Rbailey182

This had made me chuckle and turned around what was a pretty horrendous day at work

I have done it and would have spent a small fortune on carrier bags had I not stock piled them. I probably covered more than I needed to but better to be safe. I didn't have any issues afterwards apart from getting the bags back out after I had worked them into some really tight areas.

Looking good

I have to admit, I don't think it looks too bad. However, they could have given it some decent looking calipers.

I know there is Adrian Flux who are on this forum. At the time I got my 350z I wasn't a member of the forum so I got my insurance with 1st central via compare the market. I'm paying £620 for an unmodified car. That comes with legal protection, breakdown cover, no claims protection, key cover and personal injury cover. I live in a medium risk area, I'm 33 and have full no claims ( 16 years total but max they allow is 9). Guessing with a newer car though it may head back up towards the £800 mark. Have you asked them why they have increased it so much?

I have really enjoyed reading the entirety of this thread. Kudos for undertaking all the work yourself. I have to admit though, I am envious of your determination and workmanship. Keep it up though fella. I'm looking forward to reading more from this project

As above. I've been toying with the idea of re trimming my door cards in Alcantara/alcantara type material but there is one area of concern. I think the door card in general won't be too bad to do as it is fairly flat. My only concern would be the contoured area where the door meets the dash board. Has anyone on here attempted to do the door cards themselves and if so how was it to get that area spot on? I'm hoping to not have to put a joining line in it in order to get the material to sit properly. Any tips would also be gratefully welcome

I'll keep an eye out. I haven't seen many Zeds around this area. Think I have counted about 5/6 mixing up the 350s and 370s

I could have called it "the biggest annoyance to enter my life so far, upsetting what is a truly enjoyable car to drive with a constant knocking that is consistent with that of living next door to a newly wedded couple"?? That took too much effort to type and as the whole thing was long enough in the tooth, me using banana instead of Lower Compression Arm was a justifiable exchange I think Appreciate that Glen, What colour year do you drive? I'll try and keep an eye out for you

Dammit wrong area. Could a Moderator please move to the correct 350z area please

Soooooo, Being the budding DIY Mechanic I thought I was, I would have a go at replacing the Lower compression arms today. I have a list of jobs that need doing such as front bearings, discs/pads and bolt on/off stuff I never normally have an issue with. So that being said I ordered a new front set of Banana arms ( sadly couldn't afford OE ones ) and the bearings this month with the intention of doing the discs and pads next month when funds allow. I proceeded to jack up the OSF wheel first, got the axle stand in place and popped the wheel off. Now, after watching a few random videos on YouTube about 350z work in general, I knew that I would no doubt be faced with seized bolts. However, I was not ready for it to be the very first bolt Yes the ABS sensor bolt. Well, I say it was seized, I used a 1/4" drive ( so no major leverage) and it felt like it was coming loose. THEN, Snap! Great start to the day. Anyway I decided that I was not going to get frustrated and angry and I would deal with that issue later. So onto taking the calipers off. Struggled like hell to get the bolts to crack but after about 20 minutes ( and a brew) I got them both to crack with no issues. Suspended the caliper and proceeded to take off the disc. Then came the joyous 4 bolts of the bearing. 3 of them came out really well. The 4th however, the one by the banana arm was of course now not accessible by sockets!! As I had only jacked up the one side at this point I just struggled on with the longest spanner I have in my inventory and after some perseverance i got that one to crack as well. ( Its probably worth mentioning at this point that I had applied generous amount of penetrating oil to pretty much any bolt that I was going to be addressing). So far due to extremely tight bolts and sore knees/back ( and the need to drink copious amount of tea ) I had been at this job for 2 hours. Anyway, I thought now would be a good time to get the banana arm ready for removal as I had a good amount of access to it with the bearing being out. First things first, Split pin. Yep it snapped.............. I was starting to get a bit more annoyed now but I though no worries I will get my small punch and start to knock it through so that I can pull it out the other side. Start seeing some results then my mate decides to surprise me by kicking my feet. I of course jump and snap my punch with a small piece now lodged in the split pin hole. I am fuming at this point and my friend quickly departs. So now I spend an hour carefully and methodically filing down any protruding pieces of metal ( not hitting the thread) so that I could at least get the nut over the hole and off. All the filing done and by this point the penetrating oil, having several applications, had been on for a good few hours now so I tried my luck with the banana arm nut that is closest to the bearing. After struggling with it for 10 minutes I finally hear that creek and a joyous moment feeling the nut turning and turning and turning and not doing anything else. Turns out that the creek was in fact the bolt going into the banana arm and not the nut as I first thought. I tried every way how to put some type of pressure on the arm to give me what I needed to get the nut loose but it was just having none of it. That means now that I have to grind the nut/bolt off in order to get this free. I felt at this point that I should stop while the assembly was still intact and admit that I need to get a garage to do this part of the job for me as I don't have the correct tools or equipment. I had been going for 5 hours at this point and thought enough is enough. It took me about 20 minutes to put in the new bearing and reassemble everything else to which I just laughed at myself. So now I'm left with the dilemma of needed the arms fitting by someone who knows their way around the Zed suspension and wont be surprised by anything ( probably having seen it all before ). I really hope there is someone near to Cannock or in the Staffordshire area who wouldn't mind fitting these for me ( obviously paid work ). If there is anyone who can, please let me know, or if anyone knows of anywhere near that I could get in contact with that would be great. TIA

Best to keep one in pristine condition. Who knows, it could be worth a tad bit more in years to come.