Tom_K

When you pay my ridiculous hourly rate

Morning all, I've been doing a bit more research and it looks like I'll definitely go for that clutch kit from Clark Motorsport. However I've decided to do some other bits while I'm there, mainly the gearbox oil, slave cylinder, braided line swap and fluid. Can anyone point me towards where to get the latter? (I will also look myself, but in the mean time, one of you helpful bods might come through first) and the oil I can get from anywhere.

Exactly that!! What I didn't say was all the internals of those parts that I can get to have been filled with cavity wax too. As for the exhaust; no sound clip but tbh it didn't sound any different After that I removed all the wadding from the center section to see if that made any difference...no dice. So I think I'm going to hack up the back box even more as the way I see it is nothing small is making a blind bit of difference lol

Love the last pics!! Looks stunning! Also, you've got some great underside shots that I'll be referencing

Real shame to see the key; it makes me sick that that the scum that do that kind of thing are free to roam the streets. Glad you've got it sorted and it's looking lovely and clean

A bit of progress this weekend getting it back together (with some new manifold - cat nuts). It's not completely back, but it's getting there. It'll all come off again at some point when I paint the body of the car (underbody I mean). The whole plan with this part of the project is to get it ready to come apart for when I do the clutch. I'll be borrowing my friends garage to do it and I'd rather not get stuck on rusty nuts/bolts and take 10x longer on his ramps. This way, it should all come apart to plan (famous last words?) and I can get the new clutch in without too much ramp time.

Thanks both. Alex, no, that's not something I even considered tbh The main concern is that it's a pig to drive as it is, so something needs to be done about it. Ewen, thanks for the link, I'll look into that as it does seem like everything I need.

Morning All, First things first, I have searched for this topic and found a lot of decent information but it's led me to question some things I wasn't previously questioning; So, I have a 2003 350GT (Import) and the clutch has been dodgy since I bought it, I knew it going into the deal. The symptoms are as follows: - Clutch release bearing is noisy (I'm assuming a new one of these will come with the clutch kit.) - The clutch pedal feels very stiff - It's almost impossible to pull away without juddering and this gets worse when hot - However, the clutch itself doesn't slip. - I can't hear any noise that sounds like the dual mass is knackered, but my only experience of this is on diesel VAG. My thinking is that I need a new clutch and release bearing (obviously) as the pressure plate may have overheated or something causing it to be stiff and notchy (causing the judder problem). My questions - Do we think I need a clutch AND flywheel? (I'd replace it with a solid if so) - If so, what traders on here offer these parts? As I'd rather go for someone trusted than some random 'is it Chinese or not' ebay gamble. - Also, do these cars come with any sort of clutch delay valve or similar like e36 BMW's for example? Any advice much appreciated

Update time! So, as you've all probably guessed by now, I quite like having the underside as clean as the top...and I find it quite therapeutic. In no particular order, I've recently removed all the bracket/braces from the front end, cleaned them up and painted them. Along with removing the cats, cutting off the rusty, rattly heat shields and giving them a coat of high-temp paint. While those are all off, I'm cleaning and painting any parts of the car body that these mount to before re-fitting. Not your usual project thread on here I'm sure but I enjoy it

I've already called ACAS, very helpful but they basically confirmed that what’s happening is strictly legal but not necessarily fair. As the new job is mine if I want it, they’re fulfilling that aspect. The fact that it’s very different and a ridiculous demand for 1 person doesn’t really factor in. Basic gist is as others have said, don’t jeopardise any potential next steps by trying to be clever. The redundancy money was never there to begin with, so if I find another job in the meantime then I should just treat it as good timing. If on the other hand I don’t, and I’m in the position where it’s either no work or crap work, that’s a different story.

Wow Thanks everyone! It's given me a lot to think about. To those that have said it seems like my mind is made up already; yes, that is true, I've decided I want to look elsewhere. Trouble is, I haven't actually got any firm offers yet, that's what's tricky at the moment. I've also got a few updates on the situation: In order to appear as if I'm trying to make it work, I spoke to HR and asked what the options were in terms of I don't think the proposed job is manageable so what room is there to negotiate there? Their response was pretty limited, it seems to be 'it is what it is' so the roles and responsibilities won’t change and there’s been no mention of renegotiating salary either. What is the redundancy package? It’s statutory, that’s it. They were very clear to say they want to keep me, as I have skills and experience they can’t afford to lose but at the same time, the offer is unmanageable and it’s clear to me that they’re trying to be cheap and combine 2 jobs into one, which I was very clear to say. So their words and their actions are two very different things. So that’s where I stand at the moment. I don’t have anywhere to go to yet, and I do not want to carry on with my current (proposed) role. I don’t want to just jump at the redundancy because a) it’s a pathetic offer and it puts me in a much weaker position to future employers. Oh and edit: I'm not fussed on staying in the same industry, but the most recent offer than has the most chance of progressing IS withing the same industry with a lot of the same people, so I fully appreciate that and have factored it in to my decision.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, it's much appreciated! Just to clarify a couple of things, I don't have another job to go to just yet, I just want to be prepared for an offer (hopefully!) Where does constructive dismissal come into things? As that's basically what's happened; my current job has been altered in a way that I simply cannot continue with so there's only one option left really.

