Figured I would start a record for those who are interested

Year: 1986
Body: Estate/Station Wagon
Color: Dark Red Metallic
Mileage: 243,XXX
Purchase Price: $200

Repairs:
- New radiator + water pump + hoses + fan switches
- Timing belt + accessory belt + tensioners
- Ignition coil + plugs + wires
- Front & rear shocks/struts (KYB & Gabriel)
- Eclipse AVN726E
- Ceramic brake pads

Up Next:
- Strut mounts F&R
- Sway Bar bushings & end links polyurethane
- Air bag suspension (double-bellows F&R, 1/4" line, Arnott valve block & controller)
- Polished 280ZX 8-point Snowflakes
- All speakers with Infinity Reference or Kappa
- Villager intake plenum
- Short ram intake
- Hardwood rear cargo floor w/ subwoofer
- Battery relocation

Here are a few pics to follow:





















Here's a shot of my other wagon



Going to be posting more work and updates as they come! Enjoy!

 

damn body looks pretty clean for $200

 

Lowriding 101????? An Volvo S70 R like competitor would have been cooler....IMO!

 

I will be paying attention to this. Ive always wanted to own a wagon.

 

My rear bags have been sent out to get re-sleeved. Game on. Other parts that have been ordered are rack bushings, control arm bushings and I can finally relocate the battery. Pictures coming up around next Thursday!

 

 

Hello everybody! I've relocated to Indiana from the SF Bay Area. Since then I have done a few things:
- Painted wheels
- Changed offsets
- Adjusted bag setup
- Steering rack bushings

My next part will include:
- Cruise control delete
- Emissions partial delete
- Projector retrofit & Joey-mod
- Wood or upholstered floor
- Seamless air tank from Specialty Suspension
- Subwoofer installation
- Front dual-camber adjustment + 2nd set of rear adjustable lateral links

Let me know if I should take pictures for any of these for those who are interested. If you would like to see pictures of suspension configuration or anything else, hit me up

Maintenance stuff includes:
- New axles + seals
- Tie rods
- Ball joints

 

 

I'd be curious to find out how your suspension set up rides compared to my stock springs with replacement Sachs struts. If you've ever watched UK Top Gear and they do one of their trips with a cheapo used car, inevitably someone changes their suspension and then says "I've ruined it." That's kinda how I feel with the Sachs struts. The only thing I can compare it to was having Tokico Blues on my '91 GXE, oh, probably 15 years ago now and my memories of the Blues where more postive. The Sachs give way on big, harsh bumps but everything else is minimal and VERY faithfully reads the road surface with stiff rebound control...they're STIFF and rear is a bit bouncy. Of course she still gradually leans quite a bit in turns (not a surprise given the skimpy sway bars) but I'd just be curious to feel how your car rides by comparison.

 

@delerium75 Similar to coils, when I go too low I lose a lot of ride quality. There is a sweet spot for my ride height where everything feels super smooth, but yet sporty in turns and dips. I have KYBs in front with double bellows & pillow ball top hats w/ camber adjustment so there is some noise and stiffness there. In the rear are aero sport bags with economy Gabriel inserts that are quite bouncy when extremely low. I keep my "drive" height conservatively low with 1" wheel gap to keep the front and rear stiff. My "highway" setting is about 15psi higher all around to handle potholes & dips but would becomes really stiff. The "show" height leaves almost no gap but I would never drive over 30mph.
If anything, I would try to find the CUSCO sway and upgrade the rears to Tokico or at least KYBs. I regret saving a few bucks for the Gabriels. In summary, I like the air option as it rides better than stock without the floaty boat cruise feeling. In the future, I will probably get some coils with adjustable dampening for better ride quality and a little more play with height.