I would rather not drill the through the red area because while that area is "covered" its not sealed. The area is a dead space between the trunk and tonnaeu cover. The metal in the cavity doesn't look like its been treated a lot so any water in there would spell disaster.

 

i hear ya, but i would do it...but do it right....... drill a hole and pull your extenders through....

I would first find a grommet that fit around your extenders well, and then drill a hole in that area "sized" for the grommet..........silicone it all up so it wont ever get moisture in there......would be perfect!

then from there find a way to secure the end of the extenders down....out of the way...

grommets like these:


secure the extenders down out of the way using these: (zip tie clips)


-J

 

I'd imagine drilling through the top will cause the paint to crack. Are there drill bits that will minimize this? Or is this an inherit property of the paint. Maybe heating the area up?

-Ray

 

yeah, heat gun to the area may help.....but i would step the hole up.....not just drill the size needed....

as in: if you need a 1/2 inch hole, i would start with a 1/8 drill bit, then a 1/4 inch drill bit, then from there either 3/8 or go straight to the 1/2 inch....you should get the feel for how easy it is after doing the first two steps...

once the hole is drilled......just get a rag and apply some of this rust converter on the unfinished metal edge:


then install the grommet and use silicone around it...

-J

 

^ I'll be honest. I've drilled through the bumper before and used silicone to paste the rear aprons and front lip on. But I am deadly scared of drilling through the top like that. I'll buy a set of PSS10's before risking water damage. Murphy's Law always prevails.

Plan of action:
Drill out the pin and try to reattach the extender shaft. Feed all of that through the drop top compartment and see if that works.

 

To recap: The extenders as bought were too bulky and long. I had to detach the pin from the extender shaft and also remove the SS casing. Removing the SS casing will allow for greater flexibility within the cavity.

So today's progress:
1) Drilled out pin ( excess extender shaft was still stuck within the pin from the cut )
2) Measured out required extender shaft length
3) Cut SS line so I can use the **** housing
4) Made sure **** housing + **** had no clearance issues with the top down
5) Secured the **** to **** housing

Todo:
Secure pin to extender shaft (i need some epoxy)

Picture time:
Because the extender shaft is too long, I had to do a mock install to see how much of the shaft I had to cut. Below is a picture of the installed shaft as it pokes out of the access hole.


The shaft extended about 3.5" from the firewall. The **** itself was fractions of an inch and I wanted to give myself some slack, so I cut 2"


This is the length of the cut line.


In order to use the **** housing to secure the extender shaft to the firewall. I had to cut the SS line right at the housing.


Lets make sure the **** housing and **** will clear the top for when the top is down. CLEARED!


This is where I skipped a few steps put I pretty much just pieced everything together. The housing, the cut extender shaft all came together. I used a drywall mount to keep the **** from moving forward and out of the **** housing.


The extender shrink wrapped. Notice there is a cut between the **** housing and the drywall mount. You will also notice a rubber washer in between. The purpose of the washer is to facilitate smoother turning. The purpose of the shrink wrap was to 1) make it prettier, 2) keep the loose ends of the SS lines from poking my fingers and 3) keep the dry wall mount secure on the extender shaft.

 

awesome............

so everything is working as intended?? im a little lost on the extender cutting and where the epoxy is needed, but i guess i gotta see it to understand.........

looks good......

If everythign works great and as you wanted to, would you please compile the pictures and post up a "DIY - roadster rear shock extender install" thread.........somethign like that..

-J

 

I tried to clear a few things up by making a few revisions in post 26. Let me know if its still unclear.

The epoxy will be needed to mate the extender shaft back in the pin.

 

On a completely unrelated note. After reading a little on the Tanabe Electric Active Suspension, the Active mode seems pretty cool. Tenabe claims the actuators can change the dampeners within 1/100 of a second. Is that even right? That seems kinda fast. Will the internal mechanical valves be able to adjust and settle at that rate? If so, what kind of lifetime can you expect from the dampener's internals?

 

Cut extenders reattached with epoxy. Had to drill through the pin.



Waiting for epoxy to fully cure.

 

Installed...

However there are a few things I would have done differently.
1) Cut off another .5 to .75 inches on the extenders shaft. The extenders are still a little long.
2) Figure out a way to secure the pin/key onto the struct. Currently the pin/key sits so low into the struct that there is not really a need. I would not go more than 5 or 6 turns from full stiff otherwise the key will want to pop out.
3) Figure out a way to better secure the **** housing onto the car. Currently, i simply pressed it in there with some silicone to hold it in place.

I'll create a DIY after a few days to make sure its safe.

 

Looks good.......let me know when you make the DIY..

-J

 

OMG, This SHOULD BE in The DIY section for Roadsters! AWESOME write up and time to take pictures is GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!! Now, Back to work on my Z !!!!

 

Hi,

I'm thinking about drilling access holes for the rear coilovers in my convertible 350z. I know this thread talked about it, but has anyone actually done it before? I cant seem to find anything online about it apart from here from 2010. If someone has done it, please can you give me some tips on where to drill etc.

 

The posts read that there are photos of vtchang's work, but I don't see any photos. Am I missing something?

I'd be more than appreciative to see how it was done so I get a better idea of how to tackle my Z.

Thanks a million!
😁🤙

 

I was able to figure it out. I did drill incorrectly the first time... I can tell what I did if you want to try it yourself.

 

Yes, please! I'm also installing BCs.😁

 

Great choice 😁

Okay so the first thing you want to do is have the shocks removed.
Next you want to look up into the hole and you should see a slit mark in the metal plate, you can probably drill anywhere along this slit but I chose to drill at the bottom. I used a 3mm bit, then a 5mm bit which was about the same size as the copper core.

Once you've drilled a hole into the plate, there will be another layer which is the metal you see when the tonneau cover is up. You want to put a long Phillips screwdriver through the drilled hole and hammer a small indent while the screwdriver is angled in the middle of the two studs (roughly where the damper control is). The dent should be in the flat area parallel to the hinge bracket.

I chose to strip the extender to minimise the hole size. Feed the copper through the hole from above and secure it onto the coilovers from below and install the coilovers. Trim down the copper so it is slightly shorter than the **** and tighten it on. Check the fitment, remove the ****, mask up around the hole and give it abit of paint to prevent rusting. And done. MAKE SURE THE EXTENDER BASE ON TOP OF THE COILOVERS ARE TIGHT! If the base loses grip and you need to drop the coil it will be extremely difficult to feed the copper through now that you've trimmed it. Best thing to do is to feed it through with something but it's still very difficult.

Let me know if you need more info 😁

 

Learning