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Shezza's zed time story


SHEZZA

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Thought I'd have a go at one of these, bit of a story and project.I've had my zed over six years now and thought it was about time i put pen to paper.

 

Way back in 2008 on a hungover Sunday morning after a couple of mates and myself visited are favourite cafe, we decided to go shopping for cars. Well for one of my mates anyway, as I was quite happy with the RX8 I had at the time. Well we got to this one garage and started looking up and down the rows of cars and eventually got to the small show room where in prime position there she was a black 350z with GT pack full nismo kit and LMGT4's to boot, just over two years old with 20k on the clock it was like a new car. Now I'd always fancied a black car and a 350z, so when I saw this I instantly fell in love. On asking what I could get in part x for the RX8 I thought the dealer was having a laugh, let's jus say in two years I would be loosing 75% of the money I had paid for it. Obviously gutted I walked away.

Well that night was a very sleepless one and by the morning I had talked myself into it. Come nine o'clock the first thing I did was ring the garage and make the deal managing to squeeze a bit more for the RX8 and a years road tax for the zed, my best impulse buy by far.

Oh my mate never bought a car for nearly a year after that!

Anyway here she is not long after I bought her, I'll add to this as and when I've got time as there's a bit to catch up on !

 

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Anyway I've not really ever been in to modding cars and have always tended to buy cars pre done so to speak. Extras included to the GT pack, nismo kit and wheels, were aluminium door sills ,boot divider even had the rear windows tinted and A bee sting stubby aerial. The only little mod I did was to fit a nismo rad cap bought from Santa pod (fake), to go with the nismo induction kit which was already on the car and I later learnt was a mod too , bonus !

 

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Well that was then it ! For the next three years I just enjoyed her and other than servicing, some new rear brake pads and a new set of Pirelli P Zero Rosso nothing else was done.

 

After three years of ownership the standard exhaust gave up the ghost and I decide to replace it with a stainless system. I ended up going for a japspeed K2 system and y pipe ( now known as crapspeed ) At the time there was a few fitment issues , but I thought I'd risk it as I liked the oem look and the sound. Well I was one of the unlucky ones here.

 

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Now I guess its not that bad and only I'd notice, you now how it is. As the tail pipes were uneven sticking out more and being a little lower on one side, I lived with it.

 

A couple more years later and another set of tyres this time Falken 452's and this has brought us up to 2014 where a decision had to be made, to keep or sell the zed.

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and this has brought us up to 2014 where a decision had to be made, to keep or sell the zed.

 

:scare:

 

I saw your lovely Zed a number of times in 2014 and now we've reached 2015, I'm assuming (and hoping) you made the right choice going forward.

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and this has brought us up to 2014 where a decision had to be made, to keep or sell the zed.

 

:scare:

 

I saw your lovely Zed a number of times in 2014 and now we've reached 2015, I'm assuming (and hoping) you made the right choice going forward.

 

Spoiler alert. Haha

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It was early 2014 and I was toying with the idea of selling the zed as it was just sitting there Hardly being used. When being off I'll from work one week, bored out came the iPad and I thought id have a look on this forum, which I'd joined in 2009 and only looked at a few times now and then !

Well within that week a plan was hatched, decideding to keep the zed and getting out and about more I signed up for Wales and the LakeZ.

In an effort to get the car up to scratch for 2014 I started by doing some maintainance and thought I'd have a go myself not only to save some money but to get some experience as I'd always paid for services and maintainance.

 

I began with

 

Wiper blades. Bosch aero twin

Rear boot gas struts. SGS (no more headaches)

Replaced the bee sting stubby for a RDX (the radio now works wow!)

front brake discs. Brembo

front brake pads. Nissan OEM

compression arm bushes. SuperPro (fitted by CS)

Front drop links. Nissan OEM

Gates belts.

NGK Platinum spark plugs

4 wheel alignment

Passenger door handle & window switch

Gear box oil plus moly slip

Diff oil

Headlight restore.

 

Now by this time you can guess that Zeditis had set in and there was no going back.

 

Then it was time for Wales, what a great weekend it was and I'd been missing out on it all these years, just up the road too !

Once back from Wales having a few ideas, I decided it was time to get rid of the wonky crapspeed exhaust. Before you knew it I'd sent a PM to Chris at Tarmac Sportz ordering a Invidia Gemini exhaust and Berk hfc's to complement it.

When delivered a little trip to see Mitz and Andy at the cougar store,it was fitted.

 

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Edited by SHEZZA
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With the exhaust now fitted it was soon time for LakeZ. Another great weekend was had. There it was where I met Arkwright who informed me of ZedFest which he was organising and the next meet was planned.

Then onto ZedFest and yes you guessed it yet another cracking weekend, allthough it was a little wet on the Sunday and we was camping in a little two man tent.

 

Receiving this was a nice surprise too and made it all the more worthwhile.

 

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Next up was a bit of bay bling

 

Bonnet dampers

Tarmacsportz red bay bolts

Redline styling cooling panel

Red nismo style oil cap

 

As it was due a coolant change I thought why not get the hoses replaced while I was at it.

 

Red samco hoses supplied and fitted by Mitz and Andy at the cougar store.

 

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Thank you for all the comments guys.

 

A couple of months past and I was itching for the next mod, then clark motorsports LED group buy came up and I put myself down for a pair. I thought as I was now getting these I'd also do a few more little upgrades to the lighting. Looking on eBay I dropped on a genuine nissan JDM clear fog light cluster with a high powered red LED. I ordered some silvertec indicator bulbs and LED bulbs for the number plate too.

 

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On getting back from work one day in the hall there was a big box with Clark Motorsport all over it and the next day these were fitted.

 

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Now I must confess I've never been to the ring and that sticker has been on there ever since I bought the car. I left it on because I quite liked it but now I'm thinking with the clear fog it's time to go ?

 

Well that brings us up to the present day. Next on the cards is a little trip to see Taras at RT for a front end respray with a bulge bonnet, and a few little bits tidied up.

 

To be continued

Edited by SHEZZA
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^^ Very nice. :D

 

Definitely ditch "the ring" sticker though imo, ...especially if you haven't been. :lol:;)

 

+1. It also upsets the balance of a symmetrical rear end now, especially with the clear fog and Nismo sticker doing their best to help balance it all out. :thumbs:

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