TMPL

Well I haven't got very far with this as I'm still not sure I want to spend money on it (I do) when it's looking like I could afford something a fair bit pricier if I show some restraing for a few months... however I do keep cleaning it!

Do you do it? Or lift weights with a focus on getting bigger?

 

Not bodybuilding but I am a competitive powerlifter in the 110kg weight class. I realise this slows my Z down...

Absolutely and if its something you want to do, go for it I have done it before and its a great journey, just if i think back to all the money i have thrown at this sort of thing, it makes you think twice and let someone else take the hit, but if your comfortable with it, you will enjoy the ride

I shall have a ponder. If I traded it in for another car I'd expect to lose 3k in part ex. If I sink 10k in it and then sell it on, i'll be 6k down.... so the real difference is around 3k lost by the time I move on to another car. That's not SO bad, but my maths are probably a bit off.

Yep, i even said somewhere in this post i wouldnt drop that kind of money into a zed, just buy one done and your resale will be on par with anything else.

Someones got to make them though!

Turbo 430hp.

 

I find brakes and suspension more than adequate at these power levels.

 

I don't know about supercharged but turbo is a whole lot of fun. Transforms the car.

 

What made you go with a turbo set up? I'm open to new ideas here, I just see the complete vortech kit is probably the most readily available and easiest way of doing things.

 

The fact that I paid only 3500 quid for the kit (2nd hand from abbey motorsports)

 

And the fact that I always planned to go forged internals and big power.

 

S/C dropped in and left at 400 ish hp and you'll be fine. Sort of plug and play.

 

My engine went boom..But turbo kits add more stress to internals.

 

I now have a fully uprated bottom end.

Great now I'm weighing up built engines and turbo kits..... double the price though!

Turbo 430hp.

 

I find brakes and suspension more than adequate at these power levels.

 

I don't know about supercharged but turbo is a whole lot of fun. Transforms the car.

What made you go with a turbo set up? I'm open to new ideas here, I just see the complete vortech kit is probably the most readily available and easiest way of doing things.

I love mine ! It's was only completed at the end of last year then tucked away for the winter so I've not had too many miles on it yet. As has been said already. The car maintains its usability but becomes much better when you plant your right foot. I'm running 430 and the hubs which should be safe for me. I did have a hand in building the car so I think I appreciate that side of things more and I would recommend doing it yourself if your handy with a spanner. There's a lot of folk on here that have done it so I'm sure if you put up a build thread everyone would chip in if you got stuck.

 

I plan on keeping my car so I'm not fussed about its resale value ( just as well lol)

 

If you plan on selling it on at some point you will lose big time so as the other say maybe buying a fully built one is the better option

 

Cheers

Paul

I'd love to do it myself but I'm working so much i just don't have the time at the moment, I've been through this before with an engine swap I did myself in my old celica gt-four. Knowing what my schedule is like at the moment, I'd rather just drop it off somewhere and pick it up a week later than do half an hour on it here and there for a few months!

I'll definitely be keeping it if I go down this route, just have to be certain it will be enough performance for the money. I really do love the car, I wasn't hoping for anything different, just FASTER.

Chuck a £1500 wrap into the mix and your still ahead of the game buddy

http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/114045-supercharged-2005-uk-spec-350z-11500-ovno/

Will take more than a wrap to sort that roof out :o

^^^ yep exactly the same here, 30k plus was my next figure.

 

I still wouldnt pump 15k plus into a zed though, just buy one done, unless you really really want that journey of doing it yourself

If anyone was selling a black coupe I'd be all over that but I'm getting impatient

Why would you suggest that, I didnt loose any reliability along with many others on here, its still the same engine so same service costs, bar supercharger belts and if like me you go for a larger sump, a couple more litres of oil.

 

Ekona raises a good point, what could or would you buy with circa 11k to 12k that you could buy a charged zed for, there was nothing that took my fancy with circa 400hp unless you want a german luxo barge that is going to cost a fortune if it goes wrong or a big Jag, same applies.

The next step for me car wise comes with a 30 grand price tag, so considering I'd hope to be all in with the 350z around 15-20k, it's still some way off...

 

Given your car is stock, you really need to be doing suspension & brakes first. I think you'll be surprised just how good you make an NA 350 without dropping megabucks.

Oh this is definitely budgeted for as well, but the situation is it'll either be EVERYTHING or I'll not be spending another penny on it and saving for something else.

Cant think there will be a great deal of people with a genuine 400whp with superchargers on 350's

Is that so? What would be the main barrier to that happening? I'm sure there's a few on here?

I've been deliberating over handing my stock 350z in to TDi-North, a large sum of cash and hopefully driving away with something in the above power range. I do have the disposable cash sitting around waiting to be spent but still trying to weigh up whether or not this is for me, having never even sat in a car with more power than my stock Z before I really have no idea what to expect.

So, to those who have already done this, would you mind giving me a review of your experience and help push me over the edge? Cheers!

Link me to a stubby arial and i'll buy it lol

 

https://www.tarmacsp...by-antenna.html

 

 

Stunning wheels especially on a black car.

Thankyou, loving them!

