coldel Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 ...just having a look over my Zed and its many mods, thinking about how many PMs I get about each part, thought why not write up a short review of all the bits I have on it in case anyone would like to know how I got on with it all. Maybe inspire some of the guys with really amazing Zeds to do the same Internal Cosmetics Centre console wrap, got some satin black vinyl from RTB, wrapped the gear surround and the rest of it up to the triple gauges. The wrap is hexis branded and does a great job of overlaying the nasty plastic look, in fact looks a bit leather style and adds a bit of class to the interior. One of the first and best mods in my book, would love to do the rest of the interior. The gear surround is very easy to do, the rest is a bit of a pain and it does need removing from the car but this isn't too difficult. I got off ebay (yeah no wise cracks thanks) a matching mono handbrake and gear knob. Taking the handbrake off is quite scary, you know it is a permanent removal, you need a blade to cut it off so if you balls it up you are left with a metal stick for a hand brake! In actuality its not a difficult job, just cut along the stitching with a sharp blade and it comes away easily. The difficult bit is adapting the handbook cover. I was lucky enough to buy one which needed no adapting but to adapt it you have to cut a one inch slot in the base so it goes all the way over the handbrake itself. Makes a bit difference to the feel of the handbrake as its much chunkier, SMD is your handbrake expert though. The gear know is easy enough, unscrew and attach the new one. I found that the rounder more chunky ones with a bit of weight make changing smoothly a lot easier. I have carbon wrapped a number of parts, the door grabs and the silver parts on the steering wheel. The door grabs come off easy enough and take a medium level of skill to wrap as there are a few angles that need heat, stretching and reapplying. The steering wheel parts can be done with the wheel still in the car, just wrap around and use a credit card to tuck the wrap into the gaps. I think the steering wheel wrap makes a BIG difference to the look and quality of the car. Hexis trumps 3M every time I have found. Bought a handsfree module off ebay, used it lots, like it. Works fine with iPhone 4s. Wheels/Brakes I bought the Volks GTVs early on, big investment, never looked back. Super lightweight and wider than Rays/stock wheels they make a big difference to the feel of the car. Also they look stunning, if you get the chance to snap up some Volks, I would give them a big thumbs up over the standard alloys. At the same time I purchase some wheel guard called GTechniq C5 which is absolutely awesome. Will last 4-6 months, you get very little or no brake dust stick and when it comes to general cleaning just car shampoo on a wash mitt and they are back to immaculate. I ordered Black Diamond brake discs and pads from CS to replace the previous set of unknown discs and pads. Stopping power is very good, can't comment if its better than the DBA/Ferrodo combo everyone seems to go for but its more than sufficient for how I drive. Only down points on these are that sometimes the pads can rattle in calipers, it seems random as to when they do this. Also the centre hub of the disc tends to gather that rust colour a lot so requires dedicated cleaning. I also got some HKS braided brake lines which make a big difference to the braking, it kicks in a lot quicker than when the rubber standards ones were on, takes a bit of getting used to but will improve sensitivity of the brakes. A really good mod for the money just needs a bit of work bleeding the brakes. Exhaust System I have ended up with a Milltek cat back and Berks HFCs under the Zed. Have to say the Milltek really is too quiet without the HFCs, I wouldn't recommend going Milltek without some change in the stock cats. The Milltek though fitted perfectly. no welding or removing of parts and married up to both the stock cats and the Berks perfectly. Berks HFCs will add a rasp to the exhaust note, if you haven't heard it before and you add them it can be a surprise hearing it, so would recommend going out at one of the meets with someone to hear the effect they have. Berks HFCs, after warming up WILL pass the MoT emissions test. Milltek with HFCs makes a sweet sound, quiet below 3k revs, very racy/ferrari like with foot down 4k-7k revs. Exterior Styling Have a plan before you start adding bits! I knew what I wanted from the start, so went for the front splitter and side steps to give a 'flow' around the edge which also made the car look lower without lowering it (which is difficult to get away with around london). Got the Stillen front splitter which is really well made, it does though leave some gaps and won't fit flush to the standard bumper, I am going to try get some more work done on it to pull closer to the bumper lip. Otherwise it looks stunning with the NASCAR style bars on the front. Also I emailed Stillen about some decals to put on it, 4 days later at zero cost I had a set of six to choose from thanks guys. The side steps are by Aerokit, the build quality is average, they flex a lot but that is quite useful as I have caught my foot on them many times getting in and out. Note that both these items collect dirt like you wouldn't believe because they are horizontal and flat, be ready to clean them every other day at least. Debadging is good for the car if you want Joe Public to have no idea you are driving a Nissan...I have a custom badge on the back now and smoothed front. Engine Modifications Up front, to answer many a question, NA engines do not return much BHP for the money you