Its about $40-80 for me, can't recall exact price. Depends on what they do. I've done wheel alignment at home, it works, but its just tedious and won't have the same accuracy as the guys in the shops that do it with lasers. But since you're saying its unregistered, you'd have to get it towed there and back and subsequently that's going to drive cost way up for the whole ordeal. MoulaZX
You can do it at home, but specs will be all over the place... Even before the place I went to had their current alignment machine (for lowered cars), one of the guys gave it a quick "eye" adjustment... 2 degrees of camber in difference between the front left and right wheel... Not even THAT noticeable. I'm waiting for this mad update too.
It'll be going for a proper alignment when I'm done, to perfect the toe and make sure the camber and caster are even on both sides and at both ends... But there's no need to pay somebody to adjust the camber/caster/height to make the wheels fit when I can do it myself at home. It'll be the first stop after getting the blue slip. Not having a camera is a ****ing awful reason to not update. Here's a teaser. I apologize for the quality... it does no justice to how it looks.
sorry I've got a lot to post with pictures, just having trouble getting them off the camera at the moment. today or tomorrow should see a sizable post listing where I'm at.
goodies Still having trouble getting more images off the DSLR but I can put up what I've got from my camberaphone... Progress has been very lame lately. My bike crash stunted the project; injuries meant I couldn't work and worker's comp payments have been severely low. Got some stuff in the post The first was new coilovers - Tein HA's. No pics, they look the same as my old Super Streets! See page 2 More low from the HA's, more suited for my purposes. The second... my stud pattern adapters My VB3 wheels from VMR are for BMW's - they use 5x120 stud pattern. Adaptec in the US make some of the best spacers and stud pattern adapters in the world. I custom ordered a set. 5x114.3 on the inside, 5x120 on the outside. I asked for 15mm thick for the front, and 20 on the rear. To boot, I was able to request Nissan thread pitch wheel studs in the adapters so I wouldn't have to buy BMW wheel nuts. This changes the specs from +22 front (18x9.5), +38 rear (19x10) to +7 and +20 respectively. I could have redrilled the wheels to Nissan thread pitch to maintain the higher offset, but this would've left me unhappy with the fitment. As they are now, the fronts are a more aggressive fit than the rears, which is perfect for me. There's more stretch, and slightly more camber so they fit. The rears aren't really stretched at all, sitting on 265's. There's less camber too. All part of the plan - traction. This is going to be a fast car when it's done, no "low and slow" for me. It's going to be a sleek and sexy blur. Here's a crappy indication of the different stud pitches. BMW's the outer circle. And the widths. Rears on the left, fronts the right. To boot, these came with a set of free lug nuts to attach these to the car. Here's how they fit. All in all, I can't criticize a single thing about these or Adaptec. They matched everything to exactly what I requested, fit like a glove in every respect (adapter to hub, supplied nuts to hub, wheel to adapter, nissan pitch wheel nuts to adapter) are flawless. I would buy these again in a heartbeat. If you want some wheels and they won't match the Z32 hub... buy these. Also got some matte black wheel nuts to match my wheels from Marcus of Car Craze (A-Bris-Z). Great dealing with you Marcus! These are light as. -A
Do the original wheel studs sit proud of the adapter surface? Are your wheels machined on the mating face to accept them? I'm not really a spacer fan, but these are some of the better looking ones (as far as spacers go)
Guard rolling Before putting the wheels on, my guards needed to be rolled. Guard rolling is basically removing the inner fender lining and flattening the inner edge, allowing for more clearance in the wheel arch. Knowing that this car is going to be repainted and that Z32 front fenders are cheap, I did some research and gave it a shot myself. Basically, this is the technique I used: [yt]DDTK9IjKIYU[/yt] Ghetto engineering at it's finest. I used a regular hammer and a cheap disposable blowtorch... worked like a charm. The paint didn't crack once and there're no more imperfections on the fenders then there were before from 20 years of shopping trolleys. Here's what my inner fenders look like now. Saved over $200. On top of rolling the guards, there's the "rear bumper tab" which also must be removed. What this means simply is