I plan on tackling the task of rebuilding my front end fairly soon and I figured that those of you that have done this project would be the best place to start my inquiries...so thanks in advance for your assistance! My guidance so far has been this thread which I am greatly appreciative of:

https://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-...ion-parts.html

First a little background on the car: It's a 2003 G35 6MT coupe with approx. 185k miles. Absolutely nothing has been replaced on the front suspension with the exception of putting 350z springs and new shocks on at approx. 175k miles. Needless to say, it's a tad bit overdue for some TLC! I guess it should also be noted that I have no interest in slamming the car, road course driving, etc...just a good ol' daily driver.

The problem: I "bumped" (aka ran up on...lol) a curb rather hard on the passenger side, popped the tire and, from the way it's driving and sitting, evidently bent some suspension parts. I'm not sure what exactly "bent" but I can see that the LCA bushings are done (both sides). The passenger side is pushed all the way to the rear and the driver side is pushed all the way to the front. Also notice that the passenger side bushing "housing" is way bent (see pic) thanks to the "bump". I'm prepared to replace the parts listed in the aforementioned thread and I'd rather do it all at once while it's apart rather than replace something, check it, replace something else, check it again, etc. When it's on the ground, the passenger side front tire is like \ (meaning the tire bottom protrudes more than the top). I've already purchased (but not yet installed) Kinetix upper A-arms rather than the oem's to give the front some adjust-ability when it comes to alignments and tire wear.

My questions:
1) With new oem LCA's and compression rods, should I just go ahead and replace all of those oem bushings with aftermarket ones before they go in the car to alleviate all of the probs with the oem bushings? Seems like a good idea right? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure right?

2) Since pretty much everything is coming off and then going back on, what's the best/preferred disassembly/reassembly order?


Thanks for sharing your knowledge guys...not just on this thread but with the whole G/Z community! It's much appreciated! Please let me know if anyone needs any additional information.

 

From what I've read about aftermarket bushings is that they can be as clunky as hell... Your best bet would just to repress in bushings that are OEM if you want that OEM feel. You can find them cheap on eBay.

As for disassembly, http://psedog.com/cars/fsm/g35/

 

I'm currently overhauling the suspension on my G and I came across the same problem with the front crossmember.




I tried to get the damn thing to straighten out. I tried a prybar, i tried to hammer it straight, i ever torched it and tried to bend it again. The thing it thick!!! I am going to try to get it higher up in the air and try something with alot more leverage. I did it on the ground the first time around. If it won't budge I will have to replace the crossmember along with steering bushings and motor/trans mounts. I'm rolling around with one side upgrade and the other stock.

If you are going to replace your LCA bushings, it is cheaper to purchase a core set and bushings than it is to buy new. I went with the SPL inner/Whiteline outer combo and it is great. There is no added noise and the car feels really solid on the passenger side. My friend just did a whiteline/whiteline combo and that also feels great. I wouldn't bother going with an aftermarket compression bushing. The revised stock ones are great and OE spec replacements are very inexpensive. You might as well replace the ball joints while everything is off.

 

What I ended up doing in order to straighten that sucker out somewhat is use a plumbers wrench and floor jack.

Put the wrench end on the bent part (small end actually "in" the housing and handle "outside" the housing) and snug it up pretty good so it gets a good bite on the metal.

Set the handle end in the cup of a floor jack. Start raising the floor jack and the wrench will really bite into the metal and you'll basically be using leverage to help straighten it out as you lift the jack up.

Hope that makes sense. It worked for me and was relatively easy. If I need to take a pic of how I did it to help clarify, let me know and I'll try to get one (but I'm sure you can figure it out without one).

 

WOW! Thank you. I gave up that day and haven't tried. I will give it a shot when I get some free time. Yours looks worse than mine so I hope it works easily.

 

It's really easy. As long as you get the plumbers wrench on there pretty deep and tight (which you might end up having to do a little at a time), just set the other end in the jack and let the jack do the work.

 

How long of a plumbers wrench did you use?

 

Ehhh it's maybe a 12" wrench or so...not a small wrench but definitely not one of those monster wrenches. Mine is just a regular ol' Kobalt plumbers wrench from Lowes but any ol' plumbers wrench and floor jack combo should do the trick.

 

Trying it today, I will report back.

 

Never had a single clunk. People just don't grease them properly or they use the wrong grease. Polyurethane is the only way to go on the G/Z.

OEM will be bad again in 6months.

 

Have you done this overhaul yet? If not I'll give my opinion.

First, you're smart to do it all at once. Also, the kinetix upper control arms are a great choice. Those are my favorite UCAs. So as far as a parts list for everything you should change I'd go ***** out with:

Kinetix UCAs
Energy or whiteline poly bushings in both LCA positions as well as in your compression rods.
Steering knuckle ball joints
New compression rods (because of irreplaceable ball joints)
SPC or Eibach rear camber arms and SPC eccentric toe bolts.

Nothing should need to be in any particular order other than the UCAs should go up first.

Again I will reiterate that it is best to do everything at once or you'll be taking everything apart multiple times. Also, if you were planning on doing shocks/springs/coils anytime soon, I'd suggest throwing those in too. And if you wanted to go next level get some Hotchkiss sways and whiteline sway bar end links.