As I’ve documented on this forum before I got kind of stift by the auction company and the previous owner of my 77 280z. The frame rails are rusted and need replacement to pass inspection and something is wrong with the rear suspension. I’m trying to not spend too much money at the moment but still want good parts that will stay on the car trough out the build as doing thing twice costs more in the long run.

I will have to take the car to a body shop to get the frame rails welded so I’ll be looking to get pre made frame rails to save on labor cost. That gives me two choices, 1,5mm thick reproduction rails from KF vintage or the 3mm thick rails from Apex. The KF rails are send trough a warehouse in Spain so that saves a lot on import cost for me but the Apex rails are twice as thick which may give the almost 50 year old car some much needed strength and rigidity. Does anybody have the Apex rails on there car and how are they holding up?

As for the rear suspension the question is if it is the chassis itself that’s crooked or something in the suspension. As I can’t find many stories of bend chassis online I’ll take the bet that it’s the rear suspension. That means I’ll have to look for adjustable rear control arms. That way even if the chassis itself is a little bit crooked I can tune it out for now till the car will be fully restored. Again that search let me back to Apex, there was also Silver Project from Europe which was a lot cheaper but I don’t hear much good from them. Has anybody installed the rear (or front) control arms from Apex with mostly stock suspension?

I currently have a list of products form Apex which interests me and I’ll probably wait till Black Friday to see if they got any good deals. I don’t know if I’ll order everything but the frame rails and rear control arms I’ll probably order. This is what I’m interested in at the moment:

- Frame rails

- Rear control arms

- Fender brace (If the car gets welded anyway, why not)

- Rear strut brace

- Front control arms

- Low profile outer tie rods (I run 15” atm)

- Inner tie rods (because of the threat difference)

- Steering knuckles

All combined should give the chassis and suspension a nice upgrade and the adjustability I need to get the car on the road. I do plan on keeping the four lug setup and the coilovers that are currently on the car. I do like there coilovers but That may be too much money for now. Yesterday I contacted Apex Engineered with some questions and they claim that the suspension components I’m looking at do work with the stock components.

Are there people on here running Apex components (except the track attack kits) and what is your opinion on them.

*note: this is a copy of my threat on HybrideZ

Making the frame rails alot thicker changes the handling characteristics of the chassis. It also moves the potential failure points. Unless you plan on running tremendous power I wouldn't expect thicker frame rails to be necessary

I put Apex front and rear control arms on my car this year, along with BC coilovers, and am loving the setup. Their control arms are very well built and provide a lot of adjustment (more than I need for a fun backroads car). If you do get the rears, I'd skip on the dust boots. It was impossible to tighten up the hardware without destroying the boots.