Cutting the stock J30 springs

[Talamascan]

As anyone who has done the research knows, lowering the J is a major pain in the butt requiring scavaging parts from other cars. Having said that, since this issue continues to come up so often (see below), I wanted to know if anyone who is currently on the forum has ever simply cut a few coils off of the stock springs and if so, how did it turn out with regard to handling, ride, noise, and coil perch integrity?

I'm well versed in the obvious cons of doing such a crude thing to the average car, but have to admit that in my younger years, I performed this act on a variety of cars such as Sciroccos, RX-2s and even a '97 Maxima with fairly decent results (and with full knowledge that the life span of the shocks would be reduced). I'm particularly interested because I'm simply not interested in spending a grand+ to lower the car 2 inches with a 240SX coilover/spindle setup, particularly since we no longer have to rely upon super expensive OEM shocks when, indeed, one does give up the ghost.

[Mkiisupra]

Call Eibach.

[jdurrty]

3 years and 40,000 miles later not a single issue. I cut one coil out of the bottom of the spring and then welded it to the perch since the coil diameter is now larger than original. Here is a picture of here all spit-shined up sitting on 245/45/18's, not sure what you are running though...

[yodawill2000]

That's a Beauty JDurty !!
I still curse the day Hail bashed mine all to Hell.

[EriCCirE]

I cut one coil out of the bottom of the spring and then welded it to the perch since the coil diameter is now larger than original. ]

Pics of work!!!

[Talamascan]

That is just what I wanted to hear, actual personal experience. How much did cutting off one coil lower your ride height?

And BTW, those are some mighty fine looking smoked side markers adorning your snarky J.

[jdurrty]

Thanks guys.

Scroll about halfway down this page to see what I did.

new-struts-for-40-t500487-60.html

On a side note, the tires I had on in these pictures were 245/40/18's (for reference) and after some driving and everything settling in, the car sat about 1/4" lower than in these pictures.

[EriCCirE]

Thanks guys.

Scroll about halfway down this page to see what I did.

new-struts-for-40-t500487-60.html

On a side note, the tires I had on in these pictures were 245/40/18's (for reference) and after some driving and everything settling in, the car sat about 1/4" lower than in these pictures.

Thanks

[J30tChumpCar]

We race a J with stock springs cut 2 rounds and still fit 265/40-17 tires, stock struts and bushings are no worse off, all failures have been attributed to harsh usage and crashing, not lowering, its been 12,000 hard track miles.

[jdurrty]

Just wanted to pop in with an update

I swapped out my winter tires today back to my 235/50/18's

I don't know what size tires you guys are running to give you a comparison of what your car will look like, but hopefully knowing the sizes I'm running and how they look, you guys can get a rough idea of what your will look like with one cut coil, or two if you want to go Chumps route.

Hope this helps somehow

Front:



Rear:

[Talamascan]

I'm running 225x45x18's in front and 245x45x18s in the rear (350ZX 5 star wheels) which is an arrangement that is slightly taller than the stock setup, which on mine were the 215x? wrapping the forged Touring model meshies.

Looks like a 1 coil cut all around would just about do the job quite nicely.

Thank's for all the input guys.