93 GT Update: custom suspension badassery in the works.

[96B-Mike]

you never considered black'n out your wheels? murdered out son! haha

[woody90gtz]

I like a blackout as much (or more) than the next guy...but I like those many-spoke wheels in silver or white. Silver works well with the black. Although black wheels would showcase the big brakes quite nicely.

[KFLO 93 GT]

These things are schweet, I'm liking the design. Aside from some new mounts, which I can get at the parts store, the rear end stuff is ready to go on after I get the springs painted up.

[Mr. Beefy]

I've always loved your black car Kurt. Good stuff!

[Barry]

Will they reduce droop at all?

[KFLO 93 GT]

Nah, travel is nearly identical to a Beretta shock. The top stud even fits into some brands of shock mounts that I've looked at...

Ordered a new ACDelco alternator, not reman, though I can't complain about the store brand reman unit on the car. It has lasted as long as the original one did. I'll do the big-3 upgrade at the same time, surprised I haven't done it already...

Also looking at other belt driven accessories, and I don't mean the water pump that's waiting to go on the car too.

[3X00-Modified]

If you need help building and or engineering a really long snout for that belt driven accessory let me know, but depending on what you ended up with IIRC you are also lacking AC so you have a spot to put that lovely little thing.

[Barry]

High performance smog pump?

[KFLO 93 GT]

The goal is to mount this new style smog pump where the ac was. I'm shopping around a lot and have a couple of smog chargers in mind.

That's a ways off though, I want to get a welder first. Front coilover project is on slight hold for the time being too.

[3X00-Modified]

Only if I didn't want to keep my ac... It would make things so much easier...

[Barry]

I'm so glad were all on the same page to save the environment

[KFLO 93 GT]

Yay or nay?

[Alpinestar10]

Looks better then the actual carbon fiber i had a pillar wrapped in, How much did the 3m stuff set you back for that?

[KFLO 93 GT]

Like $27 for 4 feet. Cheap enough to justify getting some to play with.

Definitely a little thicker and trickier on complex curves than regular vinyl.

[KFLO 93 GT]

About time for some updates. Got a few things done over the weekend, including a junkyard trip to my former favorite yard. They haven't had much for my car in ages, but they did have a Subaru Legacy with a 5 speed that still had the shift knob in it. I didn't realize, but they use a weighted knob, with some nice leather and it has the shift pattern on top. I cut off part of the knob at the bottom and then bored out the knob on my drill press. Got it worked out to a pretty snug fit, it feels really nice running through the gears and actually makes the assembly feel very solid and direct with the weight. Here's a photo:



I also got to work on installing the custom rear springs and Bilsteins. I did a little comparing once I got the old shocks off the car. The KYBs were still super stiff and rebound well for being on for 7 years, so they'll be going onto the white car. The Bilsteins are way beefier, I took a couple shots of the difference.





My initial thoughts were that the car would sat around the same height in back, give or take an inch. Turns out, I was a bit off. The springs barely compressed with weight on the car, and as a result I gained back roughly 1.4" in rear wheel gap. But, the car handles like a beast! The rear end is just stuck to the road, and it doesn't transfer weight off of the front end like it used to.

I can live with the wheel gap, Form < Functionality.

Old ride height:


New gap:


What it looked like last night in the shop: