Z32 Harts TT restomod build thread

I made it to Horsham with wife and daughter. The car performed brilliantly, sitting on 78-81 degrees C for Water and 67-73 degrees C for Oil. Ambient temp between 19-13 degrees C. Fuel economy was 420kms for 2/3rds of a tank, better than I expected!

 

Nice work, awesome that you're road tripping her!

 

In the end @MintZ32 I spent at the money on making the car reliable specifically for this sort of stuff. I just wanted to turn the key and drive wherever I want to, road trip or daily drive, so I'm happy with it!

Apart from the lack of storage space, of which my wife finds a way to use every little bit, the 300 makes for a great highway car. It rides beautifully and I can overtake, without pulling it out of 5th, with ease.

 

That's the dream! Safe travels. Looking forward to the next update!

 

That's what I said! But Heathcote Park dragstrip is just 20 minutes away, test & tune days were held every Sunday.
So I got silly with the restomods and the wallet...

 

Haha, this is the way @MickW ! It's the natural progression of a car but... My wife knows this too well.

 

The car has sat at the side of my house for an age now, at least that's how it feels! I have have fully renovated our little 3 bed house, over the last 18 months, inside (except for the bathroom). I am now preparing for for someone else to finish the new bathroom and build me a new shed/workshop off of our side street... my work is essentially done! I still have some landscaping to do, but when does it really ever end

I digress, shortly it will be time to start some work back up on the car, so I'm happy to say I put an order for a few things in.

First up, I grabbed a set of front and rear Akebono calipers from the 370z, they need no introduction and so I am looking forward to playing with them. I bought them locally and will get the Z1 Caliper brackets to suit. I'll be looking to pair them with DBA Rotors, when the time comes.

Before the brakes go on, I am going to attend to a couple of other issues. Firstly I have purchased a rebuilt steering rack, which I will fit out with some new tie rods, rod ends and boots when that arrives. I noticed a leak and some damage to the boots during the last service on the car after my Melbourne trip.

Secondly, I have purchased the Energy Suspension full kit for our cars, I will start to replace the old worn out items as I begin to play with each area.

And lastly, I have bought some Powertrix front FUCAs and SPL Titanium Tension Rods to help with my fitment of the MCA Red Coilovers (gathering dust for a year+ so far!) in combination with the Veilside Andrews V wheels I have set aside.

I'll take some pics when parts start to arrive, I'm ready to get a little excited about the Z again

 

car looks nice in the pic with the ae86
just know it will never drive as comfortable as it did in that pic, after your planned suspension upgrades, coilovers pillowball low profile tyres it will look good Andrews are classis jdm, i guess if your retiring it for GT duties it wont matter as much.
I just changed to oem wheels and oem springs no rear camber hardley any front after 10 years of slammed and cambered its so much nicer to drive, now i try to sway people away from race car street suspension set up.

 

That was my mates AE86 that he restored from a shell, it turned out really nicely.

I appreciate the thoughts on ride type for sure, though the Z is a full hobby mode car for me now, strictly for restoring and weekend hills drives/ casual track days.

I can feel the weight of the car with the tired oem suspension, and the brakes as they currently stand feel wooden. I had to change the set up to get the enjoyment from the car that I am after. We Adelaidians are spoilt for choice in terms of hilly, windy driving roads and my driveway is 500m from the start of them, with a well sorted car I drive those happy as a pig in... you know. Caveat though, I'm not looking to dump it on its' bum and run mega camber, I'm not young enough to be able to tolerate that by any means. I didn't buy super wide wheels with crazy offsets, I need it to be practical so that I don't peel the front bumper off every time I pull out of the driveway hahaha. Finally, I'm not cheaping out on build components either, reasoning that by spending money on higher quality gear (like the MCA Reds, SPL arms etc) I'll avoid a lot of the unnecessarily bumpy/crashy/rattley experience you get from ebay/lower quality kit. I have been there before as a kid . That being said, I like a car that handles well, brakes well, go's well, and I'll sacrifice comfort happily for a well sorted package for my weekend car, my daily always stays stock as a rock though.

