Lexx

Been a wee while since I updated this. So for anyone still following then read on. I put the Zed away for the winter and concentrated on other things. I had planned on sending it to the UK expert on Z32s for a 120k service and a few other bits. But as he's based in Bristol is was immensely impractical for me in the end. So I bit the bullet and ordered everything up myself from various US and UK suppliers. Planned works: Plenum pull for plenum coolant line delete. New spark plugs Replace the felxi fuel line on the fuel rail Replace all vacuum and fuel lines in the engine bay 120k service - usual suspects but also includes cam seals, crank sprocket, bypass hoses. As you'd expect there's been a degree of mission creep already. Mostly involving cleaning up of various aluminium bits. Valve covers have been sent off for powder coating. As of today I'm at the stage we're I'm about to remove the harmonic balancer and get on to do water pump, tensioner, idlers, belt, seals etc. Scattering of pics below (probably on a random order).

Was only swinging by here to check on something else. Seen this. Have to reply. Graham you're a stand out gent and always have been. The support you offered during my tenure first as mod and then as Admin was invaluable. The place simply wouldn't be what it is today without you.

Search for them on FB. He posts intermittently the cars he's working on.

Yeah no complaints at all about Ali's work. He seems to do quite a lot on 350s, and owns one himself.

😂 No idea yet. Pick her up tomorrow to drive home. Considering I've not driven it more than 150 meters in the past year it's going to be enlightening.

Yesterday was a milestone day. I'll just leave this pic here.....

Not long now till I can drive her again. MOT this week or next hopefully. Huge thanks to Ali at AB Autoworx for his time and effort and skill so far.

Slow and steady progress by my welder guy. Few more bodges found and fixed.

Update time. Look away now if allergic to rust. Both sills are complete and now in primer. Drivers side rear bumper pocket is 90% sorted. Passenger side up next.

She's back on her wheels and running for the first time in 5 months! Gets loaded onto a trailer on Tuesday. Then hopefully 4 weeks after that she'll have a clean MOT and I can drive and enjoy it over the summer before f**king around with it some more.

Various bits and bobs done since the last update. More parts from US and Japan arrived. Though they're mostly for when it comes back from getting the sills replaced - booked in for that on May 4th. Finally. Spent the past few days dealing with 2 snapped exhaust bolts (which I've still not managed to sort as they ended up with me visited eye casualty to have a shard of metal removed from me eye. Not something I recommend. So started dealing with the advisories from the last MOT and a few other things. Crappy Midori style adjustable FUCAs removed. Finished painting the OEM units today and they'll be fitted with whiteline adjustable bushes. Buggered drop links removed (needed the angry spanner to get them off as they were well shagged). New Moog units in place. Front Sway bar removed, cleaned, painted. Will be refitted with new D bushes and brackets. New wheel nuts to replace the corroded chrome plated ones. As said above - car is off for metal work, some paint in places, alignment, and hopefully a clean MOT. Once all that's done I'll enjoy driving for a few months before she goes back on axle stands and the whole of the front suspension comes off, along with the main cross member, and I get them all cleaned up and painted. All the interior and trim bits and bobs I've got recently will be fitted over the summer.

Kids are finally back at school! Which means I've been able to do some work on the car. This mainly involved a minor panic when I was poking at the rusty sill and found out how bad it was near the axle stand point. So a day was spent finally putting the back end back together. Booked in for sill repairs and a 120k service later in the year. Heap of parts on the way from Japan and the US to start tidying up the interior, exterior, and the front suspension.

More stuff painted and bushes installed. Bit of a pause now as I need to replace brake lines on the chassis and then so some paint work on the chassis rails too.

Damn right. Larger selection of tools than my own house!

Nismo - a sure way to bankrupt myself! They dodged customs luckily so saved a heap. There's about £12k worth of diesel behind that cat flap. Lol

Small, dull update. Almost finished painting all the bits and bobs. Bushes in next. And then good for putting it all back together.

I can't raise a dram in your honour today Martin. Will have to settle for a coffee in a LakeZ mug. Still sucks not having you around old man.

I'd genuinely sell a kidney for a 2 post lift and the space for it!

Small update. Suspension fully stripped down at the rear. Got the rear subframe in primer today (Jotamastic 87). 2nd coat tomorrow. And then top coated in a few weeks. All the arms have been stripped, just need to get time to press the bushes out before they're painted. Differential scaling has been started. Hoping to finish that off and have it painted before Christmas. Heap of Nismo bushes on the way from Japan. Might even get it all back together before the new year.

Full overhaul of all the suspension including painting of all components and new bushes. Full clean, treat, paint of underside. Booked in for early next year to get some rust in the sills cut out and replaced. Then after that's it's all about keeping it OEM+ and starting to enjoy driving it.

Moral of today - don't buy old cars. After 2 days, 3 snapped bolts, 1 bust lip, and much much swearing I finally got the rear subframe dropped. Doing this on axle stands is not something I recommend. I'd kill for a 2 post lift! On the plus side I discovered my car has ABS fitted which is rare. Down side is dropping the frame has revealed all the brake lines above are completely buggered. At least I've found them before they fail. Tomorrow is strip down of the suspension and figure out which bushes can be used again and which need replaced.

The inner support sill requires seam welding. Whilst I can stick two pieces of metal together it isn't pretty and would take a body shop longer to sort out for paint than it would for them to just do it. I'd hoped to get it booked in before Christmas for the work, but I don't see that happening.

Had a little time to muck about with the Zed the past couple of days. Mostly involving removing stuff to be honest. Instrument cluster removed to replace a duff bulb and trace some wiring. Drivers side door lock replaced. Full rear interior stripped out so that I could get a boroscope into the sills. Although the sills are bad (I was aware of it) they are way way better than I expected and don't need full replacement. Just the rear sill returns on both sides. My mig welding sucks unfortunately so will have to pay for this to be done. Hey-ho.

As Dan alludes to above, it's far from a perfect car. Has a number of rust issues that need attention, but I bought it eyes open and have plans in place. What I didn't account for was finding out that the ignition was completely shagged and coukd be started with the key, a screwdriver, or a lollypop stick. £300 lighter from JP Car Parts and I managed to get a brand new OEM full set of keys and locks/ignition. Much much swearing later and a new ignition is in. Locks etc to follow. It'll be slow progress over next 2 weeks as the class bubble my 2 girls are in have been told to isolate so there goes my 3 weeks of free time to work on it!

Hola folks. Some time since I've been around these parts, and even longer since I was in any kind of car scene. Kids etc forced me hand and I sold my last toy back in 2015. Lots has happened since then, and when we lost one of the founder members I bought his private number plate from the guy who bought Martins 350z. I always wanted to get those plates back onto a Zed one day. After a "life's too short" tragedy a few weeks back it was decided to put my ass in gear and sort something. So here we have it. OK, it's not a Z33 or Z34. But Martin owned a Z32 back in the day and I'm sure those of you who remember him will appreciate his plate living on.