Hodaka

These look great and I'm definitely interested...

 

Can someone get a close up photo of smoked fitted?

 

I'm unsure about the running light and brake lights, not sure they look like they belong, are these easy enough to not wire in?

I'll see if I can get a close up once the weather clears up. Horrible weather down here right now!

As for not wiring in the running/brake lights, it's actually easier if you don't want them as the rest of it (indicators & reverse light) is literally plug 'n play. Just disconnect your old lights, connect the new ones, and possibly tape up the running/brake light wires as you won't be splicing/soldering them

Hopefully I explained that ok?

*EDIT* Just found this - maybe it will help as you can see the wiring. Just use the connector, and ignore the green/blue wires as you won't need them if you don't want running/brake lights.

2 left in stock, more on the way.

Oh you have 2 in stock? Are they already reserved for people or can I have one?

Hi Hodaka,

 

As requested I have put the pictures of my car and the wheels below. The rota grid drifts are the ideal choice but would like to see how they look in matt bronze and matt black. Also interested in the Rota PWRs but they only come in silver with only one off set. Pictures of the alloys are below.

 

Thank you mate, really appreciate it.

Gotcha! I still find this sort of request quite hard to do, but leave it with me and I'll see what I can do.

You have it.

Evactly like that.

 

A 1N40001 or 1N4002 would be fine

such as this

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

 

I have bought off this seller and parts arrive in a couple of days

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to link!

Next up, footwell lights!

Coming soon... I'm off to install my new DRL now

So one day while browsing around the forums, I noticed a post by AliveBoy in the swap shop sub forum. He had sold his car but still had a set of clear reflectors, which he was willing to swap for something "cool". As a bonus, he lived very close to me.

I messaged him and met up with him shortly after. I gave him £10 for the reflectors (he didn't want it, but I thought it only fair) and some Japanese curry paste and the deal was done

One reflector had a super minor issue, which was 2 cracks running along it. No biggie for my set up though as you'll see later.

I'd seen a post by dErZ about DIY daylight running lights, so decided to give it a go.

Before

Drilled 5x 5mm holes

Test fitting some LEDs

And soldered some resistors to the LEDs

Prepped some wires

Soldered the components together and sealed with silicon

Testing the circuit

Got myself some Fly Eye

Comparison to see if I actually like the look

Which I did, so I wrapped both

The adhesive wasn't great, so for the corners I just used some superglue to hold it down, as noone will see that bit anyway.

Friend helping me out with installation as I'm inept

Bumper removed, tapped into the sidelight and fed both DRLs off it

After installation (DRL off)

After installation (DRL on)

At night (front)

At night (side)

My first bit of proper DIY. Was extremely happy with the results!

Notes:

1. The plastic used in the backing for the reflector was super soft, so careful when drilling if you do this
   
2. These DRL actually failed after a couple of months - it's just a guess, but I'm assuming it's because of the fluctuations in voltage/current? I did use a different value for the resistors from the guide linked above so it could be down to that. I'm actually about to install version 2 today, so I'll post about that later.
   
3. Be aware about the legality of it as I believe strictly speaking you can't have side facing lights.
   

Also, I've just bought the same camera as you, also to go with a Pioneer head-unit... might be asking a few questions this weekend

It's been a while and I have a super bad memory, but of course! Let me know and I'll do my best to help.

Next up, emblems. My front/rear emblems were looking super worn, so I decided it was time to go ahead and replace them. I ordered myself some super black front/rear emblems as well as the 350z lettering, again, from Asad.

I'd never done this before (in fact, I hadn't done anything to cars before my zed), so did some research. The tools people used seemed to vary. Some people used dental floss, others used fishing line and one even used a knife

Obviously I passed on using a knife, but I found that dental floss is too weak to do the job and snapped. Luckily I had prepared some fishing line as well and succeeded using that.

Using masking tape, mark up how the emblem currently sits

Fully marked up rear

Rear after replacement

I was very glad to finally rid myself of the worn emblems

Note to anyone doing this:

1. If you have issues removing the emblems/lettering, some people seem to use a hairdryer / heat gun to gently heat up the adhesive first. I did have a little trouble, but just used a back and forth "sawing" section, which seemed to work.
   
2. Once you take off the old emblems/lettering, you'll be left with residue from the adhesive. It goes without saying but do your best to clean it off, prior to sticking the new one on. I personally used some watered down IPA
   

Good start to the build Hodaka! Looking forward to the progress

Thanks! This is long overdue so got a bit of catching up to do in terms of updates!

