Conor's Night Blue 350z

[CPhillips93]

So after months and months of deliberation I decided that it was time to part ways with the 182. I had 2 good years with the old bird, and she treated me well; I think the most money it cost me was on the bloody exhaust joint umpteen times (those who have followed my "progress" thread and have a RS192 exhaust will feel my pain!)

Anyways, I sold the 182 to a guy called Dan (who may be on here) who came and viewed and bought the car on the same day, I was shocked to see her go after all the great memories she gave me!
Here she is in new ownership

Nonetheless, I felt the need to move onto something with a bit more about it...
I looked at countless ads on Autotrader and Pistonheads, at s2000s, Evos, 535d, 335d, 350z, just anything with more bhp than the clio! I narrowed it down to either a s2000 or a 350z as I didn't fancy growing old before my time just yet!

So I went ahead and test drove an s2k that was local and to be honest I wasn't all that impressed; it drove great but didn't have that low end grunt that I was looking for. The cabin was also very small, and I am only 5'12"! Aside from that it for the money you didn't get a lot of "creature comforts".

So I looked at 350z's and fell in love! For the same amount of money you can get so much more! So I scoured the ads for exactly what I wanted; a low mileage example of the 313 HR model, with GT pack preferably in blue or black. I had found one for decent money in grey, but as always was too good to be true . But I kept my hopes up and managed to find a perfect example on Autotrader, a night blue, sitting on 55k miles, with full service history. It had the full GT pack with GPS, bose, black heated leather seats etc. MOT till September 2015 (shame about the tax ). Only problem was... it was in Nottingham a mere 10 hour round trip :weary:. But I thought f**k it, why not, if its as good as is made out to be then why not! So I took the trip scoped out the car and walked away with it after knocking alot off the price :tongueout:.

Here she is in a car park near where I bought it from:

And it didn't take me long before I had it home for a good clean :smile:
There wasn't much dirt, mainly just dirty water from the trip home:

However the paintwork was a tad swirly 😊:

But I got cracking, and washed the car in the usual routine (sorry for the lack of pictures but got a bit carried away with the cleaning :tonguewink and then clayed the car.
This was one pass on the roof :dizzy::

and after the whole car:

The exhaust tips were also looking a little worse for wear, so used a little elbow grease with some Autosol :wink: (half assed attempt at a before and after photo haha. I did actually polish the top of the left tip!):

Overall the car was filthy! But once washed and dried I used Poorboys Black Hole to hide some of those nasty swirls, even the misses got involved:

End result:

I have sinced washed the car again and polished it with Meg's Ultimate Compound and followed by AG HD Wax for some protection!

Comments welcome!

Conor.



​

 

[C.J]

Looks nice. The noise.

 

[Philip.]

I like it!

Give me your brakes? :smile:

 

[_Tom]

Nice mate. I'd actually never seen one in this colour until the other day when I was sat in traffic. Looks ace.

 

[Sargara]

Good choice. What was the insurance like going from FWD to RWD, was there a substantial increase? Also how are you finding the trade off of chuckable hot hatch to GT cruiser?

 

[Rob]

Bloody love that, what a difference a clean and polish makes too.

Only thing I can't get on with, is that they looked so under-wheeled/almost high.

I think they either need spacers or bigger wheels?

 

[mr bognor]

You need a filter and inlet spacer on it to really hear the V6 sing best thing I have done to my 2005 DE 350Z

 

[Paul.M]

I have a soft spot for a tidy 350z, looks great, best of luck with it

 

[banther]

You do know you're 6ft right?

5ft 12" isnt a thing.

 

[Matt W]

Nice!

Had a quick passenger ride in a convertible 370z and really liked it, bet the coupe is even nicer.

 

[aucky]

Lovely!

 

[CPhillips93]

Looks nice. The noise.

Nice mate. I'd actually never seen one in this colour until the other day when I was sat in traffic. Looks ace.

I have a soft spot for a tidy 350z, looks great, best of luck with it :smile:

Lovely!

Thanks guys 😌

Nice!

