MattG

They look great, good to see them on a proper colour too. I'm planning on getting the centres on mine painted anthracite but now I'm in two minds as the silver looks really good...

Ah, interesting reading.

The thread makes even less sense than it did before now!

Is it me or have the first two posts in this thread vanished?

Can't hold out any longer - sending a PM now!

I sold a couple of sets of wheels on ebay last year for around £500 each and I was shocked with how much in fees I paid. As others have said it's only worth doing it for cheap items now. The other great change they've made is that as a seller you can no longer leave negative feedback. So the scrote who "won" my item on Sunday, hasn't paid, and is now ignoring my emails, will probably get away with it and there's nothing I can do to alert others to his behaviour. Other than selling stuff on various specialist forums (like this one), are there any decent alternatives to Ebay?

Maybe, but I don't see anyone getting annoyed which is what I assume he's after. Most seem to be just laughing at him! Although if he has to resort to this to get his kicks then maybe we should be pitying him instead? Surely if you were THAT bored and you had a 350z you'd just go out for a spin instead? Perhaps he doesn't have a 350z after all?

As others have said there are plenty of examples of Volk/work/Buddy Club/etc wheels breaking/bending/cracking too. The only reason you might see more reports of Rota failures is because far more people are running them. Rota Wheels have passed the JWL/VIA tests so they can't be that bad can they? To be honest I'm amazed people still swallow that clap trap. Volk make the LMGT4s and they are well know for corroding on the polished lips. Volk also make the optional Rays wheels for the 350z and they are known to have paint finish issues with bubbling paint, etc. Enkei are another really expensive Jap wheel and make the OEM alloys wheels for lots of the major Jap car manufacturers. Their wheels are renowned for bubbling paint finishes and corrosion with tons of MX-5 wheels being replaced under warranty. And we're not talking polished lips here, these are fully painted wheels! I'm not sure who makes the 350z GT4 wheels but there having been lots of stories of those failing in the US, and not just the powder coated ones either. The other day a member on here bought a second hand set of them and found one was buckled. My point is ALL makes of wheels suffer from issues. Given that how good a wheel looks is in the eye of the beholder, the only objective benefit that the expensive forged jap wheels have is a great strength to weight ratio which enables them to be lighter than the cast equivalent. But this is way beyond what 99% of people need or will ever notice in terms of peformance so why pay so much extra for it? As for what you posted on the Rota GTR thread: So Volk haven't ripped off the "classic" 5 spoke design then? Yeah, they were the first to think of that weren't they! Getting an artist to draw a pretty looking wheel is the easy bit, you then have to go away and then do lots of testing to make sure the design has the required strength and weight requirements which involves plenty of testing and modifying the design as the testing dictates. Given that Rota wheels are going to be made up of different alloys to Volks and are cast rather than forged, Rota can't just copy the design and then start making wheels. They have to do all the R&D again for themselves. What makes me laugh is most of the Rota bashing is done by guys driving Jap cars. Do you not realise that the entire basis of the Jap car industry since day one has been ripping off what the Europeans and Americans have been making and then selling it at a cheaper price?! Would the 350z look the way is does if the Audi TT hadn't come first? Better sell it before people start calling you a faker! I ran a couple of sets of Rotas on my previous cars and they were completely fine and great value for money. For my last car I decided to sell the Rotas that came with it and splash out and get a set of brand new Volk CE28Ns to see what all the fuss was about. They cost me £1400 (16") without tyres and I had to wait over 3 months for them. They looked great and were a little lighter than the Rotas but they still corroded under the painted finish (no polished lip) despite being cleaned every week or two. I also didn't notice the benefits of the forged unobtainium alloy despite driving the car about as hard as is sensible on a public road (a 260bhp MX-5 can be driven VERY hard!). Also when I sold them I only managed to get about £450 for them with a set of nearly new Eagle F1s tyres so clearly they aren't as sought after as people make out. Not the wisest investment I've ever made. This time I've decided to get for a set of those 19" GTRs Rarerims are running the GB on. Having tried both sides of the coin I feel I'm making the sensible choice. The money I'm saving will go towards some respray work and maybe even a Shine bodykit (more fakery! ). And I won't have to wait over 3 months for them! For me the title of this thread should be: Expensive jap wheels: worth it? For most people I'm sure the answer is no! The only thing I will agree with you on is that if you do buy replica wheels and then but put Volk/Work/Nismo/etc stickers on them then that does deserve some ridicule. But who really does that? I'll be truly amazed if anyone on here does!