I had now dabbled in wrapping, and had some vinyl left over. I'd seen some people paint/wrap the centre section of their front bumper, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I repeated the same process again, i.e. IPA wipe down & 3M Primer 94 application prior to the wrap. This one took me 2-3 hours to do, as I'm a novice, but I was very pleased with the outcome. Always love a cheap mod

Before

After

Next up, the rear end of the car needed doing! I quite fancied myself a Strosek-Style Spoiler so I dropped Chris @ Tarmac Sportz a PM. A couple of days later ( thanks Chris for the super fast delivery as always ) my new spoiler had arrived:

Nothing much to report here really - got it painted and fitted:

Before

After

Love it

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I had bought aluminium vent trims from Asad. I finally got around to installing it!

I first bent the aluminium into a slight curve to match the curvature of the plastic around the plastic. I then wiped the vent plastic with IPA to degrease it, then brushed on some 3M Primer 94 again to aid adhesion. The aluminium trim has some double-sided tape on the back, so I just peeled off the cover and stuck it on.

Before

After

A few days later, the reverse camera I ordered from eBay showed up. I bought it from a seller called "chenwenjiaoeb09" and it cost £13.50. Here's what came in the box:

I followed parts of this guide and stripped the boot and installed the camera. The only thing I did differently is to run the wires down the centre of the car, rather than along the door. This was just because I had experience taking that section apart.

Again, apologies as I didn't really take many pictures.

Stripped boot

The bits in the office

Bad photo, but the reverse camera in action

I've since had the camera installed for over 1/2 a year and have had no issues at all, other than the clip on the camera snapping off 2 weeks ago. I plan to try and fix it, and failing that will just order another one considering it's cost!

If you are actually reading this (if you are, wow! ), you'll know that I wasn't initially keen on the 350z. One reason for this was the interior - I especially disliked the centre console area. I decided I'd try and do something about it to the best of my ability.

So I ordered the following:

• Nismo knob from eBay - Seller called "japex_trading"
  
• Gear knob & handbrake gaiter from eBay - Seller called "j-f-customs"
  
• Gloss black vinyl from Vinyl Warehouse
  
• Second hand Pioneer AppRadio 2 - From "ebsop" on here
  
• Stereo harness for the above with steering wheel controls
  

I followed this guide and proceeded to remove the centre console. I also removed the area surrounding the handbrake (I don't know what it's called) using another guide, which I have lost. It was pretty easy though other than disconnecting the cable underneath...

After opening her up, I found a mess of wires that one of the previous owners had added for an ancient aftermarket GPS:

So I went ahead and removed everything I can, including the bluetooth adapter:

I wanted to wrap the plastics, but didn't want the bubbly texture that's on them, so proceeded to sand down the surfaces. I'm 100% sure I did something wrong here, as it took me 8 hours or so to do...

After the top layer was sanded off, I was left with a felt-like material:

I wiped it down with IPA and used 3M Primer 94 along the edges, then used a heat gun to stick on the vinyl.

I'm afraid I didn't take many pictures as I didn't have the intention of writing it up, so that's about it for this one. I also had a load of guides I used, but I've lost all of them

Anyway few hours later, I had installed and put everything back together. I do intend to do something about that centre cubby "button", and also need to remove the wrap from the ash tray.

Before

After

I don't have any space to work at home, so all of this was done in the office car park. I started after work on Friday, and by the time I was finished it was 2pm on Saturday. I was absolutely knackered! Good thing the wife was away at a conference, else I would have been in a world of trouble!

I spent the following few months browsing the forums and looking for the next thing to do. I ended up getting myself the following:

• JWT Pop Charger from Tarmac Sportz
  
• RDX Stubby Aerial from Tarmac Sportz
  
• Aluminium Vent Trims from Asad
  

So first on was the aerial. If you've spent any time on these forums, you'll know this is pretty much a mandatory mod. Everyone on here loves a short one!

The old aerial took a little persuasion to remove but it was done! The first mod that I actually did anything. So proud of myself

Before

After

Next up was the pop charger. I found this guide on my350z, which came in very handy! The only issue I faced was screwing in the heatshield to the air duct. The air duct plastic is very soft, so I ended up holding the drill bit in between my fingers and drilling the hole that way. Needless to say, it was a pain! I only bothered screwing in 1 screw, much like the OP in the guide.

I took the car for a drive after fitting the pop charger and it made a noticeable change to the noise inside the cabin. Much deeper/throatier than before, which sounded great! Also loved the hiss it makes!

Months went by owning the zed, and I was really enjoying it... a lot. I then discovered a magical place with a wealth of information and inspirational projects/pictures. Here's a link in case you're interested, I highly recommend it - http://www.350z-uk.com/

I started visiting the forums more and more, and became a member in February 2015. Reading other peoples' posts made me really want to modify my own car, but having no experience/knowledge about anything car-related always held me back. In March however (didn't take long), I decided to take the plunge and get the roof wrapped in gloss black, and add tints to the windows.

A simple mod, but I absolutely loved the way it transformed the look of the car.