that the little stick-out tab which holds a screw, where the rear bar attaches to the car at the closest point to the wheel arch, has to be cut out and a new workaround to hold the bumper up at that point devised. It's a daunting task, or at least it was for me. - I started by taking the screw out and cutting out the white plastic housing for it - I then unbolted the whole side of the bumper from the boot and dropped out the metal bracket which sandwiches the rear bumper to the car, and receives the screws. I cut 1/3 of it off. - I then heated the upper part of the tab (coming off the chassis, in metal) and smashed it hard enough to flatten it into the car. - Once it was all flattened into a metal bulge, I hit it with an angle grinder. I didn't do this while it was sticking out because the thin bracket kept folding in. Be sure to jam something between the lower half of the rear bar and the chassis to bend it out of the way. - Once suitably cut out for the most clearance, carve the rear bar to suit. The urethane is really easy to cut through. - Lastly, drill a hole in what's left of the rear bar wide enough for a cable tie. How to attach that cable tie to the body is debatable, I attempted to drill two small holes in the fender well but found it much easier to simply hammer a large nail very, very slowly through it. Once the pilot hole was there, I went through again with a larger nail. A bend in the cable tie will mean it finds its way through - you can't reach inside there. The end result is this: I've had no fitment issues at the rear whatsoever. It should be said that grinding urethane is a filthy business. The dust just goes everywhere. I hope this was informative for those interested in doing the same. The bumper lines up as normal. I'm happy to answer any questions or get more photos. -A
Crunch time. With the adapters, some 265/30/19's for the rears I picked up on sale and the new coilovers in, it was finally time, after a year of owning them, to fit my rims to the TT. Needless to say, it was a big moment for me! The first drop went well. The rears stuck out a bit, and the front guards, despite being rolled flat, physically sat on the tyres. What's more is that the front wheels were so far forward that I couldn't put the front bumper on. This sounds bad, but it was all expected! Jack up, adjust, drop. Jack up, adjust, drop. Jack up, adjust, drop. I think I've undone and done up enough wheel nuts over the last two weeks to last most people a life time. A bit of camber on the front and back, and maxing out the front tension rods (Thank you Chad_ for the set of 6 adjustable units) solved all the issues listed. Then it was time to drive it out of the garage for the first time since I bought the damned car this uhh... did not go well. the car didn't even make it down the driveway when it had stock springs. It took one and a half hours. Yeah, big deal. There were plenty of adjustments to make to planks, tiles and bricks being thrown under the car to raise it up enough to get the car out. I beached it 7 or so times by accident. It's not the ride height, it's the driveway. My dad's Accord can't get out of that garage without scraping the exhaust if somebody's in the back seat. I'd have to have a 20 cm ride height to get out of there in one go. It's just not feasible once the car'll be getting driven. Once the car was out, I pulled over to... admire the sight of it. The beautiful clean lines of a Z32... Okay, so it scraped. Bad. Like sex with a news presenter that looks 27 but... isn't. Turns out I hadn't adjusted the driver's side tension rod out enough and the wheel was scrubbing on the bracket where the front bar bolts on. The small slip of metal sounded like a clacker on a gameshow spinning wheel as it skipped between the tread pattern of the wheel. It was really easy to fix. A standard scissor jack, two big spanners and another one to weild them and it was sorted. Only took 10 minutes. Once that was done, I had no more issues driving it around. I thought it would be worse! just look at it... made it over my first curb! REALLY digging the NA front bar with FMIC. I also had to leave the same way, I couldn't make it out the "exit"... my favourite this one's pretty cool too Minor scrubbing on full lock. It's only against the smooth inner fender, at whatever speeds I go at with full lock... bloody slow. Not an issue. I'm going to wear the inner edges of the tyres out just driving before I lose the outside to the fenders. Looking at it, I'm speechless. -A