Cheers chaps, much appreciated. Now I can go about replacing my horribly scratched stuff!

Hopefully an easy one. Is the plastic trim in the boot of a 56 plate UK car the same as that of a 53 plate UK car? Specifically the bit that holds the boot light. I know they tarted up the dash trim on the later models but don't know if it extended to the boot trim.

I must admit I'd be a bit nervous about having a wheel straightened but I'm the paranoid type! From what I understand it's a fairly common process in motorsport, especially with rally cars. Take a look at the vids on this page (scroll down): http://www.alloywheelrepairs.net/WheelRepair.html If they can repair that mess yours should be fine!

Sorry to hear that. You'll definitely be covered under paypal unless the ebay ad stated the wheels were buckled (which I'm sure it didn't). You will be entitled to a full refund from the seller.

Thanks for the advice Gaz, I thought as much. Only bought them about a month ago too! Still haven't quite got the knack of planning ahead with my mods sorted! +1 Vultures! A set here ( viewtopic.php?f=32&t=24071 ) sold for £150 delivered recently so I'll do mine for the same. If either of you two guys are seriously interested in them drop me a PM and I'll give you first refusal when they come off.

Thought I might as well drag this back from the dead instead of starting a new thread. I'll be getting some 19" LMGT4s myself soon but I already have some Eibach 20mm spacers fitted with my Rays. Anyone know if the LMGT4s will fit with the spacers or will I get severe arch rubbing? The LMTGT4s will be the usual width and offset, Front 8.5 +25, Rear 9.5 +30, and tyres will be 245/35 front and 275/35 or 285/35 rear. I'm running on standard ride height at the mo but if I had room for a 15-20mm drop in the future that would be nice. If no one has tried this particular combination does anyone know what the width/offset limits are for the Z and I might be able to work it out for myself. Otherwise I'll just have to try it and go for a test drive!

No, but I bought a set of their door pods trimmed in vinyl recently. The shipping was quick but way over the odds so I'd try to negotiate that first. I got one of those strut bar boxes from SonixEnclosures and the shipping for that was less than the door pods from WickedCAS! Didn't really have a choice though as there's no way my CDT ES62i components would fit in the doors. The shipping charges were automatically added by his web site so I'd try emailing them or PM'ing WickedCAS through the US 350 forums (he seems to have a big presence there) and he might be able to do you a better shipping quote. The quality of the pods was pretty good. The fit is ok and the vinyl matches the interior fairly well. I'm tempted to get them properly retrimmed in in leather to match the seats at some point though. I did have to use some chemical metal to fix the fibreglass in a few places. I had to pull the vinyl off and modify them anyway though as the ES62i mid bass drivers were still a tad to large to fit in the pods properly! If I hadn't had to do that I'd would have left them as they came.

Looks great Mark! Glad to see you squeezed the Genny into the stock sub enclosure, I'm hoping to put one of my Dual Monos in there and the other one in the passenger side glove box. Will have to do a test fit now I have them back from Genesis (who did a fantastic job servicing them!). So how is the sound quality then with the amp and sub? Does the sub amd box combo give enough punch? Also do you find the box moves around at all now the sub is installed? Mine has been solid so far but doesn't have a sub in it yet.

Well some of it is to repair some damage on my rear bumper so that wouldn't mean much to anyone who hasn't seen my car. However to remove,respray and refit my front bumper and bonnet to get rid of all the chips they have quoted £495. That includes blowing into the front wings too so the colour matches perfectly. I thought that was ok for a quality job. I've now got to go back to them and ask how much they want for fitting the Veilside urethane front lip and a replica FRP Nismo rear spoiler too. I was also thinking of asking them about wheel refurbishment whilst it's in as the previous owner has absolutely mullered the Rays and it would be handy not having to take it off the road again to get that sorted in the future. I'll update the thread once I've been to see them again, hopefully on Saturday.

I'm going to be using a placed called Newcoat Garage in Dukinfield for some work on my Z. They came recommended to me by a mate of mine. Aside from the usual stuff they do a fair bit of work on classic sports cars worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. The price they have quoted me for a few bits and pieces has been very good so I'll let you know how the work turns out. I'll be getting it booked in as soon as I have my front lip and rear spoiler sorted so it shouldn't be too long. HTH. Matt.

