reeceybeaney Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 Awesome colour choice, good contrast against the car now! Loving it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted August 22, 2018 Author Share Posted August 22, 2018 (edited) Month 9: Aug 2018 Completed This Month: Clutch slave cylinder, HEL braided hose and new fluid Wiper arm & motor lubrication Dump valve service Mines style front lip (purchased only, not fitted) = £180 total spend So a bit of a boring month this one. Something that was on my mind was that the clutch slave cylinder wasn't performing to it's best, so I took the car to Horsham Development who are just up the road from me to get it swapped out. Whilst there, I opted for a HEL braided line to be fitted along with the obvious requirement for fresh fluid. Pedal feels so much better now I actually drove the car in heavy rain for the first time this month, and one thing I noticed was that the wiper arms and mechanism was a bit noisy. So a quick removal of the scuttle panel and some decent spray lubricant and problem solved. I also took the opportunity to clean under the panel whilst it was off, cleaning the bottom edge of the glass and pulling out and old leaves and debris. I took a punt on a mines-style front lip too - buying it for a very low price with the aim to do a temporary fitment and see if I could get in and out of my driveway without causing too much damage. So far, I've not got around to fitting it, but I have thrown some black paint onto it at least. Finally, with the hot weather I noticed that the car dump valve (APS high capacity dual port recirc/dump valve) noise wasn't what I recall, with more of a turbo flutter noise than the usual single whoosh I'm accustomed to. Believing this to be a DV adjustment problem (ie not dumping enough and leaving too much air/boost in the system) I decided to pull the valve out of the car, strip it down and regrease before refitting. This has made a significant different and with a slight drop in pre-load on the spring I think it's back to optimal. For future months, I'm not 100% sure what I have planned now having completed the majority of my to-do list. These are at least on the "maybe" list: Sparco R100 seats + rails Headlight upgrade to facelift Front splitter install Rear spoiler swap Diff whiteline bush kit (current bushes are beginning to show their age and need replacing) HR bonnet Spats Respray to touch up the minor marks Nothing here is urgent, so I'll be taking my time to make sure it's what I want to do before doing it. Photos Edited August 22, 2018 by EzeePzee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted September 26, 2018 Author Share Posted September 26, 2018 (edited) Month 10: Sept 2018 Completed This Month: Sell Muteki blue wheel nuts that were swapped out previously Sell mine FRP lip Purchased Tarmac Sport GT style PU lip = £60 total spend A quiet one this month, mainly due to family, work and house commitments (Decorating, extension building etc) - but a few updated nevertheless. Having trial-fitted the cheap mines style lip I purchased, I wasn't happy with the work required and so I sold it on for the same price I paid for it. I also managed to sell my SR48 wheel nuts that I'd replaced with the wheel refurb back in July. The money from both of these sales was directed straight back at the TS GT style lip instead - which I'm pleased to say is a much better fit and being PU should withstand a few more knocks here and there. Fitting the lip was relatively straight forward. A couple of screws in each wheel arch, a couple on the top front of the lip, and a bit of heat on the lip to bend it to fit nicely against the bumper. I took a slightly different approach to most other guides in that I marked where the lip needed to be heated, removed it from the car and used a g-clamp and a bit of wood to bend to shape whilst it was off the car. This meant I didn't have to worry about damaging the paintwork on the bumper itself. I did use a bit of black silicone sealant along the top edge of the lip to finish it off too. Very pleased with how it looks! Photos Edited September 29, 2018 by EzeePzee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted September 29, 2018 Author Share Posted September 29, 2018 Having fitted the lip today, I've updated the September post, above, and added a few photos too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted November 4, 2018 Author Share Posted November 4, 2018 Month 11: Oct 2018 Completed This Month: Replace Rear Screen demister LED in control unit Flip Key 2nd keyfob Adjust Dump valve (again) SORN the car! = £9 total spend So yet another very quite front on the car project, have been trying to line up some of the more time consuming work for when the car is off the road for winter at the end of Oct. Having another LED fail in the heater control unit, I had to pull this apart again and replace the rear screen demister LED. Simple enough as I've done it before for other LEDs, just surprised another one failed! See previous posts for photos. I also thought I'd have a bash at getting a second remote keyfob working. I researched on the model I needed, bought the wrong one (and subsequently sold it on) and found another - this time correct. Followed the programming process as found on these forums and it now locks and unlocks the car without issue. Total cost here was £8 for the keyfob, but I still need to get the blade cut and an immobiliser chip coded. Stay tuned for progress here! Car has been SORN'ed at the end of October, so I'll crack on with some of the other jobs now I'm not driving the car. