UNABASHED

+1 - I learnt this while dremeling my barely 2 week old 370z intake area very close to the aircon lines Step back, breath and take your time Dremels have a mind of their own sometimes The plastic your cutting gets pretty bloody hot aswell yeah I realised that after decided to dremel in shorts - felt like I was been flogged at one point

few pictures of my exploits, nothing exciting really! the thousand bits of plastic that I cut out separately with the hacksaw (this is just half as the rest were thrown away) Looking sexy and smooth BLOODY HACKSAW! 10 minutes with a dremel Of course the heavens have now opened so I have had to halt the work and take a break

good, can't stand him!

next to the strut....

I don't get what's going on here...

that didn't last long?! I assume your have plans for something bigger, better, faster, stronger?

Of course, I'll have to start now though to make sure it's ready for Halloween remember, to go round corners it's easier to drill holes and use your hacksaw to connect them! yeah, it's still sooo awkward to get the saw straight though. I've ordered myself a dremel which I will be picking up on way home - as well as a mahusive circular saw attachment. We'll see who has the last laugh now! So far my 'cheap' freshening up of the front end is costing me an arm and a leg, and that will be literal once I start messing arond with this saw!

Of course, I'll have to start now though to make sure it's ready for Halloween

it's not suppsoed to open all the way no, but when you push the button it should clear the lock catch so that you can use the same hand to lift it open. With mine, and a lot of others, it doesnl;t even clear the locking catch so you have to hold the button in while at the same time pulling the boot open with the other hand. That is pretty spot on tbh

I'm glad I at least managed to entertain you all with my tales of woe! I will be taking some pictures tonight for your amusement! Also I will have a pair of silver indicator bulbs going spare if anyone wants them - they're the round ended ones and not the wedges though! I will be willing to trade for trim fittings to attach my bumper and arches or a dremel multi-tool (or loan thereof). My fingers and toes are crossed that I win Rik's V2 bumper giveaway next week!!

I did this before looking at the grill, should have quit while I was ahead!

not just me then!

Ever eager to try stuff like repairs and mods on my car I decided that last night I would cut the slats from my front bumper and put some alexmesh in it's place. While there I thought I would also swap the indicator and sidelight bulbs, fix one of the headlights that has cracked across one of the fixings, attach my shiny new arch lining, fix the number plate, re-attach the fallen Z badge and give the engine bay a jolly good clean. Simple right? For a normal person, yes. But for me, a person who seems to be one step over the mental retardation line, this was splitting the atom kinda stuff. I started by going to Machine Mart on way home from work to get me a dremmel to cut the slats from the bumper. They didn't have one and so I had to make the decision of trekking around to next shop in traffic or buy the next best alternative - a hacksaw. Of course I went for the ridiculous option and bought a hacksaw It was a sunny day, I had my junior hacksaw (and a myriad of replacement blades should they be required!) and the going was good. I got home and the neighbours have parked outside my house on both sides so I can't use the spots to jack the car up. After arguing with one of the neighbours I was getting nowhere so tried the other side and he was more than happy to help me out and park in my drive while I used the (flat) roadside. After that was sorted it was on with the shorts and under the car I went. Jacked it up started taking all the fixings holding the bumper on, all went well until I got to the two bolts on either side in the bottom corners holding the bumper to the bottom of front arches. They would not budge. After 7 years of staying put they had obviously decided that that was home and nobody would be telling them otherwise. 20 minutes of swearing, WD40 spraying and ripping my hand with the stupid little spanner and I got nowhere. Suddenly they started to turn, hurrah thought I, then I realised that I had ripped them through the plastic of the bumper. Fine. at least they were off, I could look at fixing that later. The bumper then came off and I was on my way home! Took the bumper round back to work on and got my trusty hacksaw out, it glinted in the sunlight and I congratulated myself on the wise and thoughtful purchase I made - not to mention I saved a cool £5-ish over the dremel! started to saw through the slats, how easy this was! Fast forward 15 minutes and the slats were off but the mouth of my bumper was now splinted with a broken toothed grin. The problem I had was the was no angle I could get that meant I could cut the plastic off in a straight line sop the only option was to cut many, many angled cuts. After another 20 minutes I realised this was not going to work how I wanted it to work without spending the full weekend sawing and sanding. STUPID BLOODY HACKSAW - THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! I did what any self respecting man would do in this situation, I quit. I decided to move onto my lights and I would sort the bumper after that. Removed the light which needed minor repair and took it inside. I repaired the broken bits (no drama!) and opened my parcel of bulbs I had bought. Took out the new shiny silver indicator and removed the old bulb. @*!#. They're different. Looks like I'll be wasting a bit more money buying replacements then! At least I have my lovely little LED sidelights, stuck them in and went back outside to bask in the glow of not only the 'super bright LED sidelights' but also in the glory of a job well done. Neither sidelights were working. Hmmm, checked all connections and everything seemed fine. swapped new for old to test and they're not working either. Eventually, after a lot of fiddling around and moving bulbs and wires about I did it. I made sure that not only the sidelights stopped working, but also the main beam. Dammit. Again I took the best option and quit. Took a drive in the other car to find me a dremel and some replacement bulbs, everywhere shut. By this point I was hungry and pi**ed off so decided to get some eats and chill out a while. after that got back at the bloody bumper with the stupid bloody hacksaw. Made little discernable difference so threw the hacksaw in a bush and quit for the night. Current situation is - neither front lights working in any capacity, bumper likes like it's done 12 rounds with Tyson, don't have the correct bulbs and I've had to go to work in the crappy car. What have a learnt? 1. A dremel multi-tool is a damn good thing to have around when you need it. 2. Hacksaws are stupid. Best thing is, I get to do it all again tonight when I get home! P.S. I also found that I have a Kiora(sp) bottle lid being used as the coolant top - anyone know where I can get a quick, cheap replacement without having the visit the Hell which is Nissan Leeds?

where u get it for that price?

I'm planning on doing this with some clear reflectors at some point, just waiting on the reflectors and then I'll look into best LED's etc as I'm clueless with electricals

what are drls?

debadge on front looks loads better if you have the bulging bonnet IMO

Welcome!

if we're having a zman love in then count me in, the man is a hero of the zed community If I ever have any issues with my car and start looking myself the gf just shakes her head at me and say's "just ask the zedman, he's always got the answers" - never a truer word she has spoken!

and that brings me to the second problem - how the hell do you get rid of the previous sticky bits?!?! I've tried hot water, hairdryer, busted all my nails etc, there's still a faint outline of the rear '350z' badge that I've been unable to get rid of as well

might pop in tomorrow and check them out, only problem though is that the back of the badge isn't flat so not sure how much of the pad will stick to it...

only put it on about 8 weeks ago and it fell off as I parked up in my driveway..anyone know where I can get a replacement sticky backing?

Legal requirement aren't they? The alternative would be the 370Z badge with built in indicator but I think Dan said it was pretty expensive to do http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/350z04e/50-3072 $65.95

pics or it never happened!

I like it smooth on front, you could also remove the indicator from wind and have that smothed over? and if your in a smooth mood why not remove the rear wiper and have them smooth the hole for that as well? smmoooottthh!