Hello all...I am a bit of an OG here but don't post much but I picked up a 98 Silver GS400 in February for a new daily driver and have been back on here at times. I have a but of a car collection going now and I tend to overmod my daily drivers and replace them with a new daily. It's kind of a sickness but it's what I do. Let me say that I picked this up at a steal of a price. It has high miles (236k) but has maintenance records and 2 owners. It appears to be garage kept and has also had the timing belt and water pump service done at 220k. When I picked it up all the tires were badly worn and the caster arm bushings and ball joints were making noises. I knew I had to address this first for safety so I picked up a set of replacement arms from Sewllparts to save me the hassle of pressing in new ones. I also picked up moog lower balljoints and outer tie rods. Here is a pic of the car the day I got it.



I am in the wheel and tire business so I threw on some tires we had laying around on the factory 17s until I could get to my next move. I had some Kinesis K59 19x10 / 19x11.5 in my garage that I've owned for 6 years. I originalyl had them on my 04 350z that I put back to stock and sold nearly 3 years ago. I knew I would get another car that I could fit these on and I love the wheels so much that I never sold them. Here is a pic of my old 350z.



When I ran them on my 350z, I ran a fat setup. 275/30-19 up front and 305/30-19 in the rear rolled fenders. This were by no means "stretched and poked" they were all business. I test fitted them on a buddys bagged GS300 about 2 years ago just to see how they fit.



Needless to say I liked the results. I went back and forth about doing air on this car but I already have a vehicle with air ride and I am working on another...and I just sold my most recent daily that was on air ride and came to the conclusion to just do coilovers and dump it. There was a very cheap brand new AIR RUNNER kit on craigslist that I had my eyes on and believe me, it was tough not to pull the trigger. Once I accumulated all my suspension parts, I was ready to get busy.



I went with the typical Megan EZs. Why not? Two good friends have them, they ride great and I wont be autocrossing. I also picked up Megan adj traction arms and toe links. I started at 7am this past Saturday morning at my shop. I already knew these wheels were going to be aggressive and as high of hopes as I had to run perhaps a 285 out back, I am realistic and went ahead and mounted some 255/35-19s on the rears and 235/35-19s up front. I am lucky to have a stockpile of various sizes of 19s so I can play with tire size as much as I want. Let me also say that I do not know the offset of the wheels. When I bought them for the 350z they were custom built for an 03 Cobra and the guy said they rubbed and he didn't want to run them. I just test fitted them to the car then and they fit perfect so I didn't ever care to measure the offset. The same applies now. They ARE going on the car so I still don't care about the offset LOL. After installing the coilovers at the height they are set at straight out of the box the rear tires sat directly on the fender lips...which I was prepared for. So I broke out the 3" 120 degree grinder and also a big 6" grinder with 40 grit pads. About an hour each side and some very tired arms I shaved the fenders to the max.



Once that was done I sat the car down off the lift and was very satisfied. I think the car sits perfect at this height so far although it may be a two seater at this point. Right now I am stretched and flush, not poking. I plan on having the rear fenders pulled a bit. Up front I tucked the plastic behind and bent the two tabs up and all seems to be well so far. Since I have 19" tires in 265,275,285,295...I plan to move wider over time as I play with it almost like gauging your ears. I am able to machine the back side of the mounting flange of the wheel if I need to move it in as well. We will see.



Here is a comparison of before and after. I apologize for the pics, the are iPhone / instagram pics.



Also added a new shifter. I am very pro 2nd ammendment LOL and I needed a new shift **** as the factory one was very worn.



I am getting an alignment and mild fender pull this week and also need to strip the faded tint and retint soon. I will update soon.

 

Have one more pic, and I will get better pics soon.

 

oh hewl yeah man those wheels hella hooked it up

 

liking the fitment can i see more close up on the rear fitment...
and can you explain the sanding down process you did

 

I'll get more pics this week. The grinding down process is just that...alot of grinding. Having the right tools is a must of using tape is a must. There are different ways to do it, some use a band saw or a belt sander but I found these 2 grinders (120 degree grinder with 3" disc holder with green roloc and an air sander with a 6" disc and a 40 grit abrasive) to be the easiest. I alternated between the 2 but the 6" is better for getting a nice uniform, even shave on the fender lip. 2 tips: wear eye protection and keep moving, you dont want to grind too long in one spot.

 

wow man wheels look good man! its always good to have those resources, lol my backyard is like a rims shop lol rims and tires laying everywhere.

 

I'm the new owner of this GS4 so I thought I'd update the status of this car.

LOL my car has adjst. Megan traction arms? Or did you replace them when you sold it to me? Can't recall if you mentioned. The dealer mentioned I needed new ones soon as the ones on there now (the rears, right?) have torn boots/bushings.

I gotta say man, the height the car was at when I got it was completely undrivable over DFW roads -- the suspension at max stiffness sounded like I would break stuff if I hit a simple ripple on the highway. Then again it is back on 17" factory wheels as you had it at the time, so that may have hurt the ground clearance but the stiffness,, meh. I've got it raised about 1" and stiffness on 3 clicks out and it's much better. The car definitely needed some maintenance that you may have been unaware of; suspension, engine, etc.

Had to replace the front UCA and looks like you may have been driving with no rear sway bar LOL -- the end link bolt was gone on one side so I replaced the whole link. Gotta do the rest of the 3 endlinks. Still gotta replace the rear control arms as the bushings are worn and the car apparently won't hold alignment.

Got the timing belt and a/c compressor done in October and thankfully so -- the wp was leaking, the tensioner was out and cam seals shot. And it's been trouble free since, but I'm paying the price for an old car with maxed suspension travel over the miles it drove with that drop you had I believe, hehe. However, the reason I bought it was because the clean interior and the muffler delete -- much to the dismay of my wife. The drone's annoying around a red light but damn sounds sweet. I actually clocked the car 0-60 just at 6.45 seconds. Not bad for 249k miles.

Did you get a new GS again? I thought I saw a stock one not a few weeks ago on I35 and the driver looked like you LOL.

The car as sits now:
Factory chrom 17"s on 225/45 tires. Actually had to get 2 new rear tires last month after one ballooned and blew out... hmm.