SteveW

Its just one thing after another with this bloody car. I'm sure it is cursed. First off when I bought it some random scratches appeared in places that I had no idea how they appeared, then one day I went to the gym and returned to find some git had reversed into me damaging the paint on the front bumper (I have a cresecent moon type thing by the burger about ten inches wide). Then a few months later and someone reversed into me at a set of traffic lights luckily only a damaged number plate. If I wasn't an honest chap I would have said the moon thing wasn't there before anyway thats history now... A few months later a bus pulled out on me and I had to take evasive action involving me mounting the kerb and damaging the front bumper further, spider cracks in all the paint and an out of shape portion. Thank god I never had the crescent moon thing repaired!! Then sitting in a queue of traffic and some gibbon drove into the back of me, they paid for the bump to be repaired. Then there was the brake saga....... Basically I fitted new brake discs and didn't check the runouts. 3 - 4k later I started to suffer with DTV on the rear left so got them skimmed. I should have at the time investigated why this had happened and sorted it before skimming. Anyway it transpired the reason why the disks needed skimming was because the wheel bearing was on its way out I naively thought the disc was running out because I had a moment in the snow and slightly bumped the kerb so assumed I had bent the hub. The wheel bearing subsequently died at Mallory Park. So I replaced the wheel bearing and now my disc was running out again. I didn't want to get the rear disks skimmed again until I was sure the bearing was sorted so after 3 k miles on the new bearing took the disks for skimming again yesterday. Before going I measured runouts - I got 0.15mm so thought should easily be enough meat left on the disks for one more skim. Turns out my DTI is fecked and the disk was running out by 0.85mm The guy asked if I definitely wated it skiming I said yes, wish I had said no now and saved the money for new rear disks. To get the disk back true they had to take all the drillings and grooves off one disk so I have 3 drilled and grooved disks and one plain now technically the disk is now 0.25mm below minimum thickness so new ones required but pennyless at the moment. And to top it off on the way back from the skimming garage this happened: Then I got gritted by a paint wrecker on the way home down a country lane, what on earth have I done in a former life??? I must have killed a lot of Albatrosses! Anyway rant over

Sorry I totally disagree with that statement about EBC. I have no issues with the EBC turbogrooves and yellowstuffs that I am running, even on the track. The yellowstuffs even have good cold bite for winter driving. Other uprated pads such as DS2500's can give you some bottom twitching moments until you get some heat into them. I'm not saying they are rubbish though, I've found they are better on the track than the Yellowstuffs but occassionally a little scary on the road. At the end of the day its how much cash you have to spend and what you are going to use them for. If you can afford and want something that looks good the more you pay the more bling you get. If you just want an upgrade over standard for occasional trackdays and road use I would reccommend the turbogrooves and yellowstuffs or turbogrooves and DS2500's. Whatever route you go make sure you check the runouts during installation and take your time stress relieving them. Failure to do these are the biggest reasons people suffer with brake vibration. Hope this helps Steve

Deepending upon how competent you are as a DIY mechanic I wrote a guide to fix the window problems, mine is still going strong after a year. http://www.350z-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=30870 Its just a problem with the bushes unless the motor is fubbared which is unlikely. All the best Steve

Hi mate as Vik has said 20 mins is a long time without a break on a track. I've done a few trackdays and I feel ten - 12 minutes is an absolute max, I did 15 at Oulton and the brakes started to go away from me, before you need to do a cool down lap and come in for twenty to thirty mins to give everything a good chance to cool down. As long as you give everything a good chance to cool the Zed is an excellent track car, there isn't much stuff that will be quicker than you. I run EBC Turbogrooves, EBC Yellowstuffs and Motul RBF 600 Fluid and have no brake fade issues unless I stay out over 15 mins (depends on track but I stick to 10 - 12 as a max per session). A lot of people have complained in the past about EBC Turbogrooves warping but I have had no such issues and I wonder if it is really DTV that people have suffered with due to not checking runouts when installing the disks. This is a critical step! Any runout over spec will be exasabated after a few thousand miles, I didn't check mine and luckily only needed to get the rears skimmed and I have had no issues since, Mine was caused by a failing wheel bearing. Make sure when you change your discs you use them carefully to begin with and slowly build up the heat cycles to fully stress relieve them before going on a track therwise they will warp due to residual stress from machining. If you have boiled your fluid it will need changing even though it probably feels OK now.

Cheers Dude

Thank you. I've got a nice bottle of paint thinner for the degreasing operation That should do the trick. Once again thank you very much. Steve

Hi Guys, I've got some painting projects to do on the car, the biggest being refurbing my wheels, painiting my spats and paininting the stereo/ gear surround. I've been digging around the internet to find how 'rough' something should be before rpiming but have been coming up with different results. One forum I saw said smooth with 1200 Grit before priming that seemed a bit too smooth to me, I am by no means a painting expert, more a spanner chucker (I can fix pretty much anything mechanical ) Another forum said rub down with 800 grit till smooth then key up the surface with 240 grit so the primer sticks properly. Please can a paint guru identify the best way to rub down before priming? Many thanks in advance, Steve

I love the sound and looks of my K1 with the bungs in. I agree it is too loud for day to day with the bungs out, they just come out for the track. Did you try it with the bungs in? I think its quite reserved bunged up.