Afternoon all, I'm hoping some of you might be able to help, or have experience in this situation. I know I don't post much on here apart from my project thread but my thinking is; you all have nice cars so you must be doing something right in work/life to be able to afford them... So, my situation is as follows: I've been at my current place for just over 5 years now (I'm 31 btw) and recently (around 8 months ago) I changed departments. The new role is extremely difficult because of the way the company is structured and there are several other reasons why I'm not happy there. With that in mind, I've been looking for a new job for the last little while. I think I've been very reasonable and expressed my concerns several times to different levels of management in the hope that they will look at ways to improve the situation, but alas, nothing ever changes. Today I was called into a meeting to be told they're restructuring the department and my current role will be drastically changed, to the point where it goes from extremely difficult to practically impossible. The option of redundancy was mentioned because of how much the roles/responsibilities have changed. It just so happens that my job search may have come up with something (fingers crossed) so my question is: What are the 'rules' or things I should be aware of surrounding this situation? If I was to accept another job before formally accepting redundancy, what would happen? I don't want to jeopardize any potential new role for the sake of a pay-out and would rather get that moving as soon as I can, over trying to be 'clever'. Lets assume here that my current company are not interested in being decent in any way and will do anything to wriggle out of paying someone or being fair. Any help or advice would be much appreciated and I promise to become a more 'active' member of the forum, just as soon as I'm not stupidly busy at work and drained in the evenings.

A colleague of mine moved between UK and US offices and although I agree with the comment above about it being a bit of a boastful culture, that's not different to finding a job in the UK; you just have to go with the 'CV talk' flow, which is hard if it's not really 'you'. He's the most softly spoken, modest guy you'll ever meet, BUT he's good at what he does, and he seemed to get on fine. As above really, just say you were disappointed with how it went because of various technical difficulties and you felt your knowledge and experience didn't come through.

Thanks both. I'm trying not to turn it into toooo much of a project as I have a tendency to get carried away with working on them and they end up never leaving the garage. So with that in mind, I'm trying not to modify it....but I do keep browsing the for 'parts for sale' sale forums...

WOW! Just skimmed through this thread (I'll read it properly tomorrow) but I love this build. You're one talented bloke!

Thanks all, I'd forgotten about this thread! Glad you like a bit of e36 amongst all the Jap

Afternoon all, long overdue an update to this so here goes: One thing that's always bothered me when opening the bonnet was the bubbles of corrosion. As you will probably all know, they're an aluminium bonnet with a steel sub-structure that supports the latch. Well, mine had various bubbles around the rivets and the edge was getting dangerously close to bubbling round to a point where you would see it on the leading edge. So I sanded that all down, etch primed it and then painted it. The trick here was the factory paint in the engine bay isn't painted as thoroughly as the rest of the car, so I opted for some top-coat silver that doesn't need a lacquer, so it hopefully wouldn't stand out as too shiny. And that's about it for now. Time to enjoy driving it for a bit before the next round of work.

Very neat repair, nicely done!

Funnily enough, I'm in the same boat as Mudman; I've got a Civic as a daily. However, because it's got a few 'niggles' I joined a forum as I found the wealth of knowledge there fantastic. So far it's helped diagnose a few problems that I would have probably wasted a lot of time on trying from square one. I joined here for similar reasons when I got my 350 (GT, not Z). If there happen to be local meets with like-minded enthusiasts then that's a happy bi-product. I've had (and still have) a few different cars and I enjoy them for different reasons but the thing I've found about some forums is that sometimes (I stress sometimes!) people aren't open to liking or even appreciating any other makes/models, which takes the shine of that 'club' slightly and makes me understand why some people actively shy away from getting involved.

There you go. It's the only thing that worked for me when I had the exact same issue you described.

Hi There, I had to go through this on my 350GT (obviously import) when fixing the window motor. Unfortunately, I found the only way to reset the motor was to disconnect it from the runners. There's a video on youtube about it, I think you need to search for 'G35 window regulator reset' or something (I'll stick a link up later) but you need to remove the motor, run it for 10 seconds in a certain direction, then refit it. I warn you now, it's a royal pain!! and involves a lot of taking apart, trialing, putting back together etc. On one side, it worked first time, but on the other side it took a few attempts.