spend. It does though however make the best use that the NA engine can offer. Personally I found it frustrating that I wasn't getting the best out of it so I added a plenum spacer, I went for the Motordyne option and have to say the instructions and parts that came with it were first class, installed myself, again medium difficulty level also you can wipe out the muck that has gathered under the upper plenum. I also added a Stillen CAI which I got off ebay (again no wise cracks!) which although adds no bhp in reality (nor loses by all accounts) does give a nice noise a low level roar but also a turbo-esque whistle sound which I give a thumbs up for. I went to Abbey for the up rev, slightly annoying that I didn't get a BHP at the fly readout (as then I can compare to the factory claim of 276) but otherwise a good job done there. I have played with the look of the engine bay but it requires HUGE work to get it up to showroom style (ask Wasso). I have though bought some coloured bolts from Tarmac and they look really good, well worth adding to the car. I got a 350z-uk cooling plate, can cut your fingers off if not handled properly but have left it on, looks pretty good although me bad have sprayed it red now. In the theme of red, I have bought a grounding kit from H-Dev in red, looks great, easy install, from what I can see makes absolutely no difference to the drive of the car though. Looks good though. So thats about it guys and girls. Hope this spawns some similar write ups (reviews of the mods rather than just build updates in the build section) or inspires others to have a go Col Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUG Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 great idea Col, very useful and interesting to hear a personal view on all the mods for future reference. By any chance have you got a vid of your Milltek before and after the HFCs were added to compare sounds???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomS Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 Keep meaning to wrap my centr console and door grabs. Yours looks good, better than OEM especially if they're marked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted July 29, 2012 Author Share Posted July 29, 2012 Unfortunately no clip of Milltek minus Berks, should have done really as its often wanted. As above though, its pretty quiet, probably a touch quieter than stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarmac@TarmacSportz Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 Nice write up Col Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 The Milltek on it's own isn't quieter than stock, it's pretty much the same under 3k but over 4k it's a fair bit louder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaydnH Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 I went to Abbey for the up rev, slightly annoying that I didn't get a BHP at the fly readout (as then I can compare to the factory claim of 276) but otherwise a good job done there. As the dyno is at the hubs the flywheel readout can at best be a mathematical guess, If you ask Mark@Abbey he'll give you the formula he uses to calculate the flywheel number. Personally I don't think the numbers are the main reason to get an uprev though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted July 29, 2012 Author Share Posted July 29, 2012 I went to Abbey for the up rev, slightly annoying that I didn't get a BHP at the fly readout (as then I can compare to the factory claim of 276) but otherwise a good job done there. As the dyno is at the hubs the flywheel readout can at best be a mathematical guess, If you ask Mark@Abbey he'll give you the formula he uses to calculate the flywheel number. Personally I don't think the numbers are the main reason to get an uprev though. Was hoping this would be a review thread, rather than a pick apart the review thread so that others would do the same. As for the above, an up rev does give you a better drive yada yada heard it all before but I think pretty much everyone who gets an up rev likes to know the numbers, you have paid the money after all, you get reads at the fly at lots of other places, would have been nice to have had it here also. As I say, its a review, it was something I would have liked as a paying customer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUG Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 Any more reviews to come....!? I don't think my limited amount of mods or time with the car really warrants a review thread lol but I would be interested to see and read more of these threads from others with a variety of mods etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted August 8, 2012 Author Share Posted August 8, 2012 I think the ultimate would be GLRNET but I fear there isnt enough bandwidth to take it on the forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 Nice idea, would brilliant to have reviews with pics etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dblock Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Any more reviews to come....!? I don't think my limited amount of mods or time with the car really warrants a review thread lol but I would be interested to see and read more of these threads from others with a variety of mods etc What do you want to know about. Put it up someone from here will have it and post a review no doubt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogyRev Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 The Milltek on it's own isn't quieter than stock, it's pretty much the same under 3k but over 4k it's a fair bit louder +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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