Had a quick passenger ride in a convertible 370z and really liked it, bet the coupe is even nicer.

I much prefer the coupe... the convertible does not look good at all imo.

I like it!

Give me your brakes? :smile:

Pffft how do you expect me to stop :smile:

Good choice. What was the insurance like going from FWD to RWD, was there a substantial increase? Also how are you finding the trade off of chuckable hot hatch to GT cruiser?

To be honest there is very little in it insurance wise, not sure why though! And tbh with you I enjoy it a lot more, definitely more comfortable, but it still feels loads quicker and it doesn't handle like a boat :tongueclosed:!

Bloody love that, what a difference a clean and polish makes too.

Only thing I can't get on with, is that they looked so under-wheeled/almost high.

I think they either need spacers or bigger wheels?

My cousin had one and fitted spacers front and rear and it made it look 100x better... its on the list

You need a filter and inlet spacer on it to really hear the V6 sing best thing I have done to my 2005 DE 350Z :smile:

Haha, any suggestions :smile:?

 

[CPhillips93]

You do know you're 6ft right?

5ft 12" isnt a thing.

Oops 😊 didn't think it sounded right...

 

[mr bognor]

mr bognor said: ↑
You need a filter and inlet spacer on it to really hear the V6 sing best thing I have done to my 2005 DE 350Z :smile:
Click to expand...
Haha, any suggestions :smile:?


I have the below on my one . K & N Typhoon ( not cheep at £ 375 ) and a HD spacer ( £ 150 ) .

The noise is worth every penny

 

[Martin.]

mr bognor said: ↑
You need a filter and inlet spacer on it to really hear the V6 sing best thing I have done to my 2005 DE 350Z :smile:
Click to expand...
Haha, any suggestions :smile:?


I have the below on my one . K & N Typhoon ( not cheep at £ 375 ) and a HD spacer ( £ 150 ) .

The noise is worth every penny :smile:

Videos showing said noise?

 

[Rob]

My cousin had one and fitted spacers front and rear and it made it look 100x better... its on the list

Good choice, it's literally the only thing I don't like about them.

You got any pics of what your cousin did? As it literally stops me wanting one. LOL

 

[CPhillips93]

mr bognor said: ↑
You need a filter and inlet spacer on it to really hear the V6 sing best thing I have done to my 2005 DE 350Z :smile:
Click to expand...
Haha, any suggestions :smile:?


I have the below on my one . K & N Typhoon ( not cheep at £ 375 ) and a HD spacer ( £ 150 ) .

The noise is worth every penny :smile:

Hmm not sure about that as I would have to buy two induction kits because of the HR layout, and I think I have read that its similar to the 182 in that induction kit actually lowers the BHP

Videos showing said noise?

+1

Good choice, it's literally the only thing I don't like about them.

You got any pics of what your cousin did? As it literally stops me wanting one. LOL

I have a few, not sure if it shows it off all that well mind :smile:

And on GTR wheels

 

[mr bognor]

Hmm not sure about that as I would have to buy two induction kits because of the HR layout, and I think I have read that its similar to the 182 in that induction kit actually lowers the BHP

If it is an open cone style it would lose BHP but the noise is amazing .

Also any power mod will to net you any more BHP until you Uprev the ecu as the std ecu turns back the engine when mods are installed .

Alan

 

[George@RTR_Parts]

Good effort cleaning it, it has come up really well :up:

 

[CPhillips93]

Hmm not sure about that as I would have to buy two induction kits because of the HR layout, and I think I have read that its similar to the 182 in that induction kit actually lowers the BHP

If it is an open cone style it would lose BHP but the noise is amazing .

Also any power mod will to net you any more BHP until you Uprev the ecu as the std ecu turns back the engine when mods are installed .

Alan

No doubt it would be, I am just unsure whether or not I will start modding just yet! [emoji17]

Good effort cleaning it, it has come up really well :up:

Thanks, unfortunately though I have to say the pictures make the paintwork seem a LOT better than it is... Ideally I would like to machine polish it but I have heard that this nissan paint isn't the thickest nor hardest so may have to pass it on to a pro!

