i need to shorten my struts badly, as at the moment i will only have a tiny bit of travel because of how low i need it to be.
questions.
1- how much travel is needed to keep it from bottoming out all the time.(i want the suspension to be fairly stiff)and keeping in mind it has flares on front to fill up with 15inch rims 215/50 tyres so it has to sit reasonably low. i dont want to look like a jacked up tractor but its not slammed to the ground either
2- how much to shorten them?
3- best shocks to fit?
4- do the spring perches need to be dropped down a little?
5- would i be better off just buying the maddat 200b shortend struts and use those?

1- travel (compression and extension) will vary. compression on how stiff the shock you end up with is in comparison to the weight of the car, extension on how short the shock is.
2- you shorten the strut tube to suit the length of the shock body, usually a little longer than the length of the body so that you can pack under the shock to ensure it screws in tight.
3- shock choice ??? hmmmm ... depends what you're using it for ?? koni yellows ... not cheap tho i'm just using 240z pedders comfort gas. alot stiffer than the 1200 shocks as they're designed for a much heavier load.
4- you can drop the spring seats to lower the car and keep more spring compression/travel rather than getting shorter springs, gives a better ride in regards to harshness and spring bind. only thing with lowering the spring perch is you can only really lower it as much as what you take out of the strut body otherwise you'll be back where you started in regards to bottoming out.
5- no idea on the Maddat kit ?? cant log onto their site still ??

what struts are you using now ?? the 200b struts are shorter than 120y and stanza bodies, the spring seat needs to be changed as it's a bigger dia than the stanza/1200 one, but i think from memory the body is about 40mm lower than the stanza ?...
here's some shock lengths :
stanza insert - 437mm
200b insert - 402mm
240z insert - 378mm
.... so the 240z insert is 59mm shorter than the stanza one



you can see the amount cut out above, when i did mine. you can also get an idea on spring seat location. left is a stanza, right is the chopped one.

hope this gives you a starting point

So do you have the 200b struts fitted yet?

I think my struts have 58mm off the top and then a spacer in the bottom to help with the geometry.

I made coilovers so it could be set however i wanted it.

Use 240sx ( s13) strut inserts.

you might just want to get some that were done by someone that knows how to do it so you don't have a lot of re-dos.

Adding to Boof's advice on lowering the spring perch. If using the stock spring perch, use common sense and put an intended wheel of use, onto the strut and make sure you dont put the perch so low that it now hits the tyre.

thanks guys.
the rims im using have a fair amount od dish, so the height of the spring perch doesent really matter, i could move it a fair way down if i have to.
at the moment with stock strut and shock but springs cut to the height i want it, i only have a few centimeters till it wants to bottom out, i may need to go shorter than 240z shocks.
who else is running a standard type strut (not coilovers) but very low, id be interested to hear what you are running and what sort of travel you have till you bottom out.


oh and i am using 200b struts at the moment.

kinda sounds like you need coilovers to achieve what you want.

I didn't do it because it was cool, it seemed the sanest way to get the car set up.

Hey pepper, im running 200B struts on my 1200 at the moment with modified 1200 spring perches and lowered king springs. Im also running a 15inch rim and it sit nice, but just a little high for what i would like. so im thinking of upgrading to superlows on the front and keep the struts the same.
you might have to go for a set of coilovers to get what you want, then there adjustable and you can fine tune.

yeah its looking that way. i didnt really wanna though.
anyone have a coilover setup layin around they wanna sell that will bolt onto sunny balljoints?
im looking to get something really asap to get the front back on the ground.

next project coilovers for the rear, i'll buy some... needs to work with koni special orange dampers.

If there is plenty of room to put the spring perch as low as you like. What will be the advantage of putting coilovers? All you will get out of it is adjustable height. Its not going to do anything about your shock length being too long, if thats what you believe is the problem.