Just about sorted out. The conversion is done, I just need to get the wheel alignment done properly and hopefully get a full set of steering angle stats out of them at the same time (i.e castor & camber @ differnt amounts of lock)

My car- 1978 ute

The bits I used:

early 80's stanza struts with alloy girlock calipers & 245mm solid rotors. (Pre 7/1979 stanzas had the crap calipers so stear clear of these)

Lovell super low stanza springs

monroe gas shocks (came with the struts but presumably std. stanza ones)

stanza brake hoses

Stanza Lower Control Arm's

120Y radius rods & sway bar

nolothane bushes all round.

14x6" wheels (+30 offset) with 185/60 R14 yokies

standard twin resivoir master cylinder with the check valve removed from the front circuit.

My rear brakes needed an overhaul as well, so I replaced the wheel cylinders with coupe ones (smaller piston diameter) to ensure they didnt lock first. There is a bit of debate over weather this is required or not. Easy enough to try it without and then change them if they lock before the fronts.

Summary of the conversion-

The good:
Good basic conversion- gives a massive improvement over the drums, but it won't have you outbraking any porsche's into turn 3.

Can be done without replacing any brake lines, changing the master or adding a power booster.

Feels pretty good on the road- the ride is solid and businesslike but won't rattle your teeth out, there is very little body roll & I have not yet hit the bump stops. The stanza shockies seem to be a good match with everything else.

Gives a reasonable pedal feel but not perfect.


The bad:

There are several MAJOR limitations of this conversion if you are in Australia and want to keep things legal.

You are supposed to maintain 2/3 of your bump clearance which means that my ute is about as low as you are supposed to go. The bottom edge of the headlights are at 525mm, and there is heaps of clearance underneath the car so it could be dropped a fair bit further (to 500mm which is the minimum for the bottom edge of the headlight) but with this conversion, you would run out of bump clearance.

The other major issue is trackwidth. in most states you are not supposed to increase it by more than 25mm total without engineering approval (although you're not supposed to mix & match brakes without engineering either ) Final trackwidth depends on the offset of the wheels you choose, but with a +30 offset, my trackwidth came in at 1290mm: about 50mm over standard. Because I have one of the later utes, my standard LCA's have the same bolt pattern as the stanza for the bottom ball joint, so I can put the stock LCA's back in to get a 1270mm trackwidth which is probably close enough to standard argue the case.

BUT- there may be positive camber issues if I go back to that setup.

There may be a reasonable arguement to consider the front end of the car 120y spec equvalent instead of 1200. in that case It may be within the regs because presumably the 120y has a wider front end due to longer LCA's. either way the track increase is immediatley noticeable when you look at the car so you would have to get a pretty slack inspector not to pick it.

This conversion also adds significantly to unsprung weight- 16.5 kg to 22 kg per corner.

The Ugly:

EDIT: The steering arms on the stanza struts are longer than the 1200 ones. the stanza steering arms are 146mm &1200/ 120y ones are138mm they have different bolt spacing and cannot be interchanged., so steering rate is decreased slightly, plus or minus any bump steer issues associated with this kind of change.

Other notes:-

The 14X6" (+30) rims & 185 tyres I used left me with 7mm tyre to strut clearance, so theoretically a 195/50 R15 should fit with this setup with around 2mm clearance (perhaps a bit more because the bulge will be further up). 195/50 R15 are almost exactly the same diameter as 185/60 R14 so no other worries there. Both of these options are a fair bit bigger than the 155/80R12's though 553mm vs 576 or 578mm.

The guards needed to be rolled for clearance at the top, trimmed slightly at the front and pumped about 10mm.

Finding 15" rims that will fit and will look good on it is a major headache (which is why I settled for 14") I also noticed that there is a fair bit of difference between different rims- one 15 x 6" +40 (hyperfang) will clear the strut (without tyres) with a few mm, whereas a 15x6" +35 (blade) only had a couple more mm of clearance than the +40. I am not sure why this is- presumably just differences in rim wall thickness- but make sure you check the rims on the strut with tyres before you buy them!!! I almost had some "RJR Racer" rims 15x6 +35 ordered in, because on paper they should fit, but looking at the clearances on the car with the current rims I reckon I would have had to use spacers.

6.5" rims pretty much can't happen with this conversion, whereas they can with a R31 conversion.


And before there are any smartar$es no- I wasn't ever considering putting blade or hyperfang wheels on it.... although I was so pissed off with looking that I almost went for 13" jellybeans at one point.

All in all I am pretty positive about this conversion at the moment- but I have not decided yet weather to run it past the authorities or not. My attitude may well change If I get a sticker that matches my paintwork.

Hope this is useful to a few people