Thanks all. Like I say, I wasn't really in the market for one but glad I came across this one!

Now came the really dirty stuff. I hate rust. There. I said it. Bit by bit, I'm cleaning and painting all the brackets underneath the car and eventually painting the floor pan itself. The 'W' beam was in a very sorry state, so I drilled out the spot welds to get out all the rust, then welded it back together with some extra strength. When I bought it, the washer jets were pretty poor. I investigated and at first noticed the one way valves were just working against me, so removed them. Then noticed the motor was a little sticky. Now I know I could buy a new one for about £5 but I didn't have time and thought I'd try and re-build it. So far so good! Also though, when I went to take the front bumper off to get to the washer bottle, nearly all the fixing were rusted/snapped, so I set about repairing the undertray and bumper with riv-nuts etc: Since I bought it, I always found it kind of amusing how all the buttons were in Japanese. After a hunt around some American breakers on ebay however, I thought I'd try and convert it to english, so took a bit of a punt on a whole sat-nav unit from a G35. Long story, that didn't work, but I now at least have buttons in english. While I was there, I also cleaned up the gear surround bezel as it had a couple of marks: Of all days, one very rainy day, the drivers side window decided to stop working...while it was down :| Luckily I managed to get in the garage and set-about sorting that out. Luckily it was just a case of cleaning the motor up as the brushes were a bit worn. Resetting the position so the window didn't bounce back however was a pain! This worked for a while until the problem happened again and I decided to replace the worn motor brushes. While I was there, I sound deadened and waxed the inside of the door too, oh, and did the passenger side too for good measure. I enjoyed it like that for a few weeks but the latest job I'm working on is replacing the stupid, small import style battery with a proper one. At the same time, I'm going to replace some of the butchered wiring in that area. I've already cleaned it all up and waxed the whole area (and removed the drain tube as the lip around it's edge creates a high point which means a small amount of water can still sit there without draining) Oh yeah, and I also sanded and re-painted the wiper arms as they were a bit corroded. So there we have it. That's all the work to date, and I'll be sure to update this as I go along. Hope you enjoy

(Firstly, not 100% sure if this can go in the '350z' modifications, so admin, please move if you want) UPDATED 03.03.18 so that pictures work after Photobucket decided to fail. As per my introduction thread, I'll give you all a little a summary here; I was looking for an R33 GTST, so I searched for 'Skyline' every day on the various sites. One day, this 350GT Skyline popped up, which I dismissed at first. Then I thought I'd click on the advert and found out a couple of things that made me reconsider! After a call to the owner, I was even more sold on it, so I arranged to see it. It needed some work, the biggest of which was/is the clutch; the release bearing was wining and the clutch was very stiff but other than that, it was a really honest car so I snapped it up! As you can see from my BMW in the 'other cars' forum, I'm a little OCD and love getting stuck in, so the 350 was going to be the next 'rolling project'. These were the first pictures I tool when I bought it, and as my friend had a ramp, it was up there within minutes: We had a good old root around and diagnosed it was a nice solid car I've bought a few cars in my time so I was pretty certain I'd got a good one, but it was nice to confirm so soon. First things first was the brakes; they were vibrating and pretty worn, so I rebuild the calipers (new seals and bolts) and replaced the discs / pads. My and a friend from work tried skimming the discs but that didn't work. While it was up in the air I thought I'd tackle the broken exhaust; the flange between the centre section and backbox had rusted and it was just sleeved. With nothing to lose, as it was pretty much scrap anyway, I thought I'd replace the flange and try and make it sound a little nicer: Again, while it was all apart I thought the wheels should be done as they were pretty poor. This is a bit of a sore point as I do miss the shadow-chrome type original finish. Next up were the rather cloudy headlights, here are the after pics: One day, while reaching to reset the trip computer, I nearly touched the rev counter...as in...the face of it. I hadn't even noticed but the perspex screen was missing! No idea why! All I can think is someone tried to fix something and broke it. Rather painfully, I had to get another from the dealer, but while I was there, I fixed the ignition 'ring light' that was broken. (Tip: One from a Primera fits) With those few things done (oh, gave it a service too...obviously!), it was time to take it on a nice long weekend away (clutch still stiff but once you were motorway it was fine) After staring at it lovingly for a while, I started to really hate the caravan style rear fog light! So that had to go. While I was there, I noticed that the rear numberplate light holder was...well...made of rust. So I made a new one out of some stainless steel I had laying around: aaaaaand I've hit the limit of pictures I'm able to post, so more will come in the following reply.