Hi all, After looking at many pictures of Z body kits I've decided to go the subtle route with my Z. The Zerosun kit would have been nice but it's a bit too expensive for me and I don't really want an FRP kit due to the potential headaches involved. So I've decided to just go for a resprayed front bumper with the grill either colour coded or gloss black and a Veilside V1 front lip in urethane and a Nismo V1 rear spoiler. A bit like this one (but my car is Gun Metal): viewtopic.php?p=224060#p224060 I have a few questions though: 1) Is the Nismo V1 spoiler still available (or at least a very good copy)? 2) If yes, is it available in FRP and uerethane or just FRP? I guess it doesn't matter too much if that part is FRP as it won't see much punishment, provided the fit and quality is top notch. 3) Will the oem spoiler leave holes or does the Nismo cover these? Basically will my whole tailgate need a respray if I swap spoilers? My car is an UK GT 53 plate if that has any bearing. 4) Any recommendations for where to get the Veilside and Nismo bits from? I could do with them asap really as my car is going into the bodyshop soon for a few other bits and bobs, although I can reschedule if I have to. Oh and if anyone has any pics of the oem front grill painted GM or black I'd love to see them. Any help would be much apprecaited. Cheers, Matt.

Take a look here: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=23151&start=0 All the info you need plus loads of other stuff to tempt you!

When you manage it, a guide would be useful as they look tricky to get off! There's already a couple of guides floating around, do a search and you should find them.

Glad you got it all sorted Mark, you'll have to let us know how it all turns when it's fitted. I didn't notice that both threads had been started by you so sorry for repeating myself!

I've just posted in this thread about this box and the postage fees: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=23085&p=336536#p336536 I've yet to put the sub in mine (waiting for my Dual Mono amp to come back from having a service at Genesis) but I've installed the box and it's a great fit and doesn't move around whilst driving. That may change when there's a heavy sub in there but I'm sure it won't be too difficult to resolve if it does. Personally I'd go for a single 10" sub. Partly because the box is pretty small (although CDT do some 10" SQ subs that only need 0.4 cuft) and also because you really aren't going to need more than that in two seater like the Z. That's if you want sound quality anyway. If you just want volume then go for the 2 x 12 box! Genesis and JL gear are both great and you can't really go wrong with either. Seen as you already have the Genesis comps I'd be tempted to go for one of their subs and also this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Genesis-Series-3- ... 1|294%3A50 This is a £650 amp new ( http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/genesis ... -6402.html )! It's just been serviced by Genesis too which consists of a full test (and repair if necessary), a full repolish, new birth certificate and a brand new box and manual. Genesis have amazing customer service and will be happy to confirm that when the work was done if you email them the serial number of the amp ( http://www.genesiscaraudio.net/ ). Just get the seller to tell you the number and mail it to Genesis before you bid. Here's the spec for that amp (ST60) http://www.genesiscaraudio.net/amps/spec.html Buying second hand makes a LOT of sense with car audio. You can pick up all sorts of equipment in mint condition for a fraction of what it costs new.

I got one of those a few weeks back and it's a great little box with a perfect fit. Just make sure you buy a sub that is designed for around 0.8 cuft of air and you'll be fine. USPS (United States Postal Service) will most likely be the cheapest to get it sent over, they are the US equivalent of Royal Mail and they hand it over to Parcel Force when it lands in the UK. To get it sent by USPS will be around $100 on top of the price of the box and when you factor in duties and VAT you'll be looking at around £150 for the box delivered to your door (+ or - £10 or so depending on the exchange rate). Mine came to about £160 all in but the interest rate is a bit better for Brits at the moment. So not the cheapest but when you consider that Nissan want £80 for the vertical tonneau it begins to look a lot better! EDIT: Forgot to add, if you order from that company you probably won't get much of a choice of how it's sent. They'll just send you an invoice with an extra $100 added to it for USPS shipping. That's what they did with me.

Crafty! Shall be PMing you once I've managed to decide between brushed and shiny. Shiny looks nicer but brushed goes better with the interior bits I think. Are you're still making them in steel for those that want it? The heavier the gearknob the better the shift in my experience. The stock one is WAY too light.