Lewis Schwier

I'm 5 minutes down the road from Ely, you local to there?

Fortunately I'm used to doing 4-5 hours of prep work on my customers cars. And when you have timescales its a whatever the weather kind of situation

They are the original headlights but have been modified exactly how @SHEZZA explained. At first it was one thing that put me off the car but when I saw them in person I quite liked them and they have grown on me even more since I bought the car. Not quite sure if they are there to stay but definitely at the bottom of the list if I were to change.

So I had a Friday free so that combined with the weekend I could squeeze some much needed TLC over 3 days. I want to do a 7 day detail at some point but business requires all my attention at the moment so that will have to be put on the back burner for now. So just started off with a simple wash and decontamination. Was so cold that day, I literally washed the body and de tarred it then pulled it inside to dry. I then clayed the whole car with a soft to medium clay. I usually use Auto Finesse fine clay bar and do it during the wash stage as the only lubrication needed is water but due to the car being heavily contaminated I used Bilt Hamber's Auto-Clay, due to it being quite corse you do need to use a lubrication with it so I used Angel Wax Über Lube. The photos don't do it justice but the car was pretty bad, especially on the side where the rear brake pad was down to the metal, flinging up iron filings everywhere! Took me a good 2 hours just to clay the car throughly. Then onto the machine polishing I used Rupes System with Yellow Pad and Koch Chemie M2. The paintwork was not bad at all, quite impressed with how good it was actually, could definitely tell the previous owners had looked after it and only had it washed correctly. A full day of machine polishing and the paintwork was ready to coat. I manged to bring the wrapped roof back to life with some light machine polishing as well. Time to change the awful black and red front badge back to OEM. Unfortunately I could see where the person who put this badge on had been, safe to say they had made a mess, chipping the paintwork whilst trying to pry off the original. A front bumper respray w/ plate delete is on the list for future jobs anyway so not the end of the world. Badges changed. MUCH better. Wheels were taken off and cleaned. The rear wheel that was on the hub where the brake pad was down to the metal was absolutely caked in contaminates and overtime had baked onto the alloy. After an hour of elbow grease and about 1L of acid later I had managed to take it all off. The wheels need a refurbishment so no point in putting any coating on them, at least now they are clean! Then it was onto coating the paintwork. I had been sent some samples of ceramic coating by N-XTC who are a sister company of Chemical Guys. I had bought my Heat Lamp off Chemical Guys EU and Martin who runs the shop in the Netherlands called me up and we had a good chat, he was keen to get my opinion on their ceramic coating and potentially get me on board to be the first UK Accredited Installer for N-XTC. The whole car was wiped down with IPA then onto applying the first layer of coating. First layer was then baked with the Infrared Heat Lamp at 60°C for 6 minutes each section. That was left over night then the top coat was applied. Looking forward to seeing how the coating performs! Something I also had on order for a while was a new OEM gear knob. It finally arrived so no more eBay special Fismo! So satisfying to fit and finally see the interior how it should be! The gear knob was £226 but it just needed to be done. Thanks to Adrian and the team for the great customer service as always! So that was the end of the 3 days, the car looks so much better now and feels like mine. The gear knob, front badge and rear wheel were really bugging me so glad I was able to sort them out. Like I mentioned before other things will have to wait as I'm currently attending finances within the business but at least its road worthy now!

If its done properly then you shouldn't but dirt can still build up against the edge and it become more visible overtime. A lot easier to catch with things when washing too. There are 3 main brands that people use in the UK. Xpel, Suntek & Llumar. All are very good films. The advantage with Xpel it has the biggest database of designs by a long mile. Suntek is actually a sister company of Llumar's. (Use the same film) Some people will say the Llumar film has better clarity (less orange peel) others would say Xpel is thicker and has better longevity. Like I said they are all good films and similar priced. Good write up here. https://exclusivepaintprotection.com/learn/best-paint-protection-film

As others said they are the main areas, also the bottom area of the front of the rear quarters where they meet the side skirts. Most cars have a piece of PPF on this part already. I would say having only half the bonnet and front wings done doesn't look great. Is worth going to a place that can do full frontal. So the whole bonnet and wings. Usually for a standard full frontal would be around £1200 plus VAT from a reputable company.

