a different approach at rear coilovers

[charlie6178]

so i have been working on my suspension in my new 510 this past couple of weeks, and i pulled the rear suspension out of the car to glass bead blast it, push in new bushings, rear wheel bearings, the rear disc conversion etc... and i got the rear controll arms out and started looking at coilover ideas. i personally am not a hug fan of the standard rear coilover shock setup that most of the 510's are running. to me, it just looks kinda flimsy. thats just my opinion. so i decided to copy the penske coilovers that were on the back end of my E36 M3. sleeve bolted to the controll arm, iscolator on top, and a high quality dampner in the stock locations. i thought it seemed sensable, fairly easy, and cheap and since the rear suspension is already out of the car, why the heck not right???

 

so heres what i did guys. tell me what you think!! looking for input here!

 

 

 

first i brougt out the trusy ol' plasma cutter and angle grinder with flap wheels and cut the factory spring pocket, bump stop, and all of the unnecissary slag and uglyness off the controll arm.

 

 

then i went ahead and cut out a 5" steel circle out of 3/16" mild steel plate that i had laying around the shop for the new spring perch to mount to

 

 

 

next my plan is to get a piece of 2" O.D. DOM tubing, and weld it in the center of the plate for the coilover sleeve to sit on and clamp to. like so...

 

 

 

 

when it's all said and done it should look something like this, after it's all smoothed over, welded, painted, and finished. just figured i'd post up some pics and see if anybody else has tried this approach to rear coils.

[Chris#51EPGraham]

That's damned nice looking work.

 

You could simplify this by using a weight jacker bolt setup that goes

on top of the spring. This can be engineered so it's adjustable with the

car on the ground (greased threads) and is done from the interior

versus the bottom.

 

What you've fabricated so far is still a major improvement over trying

to fit a 2.5" spring to a stock bucket. Spring centering could be with a plug

of 2.5" dia bar stock bolted on through the center hole or a short tube

welded to the disc center.

 

My suggestion might interfere if you're keeping a stock back seat (since

some of the hardware goes above the upper spring perch). The downside

of your design is that it'll be difficult to reach the adjuster nut.

[gen4maxima536]

doesn't Design Products Racing make a kit like this? http://designproductsracing.com/510_RearSuspension.html

[Chris#51EPGraham]

He does, I believe designed to use the 3" ID stock spring.

There are quite a few generic oval track parts from which

one could build variations, weld-in or bolt-in. I'd imagine

DP would have no probs making 2.5" upper seats, since

they're billet aluminum parts made on a lathe.

 

The advantage in using standard 2.5" CO's is the near infinite

variety of spring rates available in a standard size. 2.5" doesn't

adapt to the 510 spring bucket too readily and the OP's flat

bottom design is one possible solution to that problem.

[Master-O-Turbonics]

 

 

 

Thats going to suck to adjust.

[charlie6178]

Thats going to suck to adjust.

 

yeah I think it should work pretty well. I'm going to cut the spring locator on the body down couple inches, and weld it all back together. Then hopefully turn a piece of nylon on down on the lathe to make a nice tight fitting iscolator for the top.

 

Yes It will be a pain to adjust the ride height, but once it's done then it will be very nice. also the collars I am using for the coilovers don't use a collar and a jam collar, it's all one collar with a split on one side with an Allen bolt to lock it in place. I'll post pics when I get a chance. Hopefully I will have both rear arms done in the next couple of days.

[INDY510]

.

How will you get a allen wrench in there????

 

 

How low do you plan on going???? .......... my trailing arms hit the body,,,, , and there is no room this set-up.......

[charlie6178]

I will be able to put an Allen wrench in from the top side. I'm sure the springs will be in and out of the car a few times before it's all said and done. I'm planning on going pretty low! This isn't my daily driver, just a toy. I'm in no time crunch on having it all sorted out. Your car is pretty much slammed isn't it?? I remember seeing pics of it a while ago lol I'd love to to be as low as yours, I think your car looks suuuper dope sitting on the ground like that. Mine has box flares on it, so I have the room in the fenders to go way low, we will just have to see how low the suspension and ground will let me go lol

 

Today I picked up a set of the 100-7708.ARP wheel studs and they are 1.2" longer than the factory studs it appears. and I'm going to be using a 15x8" +0 offset wheel, and probably about .75" wheel spacers and a barely stretched tire. I'm going to see how flush we can get this thing. I was planning on running a 16x8" +0 offset xxr 513 but I came up with the 15's cheap, so I just picked them up for now. Eventually I plan on going with a 16x9 diamond racing widened steelie.

 

For me with this car is going to be all about stance, and making it all clean, and work. Stance is going to be key. Personally I have only seen 2 box flared widebody 510's that looked good. I think most of them look horrid! Including this one when I bought it! But I also think that if it's low enough, and has a nice flush fitting wheel, and the whole stance it correct I'm sure it will look good.

