Stutopia

Er, help please for knowledgeless noob. I was told when I bought my new zed had a Scorpion exhaust fitted. I didn't give a second thought to it until I read this thread, just assumed it was like getting a Unipart instead of a genuine Nissan. Naturally I'll be calling my insurer shortly to advise, however what am I telling them? Is there just one Scorpion exhaust for a 2004 UK Zed, or does it have a special name? Rifling thought the reciepts my seller handed over it simply says on the Larkspeed invoice: SNS010 Scorpion Cat Back System Niss (£334) *20002270 Cosworth Element Nissan 350z (£34) On the deliver note from Scorpion it says: SNS010 Nissan 350z 03-System Any info would be great. Also any idea what the Cosworth Element is?

I'm in too. Something strange happened to me today. Picked up a little 12v fag lighter DustBuster as there's no power for a proper Hoover near my parking space. Wasn't really looking forward to the job, but, I really enjoyed it. Hoovering away in the wells, doing the mats, moving the seats around. Instincts tell me hoovering is a chore, not a relaxing Saturday afternoon job! Inspired me to crack open my autoglym leather cleaner and the restorer balm, too. Spotless inside now and I slide off the seats unless I'm strapped in. Looking forward to cleaning the glass and rainexing next... Is this normal? Did I catch it from the car?

This would be the first actual work I've personally done on the zed, except gear knob and gaiter, so I'll see what the results are like on the less exposed fronts before I get too carried away in the rear. If I make a right monkey's breakfast of it then I believe I should be able to pick up some new font grills and try again. Ordered the cloth and some drawstring, but probably won't get the job done til next weekend as its in for some respray and paint repair during the week. I'll stick up some photos, if I'm not too embarrased by my "skills".

Right then, off to buy a dremel, how hard can this speaker mod be? At first I was thinking of black fabric/cloth but all this talk of super spurs has got me thinking lily white. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pure-White-Speaker-Grill-Fabric-Cloth-1-Metre-x-500mm-Refurbish-Cabinets-/290687766007 Think the black from the grill bits left behind will show through? Maybe some white rattle can will take care of that if needed.

I used a company called Green's Car Radio in Blackpool, not a huge selection of providers up here and these guys seemed very knowledgable when I went in to enquire, also it's close enough for me to drop the car off and taxi to work. It was about £1500 in total which included an outrageous £40 for a powered iPhone 30-pin terminated cable. Oh, they also retained the steering wheel controls, dynamatted the doors/sub enclosure and fashioned some mdf mounting brackets to isolate the drivers. Car was in for two days.

Spent a couple of hours sitting, listening and adjusting the myriad equalizer, woofer, crossover and sonic centre settings on the head unit, then repeating. Now very much improved. The shift of the fade forward made a big difference, which wouldn't have occured to me, I was thinking of gong rearward, cheers SMD. I'll still look at the grille mods to eek out some more sound clarity, I'd not really looked at how closed the door speaker grilles are until you mentioned it, seems crazy in a car which boasts of it's Bose set up. Good to see another Spurs Fan on here. COYS!

Oops posted it twice, my bad. Is it possible to delete a post?

As a noob to not just Zeds but sports cars, I've noticed this a bit. In my previous rental Fiesta, no one even noticed me on the road, now every clown with a big bore wants a piece. I assume it's because they like to lose? Don't want to race a beatable fiesta, but will try and burn off a (nearly unbeatable, round my way) Zed. I've given up bothering with them after a week, don't need to waste the fuel or take the inevitable ticket I'll get if I stomp my right foot down. On the motorway the other day I was doing about 75 with the cruise control on, a micra pulled up inches behind, tailed for a while and then wheezed past, idiot looking over. Two minutes later and it's an uphill long section, what gets in my way, said micra having an asthma attack on an incline. Didn't have to touch the CC it just held the same 75 all the way up, micra did not. The look on his little face! Then on the downhill, who's back?

This looks interesting solution to the filled grills, and a fairly budget one (which is a nice change). http://my350z.com/forum/audio-video-and-electronics-diy/240044-write-up-my-solution-to-the-stock-sound-blocking-door-speaker-grills.html

I have a totally neutral setup now as it has only just gone in, wanted to give it a week before I tinkered and really listen to it (low revs and good economy for a while!). I'll try shifting it forward, as suggested, which may help as I initially pushed the sound back as I had hoped full range co-axes in the rear would fill up the sound. The covers do look suspiciously filled in (front & back?), I wanted an OEMish look but I won't have that stand in the way of great sound. Dremmel could be a great way to "open" the sound up. Thanks for the suggestions, much appreciated.

It's all hidden away behind grilles and interior trim! I'll see what I can do.

That's crazy talk! Although the Zed will eat the pass up for fun, in my previous drives over it's the tourists towing runaway caravans with 1.4 litre petrol Astras that scared me, and I've ridden the Bolivian death road three times!!! Good luck...

