I was able to speak with the person making the flanged style adapters shown in the link I had posted above. It sounds like he has the rears ready and is willing to do the fronts if I can get him a set of knuckles for prototyping.

I was also able to speak with Bilstein USA who indicated the 46mm universal struts have been discontinued. Any truth to this as I am still seeing them listed at a few dealers?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/14/2018 01:09PM by noclassic.

Quote
noclassic
I was also able to speak with Bilstein USA who indicated the 46mm universal struts have been discontinued. Any truth to this as I am still seeing them listed at a few dealers?

Apparently so, but the internals still exist in Europe.

Streetwise makes their own housings now and fits them with Bilstein guts.

John manufactures his own housings and valves/fits springs/welds on flanges for them on a case by case basis for specific applications.

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Opel is a 4-letter word...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10498579@N07/sets/

That makes sense. The rep stated they were pulled because of a supply/cost issue on the housings/

Quote
noclassic
That makes sense. The rep stated they were pulled because of a supply/cost issue on the housings/

ALWAYS use names instead of reps.. A "rep" didn't make this clusterfuck.
People with names did.

And their supply and cost issues for the tubes/lower sliders/housings...
:were direct result of :

*extremely poor decisions on design and manufacturing process at the initial conception and design stage..

*Arrogance that one person could do short run profitable manufacturing with a unnecessarily pointlessly complicated design--which was to cause the problems...

* rigid departmentalized management structure.


* favoritism and deal making (groan)


* unwillingness of anybody there to dare to change any of the above when the difficulties
"designed in" became obvious..and alternate process solutions were provided.

* RIGID Germans..fearful authoritarian follower, consumer Americans internally at Bilstein USA meaning "can't do it, we can't change anything!!! Engineering would have to LOOK AT IT!!..And what would sales do then?? OH NOEZ!!!!!!

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

That is unfortunate. It seems they had something good going for them. I do not recall the name of the sales associate I had spoken with.

Assuming I am able to resolve the mount adapters would you be interested in design and fabrication of the remaining components. I called a bit earlier but was not able to get through. You are welcome to give me a call any time at the 469 are code number.

I'm late to the party.

The original strut tubes are very thick on the 280z parts. I haven't looked at the 240/260 parts in a while. I know the strut tube OD is different between the 280 and the earlier stuff.

The struts on these cars were originally not inserts, the tube is the damper housing.

Coilovers are easy to implement.

Do what you can to add ground clearance.

You'll need a serious brake upgrade.

I have a 77 280z with a fuel injected V8 and a 5 speed manual in it at home. It's mounted mid engine like you describe. I put coilovers and strut inserts in it. I also adapted to the newer Nissan 5 lug pattern and ended up with mustang bullitt 17 inch wheels on it. It's a fun car.

I have a set or two of the full suspension, but I doubt it's worth shipping them to Texas.

Wife keeps telling me to turn mine into a stage car, but I've got other ideas. Besides that, up here a decent z is getting valuable.

The front suspension is very similar in layout to some of the circle track stuff. Cheap homebrew upgrades should be easy to figure out. If I were doing it I'd probably pick a common rally strut and build something around that at the front and rear like John has suggested. With the tubes being so beefy on my car, I would think you could weld on something to receive a different strut fairly easily.

Hope this made sense.

Perry

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Perry

FE570s course bike
KTM 950 ADV
74 Beetle turbo-efi etc..
72 Beetle stage rally project WRX powered
Attended about 15 rallies, usually a volunteer in a course car.

Appreciate the offer for additional parts, but I was already able to find a complete front an rear set from a local seller who upgraded everything to T3 stuff. I have the front spindles on their way to the guy in Canada who had done the rear adapters and will use them to make a front set.

I have pretty much settled on doing the T3 rear hubs/backing plates to convert that end to flange style mounts and the Response Type hub insert adapters in the front. Below is an image of the T3 flanged hub backing plates.



I still hope that John is willing to work with me on the coilover assemblies but I have also begun speaking with some machine shops regarding custom housings for the bilstein 46mm inserts.