I'm a Accredited Installer for Modesta and Kamikaze Collection. I work closely with a Xpel Accredited PPF installer. Any questions just ping me a DM. I think most of your questions have already been answered on here but here to help any how. We are based in Cambridgeshire. WWW.LDLUXURYDETAILING.CO.UK

If you want exclusivity you could go for the mk1, not many about and not that often up for sale. It doesn't have the nice Recaro seats the mk2 has but it also doesn't have the fake noise through the speakers. Pros and cons. I went from a 350z to a Nismo. 1 because I always wanted one but also because I was going to get the Vis Racing Body kit for my 350z and quickly realised that I would be spending Nismo money once I had fitted and painted it. I think they are worth the money in looks alone compared to standard 370z let along the performance upgrades too.

Nice to hear an update from you Shezza! Hopefully catch you soon

Unfortunately it sounds like you've learnt the hard way that these main dealerships are usually not very good and expensive. Even their so called 'specialist centres'. Horsham Developments and Abbey Motorsports both have extremely good reputations for all things Z. I'm sure there is some other specialists garages some other forum members can mention as well

When I was inspecting my arches and giving them a good clean I noticed they had kept quite a few things that were the same design as the 350z. One being what @dave_7 mentioned. That Black rubber bit that seals the front of the back arches. It is literally a dirt trap and as usual was FULL of mud. Secondly I noticed the amount of water that gets trapped between exactly where you said, between the rear panel and side skirts. I used the blow dryer couldn't believe how much trapped water came from that area. Another poor design from Nissan unfortunately. Shame these cars weren't under sealed from factory.

Sprayed it on. Just two coats

It definitely should of, looks like it was a half ass job. Seems to be more common these days

Absolutely ridiculous right!

Finally got the rear brakes done so I could actually drive the car. Thought I would replace pads and discs each side so they have equal wear. Bought from Euro Car Parts at a great price as they had 45% off. How the previous owner didn't clock that one of the pads was down to the metal I will never know. The whole wheel was caked in orange iron contaminates and the constant scrape was horrendous. Anyway before the discs went on I thought I would paint the hubs with some hammerite as we all know the paint that is used on brake discs comes off and rusts in no time. Much better! Turns out the brake pads had just completely disintegrated both sides, I reckon they were the original brake pads, not surprised they had fallen apart 8 years later! All fresh now, just need to get the wheels refurbished and paint the front hubs to match!

I'll take a plain one for my 2013 Nismo

@Killick.z

Yea its a shame we only got white, silver and black. The Magma red and Gumetal grey look amazing in the mk1.

Totally agree with you there! Only the Mk1 was going to make me sell my 350z. Thank you.

Prices REDUCED

I am not sure. I bought it off a guy in Welwyn Garden City and he bought if off a young Uni student called George.

Personal preference I suppose but same here Especially once they have the plate delete as well!

I think they were trying to extend their target audience to get more sales by making the car more sleek and more understated which you can't blame them for doing the mk2 is still a beautiful car in its own right. Haha I would of loved to of kept it and had both but couldn't afford that unfortunately! Thanks man

So here I am finally creating a topic in the 370z section. I absolutely loved 350z ownership and have so many great memories with both previous cars, but it was time I followed my heart and dived into the Nismo club. No secret that I wanted a mk1 since the day me and @Killick.z crossed paths a few years ago and now I'm here writing this looking right at one that I now own. Still feels surreal, everytime I look at it I think wow thats actually mine Originally I did want to wait until next year but a unique opportunity presented itself and I decided to jump on it. Only 2-3 Mk1's really come up for sale at any one time so I was prepared not to be too picky as long as it had been looked after and the milage was low. Here it is: The plan is to take it back to stock and as usual detail/restore as much possible. A few things need doing. Rear pads are done so I've ordered new rear pads, discs and fluid. The gear box oil hasn't been changed for a while so I've ordered some genuine oil too. A genuine gear knob is on order as well as you can see its currently got an ebay special on there at the moment same with the front badge. Other plans are changing the headlights, steering wheel re trim, wheel refurb, new tyres, front plate delete. But this will all be done over time. Excited to share another awesome tread with you guys!