bernmc

http://www.parcel2go.co.uk/mail-forwarding-service.html

Si senjor ees a Neesmo. The bank balance she ees very small, so timescale is all important.

very tentative... maybe an exhaust and high flow cats. Need to go and read up on the Nismo exhaust tho. I assume the cats go straight in without mods to the exhaust? (yes, I know I'm being lazy!)

Think I paid $70ish for my porter cable polisher + SFX kit + a few jars of cleaning products. Parcel2go's US mail forwarding service charges the following: Shipping Charges: 0-5 kilos £29.50 5-10 kilos £42.99 10-15 kilos £57.99 15-25 kilos £74.99 25-30 kilos £109.99 30-40 kilos £124.99 40-50 kilos £149.99 50-70 kilos £189.99 70-100 kilos £219.99 over 100 kilos £2.19 per kilo

Don't know if the k-series is known for it, but could be a valve lash adjuster problem. The oil holes in the adjusters slowly silt up so they take a little while to start operating properly. Typically rattle like a sack of spanners for a couple of seconds to minutes depending on how far gone they are. Sometimes you can remove them and clean them - a small drill to push the muck out, and lots of degreaser. Otherwise new adjusters are about 10 quid each - so 80ish quid to replace them all. Tedious to do though - few hours labour at least. More seriously, it could be a big end bearing going - again may quiet down a bit when it gets a bit of oil to it. Much more money to sort out... I'd get someone who knows to go and look/listen with you.

feck. 43 grand - some people have cash to burn!

That website's a pain in the arse to navigate! Use this link to get directly to the 350z stuff: http://www.garagegt.com/shop/scripts/pr ... tegory=742 So many nice bits, but too tired to look properly now.

Some pics at last From the skyline boys - Jameski & Robopope: Evo VIII Highly Trained Chav Pit Crew try to come to terms with the fact that there is an alloy wheel nearby which they won't be nicking: Evo's battle it out... silver one won't be in front for long! Little R5 Turbo stops to take a pee:

That's the whole point of it (for me). I had a couple of Subaru's, and had to put up with every chav in a pumped up nova having a go. I could ignore them 6 days of the week, but eventually someone would p me off and I'd end up driving like a hooligan. No-one here knows what a VR4 is - just looks like a dirty grate estate - so no-one bothers me. Takes a good load of furniture too And the look on the face of a porsche/BMW driver when they realise that the car that's been hounding them is an estate... priceless! When I want to pose, I take the Z (my wife's better at that than me anyway )

