Finally lowered the hardbody!

[Rev_D21]

Took me a long time but I finally finished rebuilding the suspension on my 95 HB. I replaced, refurbed and upgraded everything there was to be had. The front is still settling in and is actually lower than these pics now. I will get some better pics with the good front wheels on as soon as settlement and alignment is complete. Handles amazing thanks to all poly bushings, Sway A Way torsion bars and the Hellwig rear sway bar. I couldn't be happier.




The whole story is told here>>>
started-rebuilding-the-front-end-parts- ... 32663.html

[Dattebayo]

LOL, just kidding. Looks great.

[PEZi]

So when ya gonna go start pushin' it through some corners?!

[Rev_D21]

I'd like to start sometime this year. I did some figure 8's around some parking lot lamps and it handled pretty good. Let me align it then see where I am at.

[Bubba1]

I'd like to start sometime this year. I did some figure 8's around some parking lot lamps and it handled pretty good. Let me align it then see where I am at.

Looks nice, How comfy is the ride with the lower set up?

[breadbox]

Looks so much better. Very nice.

[PEZi]

I'd like to start sometime this year. I did some figure 8's around some parking lot lamps and it handled pretty good. Let me align it then see where I am at.

well... you know who to turn to if you need help setting up the balancing and dialing in of the suspension

[Kompresshun]

Looks awesome man!

[sbird1]

I have always likes your truck a lot. Low makes it look even better.

[Amays U G37S]

Dave, you reppin'? llololololo

That is how I remember it anyways.

REV! The truck looks FANTASTIC! I have been dying to see these pics. I was going to mention you putting up some complete pics in a different thread about 5 days ago, but I held my tongue!

So you enjoy that ride height? Glad you have it moar low.

Any future upgrades? Going lower, I mean, heh heh.

Looking over the pics, the underbody that truck looks really clean for you to be in West NY. How is the rust on the frontier?

[carloslebaron]

...now some smaller tires and start crawling throughout the streets...

[Rev_D21]

Yehhh, I'll pass on the smaller tires. I like the 205/60r15 size a lot on this truck. Last year I ran 215/60r15 and the ride wasn't as tight. Bubba, it gets bouncy downtown where the roads are choppy but on the open road it's not bad at all. Cornering is fun, it locks right in and stays there. I will shoot some 'settled suspension' pics today if I have time. Lots of future plans in fact. Stage 1 was getting the interior in good shape, stage 2 was the timing chain, stage 3 was the suspension and brakes which took way longer than I wanted. Stage 4 is clutch and exhaust followed by turbo'ing the KA, within a few years then finally doing all the body work and repainting it factory Vivid Teal. Then drive the hell out of it!

Pezi I will be picking your brain for alignment info real soon if you don't mind.

[Rev_D21]

Better pics of it settled in. Still waiting to align it then I can put the good tires back on the front.

[PEZi]

Pezi I will be picking your brain for alignment info real soon if you don't mind.

not a problem

[Rev_D21]

Front dropped some more!


Pezi, how did you get so much negative camber? I removed all the shims and still have 0 degrees of camber? Does your 720 have the camber bolts on the inside of the frame?

[Razi]

He used a ton of washers.

[Rev_D21]

Yeh he did! So we are opposites, he can only get so much positive camber while I can only get so much negative because our adjustment bolts are on opposite sides of the control arm. No fair!

[Razi]

Hmm.
That'll make things more difficult.

Does anyone make adjustable arms for the Hardbody?

[Rev_D21]

Not that I have seen. Most of the arms are one-offs built by the air bag crowd and I haven't seen any adjustable ones in that lot. Would be a cool thing if someone with talent, ie. not me, was able to design and build them.

[PEZi]

Damn, yeah, so what you'd need to do is a custom upper control arm. I honestly thought the hardbody's adjustment was the same as mine, but i guess not.

[Rev_D21]

I think you have the same layout as the 620 but Nissan must of felt a need to change it in 1986.5 when they switched body styles. From a racing and handling POV I say yours is the better set up. I wish there was more detailed info about the factory ITT truck setups but there isn't much more than we have cataloged here. I guess I will have to do some more research on this.

On the completely same note: HANDLING= AWESOME for the short time I have had behind the wheel on the new set up. Once we got the front to a slightly lower height, which gives it a cool raked look, the way it grabs the road is quite nice, it sticks tighter in turns and has significantly reduced body roll. My only gripe is the steering still has trouble returning to center, it's no where near as sloppy as it was, it tracks very nice and doesn't wander anymore. But it does have a case of memory steer that remains even with caster to spec on both sides. I think it's the gear box, it must be hosed or needs attention. I don't want to mess with the settings and would rather switch to manual steering instead. I have only begun to research that option though. I can live with the lack of return for now but it's on my target list now.

[Dittoz7]

Slammed

[Dittoz7]

[Razi]

You crazy truck people and your steering boxes! :P

The cheapest way I can think of getting camber is slotting the balljoint holes on the upper control arm.

But I think the best way would be to cut the ends of the arm and replace with rod ends like this:

But that will take quite a bit of fabrication work.

[Rev_D21]

I guess those are a bit farther than I'd be willing to go at the moment.I don't even see how those LCAs could even work without modifying the lower bushing mount on the frame. Cool idea though.

[Razi]

You could do that to the upper control arms instead.

But yeah, it'll take quite a bit of effort.

[Rev_D21]

More research needed. In the meantime I am going to drive the hell out of it!

[Razi]