Silverthorn

Once again, another purchase from Yahoo Auctions! You do find some absolute bargains on there so I would ecourage anyone who is in the market for car parts to take a look! This time, in an attempt to remove some rear camber I purchased and fitted some Rear Upper Control Arms. Due to the fact that i built the wheels around the camber I had a few months ago, I couldn't remove the camber with the lower arms as that would cause the top of the wheel to poke out from the arch. Therefore I needed a combination of Upper and Lower Camber Arms to bring the camber back to a more reasonable standard while maintaining that glorious fitment! I managed to find these arms on Yahoo Auctions through a website called Buyee. Even after the purchase price, shipping to the Buyee Warehouse, Buyee fees, postage to the UK & Import duty, they were less than half the price of PartsShopMax & Hardrace equivalents! Quality-wise, they're brilliant. I'd say they're just as good, if not better than all the other arms I have on the car Fitting them howevever was a bit of a nightmare! Seeing as the nut that holds the balljoint in to the rear knuckle has a small split pin securing it in place which is very awkward to get to as well as the fact the nut itself is almost guaranteed to be seized, you need to remove the entire rear knuckle to swap the arms. Removing the majority of the arms wasn't a big deal and within a few minutes I had the fasteners for the lower coilover mounts, camber, toe and traction arms removed. Removing the driveshafts was also a simple job thanks to a big ol' 32mm socket and my Ryobi Impact Driver. However, removing the bolts that hold the UCA's to the subframe was a bit of a pain, especially on the drivers side as you cannot remove the bolt from the hole as when it is backing out it hits the fuel line from the filler neck to the tank. I assume Nissan recommends dropping the subframe to change these arms as you certainly can't get that bolt out as you would initially hope. Not a chance I was dropping the subframe though so I managed to, while still on the car, shorten the bolt by about 10mm with an angle grinder and remove it. I have no idea why Nissan did it this way as if they simply put the bolt in from the other side with the nut on the side of the fuel line, there are no problems whatsoever Putting the new arms on and re-assembly was thankfully a doddle (with the bolt inserted from the other side this time!), and the whole job was completed moments later. I had a full alignment on the car this morning and it's fair to say I should get a bit more life out of my rear tyres now! No pictures of the car with it's new alignment but I'm sure I will upload some after the Tucked Meet & Eat this weekend. Another job ticked off the list!

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It's been a while since I last updated this thread so figured I'd pop an update on here quickly. I've made a few changes to the car since December, most of which in an attempt to get the car ready for the upcoming show season. I recently sent the front bumper off to Option 1 Sportcars (the place that painted the 326 wing and smoothed my bootlid) along with my new 3 piece front lip from Piotr Grzelak. I had the front badge removed and all of the previous work of 'smoothing' the front bumper redone as the paint was begining the flake off in very small areas around where the headlight washer jets would've been. I also added a universal fibreglass front splitter from Grams Styling to make the front end that little bit more aggresive while also acting as a sacrificial part to hopefully stop me damaging my lip from Piotr. While the bumper was away, I also spent a good time undertaking a two stage machine polish of the car with Menzerna Medium Cut and Super Finish before toping it off with two coats of Carpro Cquartz Ceramic Coating. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome and the car certainly is the glossiest it's ever been All perfectly in time for Tucked Meet & Eat next weekend. Happy days!

@HEADPHONES Unfortunately, I think good ol' South Gloucestershire Police have exactly the same idea haha! It can be a nightmare at times that's for sure. There's only so many times you can get pulled over before it starts to wear a little thin.

A couple of quick photos while out 'n' about in the car. I've since fully corrected and ceramic coated the paint as well as a respraying the front end. Hopefully i can get some photos up on here soon.

@GranTurismoEra I've used the Neodymium discs, 12mm diameter & 3mm thick. I have about 12 of these on the plate and the same on the backside of the bumper. And yes, Epoxy Resin to secure them.