 

[edgeydt50]

yeah i had my mate, who is a professional detailer, look over mine and even he took it very lightly and said they paint had signs of somebody attacking it. I think I'm going to be looking for another one soon. My driving habits have changed and although i thought i got bored of it last time i think it was just because i wanted to buy the tvr

 

[mr bognor]

Link to noise then tell me you don't want to mod

 

[CPhillips93]

Update *PIC HEAVY*
When I bought the car it had a few niggly things wrong with it; little stuff like scratched interior door handles and the drivers door vent was broken.

So I immediately got on ebay and 350-uk in order to find an 'intact' door vent.
Unfortunately there was only 1 available on ebay which meant that it would set me back £25 for my troubles... however I had more luck on the 350z site finding one for £15, ideal!

And so got to fitting it!

The 'culprit'

To remove it I needed to remove the interior door handle (you can tell from the photo the extent of the damage to the door handle )

Under the handle it revealed two 10mm bolts

Next to be removed was the plastic 'blank' under the door handle

To reveal another 10mm bolt

And then from there it was just a matter of prising off the door card!

And once this was removed it was just a matter of removing wires for switches and the wires for the lock/exterior door handle leaving this mess!

All that was left to do from here was to simply unscrew the vent from the back

The new and the old

and all in the reverse order to leave it like so

Much better :smile:

Plans

In the short term I don't want to go absolutely mad with the ol' girl, I just want to enjoy her for the moment!

But in the long term I have a few ideas :tongueout:

• Aero wipers (which have now been done, not really an exciting picture!)
• Stubby aerial
• 'Aux hack'
• LEDs all round
• Spray the interior handles - bit of a toss up with satin black and a metallic black any opinions?
• Parking sensors (desperately needed the ass 'feels' huge 😊)
• Clear front reflectors
• Get a weighted gear knob, replace the gear gaiter and get a handbrake gaiter
• 350z boot mat
• Get some braided lines, drain the fluid and up date the brakes all the way round
• Bonnet dampers
• Refurb the wheels
• And potentially replace the exhaust when it falls off

I intend to update this thread as and when the above plans happen, hopefully they will come thick and fast :tonguewink:

Comments and suggestions welcome :blush:

Conor.
​

 

[CPhillips93]

Update - Aux 'Hack


So today I set about finally getting an aux input into the zed.


I followed the 'how to' guide on here (http://www.350z-uk.c...pod-hack-guide/) but decided to put my own spin on it and bought a 3.5mm jack socket.

The hardest decision was where to mount it in the car... at first I thought it would best to put it on the blank next to the heated seat buttons, but then I realised that as the aux would be pointing upwards it could be potentially broken. So next option was to mount it in the small glovebox by the seats, but again the 'false floor' that holds the bluetooth box would prove too difficult to mount to.


In the end I decided it would be best to place it in the cup holders in the centre cubby

.


So following the guide I cracked on with removing the gear knob, which was too hard for my girly hands

:-

and hey presto the knob was off and so was the bottom of the centre console:-

All four screws removed (although one was missing

):-

Next on the GT models was to remove the plastic in between the satnav screen and the satnav controls revealing the screws holding down the controls:-

Below these are two more screws (which I forgot to take a photo of

) and after a 'gentle' tug the whole console comes out to show 4 screws either side of the head unit which can be removed (also forgot to take a photo of this step, useless aren't I!).


And out comes the unit, it looks bare!

And just for good measure so did the centre 'island':-

The next few steps were fairly ordinary and didn't really warrant any photos as it was fairly simple to get the tape deck out revealing the terminals on the circuit board.


Onto the easy part... the soldering

:-

Obviously the photos skipped a few steps here as by the second photo I had already drilled out the whole in the centre 'island' ready for the 3.5mm jack socket. I also made sure I used a decent amount of insulation tape and heat shrink in order to keep the wires separate. I did however make the rookie error of not feeding the wires in behind the bar below the head unit so they just thread through between the bar and the head unit. If I have the unit out again I will use some crimps so I can thread it through and to make it easier to remove the head unit without removing the whole centre section.