Right, ordered lol

Wheels look perfect! Don't do anything crazy like paint em black

NO!!! They're staying exactly as they are, the girlfriend suggested black but she is wrong. "But they won't really look any different than your current wheels" Yes they will shut up.

Ok, didn't get to see as much daylight as I'd have liked to today but on the way home from work in Tesco car park I couldn't help but notice how much these wheels stand out at night! They really seem to catch any light, being black it always looked dull at night but it's really brightened things up a bit! I wanted to get some daytime photos of the LMGT4's but this will have to do for now

Link me to a stubby arial and i'll buy it lol

Well... I just got my first mod out of the way so it's time to start a build project thread

After what seemed like forever searching, I found and bought the best example I could find in my favourite colour combination - black with the orange interior - about 6 weeks ago. A very clean example IMO -

So for my first mod, I just got back after making the 300 mile round trip to buy my favourite wheels - the 19" LMGT4s - from Jim after I saw his advert here in the for sale forum. Couldn't believe they were still up for sale! Too dark to get any photos after I finished fitting them tonight, but can't wait to go have a look in the morning

Future plans are pretty much EVERYTHING when funds permit. I think I'll probably go for the BC Coilovers and a tiny bit of a drop next though. Following that I'll move on to basic power upgrades.... probably.

Cheers guys!

My Zed came with "Kenda Kaiser" tyres which I determined must have set the previous owner back about £200 for the whole lot. Even if it just rained yesterday, driving gently at 20mph in 3rd gear can spin the wheels if I'm not pointing straight forwards...

I'm in negotiations with a potential buyer at the moment. Will let you know if that doesn't work out.

It will work out

I don't think I'll be doing that! I've been quoted £275 for someone to get rid of the rust and respray the panel. Car isn't on the road yet so will have to wait until April!

That sounds about the same as I paid near enough to have mine done when I had my Zed but be warned the rust can come back.

Story pasted below from another thread rather than re-type it all again...

 

When I had my Zed it had a few small bubbles on the drivers side rear arch so I took it to a local body shop.

They quoted me for some other spray jobs at the same time (respray front bumper & roof) but I believe it worked out around £250-300 for the rear quarter (repair & blend in with side/rear bumper).

 

I had the work done and it looked great for all of about 2 weeks before bubbles started reappearing, ...understandably pi**ed off I went back and complained. They redid the work this time taking pictures along the way showing me everything that they did. On their second attempt at fixing it they cut out a fairly large triangle shape piece of metal, welded in a replacement piece of new metal, filled, smoothed, primed, base coat & lacquered.

 

That's how it should have been done in the first place I thought. It only lasted for about 6 months though before the rust bubbles started coming back again!!

In the end I left it as the bubbles were very minor & with selling the car on the horizon at the time I didn't fancy plowing any more money into it.

 

Not much help I know Adam but just more of a cautionary tale. If you are going to try & get it fixed I'd consider getting a proper pair of new rear quarters otherwise you may end up paying more money every 6 months or so just to repair the same problem again & again.

Source: http://www.350z-uk.c...-advice-needed/

 

 

It's a very common area for the 350 Zed to get rust and can be a PITA to sort unfortunately but not impossible. Good luck.

Is this inevitable or are there any steps we should be taking to prevent it if we don't already have this issue?

around £20k in total

I am afraid to say, there isnt a chance in hell i would spend 20k on a 350z.

 

That's absolutely fair, but what could you, or would you get for 20k instead? I really can't think of anything I'd prefer until you get up to £40k to be honest.

 

Dont get me wrong, i agree in principal, when i had my fi zed i really had no intention of changing as i was the same, there was nothing i wanted sub £35k, so i am not going to say, buy this or that as there is loads available for sub £20k and no matter how much i loved it and if even if i had £20k budget, i still wouldnt pay that for something that can be bought for roughly half.

 

I fully appreciate the journey can be half the fun though and if you can afford to loose £10k go for it, but just think that is 25% of the money away from where you need or want to be (40k), so if your goal is own a fi 350 just go buy one and put that money aside for your £40k goal, if your goal is to enjoy the journey, get spending

You're right. While I'm saving up for all the parts, I'll keep an eye out and see if the right car pops up or not. It's another option I hadn't considered, so thanks! Just to be awkward it would have to be a part ex though, I couldn't be assed with trying to sell mine privately, waiting for the sale, missing the chance to buy the next car, finally selling mine and having nothing to buy etc. I guess most FI 350Z sales are probably private.

around £20k in total

I am afraid to say, there isnt a chance in hell i would spend 20k on a 350z.

That's absolutely fair, but what could you, or would you get for 20k instead? I really can't think of anything I'd prefer until you get up to £40k to be honest.

I didn't say it was stupid, I just said you might want to consider it as unless you've got the cash to burn, it's an awful lot of cash to burn!

I know, but let's be honest, it's stupid haha.

What's the total budget?

Open ended at the moment, I know these thing have a lot of unexpected additional costs. I got the car for £8k, if I could finish the project having spent around £20k in total, I'd consider it a pretty good car for that amount of money. If it's more, it's more, as long as I don't get to the point where I'm wondering why I didn't just save up for a GTR (the only car right now I'd consider moving on to, and no I can't afford it!)