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony420z Posted November 10, 2018 Share Posted November 10, 2018 nice looking tt zed very cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yarters Posted November 10, 2018 Share Posted November 10, 2018 Lovely lovely car and enjoyed reading the month by month updates! very cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted December 2, 2018 Author Share Posted December 2, 2018 Month 12: Nov 2018 Completed This Month: Flip Key 2nd keyfob - transponder chip coding Car insurance! Towing eye cover replacement = £79 total spend (Not including the car insurance) So with the car off road, I decided to get the flip key working. Good news is that after a trip to Timpson, I now have a fully functioning key! It cost more than I wanted, but I really couldn't find a transponder chip and someone to code it for cheaper. Dead simple to do though, they didn't need the car - and they cut the blade for free too. So the key cost me about £70 all in. Car insurance is always a drain on finances, but after plenty of negotiation and shopping around, I managed to get a price that was about 22% cheaper than last year! I was very happy with that, so am now insured via Greenlight. Finally, after someone stole (or it fell off) my front bumper towing eye cover, I secured a used one from ebay for pennies. No photos from this month, but hopefully something more interesting next month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted January 5, 2019 Author Share Posted January 5, 2019 (edited) Month 13: Dec 2018 Completed This Month: LED sidelight bulbs - £0 370z indoor car cover - £160 Ctek MSX 5.0 extension cable - £12 Fire Extinguisher - £9.50 = £181.50 total spend Another month of being SORN’d completed, but I still managed to spend a couple of hundred on the car! Haha. A really good deal on an internal car cover came up, and although labelled 370z it’s a perfect fit for the 350z too. Genuine part that’s very hard to come by, so I snapped it up. For this though I also had to purchase an extension for my car battery conditioner so that it could remain connected when the cover is on. I also threw in some LED sidelight bulbs as the yellow colour really didn’t match that of the HIDs already on the car. A last minute addition to the car was a decent, albeit small capacity fire extinguisher. This is for peace of mind should the worst happen. It’s more to ensure that all passengers have a chance to get out of the car rather than saving the car, but if the latter is possible is worth doing!! Edited January 31, 2019 by EzeePzee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
350Butcher Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 Am looking to install replacement gauges to the center triple pod of my Z and looking around there are varying ways people have gone about it but yours are exactly how I'd like to do it........very factory looking, tucked in behind the factory silver binnacles etc very nice! Any pics of the install and how you secured them etc? I assume they are 52mm gauges? Wiring straight off the stereo harness? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted January 17, 2019 Author Share Posted January 17, 2019 So whilst it’s tidy from the front, it’s not great from the back - haha! In my defence, I didn’t install them, but I’m quite pleased with how they look so can’t complain too much. From behind they are held in place with a lot of glue around the binacles, and the control box is sat in the upper dash pocket hidden away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted January 17, 2019 Author Share Posted January 17, 2019 And yes, 52mm Defi gauges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
350Butcher Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 Cheers.........they do look right from in the car but I won’t be covering £400+ worth of gauges in glue!! But good to know the 52mm gauges slot in so good to factory pod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted January 19, 2019 Author Share Posted January 19, 2019 On 17/01/2019 at 20:30, 350Butcher said: Cheers.........they do look right from in the car but I won’t be covering £400+ worth of gauges in glue!! But good to know the 52mm gauges slot in so good to factory pod. To be fair the glue used looks to be the sort of stuff that will pick off in chunks quite easily - a bit like a hot glue gun. Whoever fitted them did a pretty good job as they are very secure. Cabling is a nightmare but then that’s because I’ve fitted an aftermarket HU and used the adapters available to make sure the steering wheel controls still work etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
