MartinW

4 hours ago, hicksi said:

@14N dropped you a PM. These look GREAT! Martin where did you get your rear brace cover from. That's lovely! 

 

Thanks hicksi

It's the original cover but has been hydrodipped. I separated the z logo from the main bit and got that done in orange carbon fibre then glued it back on

Thanks for the replies.

Yup, the door locks work with the key the only problem is that I live in a flat with no garage. Might have to see if I can make a space to leave the battery on trickle charge somewhere inside.

I recently bought a 2nd 350z as a track car.

It's not moved for about a month, I just went out to start it up and the battery is dead.

I have had it plugged into a solar powered trickle charger through the obd port but I guess that's not enough.

I don't plan on driving the car for a few months now so what's the best plan of action here?

Can I just leave it as is then come back and jump start it again in Jan / Feb, should I disconnect the battery or something else?

The car is kept outside and I have no way of plugging in a proper trickle charger so I don't think that's on option.

Thanks in advance

9 hours ago, ShortPaul said:

No worries buddy could the bolster be removed from the passenger seat then fitted to drivers seat by some body who does car trimming 

Yeh, I've spoken to someone who could do that but this would mean finding a single passenger seat for sale (people only want to sell in pairs) then swapping that patch and then a general leather refurb, I've had some quotes and the price adds up v quickly. Open to that idea but would rather buy good condition seats if I could

8 hours ago, ShortPaul said:

https://www.gumtree.com/p/car-replacement-parts/350z-seats-and-steering-wheel/1346285830 hope this helps 

Cheers mate, I search gumtree a couple of days ago and they didn't show up.

I'll have to think about those as they are only marginally better than my current ones, particular the driver's side bolster and they are a v long way away

Bump

Gonna ha e to remove myself from this list I'm afraid. Been a while since I posted and have decided to go with a replacement leather OEM one.

Here's the updated list.

1. Hypnosis
2. NazMan
3. MrWilson82
4. Rickdon - Nismo version as mentioned.
5. SBSS8) - 370z one 
6. Bhuvsta
7. StevenDay

8. Coopen87 - Blue lettering please

9. jnkent36

I'm looking for some burnt orange / tan leather seats to replace the rather warn ones in my car (HR 2008)

They must be heated with electronic adjustment and side airbags.

Looking in particular for a driver's one in good condition with no tears or major damage, don't mind if it needs some minor. refurbishment

I live in Oxford and am willing to travel a little bit or just pay for a courier.

2 hours ago, stanski said:

Ok good luck but for the small outlay in soap and hide food, its worth half an hours work, just clean it up and soak it. You would be surprised how well leather comes back to life. Our old Wolseley 1500 had bone dry seats, Connolly hide food rejuvenated them. Worth a go.

 

 

I'll definitely give that a try on the replacement seats. My current ones have a tear so my priority is to replace it with seats that aren't torn (or last resort replace that torn panel), then it's definitely worth trying the hide food etc

16 hours ago, stanski said:

Hi Martin. 

 

A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away I used to be a trimmer so that guy charging you £200-300 is for his skill rather than materials etc.

 

All the time is spent stripping the seat down. The actual repair will be fairly easy.

Either 3 ways to go at it.

1 -Fix what you have its not a common colour so difficult to match and 350z leather is frankly toilet paper thin. 

You can glue a backing underneath, use leather filler and a colouring kit. But its not the best long term option.

2-Unpick that whole worn side panel and replace with new matching leather.

3-As above but unpick both sides and sew in new material (contrasting colour both sides) repeat for passenger seat so it matches. Expensive.

 

One other thing to consider is get a set of seats off fleabay in same colour and use the good side off say the passenger side seat to sew onto the worn bit you have. You end up stripping 2 sets of seats but the way the seats are sewn you have natural seam joins to work towards.

 

First thing to do , buy saddle soap and clean the seats well.

Then Buy a small tub of Connolly Hide food , others available but this one the best. It will revitalise your seat plus it will move colour from the good leather over the not so good. Smooth it on , leave over night repeat. You are trying to feed the leather and give its spring back. Its a cheap first step.

 

Hope it helps?

 

Stan

Thanks Stan

That helps a lot. I understand that i'd be paying for someone's craftsmanship, they would have spent years perfecting their skills, if I could do it myself on a Saturday afternoon £200 wouldn't be justified but i can barely sew a button back onto a shirt so I don't think I'm going to try this

I think refurbishing these isn't going to be cost effective, I was thinking about recovering some leather from some other passenger seat but that would just be the start.