And the finished article:-

I wasn't so sure at first on the positioning but it seems to be the best place to have put it. I will soon find out through using it though! However, before putting it all back together I went to test it and disappointingly the radio showed an 'Radio Code' message which at first I naively thought was no problem at all...



I could not have been more wrong.


It turns out that after searching through all of the documentation that I received I had no code for the radio whatsoever. So unfortunately both my radio is locked and I have no idea whether the hack is functioning or not. Also through leaving my door open (and consequently the interior light on) I have fried the battery, and have also ruined the gear knob by trying to remove it

So all in all a quite frustrating day

But one slight positive, I managed to change over the heated seats switch so that they were on the 'right sides'

Much better

Comments and suggestions welcome

Conor

P.s. Since writing this update on 350z-uk, I have called Nissan who have provided me with a code for the radio for free (!) and I will be hopefully receiving a call tomorrow with the code, so even though my knob is scratched I should have an aux input (fingers crossed) :tonguewink:

 

[CPhillips93]

Update

(Albeit a small one!)


Over the course of the last week I have scoured eBay long and hard to find LEDs to replace all the orange-tinged bulbs. I also was after a very very bright LED to replace the bulb the feeble excuse of a reversing light...


Pictures speak louder than words

Interior light:-

Boot light:-

Number plate lights :-

Reversing light:-

All in all, not the most exciting mod you will read on the forum, but in my opinion the LEDs make the car feel that little bit more 'quality'. The interior light now casts shadows on the cabin

.


Regardless the reversing LED is a big improvement, in the dark it lights up whatever is behind you, no doubt blinding anything with eyes in sight! For the sake of £10 for a LED it is well worth it.


I have also got to get round to fitting LED sidelights as well as 'silver' indicator bulbs on the front and back but will get round to that soon.


I have the tough decision this month of either replacing the battery or the discs and pads all the way round... both are necessary; battery seems to be okay at the moment but has been iffy (touches wood!) but my rear discs are heavily pitted and scored so I am looking to replace them all round with EBC turbo discs and yellowstuff pads. Any suggestions

?


Conor.​

 

[CPhillips93]

UPDATE


As a keen 'detailer', one of the jobs that was at the top of the list was to give the car a machine polish to get rid of all the swirls and marring that the Zed had picked up prior to my ownership!


I had previously attempted machine polishing before with a rotary on my old Clio 182 which I borrowed off of my mate, but decided to buy my own opting for the DAS6 Pro; a much safer option as opposed to the rotary alternative, especially with Nissan paint being so soft!


Unfortunately, I picked the WORST day to clean the Zed, it did not stop raining all day! This forced me to skip my usual snow foaming step but it gave me the opportunity to try out a new product:-

Essentially, CarPro's Trix is a combination of it's Iron X with a tar remover. Despite being stamped with 'new improved scent' it is the most fouling smelling product I have ever used... a horrid combo of perm and rotten eggs (hence my gloves)!


Regardless, it is a very effective product, it removed the majority of what tar there was on the car, and from the distinctive run off that IronX produces it was clear that it also removed iron fallout.


So as per the instructions I rinsed the car, sprayed (whilst shaking the bottle!) it all over the car and leaving to dwell for 5-7 minutes. I then agitated hard to reach spots. Due to the Zed's dark colour it was very difficult to tell whether or not the Trix was reacting but it was clear from the run off on the ground/wheels that it was working it's magic

And rinsed before washing:-

I didn't take many other photos from here as I was getting absolutely soaked and just wanted to get the Zed in the garage!


Got the car into the garage and used another new purchase; Bilt Hamber clay which was very dirty after a pass on the bonnet

Once I had finished claying I attempted to try and capture some of the worst bits of the paintwork

I need a lot of practice in trying to capture the swirls and marring but I think to some extent the pictures do show how bad the paint was

. And the weapon of choice:-

I used Chemical Guys HexLogic Green pad combined with Meguiars #83 to start then finished off with Black HexLogic pad and Mezerna SF4000.


