Rubber

I tend to agree with the philosophy that it won't do any harm. I've read that the fill and drain plugs can be reused and do not require any new seals etc as long as you are careful. Anyone had any issues removing these? i.e. they haven't come off in 8 years so I hope they don't come off and then start leaking at a later date, I can;t imagine a gearbox with no oil would operate very well Chris

Hi, did plenty of searching on this but could not find a definitive answer... From what I have read: - Nissan do not have an official reccommendation on when the gearbox/diff oil should be changed - Some members have changed the gearbox oil (for genuine Nissan oil with some Molyslip) and have noticed that the gear change is smoother (both available from Zmanalex) The issue of a 'notchy' 2nd gear is well documented when the car is cold and my car also suffers from this but is fine when everything heats up. My car is old (late 2003) but only has 32k on the clock so not a huge amount of use and no track use. So, old oil with not a lot of what you may call heavy use. I'm not sure whether to have it changed . What's the old saying, 'If it ain't broke, fiddle with it until you break it'!!! No sorry not that one, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'!!! What are your thoughts on this one? Cheers, Chris

Hope she has had experience in a rear wheel drive before I've driven a friends S2000 and it is very tail happy. Once she goes, it's gone!

+1 Lock yourself in your room, and keep on writing out your notes - especially for the formulas -> only way to remember them in my opinion. Chris

Just read the whole post - epic! The biggest surprise must have been when you referred to 'the good lady'. I assumed anyone taking on a project of this scale would be some kind of hermit living in the woods You're car seems relatively new to be treated to this kind of treatment though? Scares me to think of what my car looks like underneath. It would be great to restore one of the Jap classics like an EK9 or Supra back to factory condition rather than seeing them being wrecked by chavs I wish I had the dedication and skill to do a project like this

I went through the process of getting a new wing fitted and sprayed recently. Expensive process!!! http://www.350z-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=52489 Chris

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/news/default.asp?storyId=24819

Looks good Gloss back roof to finish it off I reckon

Just because it has a Nismo label does not necessarily mean it will look good

Ha ha quality! Sounds like you pulled a handbrake turn after the 1st run

What a brilliant gaff from Clarkson on the One Show. The look on the presenters faces was priceless!!!! Not that I agree with the statement. I'm sure there will be plenty of coverage on this tomorrow.... Chris

That's the crowd Stew. Absolutely useless My initial days of Zed ownership were tough, paid something like £15k then had all this hassle to contend with (although I only paid £500 after much fighting) and then the economy went down the pan about 6 months later so the car was worth about £3k less than what I bought it for However,, things have come good since then and the car has run without any major issues (touch wood again before I jinx myself!)

Thanks for the advice guys. She has been through a couple of instructors and seems to have problems with all of them I think seat time will cure a lot of her fears - she just needs to get used to the feel of driving. I take you point about not lecturing - I'll try to keep my mouth shut!!! Thanks, Chris

No doubt Alex will paste in a few links with his prices for clicky rear axle kits and new window motors Have been buying parts from him ever since this painful entry into Zed ownership

All, Going through some old car receipts and found this - I thought I should share it with you to alert you to the extortionate prices dealerships charge. I have blanked out the name of the dealership because I assume that this is the price that most dealers would charge so not point in demonising this crowd in particular. They were however, completely useless and the car was in there for 2 months. I only bought it a few months previous Anyway, I did have a warranty with the car when I bought it, to the valve of something like £1500 so I only had to pay £500 for the fix. However, then the battle ensued with the warranty company - obviously they didn't want to pay, how could they make money otherwise?!!! I had to use the Financial Ombudsman in the Isle of Man (where the Warranty company was based) to twist their arm. This was all a very painful part of my early owenership and I don't think I was ready to talk about it until now - nearly 4 years later . On the plus side the car has (touch wood) not had any faults since then. Moral of the story, don't bother with the dealers and be grateful of the great traders that we have the pleasure of dealing with on here. Makes 350Z ownership so much more enjoyable and cheaper Regards, Chris

Hey, Just bought my wife a Festy to learn to drive in. She has taken 7 - 8 lessons but she still seems to be asking me some obvious questions about how to drive. The instructor is doing all sorts of stuff like parallel parking but yet she seems to lack confidence in just driving around. I think she just needs time behind the wheel to put her lessons into practive. Unfortunately I'll be accompanying her!!! Hope this doesn't end in divorce!!!! Now, I don't claim to be the perfect driver but I was most of the way to taking my IAM test but never got around to doing it. However, I don't want to teach her a load of my bad habits! Any advice on how it is best to teach someone to drive? I'm scared!!! My plan is to go out to the highlands and just get her some time behind the wheel on quiet roads. We can worry about the city driving when she has confidence on how to drive first. Open to any advice! Cheers, Chris

It looks horified that the engine has been removed!!!!

A friend of mine has decats on his Focus RS and we were discussing the legality of it... So, he changes them out for an MOT - fine, no issues there. But if you were to have an accident would the insurance company be able to claim that your car was not "road legal" and so get out of paying out? Chris

Great build threat and good quality pictures Give us the bad news though - an estimate of all the mods done!!!! Chris

Terrible

I like the blue - interesting wheels too. There have been some threads about mismatched paint on the white cars - best have a look at the thread and keep it in mind if you are viewing the white ones... Chris

Thats low How is she on the road? Still comfortable enough? Chris

As Ekona said it looks like a good trade in deal. Elise may be a bit hardcore as a daily drive but it depends how much you like your creature comforts. My work colleague has a 111R but she finds it pretty tiring when she makes her 100 mile drive home. Make no mistake, it is not a replacement for the Zed; there will be minimal boot space and no real comfort but (from what I've read!) the driving experience should be great! The latest version of Evo magazine had the Club Racer on it's Car of the Year test. I haven't got round to reading it yet but to make it into their top 10 is always a good sign! Chris

The brick is an interesting idea! No seriously, thanks for the advice. Couple of good links there Grant - I'll do some detective work on the cars around the car park. As Stew said, I think the laws are slightly different in Scotland. I did phone the agent who looks after the property and he said it is not straight forward . He needs to go through the DVLA (although I could do this myself with the links above) and then he needs to talk to the owener of the car. If the owner does not claim the car then he can have it removed and get the scrap metal value which he said goes back into the residents fund (I don't mind if he keeps a few quid as long as it's sorted out) I don't want to be unreasonable either. If someone wants to keep a SORN'd car in THEIR car park that's fine by me. I just don't want people who don't live here dumping their cars here or not following the rules of SORN. Plus if I get caught reporting people the Zed would make an easy target for a nail down the side. (I already shelled out ~£600 when some arse scraped my car in the car park.) I'll see what the agent does first but I may resort to reporting if nothing happens.... Cheers, Chris

I live in a pupose built block of flats of which there are about 50 - 60. We have about 40 car parking spaces which are not allocated to the flats. There seems to be an influx of cars at the moment and it is really difficult to get parking which means I have to leave the car on the road somtimes which I don't like. I suspect there are a number of owners who do not live in the flats but are just using the car park. (The gate is broken at the moment but that's another story!!!) Some of the cars have been "resting" for some time. A quick inspection relveals that a few of them don't have any tax. Are you allowed to keep cars without tax in a private car park or do they need a SORN thingy? One of the cars appears to be mobile even though it has no tax... I think the Site Administrator (factor person or whatever you call them!) has brought the cops in before to check if the cars are registered to our the address. Just wondering if there is anything else that can be done.... Cheers, Chris