scubapics

Bit too far away for me but thanks. I call ed my insurance last night - Elephant. What a epic that was. About an hour on the phone. Not my fault so i don't have to pay but they wanted to use a company called Albany Assistance which is covered by my legal insurance part. Hmm I thought. Passing me over to some third party company. Not sure about that. So whilst I was on hold I checked them out on the net and could not find any good reviews about them. Just a nightmare to deal with by all accounts. So eventually got through to Albany, wasn't happy with the way things were going so got transferred back to Elephant. Told them I don't want to do deal with Albany and that I want to select my own repair centre. Was all rather vague over the phone so I'm not convinced that this is all going to work out ok. Ho hum. I guess that's what happens when you go with the cheapest insurance. I might have been better off doing this privately for such a small amount.

I read that thread. Not very nice position to be in. I would have called the police to the scene. Any sign of aggression and it's a call to the police to sort it out. Luckily the chap put his name and number under my windscreen and followed it up later with insurance details via email after I phoned him. Incidently I just called the repair center that wanted to put a new bumper on the car. I really don't like them now. Very pushy, wanting be to use some company to handle the claim instead of using my insurance company. It's all sounding very back handed to me. Another thing I live by, if it doesn't sound right, walk away. So I will not be using them either.

January.

Crowthorne / Bracknell / Hook / Hartley Wintney. Perfect Paint in Sandhurst have got good reviews plus they were the ones wanting to replace the bumper.

Ok. Insurance it is and new bumper. I won't sleep at night otherwise. That's if the insurance co agrees with the estimate. How do I go about this? Through my insurance I assume. They then claim back through the other party's insurance.

Kuro black.

An update. Two more quotes. Neither of which think new bumper is needed. So I'm inclined to think that the first quote is taking the mickey. So four quotes in total as follows: 1014+vat (new bumper) 574+vat (respray the whole bumper) 350+vat (remove bumper, repair, respray damaged area + pull/fill o/s/r 1/4 panel) 240+vat (remove bumper, repair, respray damaged area + pull/fill o/s/r 1/4 panel) Seems no consistency. Except that the first two claim to deal with prestige cars. The second two are your run of the mill independent body shops. All been in business for 10 + years. Jim

Someone in a white van pranged my O/S/R wing on Sunday in a car park. I wasn't present at the time and he at least had the decency to leave a not with name and number on my windscreen. Just behind the fuel filler cap and just under the rear light. The lamp and filler cap is ok but the wing has been compressed. Also the bumper just below the wing has been scuffed and there is a crease in it now. All seems repairable, can be pulled out, then filled and painted. And the bumper can be filled and painted too. Got two quotes so far. First one thinks there is a bulge in the bumper and I should get it replaced - cost: 1 grand + vat. I can't see or feel the bulge and I think the chap is pulling a fast one. As soon as I mentioned that I wasn't paying for it and it could be an insurance claim has immediately wanted to put a whole new bumper on it. Second quote: 350+vat! Pull the dent out, fill, paint and fill/paint the bumper. He sees no reason to replace the bumper at all. Going to get a thrid quote shortly. Will update later. My question is how to go about getting the money back. The chap sounds reasonable and honest. He's willing to pay or make a claim depending on the cost. If he's going to pay cash, should I get him to pay upfront? If he goes the insurance route, do I need to speak to my insurance? I'm just bothered about having the work done and then struggling to recover the cost. I'll post photos later. Jim

Fortis http://www.fortis-watches.com/front_content.php Very rare in the UK. You won't find them in the usual high street stores. An independent dealer in Fleet used to stock them. I got mine from a UK onliner dealer.

Yes, that's right. 1500 grade wet and dry and hand polished. Was not much effort at all.

Ta mate.

Try it, you'll be pleasantly surprised. The 1500 wet and dry just matts the finish so it's just a case of polishing to bring back the gloss. Try the wet and dry and then polish on a small area where you won't notice first to get confident. Under the bonnet perhaps? On the underside of a door? This process should work the same for any flat colour. Metallic you would need to fill with colour below the surface of the original paint, leave to dry a week, then cover with laquer, let dry for a week and then wet sand and polish. Without the laquer the metal flecks in the paint might rust. Ooh, actually you could mix the paint with laquer and try that as a one shot application. Jim

Yes. I've done this on my Kuro. This is what you need: 1 BMW black touch up paint - halfords (it's the blackest paint you can get apparantly) 1 sheet of 1500 wet and dry paper - halfords 1 tube of Meguiars Scratch X 2.0 - halfords Polishing cloths - oh, yeah, halfords. 1 pack of cocktail sticks - ah, supermarket ;-) 1. Clean the area. 2. Dip the cocktail stick in the paint. You don't want a lot, you don't want it dripping off the stick. Just a tiny blob. You will probably need to wipe most off the stick back into the touch up tube. 3. I place a cloth on the paint work, rest my left hand/arm on it and then put my right hand onto the left arm. It makes a very steady platform and gives accurate results. You then move your hand at the wrist up and down to position the stick onto the stone chip. 4. Touch the stick in the stone chip and let the paint flow into it. You want the filled spot to be proud of the old paint. Repeat as necessary to get the new paint just above the surface of the old paint. 5. Leave it a week to harden. Yes a week otherwise when you come to polish it you will just remove all the fresh paint and be back to square one. 6. Then using a small section of the 1500 wet and dry (not much wider than your finger and about twice the length of your end section of your finger) and some water gently flatten the filled chips. Work in straight back and forward motions. I did it up down, left right and then the two diagonals. Don't let it dry out when sanding, more water is better than dry. Frequently dip the wet and dry in the water to help flush away the sanded paint. Dry the chip to inspect the levelness. Don't worry about the dull finish. It will polish out as you will not leave any scratches with 1500 wet and dry, just a matt finish. Very light pressure needed. Any harder than just you finger weight and you will end up rubbing the old paint more than the fresh paint. 6. Once flattened down to the level of the old paint, use the meguiars to bring back to a gloss finish. Again in the same pattern as you used to sand the cip down. Seal/protect with your choice of products - I use Zaino Z2 to polish/seal and Zaino Z6 between polishes. Job done! Sit back, open a beer. Relax and smile. Perhaps pick one chip to practice on first. You'll soon get the hang of it and be very satisfied with the results. The trouble is, once you've done the obvious ones you can end up with a bit of OCD and start seeing all the teeny weeny ones... That's the time to open another beer and leave it alone.