@CalvinPomfret I had the plate made by JDMPlates. They're a little bit pricey (I think i paid about £35 or so for just the front plate in their 3D Gel), but definitely worth it imo. It's the only place I've managed to find that offers Gel Resin plates in non-standard sizes. And cheers!

@CalvinPomfret This is the only photo I have of the backside of the bumper. The tape was only a temporary measure as i had previously superglued the magnets on but over time they began to fall off. I've since bonded them on with epoxy and have had no issues since. I also have a slightly smaller than usual import plate on the front as I found it fit the bumper better. A typical UK plate is 520mm x 111mm, whereas mine is 408mm x 87mm.

I've used Neodymium magnets to hold mine on which has seemingly worked well so far (12mm diameter, 3mm thick magnets on the plate and behind the bumper). If you do go down this route, make sure you cover the magnets on the plate with some form of felt to reduce the likelihood of any marks being made on the bumper.

Not sure if anyone has seen this before: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/09-16-Nissan-370z-Single-Gauge-Pod-52mm-OEM-Pillar-Trim-RH-Right-Side-RHD-/173328013806 I don't know anyone who has purchased one so I'm unsure on the quality. Looks fairly promising though! Not too bad of a price either, even after postage and import tax!

Looks smart that. I must admit I've been toying with the same idea for the exact same reason. I've had to pay for an engine rebuild in the past due to low oil pressure on a previous car (albeit that was due to semi-slicks and no baffled sump, not gallery gasket issues). I certainly don't want to be forking out that sort of cash again if i can avoid it! It's a slim chance I'll ever need to worry about it, but for peace of mind alone it's worth it imo!

A friend of mine with a 350z is transferring his pass over to this stand. However both "350ZuK" and "JP1.513" aren't working for the stand pass code. Can someone confirm what it is quickly? @andy james? Thanks

FIngers crossed things go ahead this year! I'm in need of a few car shows after what was a non-existent 2020 show season.

@valy No need for them whatsoever mate - I'll ping you a dm now!

@valy Honestly, i usually just go with whichever is available on the best deal on Autodoc - I believe i paid about £10 or so per tie rod from them. Postage can be a little bit expensive so if you have any other maintenance items you want to purchase, try and get them all in one order to save a few ££. It's a shame you're as far away as you are as i have two almost brand new tie rods just sat here as i fitted them and then removed them a month later when i fitted the GKtech kit.

I'd be surised if the lower arm bushes were at fault - they're not as big of a problem as they were with the 350z's. By the fact the noise changes with steering angle, I can only assume it'd be your tie rod as components like your drop links mount to the LCA so the noise shouldn't change by turning the wheel.

Impressive work! I struggle to motivate myself to do anything other than a quick maintenance wash during this time of year so fair play to you. Looks awesome

Looks pretty interesting. Thanks for sharing the pdf! I may give this a go at some point in the new year.

@Chops Yeah I thought that'd be the case. I'm not too sure who to suggest to be honest for a bolt on solution given your location. I'd imagine your best bet would be to go to a local exhaust fabricator.

There's plenty of options for replacing the rear muffler here in the UK - a fair few vendors make 'short tails' that replace the rear section with either resonated or non-resonated sections. Torqen Resonated Short Tails Given your location though, I'm not too sure who'd be best to go with as I'd imagine postage would be extortionate.

Rainy days.

@Mikey_S Ah, no way! Cheers mate, I absolutely love them.

Awesome looking car mate! I've always loved the look of the MK1's. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it

Good choice on going with a gearbox mount. They're a must with the coolerworx shifter from what I've heard as it mounts to the trans tunnel rather than direct to the top of the gearbox like the stock shifter assembly. Let me know how you get on with it, I'm seriously tempted by one! Also, you've most likely already seen it, but @dedpedal on instagram makes awesome covers for the coolerworx shifters to replace the factory leather gaitor. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHeBNLaM6z1/