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I contacted the seller and he'll do it in solid black without the logo so I've ordered it. I'll post some picks when I get it. I've ordered an alacantara boot for the gear stick and handbrake aswell off ebay - hopefully a pretty cheap upgrade of the low rent interior that is the only thing that makes me want to sell the Z Somehow if you think the Zed interior is "low rent" how is a cheap upgrade going to make it any better? I think you may find that by seeing the joins in the stick on stuff its gonna make it look worse (personally I dont think it looks too bad and not low rent, seen lots that are worse!) and not flow... Also if it dosnt fit right its not going to help. What colour shift boot did you go for? And are you going to fit the bits that fit ontop of the centre console? Fair point and it may not work out but I think it's worth a punt for £100 (and the seller offers a refund within 30 days minus 15%) as I've wanted to try and improve it for ages. I'm planning to see which bits work and what doesn't out of the kit, I expect using all of it will be overkill. The gear shift I've ordered is black alacantara. 'Low rent' is probably a bit harsh but I just wish there were affordable cars with nice interiors. I think there should be an option for sensibly priced cars like the Z to spec a luxury interior from the factory for say a grand or so. The GTR interior is far more like it so they can do it!

I contacted the seller and he'll do it in solid black without the logo so I've ordered it. I'll post some picks when I get it. I've ordered an alacantara boot for the gear stick and handbrake aswell off ebay - hopefully a pretty cheap upgrade of the low rent interior that is the only thing that makes me want to sell the Z

I've emailed the seller and they can do the kit in solid black aswell. Very tempted by this. Have you got a retracting cubby lid and if so does it still work?

The iPhone is fussy with chargers (somthing to do with needing some other pins of the USB cable to recieve a charge that older cheap chargers don't have and that were added with iPhone.) I've got this and works perfectly for a few quid. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Car-Cigarette-Lig ... 3ca9134e76

lots of great tips on here! For monkeys, if your not too worried about them being snow monkeys, they also have them in Nikko. I got stalked by a family of them after my food whilst I waited for a bus. They are up in the mountains just by the town where theres a beautiful lake and waterfall. About a 15 minute bus ride. For getting into tokyo, the guides also say to take the limousine bus but I found that as my hotel was in Shinjuku, there is a JR train that goes straight there that was faster, easier and almost as cheap. Plus it'll give you a chance to get your JR rail pass that you'll need to explore tokyo. One more tip thats a bit geeky and seems rediculous in the age of the iPhone is taking a compass. Everyone says how easy it is to get lost - but just knowing which way north is with the street map in hand makes it soooo much easier.

Hi Jak, I went a couple of months ago with the gf and loved it. If your planning on going to Tokyo, the Time Out guide is very good. I had quite a few of them and was by far the best. Found a great hotel from Trip advisor (http://www.oakwood.com/serviced-apartme ... p6921.html) Its actually apartments but is cheaper than a hotel and more convenient. It even has a bar on the top floor called the sky lounge thats great for a cheap night. Whilst Tokyo is great, if your there for 2 weeks you'll run out of stuff to do and want to do some trips out and I cannot recommend enough hiring a GTR (http://www.senkei.net/eng/yamagaso.html) which is apparently where Tokyo goes to relax. We also went to Nikko which will give you a full fix of temples. You need never see a temple again. I probably sound too enthusiastic about everything but really did have an awesome time. I'd recommend trying as much new stuff as possible -food and even things like maid bars - very weird but very Japanese. Finally. I really hope you like fish.

I just got back from a 10 day roadtrip round europe and absolutely loved it. Maybe this'll give you a few ideas... 5 people, 3 cars, me in a zed and others in a Cayman S and an alfa 147 2.0. We took eurotunnel and then stopped off overnight in Dijon for mustard and to break up the trek to the south of france. From here we went to Eze in the south of france which is halfway between nice and Monaco so was a good base for a night out at each. The drive to get here was epic. Route Napolean is a must although watch out for the Gendamerie. They weren't keen on English drivers giving it some beans and I paid the price with a trip to the police station and 270 euros in fines so watch out! Then on into Italy (with a tyre blowout / very fast punture on route) to go to lake como just north of Milan which is really beautiful and nice to relax after some heavy nights. From here we hit Zurich which was rubbish imho but was worth the visit just to drive through the Swiss alps ( even on the space saver wheel.) The Splugen pass was a real highlight - and seems to be where all the awesome roads in ads are from. Zurich was also good for new tyres but at a price - 1000euros for 2 tyres!!!!! And they only had goodyear eagle F1s which means I can't get matching fronts. From here to Germany, a town called Adernach where we had a great night on the beers and close to the Nurburgring. This however was closed due to severe fog which was absolutely gutting. Then finally a weekend in Amsterdam - less said about that the better , and then ferry back from there to Harwich. I had a bit of a run of bad luck but still loved it. Costs can get high pretty quickly so it's worth making sure you got some overdraft of credit cards just incase and RAC breakdown cover was an absolute life saver. Also - take your V5 - the gendamerie wanted to see it and would have been a further fine without. Highlights that you should try and cram in - probably some sun in the south of france, french alps for roads and swiss alps for views and finally lake como and amsterdam to unwind.

The credit card like slot is definatley for toll cards. I was driving in Japan on holiday in June. It is for the barriers that open so fast you don't have to slow down. I didn't have one.... which was a great excuse to test out the 0-60 claims for the GTR every few junctions

Thanks Sarnie. I've been in touch with Glen who's just got back from hiring a car!! very helpful.