Here is some afters:-

And to top it off, used Dodo Juice Blue Velvet:-

Overall I am glad I tried it out and although I don't think I have achieved 100% correction I still seem to have taken off the 'dullness' of the paint which hopefully I can keep on top of now and perhaps, if I feel brave, go at it with a bit more aggressive pad/polish combo

I have also now put my wheels up for sale on eBay so that I can buy some shadow chromed Rays so watch this space

Comments and suggestions welcome!


Conor​

 

[CPhillips93]

Update


Finally, after weeks of deliberation and attempting to prioritise what I was going to do next to the Zed, I listed my 'old' Rays on eBay in order to recoup some money to purchase my cousin's old Rays from him. Ideally, I wanted to simultaneously buy and fit 30mm/25mm whilst I had the wheels off but unfortunately this didn't pan out...


Nevertheless, I eventually found a buyer for the wheels and therefore needed to get them swapped over with the new ones. Now me being the 'OCD' type I wanted to make sure I did this right, which meant purchasing some Gtechniq C5. I have always been quite keen to use this, especially seeing how well C4 works, but have always been put off by the price tag (£23 for 15ml

!). However, considering Gtechniq boast that it lasts 1-2 years it seems like good value for money, right

?


C5 requires an absolutely immaculate surface to bond to and therefore the most important part of the process is the cleaning.


The wheels I bought were finished in shadow chrome and didn't seem that dirty at all, mainly dust from storage:-

So I started with the usual routine, rinse them, spray with Bilberry Wheel Cleaner whilst agitating with a ValetPro brush on both the inside and outside of the wheel:-

With this done on all four wheels, it was then time for my new favourite product Trix (despite the awful scent!):-

Again, this was washed off and the wheels were taken into the garage to prep for the coating. It's essential with this type of sealant that the wheel is 100% dry, and so I used the air compressor to get the water out of all the nooks and crannies:-

The wheels still showed some sign of previous sealant above, but also showed some heavy marring as well

The next step therefore was to try and remove some of these marks. When I had the Clio I picked up a handed drill attachment for headlight correction, and so I utilised this in combination with Gtechniq P1 to try and get the best finish on the wheels.

Shiney

Finally, the last step was to ensure that the wheels were free of any oils or polish residue and CarPro Eraser was used to remove any oil/polish left on the wheel:-

Now for the fun part

...

The coating comes with four 'application pads' (probably better described as cotton pads!), which they say you should dab the product on and apply to the surface. I found this bit particularly difficult, as the sealant is clear and is very difficult to see where you have applied. As a result I probably ended up using too much

. I ended up setting up a little work station in order to try and catch where I had been:-

Once the product has been spread, any excess should be removed immediately using a microfibre. It is also essential that any pad or cloth are replaced quite often as the product forms 'crystals' which can scratch the finish!


And some afters:-

The results speak for themselves, but I am very pleased with C5. Leaves a glossy finish, very easy to apply, and if it really does last up to 1-2 years it is well worth every penny of it's £23 price tag. I was rather generous with the application on the first wheel whilst I got used to it, but I still have around a quarter of the bottle left and that's having done the inside of the rim too! Depending on how this holds up, I would definitely recommend it to others

.


After I had done all this I left the wheels to cure inside for a little while before I tackled my dirty arches!

Predictably, the arches started rather filthy and so I used a combination of Auto Glym Wheel Cleaner and Bilberry to clean the arches and the Brembos, then finishing it off with Auto Glym Wheel Sealant to coat the Brembos (wasn't entirely convinced that C5 would cope with the heat so used something cheaper!) and Auto Glym Tyre Dressing for the plastics:-

I didn't take many pictures of the arches as there isn't much to see and shortly after this photo the heavens opened which was not what I wanted

. Unfortunately, Gtechniq state that the coating must be left to cure for 12 hours before getting wet, serves me right really for not thinking ahead and sealing the wheels before they had to go on! Regardless, I cracked on and got all four on and C5 was already working:-

This was a little disappointing after spending so long getting the wheels ready for the product I may probably now shortened the coating's lifespan, but hey-ho we learn from our mistakes!


