Might be enough extra room gained by using that in lieu of the current nut
Thats a good suggestion - might look into that although knowing my luck it’ll hit the thread instead haha
Cheers guys - looking like a five to six month wait for fabrication now But hey I want it done a particular way and gives me some time to tidy up a few more things.
Haven’t done anything with the car since I moved into the new place. Currently on a fourish month wait to get my manifolds fabbed so I’ve just been buying dumb shit for it. I had this great idea to continue the Nismo theme with some R33 mufflers. Yes I have another one - not going down the single exhaust road... And today my 2k headlights turned up. When retailers in the USA started listing them as NLA I figured I’d better pull some strings and get my hands on a set.
Picked up a 365B and a shift knob both in need of retrim a little while back. After waiting months I finally got them back yesterday covered in black alcantara. The idea was to match the inserts on my seats. After all that I’m not sure that I love it... will have to see how they look against the rest of the interior I guess.
I think they look great Rob but the good news is I'm sure they've gone up in value so you can't loose either way!
Tried to get a little more done on the car today. I picked up some billet low profile valve covers recently to clear the aftermarket plenum. Ignore the different fittings that’s just what they came with; I’ll be using banjos for extra clearance. Started with the intakes and couldn’t for the life of me get them to sit flush at the rear. At 5nm on the torque wrench the rear of the covers was sitting at least 3mm taller than the front. I’m not running VTC on this motor and have the holes blocked off; I had supplied some OEM blanking plugs (yes that’s a thing) but EPR used a set that he made instead. Unfortunately the lip on these is too big and was fouling on the valve cover before any preload was applied to the valve cover gasket. The pic below shows witness marks on the valve cover. Not the properest way to measure but eyeballing it the plugs have a 4mm lip and there’s only 3mm or so of gasket to compress. Anyway off to the local machining shop to have these turned down tomorrow. Bit of a pain as it’s been nothing but backwards steps today but on the plus side I’m glad I caught it now as they would have almost certainly leaked.
Got a few more wins in today. Yesterday I took the EPR plugs to a local engineering shop to get the outer lip turned down for more clearance. Picked them up today and despite the explanations, drawings, etc etc showing what I wanted they machined the inner diameter down... not a great start. Anyway I did what I should have done in the first place and gutted my VTC solenoids to tuen them into blanking plugs. At some stage I will put some alloy caps on the back to finish them off a little nicer but this will do for now. Finally, two days into the job I had changed two of the four covers... On to the exhaust side. It wasn’t necessary to change the exhaust covers to clear the manifolds but as they come in a set, and I no longer have any crank case ventilation on the intake covers so it seemed a good idea. The exhaust covers are quite nice. They use O ring cord to seal most of the way around and have AN-10 baffled breathers. I’ve fit these up with some low profile banjo type fittings that are called off for now. Eventually they’ll run to my catch can. And with the plenum installed there is heaps of room all around. The only other casualty were my coil mounting plates which will need a trim before they can go back on. A job for another day.
Nice progress Rob, those low profile valve covers look really nice. What's the plan with the Ash plenum finish wise? Polishing, powder coating, etc?