Well, you bunch of big girl's blouses missed a great day. Big disappointment that there weren't any other Z's there - I'd hoped to meat a few of you (You're all going into the black book now :|) My wife and I went down the night before - bit of a scrabble as I only got home from work after 6pm. 150 miles down to sheepland. We'd intended to spend Saturday night in Wales too, but sadly Rip-Off-Britain has filtered through to the valleys. 95 quid for a tacky hotel room (The Bear Hotel, Cowbridge), and we still had to share the bed with a beetle ! We packed our bags and checked out Saturday morning. Not an auspicious start . Llandow is quite a small circuit - just under a mile long. This means it's perfect for track-day virgins like the wife & I - you never get up to silly speeds. I never got higher than 4th gear all day. Very friendly, relaxed bunch of marshals too - whole emphasis is on having fun safely. We were split into three groups for the morning session - novice, intermediate and advanced. We were both novices, which meant we had to share the track time of 15 minute sessions. We split the first one, then did one whole session each - total of three sessions in the morning, which is not bad. Marshals kept things running smoothly, so no time wasted. There's always a plonka or two isn't there... 1st session out - supposed to be finding our feet, all novices, and a bloke in a dark blue skyline spins it! Recovers, and comes blasting up behind us - I let him through as quickly as I could - my policy is to stay well away from blokes like that (on the road too). Half a lap later, and I passed him again - he'd spotted a patch of daisies on the infield that he wanted to take a close look at ! My wife was very anxious. Used to have a 2l Hyundai Coupe, never been near a track before... started off the day saying things like 'oooh, you're making the tyres squeal' and ended up with 'why won't these buggers get out of my way???!!!' (They’re men darling - their egos wouldn't survive if they let you by!) My second morning session out, and I was getting into the swing of things... the Z is absolutely fantastic on track. When I saw the list of cars attending the day, I thought we'd be Skyline fodder. No way! Was blatting along behind another blue skyline (R33 turbo I think) (cue jaws music), and gaining on him in the twisties when...tadaaaaa, he spins off. Ho-hum! He disappeared into the pits briefly to lick his wounds, but rejoined again.. right behind me sadly. I got stuck behind a carefully driven Ultima (new toy I think) and was waiting for the straight to overtake like a good boy. Big blue skyline bobbing about all over my 4rse again - so I stayed behind the ultima and let him through, then overtook the ultima. Back into the twisty bit, and the Z is gaining on the skyline rapidly again when... can you guess what happened next...? Twirly twirly twirly spinning blue skyline. My 'oops, ha ha, you silly fool' turned rapidly into 'oh f@#$ you poor bugger' as his spin took him straight into the barrier! Smashed rear quarter, crumpled front bumper, bent the bonnet and re-routed his intercooler piping! My wife had some less complimentary thjings to say about his driving . Sad thing is he was going to be trading his car in with Hyeline for an R34… guess not eh. Afternoon was open pit – max 10 cars on track at any time, but there was never any waiting. Very good for us newbies again – we could choose times when the track was relatively empty. Had some great fun with a roll-caged Renault 5 turbo which was very quick in the twisty bits. Fastest drivers on the day were two EVO VIII FQ 300’s – a sliver one and a black one. Silver chap turned up with a white van full of tyres, and half a dozen chavs and hoodies as a pit crew. Seemed to think he should be the fastest chap on track, and couldn’t accept that the other guy, who was much smoother, was faster. Nice to watch them going at it though. Silver boy eventually spun and damaged his car off despite being black-flagged earlier in the day. We had a great time, and the Z never frightened us once. Glad I fitted the DS2500’s and changed the brake fluid to RBF600. Never had even the slightest brake fade. Only stopped by the tyres getting too hot and squishy – should have been running higher pressures I think. All the niggly worries I’ve had on the road disappeared on track – I’ve found the Z quite difficult to drive smoothly. Brakes with OEM brembo pads frightened me a couple of times. Heel & toeing difficult to do smoothly. All perfect on tack – the car is made for it! Start driving hard and everything just works!

Do it once with someone from the club helping, and you'll be able to do it forever more.... It's very easy on the Z!

Went out in the evening to bed the pads in - very aggressive for DS2500's. 25-30 4 second stops at 50% 'race' pressure. Discs should be blue with the heat by the time you're done. Got some worried looks from motorists as I pulled over to check - lots of smoke! I'd been out with my G-tech earlier in the day to do some stopping distances. With the standard pads, I was getting between 116 and 130 feet. (Mostly around 116, thank goodness!) I did two quick stops with the DS2500's - didn't want to do too much as I'd already subjected them to a bit of a beating... 1st stop: 114 feet 2nd stop 112 feet. So what's 2-4 feet you say eh...? The difference between a live child and a dead child? The difference between you looking at the end of your engine, and the engine sitting in your chest...?