However, I was very pleased with how the wheels sat on the car - they are big improvement over the standard silver Rays (please ignore my finger in the first photo

):-

Just need some nice new nuts and some spacers and the wheels will be perfect

.


Comments and suggestions welcome!


Conor.​

 

[CPhillips93]

So on Friday I picked these up from the Post Office:-

My £1.04 Cosworth Filters

, which turned out to be in unused condition - bargain! Over the weekend I set about replacing whatever the previous owner had put in at the Zed's last service (OEM filter as it turns out!), which actually turned out to be a very simple task, the Mrs' even had a go

!


The state of the OEM filters:-

The left airbox also managed to suck in a small tree

Side by side:-

Oddly enough it looks as though the two OEM filters are a different shade, perhaps two different filters? Nevertheless, in went the Cosworths. Not sure really the difference they will make and I did think that these would be foam style filters that would be washable, but it turns out they are paper. For £1 though, how can I complain!


I also managed to get the weather for a decent clean, and following illogikal1's advice I decided to also use the remaining bit of C5 I had left on the various plastic items on the car.


In particular, my wing mirror plastics were looking rather worse for wear:-

As you could tell they were slightly faded and had also been a victim of some polish flicking up from the DA. So I taped up the surrounding painted areas just to avoid any over-application and wax removal in the cleaning process:-

Clean and ready for C5:-

50/50(ish):-

And after that photo was taken I got a bit carried away and forgot to take any final shots, but ended up doing the scuttle panel, front and rear wiper arms, and the windscreen surround. Definitely leaves the plastics looking like new!


Not sure now what's next for the ol' girl, I am really struggling to get hold of some 25 and 30mm spacers (if anyone could help that would be appreciated), the OEM exhaust is just, well, meh, but I guess a P3 service is paramount. We shall see...


Comments and suggestions welcome.


Conor.

​

 

[CPhillips93]

UPDATE - POST 1 of 2

It's been a while since I updated this thread and I have been busy with a few little tweaks since I last posted.


Over the last couple of weeks I managed to gather a RDX stubby aerial, 25mm and 30mm spacers as well as other service related items (boring!).


So onto the RDX aerial...

And fitted:-

Definitely smartens up the rear and I personally haven't noticed any difference in radio signal whatsoever, it is an absolute must on the zed in my opinion, especially seeing as the OEM aerial makes the car look like it's receiving long distance radio messages

I then spent the next week or so cleaning the car and just enjoying it whilst I looked for spacers. Since I attempted to machine polish the zed I wasn't 100% impressed with the finish I had produced, so I had another dig with a Chemical Guys Hexlogic blue pad and Menzerna SF4000 to refine the paintwork a little more...


Results:-

And then driving through town last week I managed to do this

In St Austell town centre (where I often have to drive for work) there are high granite kerbs, and I managed to pull out from a parking space and catch the bumper, much to my dismay! The bumper isn't perfect but I like to pride myself in the fact that the car itself was fairly intact bar the odd stone chip.


@*!# happens I suppose, and the intention is to order some paint off of paints4u and attempt a repair! If that fails I may have to get a splitter to cover the lovely gouge!


Regardless, I gave the car another good clean last week, and also managed to use this:-

Of late the air con in the zed has been rather 'pungent', and after a little bit of research it seemed likely that there was mould/mildew in the system where condensation builds up and is left to stew. In order to stop this, the air con should be turned off before you reach your destination and hot air blown through the system to try and clear out the condensation. A week later the sanitiser and this 'technique' seems to be working well so will have to keep a nose on it

!


I also ordered some Auto Glym HD Wax at the same time on offer from Camskill... at £26 I don't think you can beat it! I think these pictures do it justice...