350Butcher Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 I know the stuff, think that does stay flexible and soft so as you say you could remove if necessary. I’ll have a look into that. Wiring up the ones I’m looking at only require permanent live, switch live, ground and a dimmer which I can take off the back of the head unit so easy enough........even for my basic wiring skills!! Thanks for info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted January 31, 2019 Author Share Posted January 31, 2019 Month 14: Jan 2019 Completed This Month: HR facelift headlight upgrade Fix LED side markers / reflectors = £300 total spend Another month gone already! And an unexpected purchase (again) but one I couldn’t really turn down. I managed to source a pair of HR headlights for a good price, and got cracking on installing them in the car. Relatively straight forward, although in pulling out the existing headlights I found that the clear side reflectors in the bumper had wires going to them!! Wasn’t expecting that, especially as they’ve never lit up before. So, after a bit of investigation I found a very poor wiring job had been completed, wiring these into the indicator cables. Presumably a previous owner wanted these as additional indicators. I was not keen on this idea, and as I had to redo the wiring anyway I decided to wire them up to the sidelights, meaning that they’ll be on whenever the lights are. i used some proper automotive waterproof connectors, and soldered/heatshrunk the wires on rather than used the nasty scotchlock type connectors used previously. I had a few internal repairs to do to the reflectors once I powered them up, but was a cheap fix and they’re back in the car and looking good! I have already purchased a headlight restoring kit to clean up the lenses in Feb, but I’m very hopeful that this will be a massive improvement to the looks and effectiveness of the lights on the car too. Ill get some better photos in the daylight soon. Photos 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
da.murf Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Just reading through this, car is looking great and appreciating the way you are laying out each month including part numbers etc. You thread has made my mind up to get my wheel returned by royal with the orange stitch. Have you noticed the leather softer or slightly more plush? I feel the oem wheel really lets the interior down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted February 6, 2019 Author Share Posted February 6, 2019 6 hours ago, da.murf said: Just reading through this, car is looking great and appreciating the way you are laying out each month including part numbers etc. You thread has made my mind up to get my wheel returned by royal with the orange stitch. Have you noticed the leather softer or slightly more plush? I feel the oem wheel really lets the interior down. So the wheel removed from my car was an aftermarket wheel that I sold on, so I only really have that to compare against. That said, from my brief encounter with my worn OEM wheel I can definitely notice a difference. This wheel feels great, and has a small amount of “give” ie softer that the original. The stitching is what really makes it look the part - Royals really know how to do a good job! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hypnosis Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 Enjoyed the read mate. You heading up to Japfest again this year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted February 15, 2019 Author Share Posted February 15, 2019 21 minutes ago, Hypnosis said: Enjoyed the read mate. You heading up to Japfest again this year? I wish It clashes with a family holiday this year! I'll be going to JDM Combe for sure (paid up already), and possibly Simply Japanese at Beaulieu, Jap Performance Show and probably a few Sunday services with PH too. Would be good to catch up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hypnosis Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 Keep me posted and I'll see what the misses is up for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 She rolled out of hibernation today To be fair, she’s not taxed until March - and I had to move her so I can continue with the garage revamp work. But took a couple of cheeky photos with the new headlights on - looking forward to getting back out on the road! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony420z Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 looking good mate mines been in hibernation for about six years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EzeePzee Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 Month 14: Feb 2019 Completed This Month: Headlight Restoration = £16 total spend The last quiet month for the 350 - with plans to re-tax the car from March (with Service and MOT booked with Abbey Motorsport) I thought the new headlights could do with a refurb. After a bit of research I opted for the Autoglym kit which I sourced at a decent price. Having never done this before, it was certainly squeaky-bum time after taking the sanding disc to the first light, but following the kits instructions soon showed how quick and easy it was to bring a really good finish back to the lenses. See for yourself in the photos below! Although not 350-related, I also had a bit of a garage refurb this week with the workshop gaining some new racking and extra storage in the workshop. I’m very pleased with the outcome and the 350 looks right at home tucked up in there 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davey_83 Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 Real nice work and makes a big difference having clear lens. I would recommend clear coating or clear wrapping to maintain the look!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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