australian lada niva forum

gday all, ive been a fan of the niva for a while and now ive finally got one, upgrades are wanted instantly. had anybody actually converted (actually done and not just seen a vid on youtube) the niva to a solid front end? ive got a diff lined up from a shorty patrol but just to know if its worth it. or would it be better to just get some good springs?

ive talked the niva up to my bro who has a nissan navara with a converted front end and its running fox racing shox an blah blah, just want to be better than him.... and the friend with the jeep who also thinks his the best, lol.

thoughts and ideas people, throw em at me.
probably worth mentioning that the car has konis all round and 'ironman' ? springs, i think its maybe an inch higher with the 30s too but i want monster looking.

thanks all, sime. (pics coming asap)

If you want a small, shaking,rattleing,hot in summer,oddball, vibrating, fuel sucking, not fast, inefficent, head turning, made in a weird country four wheel drive with a solid front end buy a series 1 landrover bro.

Hi Sime,

Mate I'll be doing this to one of my baby's hopefully sooner before later. If done correctly there's no way it won't ride as well as it can - very well.

I'm not sure if it will be worth the effort involved for the return due to it being a SWB and working so well out of the factory, Depends on what and how you drive really - but I'll find out! So should you!

The hardest thing will be getting the geometry right and where to mount your links. I'd replace the rear at the same time and use some wide toyota or nissan diffs. Remember the Lada isn't and can't be a rockcrawler - It's just to small and will want to roll. You wont be able to lift it too high unless countering the lift with width.

My plan is to use custom made housings that will place my wheels outside the guards and have a track width of around 1650-1750mm . This will make her awesomely stable and make room for some 35's.

sounds like you got some real sweet plans on the horizon. if i were to put a custom diff i would make it wider anyway, hack out the gaurds screw up some flares and a slightly altered appearance will get me further, i dont care if it looks bad, i didnt buy a 600 dollar car for the looks.

im thinking that ill use the radius arms and alot of the set up off a wrangler because it couldnt be much bigger at the front end. maybe do some extending at the rear too if need be to keep it balanced and have a nice lift. just gotta get some quoting done now. its hard when the valiant in the driveway is your first project, and your building one car for racing and one for off road.

ill let yous all know how i go. sime.