IMO it's a very good wax, durable, provides a glossy finish and the water behaviour is fantastic. I definitely favour it over Dodo Juice Blue Velvet which I have been using previously.


Comments and suggestions welcome.


Conor
​

 

[CPhillips93]

UPDATE - POST 2 of 2

I then got a bit bored of cleaning the zed (believe it or not!) and turned my attention to finally getting my hands on some spacers! In the end I managed to get both 25mm and 30mm spacers from people on here.


When I got both sets they were both in need of a good clean up and so the routine went as follows.


Bath and scrub in some Gunk degreaser:-

Once that had been rinsed off, I enlisted the girlfriend to wire brush the surface corrosion:-

50/50:-

Some of the more serious rust had to be attacked with some 240 grit sandpaper:-

All masked up in preparation for spray:-

In the 'booth':-

Sprayed initially with etch primer:-

Baking in the sun:-

After a couple coats of gloss black:-

The finish isn't the best on these but it will do. I really just wanted to make sure that the spacers were black just to suit the inside of the wheels. I thought it would also be clever if I used the remaining bit of C5 I had to seal them:-

Then to the fun part... fitting them!


A few photos of before:-

I whipped the wheels off one by one and made sure that I used plenty of copper grease as these buggers love to fuse with the wheel/disc. Rear one on:-

And on goes the front:-

Some after shots:-

I am very happy now with the way the car is looking, it has a few niggly things that need to be addressed (interior door handles etc) but other than that the zed is nearly there

. I have also managed to find a decent price for a P3 service down at Town and Country Nissan in Truro, so once I order the fluids, filter and washer the zed will be booked in for that.


I have some ATE Super Blue fluid left from the Clio, does anyone have experience with that in there zeds? I have managed to get OEM coolant, oil filter and sump washer so I am now just waiting on oil and possibly brake fluid, depending on people's opinions of ATE!


Also, being as anal as I am, I ordered some clips for various plastic items as I noticed that the brake fluid reservoir surround was missing some.


Before:-

Excuse the dirty bay, I have been meaning to give it a good clean for a while

After:-

I will definitely sleep better tonight now

!


Comments and suggestions welcome.


Conor.​

 

[CPhillips93]

This weekend was the zed's first service of my ownership and unfortunately it had to be the big one - a P3!

As I have probably mentioned in here somewhere I really struggled to find somewhere to get it serviced; West End Motors in Bodmin wanted far too much money and we don't really have many independent specialist in Cornwall. As a last ditch attempt I thought I would give Town and Country Nissan in Truro a call and was very impressed. I spoke with Mat (for anyone reading this in Cornwall in need of a service!) who advised that if I provided all my own fluids they would charge £195, which I thought was very reasonable! In actual fact, it only took them 2 hours in the end which meant that I was only charged £156, even better

.

Unfortunately however it wasn't all good news. On their 'Visual Healthcheck' of the car they have noted that both the nearside front lower suspension tie arm is de-bonded and the rear exhaust joint is blowing. Happily the latter of those two is not too worrying, my 182 always used to be leaking

. However the suspension part is a bit of a worry, especially seeing as the service guys advised me that this bush was so bad that it was effectively resting on the subframe. I have posted this in the suspension section of the forum hopefully to get some advice as to what part(s) I may need and the difficulty of the job, as Town and Country have quoted me £385.42! I am going to try and get the car up to take a look myself either Thursday or next weekend just to size up what's going on.

Regardless, I am very happy with the service Town and Country provided, would definitely recommend them to anyone round here! Just a shame that they had to find broken parts, at least it gives me an excuse to get a nice new exhaust

I also managed to have a dig at fixing the gouge on the bumper. I ordered from Paints4U a small pot of Night Blue paint and lacquer which was more than enough!

A few pics of the damage before

As you can see I managed to do quite a number on it! But I thought that seeing it was quite low on the bumper and barely in sight when you are stood up I would have a go myself before I handed it over to the professionals.

