Reeco's Shakotan Z

[Reeco]

Hi guys, okay firstly explanation for the name...i've named it the thunder wagon on every other site because most people aren't familiar with just how loud the japspeed K1 exhaust system is, i'm sure you lot are but i just thought i'd keep a consistent name

 

Anyway as i'm sure most of saw in my welcome message i picked this up a few weeks back. It's a 2004 model with all the GT extras but apparently isn't a GT? Mega pleased with it! But I've got alot planned for it as soon as i've recouped funds (including 13j wheels i've spotted) so watch this space but for now here's a quick current spec and a few (new) pictures i got today after a detailing session.

 

After market rear lights

Unknown wheels 18"

Front black Z badge

30mm Eibach pro spring kit

Full Japspeed K1 exhaust

Rear EBC disks and pads

Front black diamond disks

Front Brembo pads

Brembo callipers front and rear

 

Pic whoring time (excuse my enormous head and ugly mug)

Edited July 20, 2015 by Reeco

[MITZ@CougarStore]

[Plummerman]

:b Wheels look like Rota GTR-d's.. Was looking at some of these myself but got swayed another way right Mitz

[mattross1313]

Nice motor mate. Wheels look a bit like Lenso D1R's - had a white set on my old MR2 but can't quite tell in black.

Matt

[LRF4N]

Lots of potential, look forward to seeing the wiiiiide wheels

 

One tip for pics- turn the wheel away from the camera. Alloys are much more interesting to look at than tyre tread

[JetSet]

(including 13j wheels i've spotted) so watch this space

 

 

Yikes, you'll need some major arch work to fit them, plus a wide body kit. Interesting car BTW, if your steering wheel has 6 buttons then its a GT.

 

 

Pete

[Reeco]

Thanks for all the replies guys! I found out the wheels are actually eGay specials, i think they've tried to replicate Lenso wheels. but hey they look okay for now and they're about £400 brand new so they aren't cheap shite. I'll keep them as winter wheels even after ive changed them.

 

Lots of potential, look forward to seeing the wiiiiide wheels

 

One tip for pics- turn the wheel away from the camera. Alloys are much more interesting to look at than tyre tread

 

Haha thanks for the hint that's a pretty good point Going to find a better spot next time, this one was a bit busy.

 

(including 13j wheels i've spotted) so watch this space

 

 

Yikes, you'll need some major arch work to fit them, plus a wide body kit. Interesting car BTW, if your steering wheel has 6 buttons then its a GT.

 

 

Pete

 

Haha there ET-19 so yeah I'll definitley need some arch work if i do go ahead and buy them, but as you well know these things can swallow up some big wheels so i should get away without a body kit and thanks for that mate, it does so that clears that up

[Reeco]

Spacers turned up yay!

Being currently jobless and bored to crap i rushed out to fit them, and quickly discovered that Z's are a bitch to jack without a low profile jack (will be something i invest in the future)

so after jacking it up and taking the wheel off .....

I found out they don't fit

Basically the center ring doesn't fit round the one on the hub, I believe it because my disks have been changed...i'm a bit gutted to be honest.

They might fit on the front yet, i have different disks front and back, but i couldn't get the jack under the front of the car, and i don't like using scissor jacks...And it's Freezing outside so i haven't tested yet .

These are the ones i bought (yes i cheaped out and bought eBay ones) http://www.ebay.co.u...item337e84df91 So if anybody can see of any other reason why this don't fit please let me know.

Edited July 20, 2013 by Reeco

[Reeco]

Finally and update worth updating this updateless thread with.

I Got bored of looking for dishy wheels I'm not going to have to beat my arches to death for so bought some Rotiform NUEs today from a fellow Z owner who also gave me his spacer set up. They'll be having a quick refurb and BC super drop kit coilovers are going to be ordered in the next few days and i'll be changing my retarded back discs too.

 

...And the car they came of.

 

Stance haters hate away!

[MITZ@CougarStore]

Do get in touch if we can help with the BC Racing Coilovers...

[mattross1313]

Nice wheels mate.

The car you had them off sits really well, liking the US style plate too.....hmm

[Vlad]

Love them wheels! I think that's the car I posted about in spotted section when I saw it at fast show!

[The Chubby Ninja]

ive never seen they wheels before and they look nice. I also like different. looking forward to seeing them on the car and the coilovers fitted

[S1 HNK]

Love the wheels! Get some pics up once on

[Reeco]

Cheers for all the positive feed back guys, means a lot. Ordered my bc racing coilovers last night. Extreme drop kit, ultra low with 12/14kg springs..so not overly hard. Will be interesting to see what bottoms out first, my money's on my exhaust! Also realised I was being a little bit thick and in actual fact my rear discs are fine, it was a cleverly hidden spigot! So just a quick wheel refurb and minor rear arch roll to go now. I'll update with pics as soon as parts start going on

[Reeco]

Change of plan i sold the rotiforms and started stripping it for a full on drift project!

 

NOT REALLY! But today i finally got round to sorting a few annoying little things, 1) The mirror control button on the driver side had dropped which turned out to be an easy fix, it had just slipped off one of the clips. and 2) I sorted out my strut brace, it was scratched to @*!#. which must be down to some complete rebel ignoring the golf bag storage instructions The Iphone quality pics don't show just how bad it was, anyway i saw this DTA Rogue Status wrap on a AE86's dash once and really liked it so decided to wrap my strut brace with it. (Well my dad did, I'm not too good at that kind of stuff)

 

Also while i had the wheel off the other day to see if it actually was just a spigot on my rear hub i chucked the 40mm spacers that are going on with the Rotiforms and put the lensos back on just to see what they looked like (yes my wheels turned out to be lensos in the end i was wrong) I didn't let it off the jack but it still looked pretty beefy!

