Mondo 300

I actually bought a 99 Spec front bumper for her earlier this year, but I actually really like the original one. I think that the little aftermarket lip on the bottom changes the whole look of it, so I decided to stick with it. Shorties are pretty rare over here anyway, especially factory manual TT ones, so I jumped on the chance to own the Zed I'd always wanted. Never fancied a Slicktop as I'm a huge fan of open-top driving. Powerwise, I'm estimating 400+ at the moment. She's running around 16psi with biggers SMICs and a Selin Dual MAF intake, but I'm umm'ing and ahh'ing over new turbos and injectors in the future......

I figured I'd do a little thread here for my "old skool" Zed as it's very nearly a year since I bought her. Previously, I had a black 2+2 twin turbo auto that I converted to manual, but I never quite loved that car... possibly because I'd always wanted the SWB 2 seater one. So I made the decision to sell the black one and replace it with a Shortie. All I had to do was find one! This one came up on eBay with a one-line description. Ideally, I wanted a white one but Shorties are pretty rare over here (being import-only cars) so I decided to email the seller for some more info. He was very helpful and sent me plenty of pictures, including the spec sheet for the forged engine build that the owner before him had had done! I paid a deposit and toddled off down to Kent to collect her. The start to my ownership wasn't great - the rear passenger wheel tried to part company on the A1 near York at "70 mph" which was terrifying! So she made the last bit of the homeward journey on a flatbed. Turns out that the alloys had no spigot rings and slot-on spacers, so I can only assume that the wheels were vibrating which resulted in 4 snapped wheel studs! Once I replaced those and changed the wheels, never had an issue since. Anyway, here's some of the pictures the seller sent to me: The body had plenty of scuffs and dings, not to mention a pretty caved-in driver's door. The rear lights were all crazed, the front lip was quite badly damaged and stone-chipped and the interior... god, someone had removed all the fabric trim and just painted (with rattle-cans) everything in silver! It had a horrible shortshift fitted and, honestly, it was just crap. I had some serious regrets once I'd driven her for a couple of hours. But she was a factory manual, twin turbo Shortie and that was what I'd always wanted so I had to start formulating a plan to transform her into a good looking machine once again. Here's the two Zeds on my drive at the same time: Realistically, she needed a respray. And a retrim. And new wheels. And new brakes. And a thorough service. Lots of work, basically! I swapped the wheels from my old black one as I'd grown quite partial to them and they helped to change the look straight away. Replaced the knackered tail lights with a set of brand new 99 Spec ones from Nissan USA. Got a fibreglass boot spoiler to replace the knackered original one (seeing a pattern here?). Swapped the knackered seats for a pair of Recaro Speeds with the rare factory Z32 subframes, and changed all the panels out at the same time. Then earlier this year, I had a full 120k service done and a few other little jobs under the bonnet, including bigger SMICs with brand new pipework and a new alloy radiator. The engine bay looked like this afterwards: A nice little transformation to help contrast with all the silver bodywork. Then it was time for a full respray, including black roof bars, B pillars and the "moustache" on the front bumper. I decided to keep the standard silver, rather than try to change the colour. Once that had all been done, the interior was letting the side down quite badly so I took a couple of weeks "off work" to sort it out. And here's what she looks like nowadays: Not bad for just less than a year of ownership!

I met Mrs Mondo online, nearly 4 years ago now. Met plenty of utter muppets online before that, mind - it came as no surprise as to why some of them were single!

I can always find time for one of your cars, mate

That nice Audi of yours must be due some work soon, Dave...?

Definitely one of my favourite cars to have ever worked on, this one! Looking lovely(er) now, Dave

Happened at last, eh David? Congrats, mate. Hope you enjoy it!

Yep, that was pretty much the picture I expected to see based on the title!

We all want the same thing at the end of the day: nice cars. Any advice I can offer is done so gladly.

For anyone considering having a dashboard trimmed in anything, here's something to consider: Given the power behind an airbag deploying, it'd have no trouble at all punching it's way through a coating of leather or Alcantara or whatever. Plus if I trimmed a dash (for example), there'd be a stitched seam not too far from the airbag anyway, so that would give way first and allow the airbag to operate properly. The airbag covers in the seats have no special stitching or anything like that - the 'bag simply has enough power behind it to get to where it's needed. Personally, I'd be wary of "Alcantara" that's anything other than genuine... primarily because Alcantara was developed primarily for automotive use, which means it's been UV treated. Most, if not all, of the "cheaper" types out there don't have that treatment and WILL fade in the sunlight. Some may fade in months, others may take a year or two, but they'll all go the same way. The genuine stuff has longevity built in, which is one of the reasons it's so damned expensive...!

I actually shared the same car park as this machine on Friday night... bloody imposing thing it is too!

Any ideas as to why he's attacked your car twice now? Has anyone else's car in the street been done, or just yours?

I think we'll be camping next year as Fran and I were both gutted to have to drive home on Saturday night! Midge Ure... then Toyah... my money's on The Human League or Erasure as next year's entertainment!

Had a great time yesterday, so it's thanks from me (and Fran) as well! Some lovely motors on display!

Heading off in about 30 minutes or so. Looking forward to a nice drive across the country with the roof off!

Weather forecast keeps changing, Lexx - it currently says zero rain in Cark on Saturday at least! But yesterday it predicted showers... Also, will I have anywhere "showy" to park if I'm only coming for the Saturday...?

I decided to send the seller a message about this, and here's the response I got: .....

They clearly state in the ad that it's "HPI clear, no outstanding finance or damage recorded." So they either haven't done an HPI check for themselves and are trying to pretend that they have... or they have done an HPI check and are trying to pretend that all is well so a prospective buyer won't bother with one...!! Either way, they seem dodgy as hell.

Short answer is "no" It takes me a full day at least to fit a pair of new doorcard skins and it takes a lot of hi-temp adhesive to ensure that the covers won't lift at all. Also, to get the best possible fit and finish, I strip the original "honeycomb" covering off so I have the totally bare doorcard to trim on. It's hard work making and certainly fitting the 350Z covers that I make. I can't (and won't even attempt to) match that price, but then all anyone has to do with my retrimmed doorcards is refit them

Based on the pictures, I'd say that the new dash needs to be angled in at the top quite a lot. As others have said, having it flush with the bezel is going to spoil the display. It looks like the bezel sits vertically, but the gauges themselves are angled up towards the driver's face (based on the driver's face sitting a foot or so higher than the instrument cluster).

2nd dibs

I'd have been tempted with these to see if I could make them fit my Z32!

The heavy duty stuff may well be hi-temp as well, but either way it's good that yours is lasting well

You need to use hi-temp adhesive - just plain heavy duty fabric glue won't hold the covering in place when the cabin heats up during the summer!

The only thing I can add here is that the passenger seat tilts forward when the roof is opened or closed, then resumes it's original position. Whether a broken seat (or blown fuse for it) would affect the roof opening, I honestly don't know.