I'm off to Japan in a month and I'm going to hire a GTR http://www.premium-rent.com/en/cartypes.php The plan is to get it for 24hrs and do a day trip out of Tokyo and drive back in the following morning having got some gratuitous shots in the car with Mount Fuji in the background. Has anyone driven in Japan and does anyone know where I could get an english sat nav with Japan maps. Google's not finding much. I'm a bit nervous to say the least and can't imagine getting far without a sat nav

The panasonics are generally the best from reviews I have read - but they cost a fortune. For nearly the same experience for far less you can't go wrong with a Samsung. Also - on the whole plasma / lcd debate it all depends on what you want to use it for. If its lots of films and standard resolution TV plasmas are generally better. If its hooking it up to your pc and playing computer games the LCD screens are better suited.

I've been googling about this, this morning and from what I can tell cigarette lighters are not a great place to get your power and I need to either change the ground for the cigarette lighter to the connection used by the stereo or not use the cigarette lighter at all and power it from the stereo's power feed. If that fails I'll try a surpressor. Prevention is better than cure..... I think?!

I'm about to set off in the zed for a decent blast but am dreading using the 7" satnav I intsalled into the cubby hole a while ago. Works a treat but is ruined by annoying alternator whine over the (stock) stereo. I've given up trying to convince myself it's similar to supercharger whine I presume the grounding is poor and thats leading to the problem but I don't know where to start to improve things. The satnav is connected through the front cigarette lighter. Any suggestions of where to start - perhaps a grounding kit? Anyone else with the same problem and fixed it? pictures always make a post better, relevant of not so heres a video playing through the satnav

I use these but you need to get the format and resolution right. you can find them both on google image search and then resize them and change the format with something like Photo shop or the MS office picture editior. heres one up and running on startup

Very cool! What do you think about the mother board mod? Do you feel it would work? If you mean the tape deck hack as described above - it worked a treat.

I did this mod a few weeks ago and worked a treat for me too. I also bought an ipod dock connector cable that goes to usb, audio and video plus a cigarette lighter multiplug with usb power output so my ipod is also charged whilst in the car and the video feed goes to my satnav. links for cable etc http://www.sourcingmap.com/audio-video- ... 23285.html http://www.sourcingmap.com/universal-us ... 12352.html

if you don't mind getting your hands dirty this a cheap option that worked well for me http://www.350z-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16514 I think all of the people with proper systems just put an extra screen in the cubby hole as space is pretty tight.

I used the cigarette lighter in the front but I don't see why you couldn't tap into a feed from elsewhere.

Chris 'I - Whilst I remember - for the Igo 8 files you need to edit the zip files 'data' and 'branding' using winrar to replace the loading.bmp file and add your files to the background folder within 'data' for the wallpaper for your given resolution. You can add as many as you like. You can't simply extract and rezip the files for some reason. I used Paintshop for resizing etc so you can use any image you like aslong as its changed to .bmp and the right resolution.

yes - i did a check before I screwed it all back down to make sure it hadn't popped out and I'm not planning on taking it out again too often.... Although - have you had any trouble with electrical whine from your stereo whilst the satnav is charging. I get it and it is either the cigarette lighter power cable or the unit itself. It has an effect on all the source channels on my bose headunit. It's not too bad but annoying once you notice it. It completely goes as soon as you disconnect the power cable and let it run from batteries. I might have to investigate some shielding...

- just looked at my post. the table cloth is seriously offensive. Not mine. honest.

Chris`I - as requested these are the files however mine are in bmp format which can't be posted up so if you want those pm me your email 350srl - if you have any probs with gps signal like I had (probably from my second rate workmanship) one of these sorts it out a treat for a tenner - http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod ... &U=strat15 Here's a few pics of my install - line in for ipod Dubious use of the top of a herb pot to make a speaker enclosure to improve volume and quality of GPS's speaker loading screen finished install ipod video feed a lot of gaffer tape background (sorry it's a bit blurry)

I installed one of these during the week and I'd second leaving the batteries on. Also - I don't think it's worth trying to rig up an auto power on as you won't want it on all the time and with a press of the power button it comes up in a second from hibernation. I'm finishing mine off today - a few extra bits I added: - Doing the Ipod tape deck hack to get a line in for my bose headunit. I then soldered in the component output of my ipod to the AV-in so I can now watch films on the display. They come up automatically if you turn on the auto reverse camara feature. - Put in a cigarette lighter splitter that includes a usb socket so that my ipod is charged whilst it's connected. - bought an external GPS aerial as I couldn't get a great satellite signal. - Changed a few files with the Igo 8 sat nav software so that it shows a nissan logo at startup and then a 350z background when you use it. - changed my cubby hole to a retracting type but got one that was the wrong colour (silver) and set on changing the front trim over from my old one. This is not easy and was a really stupid idea. Will get some pics up soon. A word of warning - there ends up being quite a lot of soldering - if your rubbish at it like me then get on the internet and read how your meant to do it as it REALLY helps. Finally - thanks nurrish for doing the initial hard work on this. Your pics were invaluable. I'm very pleased with the results.

Having not owned my zed for long I'm already considering a few mods and i can't help but think the interior could be improved a bit. Nothing too radical so that it looks like it could have been factory fit. I like this - I think retriming the dash on either side of the centre console would look Has anyone done anything like this?

Slightly impulsively I bought one of these the other night because it looked exactly what I've been looking for and i love a project! Nurrish - do you know if you can see the device if you hook it up to a pc? I fancy doing a custom 350Z UI. Would be very cool if possible.