[DISLEXICDIME]

I will be able to put an Allen wrench in from the top side. I'm sure the springs will be in and out of the car a few times before it's all said and done. I'm planning on going pretty low! This isn't my daily driver, just a toy. I'm in no time crunch on having it all sorted out. Your car is pretty much slammed isn't it?? I remember seeing pics of it a while ago lol I'd love to to be as low as yours, I think your car looks suuuper dope sitting on the ground like that. Mine has box flares on it, so I have the room in the fenders to go way low, we will just have to see how low the suspension and ground will let me go lol

 

Today I picked up a set of the 100-7708.ARP wheel studs and they are 1.2" longer than the factory studs it appears. and I'm going to be using a 15x8" +0 offset wheel, and probably about .75" wheel spacers and a barely stretched tire. I'm going to see how flush we can get this thing. I was planning on running a 16x8" +0 offset xxr 513 but I came up with the 15's cheap, so I just picked them up for now. Eventually I plan on going with a 16x9 diamond racing widened steelie.

 

For me with this car is going to be all about stance, and making it all clean, and work. Stance is going to be key. Personally I have only seen 2 box flared widebody 510's that looked good. I think most of them look horrid! Including this one when I bought it! But I also think that if it's low enough, and has a nice flush fitting wheel, and the whole stance it correct I'm sure it will look good.

 

I agree with you on the stance and lowering making a box flared car look right.

[sssr20det510]

this is basically the same coil over set up s12 use in the rear

[DISLEXICDIME]

i thought s12 was the same as zx ?

[sssr20det510]

from what ive seen on the s12 forum that is how they do there rear

[charlie6178]

I'm hoping to finish up the arms tonight and start Modifiying the upper iscolator. Hopefully have the car on the ground this weekend. I'll keep you guys posted and add pics as soon as I get them done

[DISLEXICDIME]

Is the paint finished? I want to see how the spook looks with the box flares

[charlie6178]

Is the paint finished? I want to see how the spook looks with the box flares

the paint isn't done yet, it's still in the body work process lol we decided to finish up the suspension first to get the stance correct before we lay the color on it just incase we have to go up with the wheel openings, mainly the rear. We are working diligently on the car to get the suspension, stance, and body work finished as soon as possible! I'll shoot you some pics as soon as the front end is back on the car hopefully this weekend or next!

[charlie6178]

in the mean time, i cranked out the front coilovers. i used the ZX struts to start with. tore them all down, jet washed, and glass bead blasted them. then cut the spring perch off, and smoothed the tube as usual. then i didn't really want to order coilover sleeves, so i used a set i already had and knew i could make work. they were about .020" too small I.D. so i chucked them up in the lathe and bored the centers out to size. worked perfectly! i ordered strut inserts from baxters and they will be here tonight!

 

 

 

all test fitted and mocked up. washer tacked in place, ready to finish welding and paint.

 

 

threw a lil paint on them, finished cleaning and a big DONE stamp lol

 

 

 

 

 

now as soon as the rear arms are finished i'll start on building the TC rod's and adjustable controll arms.

 

 

anybody have a set of camber plates laying around they want to sell???

[charlie6178]

 

that's the collar for the coilover. the allen bolt pinches it tight rather than another jam collar.

[PurePontiacKid]

how do you plan on tightening the gland nut? it looks like the sleeve goes over the top of the coilover, which will make it pretty difficult to tighten up, since you'll probably have to grind them down to fit inside the sleeves...

[jnec510]

the 84-88 200sx s12 uses about the same set up as this. megan sells it for 800 on ebay. if you convert to the s12 front crossmember and power rack then use the s13 (240sx) hubs and brakes (wich is what im doing) there a direct bolt... ROFL. and the car dont look that bad im looking at it sitting in my garage right now and it looks far cleaner then my gutted/butchered 4 door.

 

 

 

plus i think as low as he s going he wont need to worry about tightening the screw cause the suspension will be bottomed out any way.

[charlie6178]

the 84-88 200sx s12 uses about the same set up as this. megan sells it for 800 on ebay. if you convert to the s12 front crossmember and power rack then use the s13 (240sx) hubs and brakes (wich is what im doing) there a direct bolt... ROFL. and the car dont look that bad im looking at it sitting in my garage right now and it looks far cleaner then my gutted/butchered 4 door.

 

 

 

plus i think as low as he s going he wont need to worry about tightening the screw cause the suspension will be bottomed out any way.

Yes lol it will be low lol as soon as some special fabricator gets you all of those nifty shiny parts he's been manufacturing in his spare time!

[PurePontiacKid]

I'm talkin the gland nut that holds the shock in the strut tube, not the bolt in the coilover sleeves.

[jnec510]

tomorrow will be like christmas morning got brand new suspension to put on her. :P . i will post some pics of the install :rolleyes: this suspension looks pretty sick

[kmc63]

I agree with you on the stance and lowering making a box flared car look right.

That statement is an oxy moron,no disrespect intended.

[charlie6178]

Oh I see which nut you're talking about! No the sleeve and the strut tube are perfectly level with eachother. It spins on just fine.

[bonvo]

your going to need some insane spring rates to make this worth it like 2000lb springs