So work continues. It's been a huge year so far. My wife and I are expecting our first children late November. Yes thats right, twins straight up.
I've been tinkering with the datto putting things into place.
I decided I wanted to explore another avenue for the suspension on the car. Up front I had my newly assembled coilovers (R31 strut, 225lb spring, Z31 KYB insert) and on the rear some Kings springs and flogged out Koni yellows. The rear xmember is just a stock one, so I was getting plenty of rear camber and toe.
I've always liked the idea of height adjustment without changing the travel of the shock. This is how alot of aftermarket coilover kits work for later model cars.
I had also been looking at a multitude of options for rear coilovers and decided to try and make some rear coilovers suited to S13's work for my application.
So I bit the bullet and bought a full set of new HSD S13 AD Coilovers. These came with a pair of 5kg(280lb) and 6kg(336lb) springs. These include adjustable twin tube shocks, rubber mounts and are more of a 'street' kind of shock. Perfect for what I am looking for.
So to get the front to adapt I looked at something I'd seen in the past, and that was a U-weld system. You start with a standard 51mm strut, lop off the the top and weld on a machined tube that has the correct ID at the bottom to fit snug and the correct M50x1.5 thread in the top section to recieve the S13 HSD coilover. I am using an aussie R31 strut as my core.
I bought these from a business called Angry Industries -
https://www.facebook.com/AngryIndustries He was a champ to deal with and was helpful.
Here are some photos of my lopped struts, the welding process and then the complete assembled strut. The U-weld tube is welded to the cast of the strut and also plug welded twice on each strut. It aint going no-where!
Cleaned up, and chopped R31 strut.
U-Weld Tube
U-Weld slipped over Strut and top half mocked up
Welding bzzzzzz
Welded.
Painted and assembled. Sexy Time.
For my brakes and hubs I am using Series 1 Bluebird 4 stud hubs, R32 GTR Rotors (296x32), R32 GTR Calipers and a Datsport caliper adapter kit.
The Datsport kit was pretty tight to fit on this setup. I needed to nip and tuck a few bolt heads to make it all fit, but with some thinking anyone could do it. I'm just a computer tech working from a garage with simple tools.
This is the engine bay now I have bent up my brake lines, installed the Wilwood bias block and done final fitment on the Stanza large can booster. I am using a 2 port Nissan BM50 master cylinder, NOS Stanza booster, 10mm firewall spacer, redrilled pedal and clevis fork.
Shiny strut tops - Thanks HSD!
Some quick photos of how the rear end is shaping up:
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39 ... 2dbcf8.jpg
http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39 ... d0d550.jpg
More to come with how I have done the rear end. R32 GTR rear calipers and rotors, S13 rear coilovers.