GMballistic

God how I love carbon fibre.

Welcome aboard Brian. Enjoy the TT Zed.

Thanks Ewen ~ got there in the end.

Some of you may know I have been searching for a chrome "NISSAN" badge to fit on my carbon fibre engine cover after losing my original one. Now unbelievably Nissan main dealers will only sell you a complete engine cover and not just the badge itself. The price for the engine cover at 1/2 a pound of flesh was too much for me so the search continued. After trying the normal routes of zmanalex, other members and eBay I still didn't have any luck so after discussing this with Ceejay29 I decided to take a risk on another car engine cover from eBay which was for a 2002-2008 Nissan Primera 2.2 DCi. The cover was £10 delivered and I was praying that the badge on it was the same size as I had asked the seller to measure it but he didn't respond so I took the gamble. 5 Days later this arrived.... The good news was that the badge is exactly the same size, ...the bad news was that the chrome was flaking off so was knackered. Now I could have just bought another engine cover especially as some other more polite eBay sellers had finally got back to me to let me know the badges on their covers where in good shape but tbh I didn't fancy chucking more money at it ~ nor did I want to start collecting DCi engine covers. So I decided to be different and take the badge into work where I could properly sort it. Firstly I used our shot blaster to clean off all the flaking chrome. This left me with this... It had a few imperfections from the casting process that the chrome had hidden so I used 320 grit followed by 800 grit wet & dry sand paper to smooth it out without ruining the profiles of the badge. Then I prepped it for paint & used a Hycote grey primer on it. Still had a few slight imperfections so quick going over again with wet & dry before I put down my base coat. For the base coat I used a gloss black cellulose paint. Here it is after the first wet coat... I then gave it a few hours drying time, checked it over before laying down my final finish coat. I decided that I didn't want gloss against the carbon fibre so instead opted for a matt finish. To get this I added a 30% ratio of matting agent to my gloss black cellulose paint which gave me this... Then I left it for the rest of the day to dry off nicely whilst I got on with my paid work. Couldn't wait to fit it though so as soon as I got home after work I parked up the Zed, mixed up some 3 ton epoxy to make sure this badge wasn't going anywhere and voila... Don't think the picture above does it justice but that's probably down to my crap camera phone flash & strip bulb lighting in the garage but I'm very pleased with the way it looks now. Hopefully stays stuck now.

Just fyi in case anybody in the future is after a Nissan engine cover badge for there Nissan 350Z the "NISSAN" chrome badge fitted to a Nissan Primera 2.2DCi (2002-2008), Nissan Almera 2.2DCi (2002-2008) and the Nissan Tino Diesel engine cover is exactly the same size. The good thing about this is that the engine covers for these vehicles are readily available on eBay and some are very cheap. I bought a Nissan Primera 2.2DCi engine cover for £10 delivered. Unfortunately the chrome badge on the cover I bought was flaking but I have refurbed it & fitted it to my car (will update my build thread soon with pics) so ask the seller before you buy but definitely a cheap, readily available option. Hope that helps.

Aahhh grundy, ...it's like you've known me all my life.

You can say that again, ...6 Days too slow sorry Shenley. Link: http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/92472-gymkhana-seven/

Lovely place Chippenham. Really wish I lived there if only so it was more convenient to get to Castle Combe circuit more often. Link: http://www.castlecombecircuit.co.uk/experiences/experiences.asp?ExpID=2&BookingEvent=Single%20Seater%20Driving%20Experience Good luck whichever experience you decide on.

I have done one experience day at Castle Combe & another one at Silverstone circuit. At Silverstone I drove a Lotus Elise around the circuit which was fantastic fun & the tuition was great. The experience I did at Castle Combe was firstly in a Ford Focus and then followed by a drive in a Formula Ford single seater. This was by far the better experience to do as being in a single seater I was able to push the car as hard as I could without an instructor beside me trying to rein me in when he felt nervous. Enjoyed both days but was most at home at Castle Combe as it's a circuit I've been on a lot in various cars (on track days/race days) & knew the circuit well. Personally Steve if I was you I'd be looking at some sort of single seater experience day as this will by far be the most fun imo.

Doesn't look too bad imo Jmanji. Think you just need to bite the bullet now though & finish it off. Skirt line needs doing behind the front drivers wheel & a few other minor bits, then chose a nice colour to paint it. If it turns out crap just stick up a topless picture of Kelly Brook to cover it, ....sure he wouldn't dislike that.

Welcome aboard.

Look's very nice LRF4N. Hope you enjoy it.

Very nice.

Same here Russ, same here.

What V8 engine is in it do you know? Is it set up for 1/4 mile runs then or just for fast road/bit of fun?

Not a fan of Lewis but he is a good driver and deserved the win. Congrats. Although getting to go home to this beauty makes him a winner all the time imo.

Great looking Zed Karl and loved the intro. Welcome aboard.

That Manta looks bad as f**k.

Ahh. Get well soon Flex.

Happy Birthday both.

If anyone wants to race a GTR in a straight line try racing this one....

Definitely, ...just a little too big to put in a Zed.

^^ This.

Thanks Dan for the concern. It will last around 7-8 seconds odd when used which I know is a very limited use and it's more just for use with a very small fire to stop it spreading if possible. I'm aware of it's limitations though so don't worry & also the possible danger of opening a car bonnet with a fire inside the bay. I've have used an identical size fire extinguisher before when one day I was driving one of my previous cars and noticed a woman & her child trying to put out a large cardboard box next to a garden fence that somebody had set alight too. I jumped out of my car and deployed my extinguisher but as you say it was gone in seconds. Luckily it was just enough to beat back the flames so that I could stamp the rest out with my feet. The only other time I have used a fire extinguisher was when I was 16 working in a pub kitchen ~ now that was a fun experience. Overloaded with garlic bread this oven grill & surround set alight. Everyone else in the kitchen just panicked but I grabbed this 6Litre fire extinguisher and let rip. Put the fire out in about 2 seconds. Now that was a fire extinguisher.