 

 

Coilovers should be here very soon and im really excited! although I'm on holiday from the 2nd August so i cant chuck it all on until I'm home

 

I'll Update ASAP.

[sidewayz350z]

Car looks sweet mate and them wheels are different but suit the 350 perfectly, get some pics up of them on yours

[Reeco]

So Progress started yesterday.... here's some generic "i did something" photos

 

Coilover

 

Up on the ramps with my old man and josh.

 

Everything was going sweeter than usual, life is so much easier with ramps or maybe i'm just to used to doing everything on the driveway? but then my rear toe adjust bolt decided to snap, with most of it still inside the rear lower wishbone bush we have to cut it out and replace it. This was at 3 yesterday so Nissan was closed and euro car parts don't do that sort of thing. After a flick through the web josh found the bush but at £110 a pair. Turns out its cheaper (and easier) just to buy the whole wishbone second hand with the bush still in it. so ill be ordering that tonight.

 

We finished fitting the coilovers, and chucked the Rotifroms on the front without spacers for now. we left the bush in to get home. was dodgy enough driving it without a toe bolt already so i didnt want to tempt fate. Especially by adding spacers.

 

So now we have to wait until next weekend! Current to do list:

Replace offside rear wishbone (spring mount)

Adjust ride height to baller status height.

Get the spacers on.

Rotiforms to go on the rear.

Give the rear arches a tickle with the roller.

Get damper settings right.

Do a full Geo.

 

Ride height is looking a tad better, even with "out of the box" ride height setting with the extreme drop kit, so heres a few pictures.

Sorry for the mobile quality pics, i'll get some better ones up when its all done.

 

 

 

Was a bit worried about moving away from the all black look, but i actually prefer the contrast, think it also matches my tails, indicators and Z side badges.

[Kevtoll]

Can't wait to see it fully rotiformed

[LRF4N]

Silver wheels look miles better mate

[K370Z2]

Like the Silver wheels best.

 

Black wheels, on a black car, just make them fade away in to the background.

[laidbackluke]

look sweet dude!

[Ricey]

Those wheels are really different.....me likey!

[Reeco]

Thanks for all the positive comments guys means a lot

 

Decided today would be a good day to get on with things that didn't need the ramps or workshop.

 

So after struggling to get off my slightly inclined drive to swap places with Z number 2 (my dads) i got to work getting the wheels off the rear (now up for sale http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/75241-my-lenso-d1-wheels-18x95-18x85-and-standard-dampers-with-eibach-lowering-springs/#entry1118963) and test fitting the rotiforms with my spacers to see where and how much rolling i need, sorry no pics of this, I'm saving it for the finish, fingers crossed this weekend

 

Needless to say 40mm spacers add some serious beef on the back end, but strangely it looked like i didn't need to do much rolling. This is where the fun began, due to the now pretty small gap between the hub and arch it was a right pain in the arse to get the roller in position. But with help from my dad we got it in the right place, and nervously started rolling. Seemed to take a lot longer than i expected, but it did start to go. I didn't bother with pics of this as its such a minimal roll its not that noticeable on camera so have a picture of an arch roller instead.

 

Word of advice to anybody thats thinking of trying this, watch plenty of youtube tutorials, and seriously take your time, dont do it in a rush! , keep plenty of heat on the arch with a heat gun too. After that was done, we bolted the spacer back on... its a beast!

 

I put the wheels back on, started to torque the nuts and quickly realised one of the studs was just spinning in the spacer so back off with the spacer and we tried to punch it back in but it made no difference. so after a quick trip down the road to an engineering company we were told they can take all the studs out and repress them with loctite. Aparantly this is a 30-45 minute job, but they still decided to "book it in" for tomorrow and said it was going to cost between 35 and 45 quid plus VAT!

 

Still optimistic, i thought i'd roll the other arch, but again we hit another hitch. This time actually my fault. We removed all the locking wheel nuts bar one at the workshop on saturday and replaced them all with normal wheel nuts, but down to laziness we put one back on and now i cant find my bloody locking wheel nut key! so as we speak tiger seal is (hopefully) fixing a socket that almost fits to the wheel nut ready to amaze everybody and undo the nut tomorrow!....watch this space.

[Reeco]

Quick update! Unsurprisingly the tiger seal locking wheel nut idea didn't work! Luckily I got a text this morning from my mate telling me he found the key in his workshop! So that was a massive ball ache saved, so got the last lenso off and rolled the other arch, went a lot easier and better than the last one, which I'm putting down to just having an idea what were doing this time.

 

Now I'm sat here waiting for the engineering company to call and ask me to come get my spacers. I also can't get into the workshop to fully finish it until Sunday now, the extra day of waiting is going to kill me, I'm itching to get it back on the road fully "stanced" .

 

Started thinking about other mods, at the moment I've decided I want to fit an INGS+1 style lip (I'm told genuine ones cost silly money) and might look for some side skirts, finished ride height dependant. Might look into prettying my engine bay up, I can't see the point of chasing performance figures now, all my mods have been "anti handling" mods. Thinking about looking for a skid car I can keep off the road.