Bits and pieces Amongst the constant suspension and guard work, I haven't left the rest of the car to collect dust. My OEM Recaro's went in: The flash has drowned it out; the interior looks loads better in person. Black tweed with OEM Recaro's... yes please. I also nabbed a Powertrix 1-piece rear strut brace from Black Beast in limited edition blackish-brown as opposed to standard silver. Fit like a glove and weighed less than the nuts that hold it in. Thanks Rob, love it! Piece of piss to put in when your boot trim's already out! -A
Yesterday I decided that one and a half hours to get out of my own driveway isn't enough, so I took the helper springs out of the rear. Boot trim was already out, so it was easy to get the shocks out. Then I taught myself how to disassemble a coilover for the first time... All pretty simple stuff really. Cleaned them up pretty well while I was there, and there were no leaks. Shocks rebounded as expected when I compressed them without the springs on, so I'm happy! Without the helper springs in the back... I got the perfect fit. I love it. And the other side: And the front. <3 To recap, the wheels: 18 x 9.5 +7, 235/40/18 19 x 10 +20, 265/30/19. the car: - tein HA coilovers (max low w/helper springs on the front) - adjustable front tension rods - adjustable FUCA's and RUCA's - guards rolled flat all 'round, no flare - rear bumper tab removed - toe adjustable all 'round OEM due to HICAS -A
Catching up! Lot's of posting tonight! What's next? Some interior work. Just won two listings for second hand VeilSide Evolution gear knobs that both happened to be listed at the same time. These are long discontinued and look great, will match my interior and are light weight so I was dead keen to nab one. Ended up winning both... I'll spin them both up, bring them back to life and keep the best one! First: Second: ^ covered in dirt, says the listing :\ Got them both dirt cheap, so I'm stoked. Matches my favourite part of the car - the exhaust... :zlove: Spotted something else - an absolutely mint OEM steering wheel with cruise. This was listed up online about two or three months ago, but I didn't have the coin to get it. Nabbed it this time... $100 And the shifters get posted for free. Woot. I've also ordered new shifter and hand break boots, as well as a hand brake handle from Khalid in the US. OEM replica black on black; can't go too over the top inside. Already got recaro's, a nice gear knob, pillar gauges, ECU talk to look at... you get the idea. Also e-mailed Peter to ensure I can nab an ECU-talk as soon as they're available (ETA ~1 month) and... ordered my number plates Peace! -A edit: /catches breath. that takes this thread to where I am at the moment!
LOVE the shift knob. Dunno why but for some reason it just seems wankishly cool to have a veilside shift knob. Also I've got an (almost) brand new blue ecutalk if you're interested and can't wait a month? Was going to go in the slicktop originally but I think green would do the job better with my colour scheme.
Thanks man! One will be for sale soon, I'd be happy to send it your way? It's not even an ugly thing, despite being VeilSide. VERY interested in the ECU talk!
blue slip man all your mods look sweet as but your gunna have big dramas getting a blue slip with the rims, wheel spacers and the lowness of your car. we do blue slips and defect clearing at our work and most mechanics will overlook things like coilovers and wide rims but, stuff like wheel spacers and a car you can't get a trolley jack under usually fail the second the drive in the door. im not having a go at you, maybe you have all intentions of making it look normal for the bluey, im just saying i've seen cars with much less been knocked back by pretty easy going mechanics.
They stick out a bit from the adapter. As part of the ordering process I had to specify if my wheels had "pockets"; cut outs on the back face of the wheel to fit the adapters. Mine do, so it was easy. Yeah, you're definitely on the money. I think I've got a "good" blue slip lined up at the moment now. Even then I might chuck the stockies on and wind up the coils for the drive there... big enough cop plate in a Z32 without number plates. Not sure yet. I'm not sure if I'll be getting much spring chatter but until I know I've got to hold onto them.
looks good anti..... while im not a massive fan of the as low as you can go look, it certainly has a "presence" with it......it looks ........."menacing" for want of a better word. the front wheels look a little odd (to me) being that far back in the wheel well though,but as you said no choice to avoid the front scrubbing. how much clearance is there from the rearmost part of the tyre to the gaurd....? this going off your sig pic by the way whats the ride like? looking forward to seeing it painted thats for sure! congrats on a cool build so far