I haven't driven the Z this year yet at all as it's laid up waiting for my new shed to be built so I can show it some love with those parts. It's retired from daily activities, permanently .

 

got ya mate thought I would mention it, yeah I grew up in Adelaide roads a sick. Not sure if your bushing kit came with camber adjustment but you will need rear camber and traction rod adjustment if you lower the rear, what I found works best is adjust your track rods the same length as you camber adjustment either through adjustable bushes or arms. Don't get me wrong your car will sit flat at 200kms through corners.
What are your veilside specs, might be able to give and idea on camber and tyre size that fit on un rolled guards.

 

Always appreciate the input, for sure. Didn't know you were an Adelaide original, where did you move to?

Let me find the wheel specs, it's been so long since ce I have looked at them hahaha

 

OK, rears are 18 x 9.5+42, fronts are 18 x 8.5 +37.

Would love a bit of advice on set-up, for sure! I am yet to get any arms for the rear, am looking at SPL RUCAs to start. I really need to get the car off of the ground and start pulling it apart to see where everything is at to get the total shopping list together.

 

melbs, I grew up in the area with all the dattos, but 200 years born and bred SA.
rears 265 or 275 35 18 no camber, 285 30 18 slight camber. fronts run what every camber you like if you go a 285 rear then go a 255 35 18 front same rolling diameter or a 235 40 18 with the 265 rear or 245 40 18 with 275 rear, put more castor on the front as it feel more stable at high speed corning and has a self centring affect.
Do your rear arms at the same time as your coil overs, as the shock body passes thought the arm, you will need to pull all the rear interior out starting at the rear moving forward as all the trims over lap including the rear seats to to undo the rear strut bolts so you don't want to do it twice, if your mca's have top knob adjustment your will need to set it before putting the trims back or if they offer extended knobs your will need to drill the trims.

 

Haha, good advice on doing it all at once, I definitely don't want to be pulling the car apart more times than I need to. When I replaced the external trim strips on the t-tops, I learned how complicated doing small thins on the Z32 can be.

 

Fronts will be a bit sunken, you might need to look at a bolt on spacer. At 8.5" a good 'safe' offset is +25 so a 10mm spacer will get you close. Rears are good, will sit nicely with the guards with normal camber specs.

255 tyre will be a bit wide on an 8.5" wheel, 235 probably ideal option. The 275 on the rear 9.5" wheels will sit nice & square, no sidewall stretch. I run these on my 9.5"30 wheels & work great with rolled guards, your +42 should be great with stock guards then.

I've got SPL ruca's, toe rods & traction rods, definitely recommend them all. Be aware though, regardless of quality, they're rose jointed so it definitely affects your ride quality. Handling is excellent though.

What's your plan for fuca's?

 

Thanks for the info! FUCAs are Powertrix as SPL don't make them as far as I can see, with SPL Tension Rods and Tie Rod ends, I haven't bought the tie rods ends yet though.

Handling is what I'm after

 

if you like using SPL - nismo have a option for a couple of arms for the z32 they are made by SPL for nismo north america carries a nissan part number so could be ordered through nissan dealerships

nismo (SPL) traction rods

 

Awesome information thank you guys, I appreciate it!

When the Powertrix FUCAs arrive I'll post pics so we can all have a look at them. I'll rember that info re: the bushes, that is good info. I figured I'd go through and replace as I tackled each new component install, so I grabbed the full kit to have everything on hand when the time came instead of ordering as I went, certainly happy to keep rubber where geometry requires, so I'll post up more questions as I hit those points.

@MORBOOST those nismo items look pretty but too flash for me, I prefer the black coloured parts to try and avoid unnecessary attention, as much as I am a fanboy of nismo gear!

I got the black energy suspension kit for that reason too, I can't do bright colours nowadays on components.