I think I have decided that I am going to keep an eye out for a set in good condition that I can either treat as you described or get them professionally refurbished with saddle soap etc but without having to stitch in whole panels etc.

I may even have found a pair, reasonably priced from a breakers up in Derby, just waiting on them to send some more pictures.

Aftermarket seats did cross my mind, the only issue there is I'd lose the heated seats and I assume the electronic adjustment. No idea if I would permanently have an airbag light on as well?

I won't be tracking this car ( I bought another 350z just for that) so no technical need for bucket seats, whatever I have I'd like to make sure it's comfortable and In keeping with the general look of the car

Cheers Kryptek.

The problem with all of the second hand seats I've found for sale so far is that they aren't really much better than mine so I'll be paying for a refurb anyway.

One idea was to take a used passenger seat which tend to be in better condition and strip the leather off it and use that to replace my torn panel but i don't think i'll be saving anything there compared to just getting new leather from the upholsterer.

I have a HR with electronic + heated seats. The driver's side one is getting pretty warn and has a couple of tears so I'm thinking about getting them refurbished.

I got a quote for replacing the torn leather panel (the bolster that always gets bashed on the driver's side) and the chap wanted to find out if there are any special instructions when removing the seat with regards to the airbag in the seat?

The quote I had was about £250 to replace that one leather panel then about £300 per seat for general restoration + leather painting. It's starting to add up!

Any thoughts on a more cost effective way to get these refurbished?

I've seen some full leather seat covers for sale but they appear to be in the US, has anyone had any experience with those?

Let's go for it... Sending a pm now

Thanks Alex

I'll wait to hear from you on Saturday then. Assuming I wanted to take them would you be able to post quickly ( and I'd pay for next day delivery if possible)?

I need to MOT the car next week so am in a little bit of a hurry.

Thanks Umster! 

I'll drop you a message if I do buy one.

Tagging @ZMANALEX as he's the expert here

Hi Alex

Do You have any idea of their condition or price? Trying to decide if I should buy new or 2nd hand

Got a leak from my power steering cooler, looking around for replacements I cam across this: https://www.mishimoto.co.uk/mishimoto-universal-transmission-cooler-kit.html?utm_source=facebookUK&utm_campaign=DPA&gclid=CjwKCAjw7MzkBRAGEiwAkOXexB778B1nnxcGxlGM-evWcXYJq_SlDznVbRmEjJ3jWVKpuj9yx7cVbxoCmlIQAvD_BwE
 

Does anyone here have experience fitting one of those, will it be ok in a 2008 350z?

My 2008 350z was just in for a service and my mechanic has reported 2 different leaks. One from the radiator and one from the power steering cooler so I'm now looking for those parts.

Does anyone have those in good condition that they'd be able to get posted quickly (or I can collect this weekend if you're not too far from Oxford)?

@ZMANALEX Do you have either of these in stock?

One of the front drop links has sheared in half:

I didn't get a chance to take the other wheel off to compare this weekend but I'm guessing that normally the top of the drop link is attached to the round black thing on the end of the red bar, is that correct?

Figured I'd have a go at replacing it myself and will do both of them. Is the process as easy as unbolting each and and re-bolting the new one on or is there something more to it? Do I need any special tools?

Planning to track the car so can you recommend some good hard wearing drop links?

PM sent :)

14 hours ago, DAN@ADRIAN FLUX said:

Hi.

Did you get an annual insurance rate from ourselves?

Regards,

Dan.

Hi Dan

Yes I did. It came in at 7 hundred and something which is about £100 or so more than my sky insurance quote.

I bought the car but haven't insured it for the year yet, gonna put it through its MOT v soon then think again about the insurance.

Do you think there's anything we can do to get your quote down?

Happy to speak on the phone or private msg on here.

Cheers

Martin

2 hours ago, scobie140 said:

Surely you will use it more than 10 days throughout the year? if so then the sky policy is a much better deal than this

Probably but only just. I've got the temp insurance for a day anyway so I can do a test drive and then get it home if I buy it, from there I can spend a bit more time evaluating my options

Might have to have a play on the comparison sites then with adjusting the mileage.

Got a quote from Adrian flux for single day insurance at £60 so I might just go with that whenever I need the car rather than a whole year policy, guess I just need to work out how frequently I'm actually gonna be using it.

Just called sky insurance who are able to mirror my NCB.

Quote came in at about £610. Bit disappointed as it's more than my current z even though it's with limited miles.