Pete’s GS400 Build Thread by Sevenevez

7 minute(s) of a 283 minute read

2-8-2013

so, i own a record label endless productions and this is my logo

My buddy in Hawaii used to own "emblem art" and owed me a favor. he makes custom one-off emblems for cars and laced me up with my epi logo for the whip.

should look legit once i pop it through and lay it on

Thanks Marc!

2-11-2013

Here's my "one-off" emblem installed

2-12-2013

ok, HERE WE GO! Time to bring the GS4 down to Sea Level.

Last weekend I installed the Ball Joints and Megan EZ Coilovers.

Before i start, i want to say thanks to my partner in crime Adam.

He and i have done a LOT on vehicles over the past and its always a pleasure gettin down at his farm house on a project. So thanks for the help Adam.

How long did it take? One full day. From about 8am to 8pm. 

Having a friend to help and Power Tools are not a necessity but definitely speeds up the process exponentially.

First Ball Joint took about an hour. Second was like 15 minutes. First coilover installed was about 30 minutes the rest were like 20 minutes to do each. If you wonder why it took till 8pm, here is the reason. We must have jacked it up and took the wheels off and reset the height 20 times before we got the height i wanted.

ok, here is the LAST picture of my car at the height it used to be at.

Good Lawd i can't believe i thought that height was decent! Terrible

Bout to do Work Son!

Since there are plenty of DIY's on Ball Joints i only have one picture just so you guys know to take out this small black screw on your Moog's and screw the Zerk fitting in. Then take a grease gun and squeeze about 2-3 triggers of grease into that bad boy. Adam has done ball joints before, so even though i had the DIY's handy we did them slightly different and it went pretty fast.

Knowing once it was dropped that we wouldnt even be able to get out Low-Profile jacks under it, we whipped up some quick wooden ramps to drive her up on

Someone said to make sure i figure out what springs were on the car previously.

And here they are. Looks like Eibach Pro-Kit Springs on KYB Struts.

Difference in size/length

First Rear Installed. This is your Damper knob to adjust the amount of soft or stiffness / travel. FYI: I messed with it and found 2 clicks from Full Hardness worked best when it was all said and done.

This is the level they were at from the factory without adjusting their height at all. Lower than the Eibach's but not low enough for me.

As you can see, the fender was JUST about touching the tire. So i knew i was going to be doing some cutting / shaving to the fenders.

I didnt put the tape there to protect the paint, but to give me a solid white line to follow as i was getting a clean cut.

Adam gettin at the cut!

Pretty clean shave almost an inch of metal off.

Smoothing off the ruff metal burr's

This tool right here is SO dang handy. Adam found it in the garbage somewhere i think. I have used it to tighten center caps, unscrew pesky Oil Filters and it made easy work of twisting the barrel of the coilover up and down. I saw a video where they used their bare hands to do it. Hewl naw. haha. Also do not jack the car up by the rear arm that the coilover is screwed into or the pressure will be too tight. Use your jack points.

Every time we lowered it we took a measurement of how much farther it needed to go down. Then measured that on the coilover and wrapped tape around it so once it was cranked down and hit the tape we knew we were at the level. Eyeballing it can have all of them at bad different heights. Tape worked well to keep them all even. Also, seems if we felt a 1/4 inch was the amount, the final result was slightly more once we dropped it. You will get used to it.

This is NOWhere near as low as these Megan's can go and this is hella low for rollin

BURP!

This was too low for comfortable rollin. But cool to see nonetheless.

Shock tower was banging and turning the wheel was rubbing on the fronts.

And Wa-Laaa! Here's the height i ended up going with.

After my 60Mile drive home i cleaned her up and took pics before the Sun Set.