Having been a lot disappointed with the Bose head unit, amp, sub and speakers I decided to get an upgrade. I'm not skilled enough to do this myself, so I had a pro install: Pioneer AVH-X2500BT head unit Hertz HDP5 5-channel amp Hertz HSK 165 Components (front) Hertz HCX 165 (rear) Clarion 10" sub The speakers have been mounted on mdf and the doors and sub enclosure dynamatted. The install looks solid all round, everything works as it should including the filters, equalizers, crossover, etc and it's properly loud. However, I'm not totally over the moon about the sound, it is good but I was hoping for a little bit more for the price tag. I'm not after massive bass or super loud volumes, just a flat, balanced, great all round frequency response. My issue is that I'm struggling to get a great midrange, I've reined in the bass and treble as it was a touch boomy at the bottom and bright at the top, but I can't get the middle to really sing. I was wondering if anyone else had come across similar? Maybe it's just the cavernous Zed interior space with no natural baffles, or the shape of the cockpit, or the speakers being quite low down in the doors, but it's just not quite spot on. Any ideas/suggestions at all? I am concious that I've not given it much time to bed in yet, I'll keep my ears open over the next week or so as it might just be impatience on my behalf, but with all the knowledge on here I thought I'd ask.

A Facebook page? What an IT boffin...

Nice one, thanks. I see they sell a primer and glossifier too, might not be a bad idea for my dash bits as it's a high traffic area!

No worries, that comment aside I'd have stayed well out of it and enjoyed my popcorn because I'm a total noob and know nothing, and I've never been fully sideways because the idiot proofing electronics always save me when I get over confident (is anyone else too scared to turn off the traction control in February?). These Zed forum guys basically made me buy a Zed by being so helpful, knowledgable and tolerant of my daft questions, I have nothing but respect for them (although some of the colour choices I've seen do freak me out).

Yeah it will. Like you are thinking now, I recently abandoned my laptop for an iPad and a desktop, albeit an iMac rather than a Mac Mini. Never looked back. It's a proper "PC" in that you have full connectivity, though they don't ship with a monitor or keyboard as standard, so add those into your budget as needed. It's worth checking the tech spec on the mac store if you have any exotic peripherals, just to make sure they will connect. You can see a picture of the back and details here: http://www.apple.com/uk/mac-mini/specs.html Pretty standard really, all the usual, usb, ethernet, hdmi, plus some more stuff like firewire, thunderbolt and a memory card slot (I use this loads on my imac for pulling photos off my camera) in built wifi etc etc. Things to keep an eye out for are that it has an integrated graphics card (as opposed to dedicated) but this shouldn't make much difference unless you are into graphically intense applications or proper gaming. Also the new fusion drive looks interesting with it's hybrid ssd/hdd (sorry if I've gone mega geek on you) it's basically faster than a regular hard drive, but I'd think the standard model will be quite nippy anyway. Have a look at this for a relatively impartial review, it's not from total mac fanatics, so it should pick out any stuff that you might need to know: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/desktops/379153/apple-mac-mini-2012 I know a couple of people with the previous version of the mac mini so feel free to PM or post here any questions and I'll get back to you. I can't sign off without giving you a small nudge toward the new iMac, I love my 2011 model and the new one is even better with it's reduced glare screen (the only thing I would criticise on mine). Macs can be a pain to upgrade (except RAM which is easy), so make sure you get the spec you want before you click buy. I had to pay some dude £70 to install my new SSD, which I could've done myself on an easier to modify PC. Good luck with the decisions.

I'm an IT boffin, I'm sorry MyFL, I didn't plan for it, it just happened over time. I am ashamed of it though, if that helps.

This looks like the solution to my scratched dash pieces, I thought it would cost me hundreds to solve, Jurassic Park! Do you need to prep bits before a spray? Other than a good clean?

I'm super interested in this. I wanted a blue or black Zed but picked the car I felt was right, in GM, over the colours I felt were right. She's in for some respray action in the next fortnight to bring the original paintwork up to scratch, so to speak, after that I will consider a wrap to protect the new paint and see if I love the colour, then maybe a re-spray somewhere down the line. I'd like to see what you go for.

I got quoted £400 for door and roof respray and repair.

I didn't think I was old but it turns out over 30 is cracking on. Incredible project, not a bad garage space either! Looking forward to photos that come along. Good luck with it, probably the most beautiful car ever built, certainly in my top 3. I'd love to have the space, budget and skills to do something even close to this.

Had the Zed for almost a month now, getting the speakers/amp ripped out and Hertzed this week, got some bodywork repairs and respray action happening the week after, one or two other cosmetic jobs in progress - however the "last" thing I want to do before I have her up to scratch is sort the Ray's. There is some curbing on one and corrosion on all. I've read lots about powder v paint and colours but I'm struggling to find a recommended company to actually do the work around Blackpool & Fylde Coast. Manchester seems like a trek for this job, but I've read a lot of positive comments on forum about the Wheel Specialist and Diamond, so I will consider. However, can anyone recommend someone local? Good quality is what I'm after, rather than a super low price, but a combination of the two would be ideal! PS - I like anthoricte/charcoal for my GM (see picture I shamelessly stole, I'll remove if you want) but I'm open to suggestions...

I was in California for a couple of weeks last year, the rental I got was a convertible Chevy Camaro which was amazing, but, every time I saw a Mustang I was engulfed by jealous rage!! Always wanted one, I bet it's the kind of car that puts a smile on your face when you walk up to it and an even bigger one when you fire it up!

Went down today. They're gonna fix the roof and respray it, passenger door and respray it, a small ding in the wing (which I only just noticed) and do the de-badge on the back and swap in my new super black Z badges for the nissan burgers. £450, seems pretty reasonable to me. Once I get the paint right I might do the vinyl just to protect it from more damage!