My secondary car is a Jeep Cherokee :-) Absolutely no problems on or off road in the 1 to 2 feet of snow that we had. The only problem I had was those inconsiderate 2WD people blocking the road! I mean really, don't you know that us 4WD people "do actually own the road".... ....when it's snowing ;-) It's not often I get to overtake people in the Jeep. They appear just as annoyed as when I do it in the Z. A bit like today when I humiliated a Lancer Evo FQ-360 driver who thought he was the muts nuts. But seriously folks. Be extra careful in the snow. Jim

Does anyone know the thread size of the bolts on the standard rear box of the 350z? Jim

Crikey, sorry. Lee not Rob.

Rob's a top man. Things happen that are out of our control at times, family problems, sickness, death or worse, work. I know it's a worry or pain when you are expecting something but I'm sure he'll come through soon.

Hi Captain. I've seen/heard your clip before. I'd really like to hear it in the flesh though. Have you modified your rear bumber, i.e. tucked it? Does it need modifying to fit the blueflame? Re the japspeed - I have a motto - or rather my wife does: buy it cheap, buy it twice. Jim

Yes. I've considered japspeed k2. The clips I've heard put me off a bit. Would be nice to hear it in the flesh though.

Hi, I'm in need of a new exhaust. I've listened to the clips of various exhausts on youtube etc. Milltek sounds nice but v.expensive. Blueflame is a close second. I'd really like to hear them in the flesh if at all possible. I live near Bracknell M3/J3. Is there anyone nearby with these exhausts that I could have a listen to please? Alternatively some advice? I really don't want a loud boy racer exhaust but at the same time I do want a nice tone. I've current got a standard 350z 2005. Jim

The TSBs only offer rotation of the cv joint by 180 deg and greasing the flange and that's all the dealer is likely to offer you. It's not guaranteed to fix the problem and if it doesn't and you are still in warranty I'd push for replacement parts. The trouble is that the consensus on the board is that the dealers are not supplying/fitting the "uprated" CV joint so even a dealer replacement may fail at some point. Jim

After doing this job myself I thought it would be worth adding some more tips to help anyone else out. It's not a particularly difficult job at all. Worst part is whacking the old joint with hammer to release it and jacking the car up securely without damaging something! I think next time I'll use ramps and then replace one ramp with an axle stand under the sill/jacking point with a block of wood. What I'd give for the use of a workshop with a ramp. Make sure you have a long socket head lever bar to remove the hub nut. It's on tight and you will strain yourself with a short bar. 3ft should do it easily. Get a deep hub nut socket too. You can often hire these from local tool/car spares shops. Don't use your torque wrench - you'll screw it up! Here's the best tip. There's no need to remove the brake calipers at all. Instead, disconnect "both" stabilizer (ARB) drop links from the stabilizer (long 14mm socket needed) and then just rotate the stabilizer bar upwards. This will leave plenty of room for the driveshaft to be lowered out of the vehicle. I didn't even tie the drop links out of the way. Removing the inner cv joint nuts and bolts: put the hand brake on and stick it in first gear to help stop the drive shaft rotating whilst undoing the bolts. Take it out of gear and hand brake off to rotate for the next nut and bolt ;-) Use a spanner and ratched so that you don't completely load the gearbox when undoing the bolts. I used a black and decker work mate to hold the driveshaft whilst whacking the old cv joint off with a hammer. Make sure you hit the inner section rather than the outer section. When putting the new joint on, make certain that you hold the drive shaft in the work mate or vice. Do not stand the drive shaft on it's end and hit with hammer and block of wood - you will probably pop the cap off the end of the inner cv joint! Make sure you have located the outer cv joint onto the splines before hitting home with club hammer and block of wood. Put the hub nut onto the new joint to protect the threads even further before using the club hammer. I usually put the nut on reverse to protect the flats of the nut. Put it all back the way it came off and torque up according to workshop manual. I go for the mid way torque setting rather than the min or max. NOTE: one of the TSBs for this job state to torque the hub nut to 240 Nm. Any higher and the "incident" as they call it may reoccur. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Can be done in 2 to 3 hours per side. Hope that's informative. I couldn't see any difference between my old and new CV joints. I find it hard to believe the problem is the flange faces. It must be a problem with the joint itself. But then how come the problem clears for a while just by rotating the drive shaft 180 deg? Jim

So how much does the refurb cost?

Perhaps attached to the outside providing the air can flow through.

Hi all. I bought a 350z about a weel ago now. Nice :-) Been looking to buy one for 5 years! Anyway, it has the usual skipping cd issue when cold. I've read and read through the forum and lots of other places and there doesn't seem to be a solution. So I was thinking. Has anyone tried to fit a small fan to the unit to blow air over the cds / lens? I haven't taken the unit apart yet or removed it from the car to know if one could be fitted. Only needs a gentle breeze so the fan can be set to a slow speed so that it won't be audible when the engine is off. The breeze should be enough to stop condensation forming - if that is indeed the problem. Any thoughts? Jim