I changed my brake pads from the OEM tat to DS2500's this week. Funnily enough, the rear pads are exactly the same as the ones on my VR4 (Mitsi EVO VI). Cost me 60 quid inc delivery with club discount on another forum. Fronts were 85 (again inc delivery). I wondered why they were so much cheaper than my VR4's front pads (140 quid ). Here's a pic - top is the VR$/EVO front pad, next is the 350Z DS2500 pad, and finally the OEM brembo pad. The EVO pad is quite a bit bigger, and thicker as well. Still... nearly double the price... taking the p a bit methinx. If you look closely at the OEM rubbish, you'll see that the edges are chamfered - a little trick to try to eliminate squeal. I think that the diagonal groove might be for the same reason. I changed the OEM brakefluid to RBF 600 at the same time. I'd recommend one of these vizibleed kits if you're a lone ranger like me - It's got a little ball valve in the end of the pipe, so no need to worry about under fluid seals, loosening and tightening bleed nuts etc. You just attach, secure, and pump the brake pedal until you see the new fluid coming through. If you're alone, just means you have to run around to check the fluid every 3 or 4 pumps on the brake pedal. Took me a couple of hours all in - piece of cake to do the pads - top marks to brembo as usual for caliper design! Most tedious bit is taking the wheels off. If you pump the brake fluid resevoir almost empty before adding new fluid, you'll need much less than a litre to flush the system.

Erk! You're not cousins are you Anyway, lucky I never go faster than 30mph eh :kicking

Just you wait for the final pic, Big Boy

Mirror mirror on the wall: (Note that the granular appearance in some of the pics isn;t photo or paint quality - it's my tarmac drive reflected in the paintwork ) And the whole car done: The Z is next in line.........!

Did the whole thing - cleaned back to paint, clay, the Z-PC, and started zaino layers. The door ofter one application of Z-5: The a-pillar after 2 layers of Z-5, and one of Z-3: And that bumper scratch (could probably have continued polishing it out, but I was a bit anxious about going too far):

Finally got all the zaino products I'd ordered (no stock of Z-5, and missing Z-PC from my original order), and had the time to do a car properly (about 12 hours!). I thought I'd experiment on my VR4 before attacking the Z. The VR4 was in a pretty sorry state, as you can see: Rear panel A-Pillar scratches: Bumper scratch

1000 quid fine if you're caught with decats on the road - and don't think the cops don't check - there was a blits on the B'ham M6 last year where they were pulling cars over and checking everything. Pay the money, get a high flow cat, and be environmentally friendly... with that 3500cc 18mpg lump and beefy right foot (not!)

Heh. Same spec as our Z. SatNav's a waste of money though. Can you keep us posted when they do mod - I don't get autocar. Std seats bite my bum too - and I'm as slim as a racing snake!

For that price, it's got to be worth a try...?

http://www.350z-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3215 :D:D

Halfrauds:

Available due to upgrades. Both in good condition, full working order. They've done around 4 cars worth of work with them. 1. Sealey 10 inch random orbital polisher (230W motor). Boxed. Comes with about 5 polishing bonnets and a finishing bonnet (depending on how many I can lay my hands on!). 2. Halfrauds 12V polisher. Comes with polishing & finishing bonnets, some of which are new and still in the packet. The Sealey polisher will set you back 35 quid new without delivery, 3packs of bonnets are around 12 quid, and the finshing bonnet another 5 - so around 50 quids worth ex delivery. 30 quid + a bit for post? Halfrauds is 16.99 new, can't remember how much the bonnets are. 10 quid + a bit for post.

Well, can't fault autopiafor service . Ordered Monday, arrived Thursday - that's from USA . Customs forms stated cost of each item as $5 - total of $25, so no VAT or import! I bought a 3.3 KVA 110V transformer, 14m lead and a 110V plug from screwfix for 67 quid. You can get cheaper .75 KVA transformers (fleabay for eg), but there's very little difference in price, and the extra socket means I can run other 110V tools now. I ended up getting some clay, interior cleaner, cloths and towels from autopia too - they're cheaper than uk, and several products were on special offer. All in, $305.11 - GBP164.01, paid by paypal (another plus for autopia!). So grand total of GBP231ish. If you just wanted the porter cable SFX kit, after shipping and discount (pm bluffy or me), it would set you back $223.74 - around GBP118 on your doorstep. Add 67 squid for the transformer and bits, and you're looking at GBP 185 delivered. Around 40-50 quid less than UK prices. Of course, you run the risk of having to pay postage back to the US if you need to make a warranty claim. You pays your money and you takes your chances!