Found it viewtopic.php?f=131&t=35050

I have no experience of Abbey because I live in the north but Paul at RS knows his stuff and this is where I will be going when I get mine done after fitting a plenum spacer. I met an owner there who was over from Ireland who had his done at RS and he was well happy with the results, sadly due to my terrible memory I cannot remember his name but there is a post knocking about somewhere on here. I would just go wherever is closer.

Hi Ian, If you go ahead please can you put me down as backup for the oil cooler and the Tonneau please. Thank you Steve

Thanks Alex, Love the new Sig by the way!! Its probably been there a while but i've only just noticed it.

Just a quick one, are there any issues in fitting a 1.3 BAR Rad cap? The only reason I ask is that the rad has plastic end tanks and in my old car (Celica GT4) the 1.3 Bar rad cap was renowned for making the radiator crack around the moulded inlet resulting in a new radiator. Im interested in a 1.3 BAR rad cap because of trackdays and I'm in prep mode for next year. Many thanks in advance, Steve

I really like that diffuser, just don't know wheather it would fit with a K1, might have to be a guinea pig, lol.

Thank you very much, I'll pass it on. Cheers

Why not use 1 of these? (About £4.74 from amazon) Alternatively, if you want the cable hidden somewhere, you could get a car charger for the phone/ipod, strip the 12V -> 5V electronics from inside the cigarette plug bit and splice that on to your 12V source.... or just splice another lighter socket to your 12v source, fix it somewhere hidden (under armrest cubby?) and plug the car charger straight in to that. Hi Haydn, Thanks very much mate, never seen those before. I've only ever seen the other ones that stick out miles. I'll get one of those for now and maybe strip it out in the future. Thanks again Steve

Hi mate, I've done a few sets with rattle cans in the past and never had a problem. I did have one set powder coated before and, personally, I didn't like the look of it. It could have been the company I used before (now gone bust) or the fact I had them done in white. The powder coat discoloured quickly, about 10 months and went a strange yellowy colour. I thought the coating looked 'rough' as well. I do appreciate the offer of help though, please can you let me know the place where because a mate is wanting his powder coating in an odd blue colour that he had his bike powder coated in. Thank you Steve

per wheel I hope! I've just signed up to a 300 squid job to do ours! I'm going to be doing it all myself so its just the cost of the abrasives, filler and paint for me. Its the labour thats the expensive bit hence why I'm going DIY. Also on with aother project to paint the cubby, stereo and platsic gear lever surround in metallic black and Lambo orange, see how it looks when its done..... Cheers Steve

Hi mate, Thats going to be just to charge the thing so the plan will be to splice into a 12V supply (unless I can find a %v supply already in the car) and use a (insert clever electronics box here) to drop the voltage to 5V such that I can hardwire the usb cable to charge the phone so it can live in the car at all times and just be removed to change music. Thats the plan anyway...... Cheers Steve

Job list before next year: Refurb Wheels - £60 Is that total or per wheel? New stereo, (mine is driving me absolutely mad, it will no longer play CD's so I'm stuck with the radio) £300 You could try and do the tape deck hack and add iPod connection, got nothing to lose right? viewtopic.php?p=507429#p507429 Or use a casette adapter... viewtopic.php?f=27&t=33010 Hi mate, £60 is for the whole set because I'm doing it all myself it probably won't cost that much but always best to over budget and suprise yourself. I've already done the tape deck hack but it doesn't work with 3G iPhones so need to buy an mp3 player. I tried the tape deck adaptor but the sound quality was awful. A mates giving me his old phone with mp3 player so going to hard wire a USB port into the car so it can charge. So maybe I can knock the new stereo on the head :0) Thank you Steve

cheers Darren....i used a hairdry to bake it. Good shout, I was about to ask how on earth you got a Rays in the oven, can't even get a 16 inch pizza in my oven has to be cut down to a 14" lol I like the look of that technique the best I think, just can imaging masking the lip is a bit of a ball ache but at least on the rays there is an edge you can push the tape up against. Cheers

1) SteveW, pending funds at time of GB happening. 2) 3) 4) 5) Thanks

+1 Thank you very much! I best get saving then for those, got so much stuff I want to do to the car before next years track day season starts wish I wasn't trying to save a deposit for a house would have so much more free cash! Job list before next year: Refurb Wheels - £60 Rear spats - £230 Rear Diffuser - £300 Side skirts -£300 New stereo, (mine is driving me absolutely mad, it will no longer play CD's so I'm stuck with the radio) £300 Cusco ARBs Second set of wheels and slick tyres £500 Plenum spacer £200 Remap £400 Once again thank you for all the advice. Steve

Thanks folks, never heard of those coloured alloy wheel rim protectors before. I'll drop Husky a PM and get his opinion. I think its probably best to stay away from the paint and go for rim tape or the wheel protectors because like Mr Biscuit says its reversible if I change my mind Thanks again, Steve p.s. may now be going for black rims after seeing a black zed with black time attack rims.

Hi chilli I've had a look and it is possibly me being blind, but I couldn't see the replicas. I could see the Nismo V1's and the Shine 2's but no replicas or are the shines the replicas? If so they are sadly out of my price range. I know you get what you pay for at the end of the day so I'll have to wait & get saving! Cheers Steve