The company I used was called Dino Tints and I believe it was around £250 for the roof wrap and tints all around. The work was carried out in a day. They can come to you, but the weather looked grim on the day I had the work done so they collected/dropped off the car.

I was hooked.

Soo... I've finally decided to stop being lazy and actually start a build thread!

I guess I'll start with a bit of background about myself to put it into context.

I got my driving license in 2012, and bought myself a 04 plate BMW Z4 3.0i roadster. It was a great car, but I'm a bit of an impulse buyer and didn't really do my homework beforehand. I got the SMG version, which caused nothing but issues during the entire duration of my ownership. Apparently the SMG is well known to be problematic, especially at the mileage I bought it at. In retrospect, I probably should have sussed that the previous owner didn't really care about his car as well. For example he used water instead of windscreen wash.

Anyhow thousands of pounds of repairs later, the car started popped into neutral randomly when shifting, had loud clunks etc... The mechanic I used said that the part he suspected could only be bought from BMW as part of a larger assembly, and the parts alone would be around £3,500. I don't think he was BSing me, as he had been advising me to sell it for quite a while, and even on this occasion he said his personal opinion is to call it a day.

So I did, and the search for my next car began.

When looking for my first car, I had also looked (online) at the 350z. Don't kill me, but I wasn't actually that big a fan of it. Saying that, I saw a listing come up nearby, so I decided to go take a look. Good thing I did - as I fell in love with it as soon as I saw! Impulses kicked in again, and I had bought it a week later (July 2014). Really need to learn to control my impulses!

The zed I bought was an 04 plate with about 58,000 miles on the clock. As far as I'm aware, the car was completely stock, which was how I planned to keep it.

And that sums up the beginnings of my journey with my zed.

Just a quick note - It's been a while since I've done some of these mods, but I will try to provide as much information where possible and/or provide links to threads/pages I found useful. I'm still clueless about cars, but I have definitely gained a wealth of knowledge on here and it's my hope that some of my word vomit will help others

Yeh, i did just read this but i can't even wire a plug so the thought of having to "splice" "diode" and "use electrical tape" scares me to death... I do think i'll have a go at this but i'm trying to sort out my head lights first. Either way they look great!

 

Matt

Haha fair enough! I would have been in the same boat + it would have taken me ages too. Luckily I have a friend who's pretty good at these things to help out if/when needed

bit worries about not having a fog light so i'll put this on hold for now.

 

Hodaka also managed to squeeze in a sly bumper tuck here as well

Haha, well noticed!

The missing fog light was a mistake on my part. We're actually in discussion on the other thread right now but setting it up so that you have the brighter red light as the brake light / fog light. Flyboy has suggested using some diodes in series, you could set it up so that it acts as a fog light when that's turned on, else it functions normally as a brake light. Hopefully I'm explaining that ok?

God... such scumbags... I really feel for the owner...

You could also wire it into both brake and fog light functions with a diode in each wire in series to stop the voltage feeding back into the wrong circuit.

You would then have them functioning as brake lights when the fog switch isn't on and fogs when it is.

This is what I have done with the JDM Toys central 370z fog/reverse/brake/tail/light

Gosh, love it!

Just to clarify I do understand you correctly, is the below image correct? I don't really know much about selecting components - what diode would you recommend?

This sounds like a great idea, but you lost me at Diode and Series, i'm probably being stupid, but any chance you could provide a diagram or guide to illustrate?

Once I get around to it, I'll take some pics etc... assuming you don't get clarification from Flyboy/someone else before then. I'll be doing this after I get my replacement OS unit though, so will be a few weeks.

Still no stock? sorry for nagging, just really want a set to match my mirrors

Same here, can't wait for the pillar covers

no I tried the battery, had a new one when I got the car a few months back. doesn't make much of a difference. He sold the car with a dud fob, so first thing was the battery, which did nothing. Then I reprogrammed it, but got it to the state it is in now

How strange... As you've disassembled & reassembled many times yourself, I assume you've already checked the connections as well.

I'm out of ideas but I hope you get to the bottom of it. I know how super annoying small things like this can be!

and congrats on your purchase Love the colour

Yeah that's a surprisingly long aerial lurking behind! I'll look into the stubby variety, thanks.

Chris @ Tarmac does them for £17.50 - http://www.tarmacsportz.co.uk/GB/RDX_STUBBY_ANTENNA_/RDX_39151_.aspx

I agree with Davey - if you haven't already done so, try replacing the battery. I had a very similar issue to you - sometimes it worked fine from 20m away, sometimes I'd have to spam press it while standing next to the car (moving my arms around as I have no idea where the receiver is) etc... Changed the battery and now it works as it should. Threw me off for a while as I expected a more steady decline in performance, rather than it being intermittent.