So I masked up the area so I didn't ruin the rest of the paintwork

:-

And sanded with some 1200 grit:-

So that the area I was painting was ready for paint and little less gouged:-

The set you get from Paints4U for around £8 plus P&P:-

After a couple (probably too many!) coats of Night Blue:-

I didn't quite like the finish the brush left with the lacquer provided, so I just used some Halfrauds spray can lacquer I had spare. I left that over night on Friday and then Saturday had a bit of a wet sand/polish and this is how it's looking now:-

So as you can tell not the best job out there, but I thought for the sake of £8 and a weekend of my time it would be worth having a go before I let someone respray the bumper! The front bumper itself is quite stone chipped anyway and knowing my luck I bet I will manage to damage it again, so it's never going to be perfect! If I find it too annoying I may just have to purchase a splitter to cover it up

!

I have also managed to find time to spray my interior handles and panel just in front of the satnav that had suffered some damage... watch this space :thumbs:

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Conor.​

 

[CPhillips93]

So today I finally round to getting my freshly painted interior door handles/satnav insert.


As you may have realised by now I am very thorough and although most of you probably know how to remove these I thought I would post the step by step (give or take a few steps!) guide of how to get the buggers off

First I started with the passenger side handle, which requires some interior plastic removal tools like these - http://www.ebay.co.u...=item4871b99ec0 - these are so handy especially seeing how easy the interiors are to attract scratches, a 10mm socket, an extension and a ratchet socket wrench.


Firstly remove the silver insert on the upright handle revealing the two 10mm bolts here:-

And here:-

Which leaves you with this:-

Where you can use the plastic tool or whatever weapon of choice to lever the handle/armrest off. I didn't take any pictures of the removal of the driver's side handle or the satnav insert, as the drivers handle is literally a repeat of the above (mentioned in my very first post of this thread) and the satnav insert is removed by prising out with a credit card (mentioned in my aux hack post)!


I was then left with the two scratched handles and insert:-

To remove the window switches etc, there are several tabs attaching them to the handle like so:-

The easiest way I find to remove these are to use an old credit card to prise them off one by way, just take it easy as the tabs attached to the handle are often prone to snapping if you bend them too far open!

This then leaves you with some empty handles and your insert ready to be sanded (I used some 240 grit to start with) like so:-

To get the best possible finish I took the handles and insert all the way back to plastic as I probably would have found it difficult to get a good finish bearing in mind how deep the gouges are on the drivers handle. It will take a while but unfortunately prep is key with painting stuff like this, especially with plastic. Regardless of what colour you go foryou must use plastic primer otherwise the paint will simply react and cause a bad finish.


The plastics back to plastic!

In the 'booth' getting the first few coats of primer:-

Ideally once you have finished with the primer stage you should give the primer at least 24 hours (probably longer) to harden and cure before you start sanding ready for your chosen paint colour. I left my plastics 'baking' overnight in the shed

I went to work with some 1500 grit sandpaper, wet sanding the primer coat and applied an initial coat of satin black in my make shift booth:-

And after a couple coats they were looking like this:-

Again, you should leave the paint at least 24 hours if not more before you start sanding the final coat. I bought from Halfords satin black paint, but in hindsight I probably should have bought the matt finish as the satin came out a little more glossy than I was expecting. I thought I might be able to take a bit of the edge off so I wet sanded the plastics with some 2500 grit to take the edge off them a little and also to get a more smooth finish:-

Which as you can tell worked a bit:-

And did this to all of the plastics finishing off with a bit of rubbing compound leaving the painted plastics like so:-

I'm not 100% happy with the finish but the handles particularly are miles better than they were before, the scratches definitely cheapened the look of the interior. The handles will do for now until the OCD kicks in and I attempt them again, but they will do for now.


I have also managed to find the route out the cause of the suspension advisory on my service healthcheck and will be ordering the parts soon to cure that problem, shout out to ZMANALEX for his help

I am keeping an eye out on eBay and on the sales section on here for any exhausts that are going to rectify the leak. Ideally I would love to have a brand new Invidia system but unfortunately the budget doesn't permit that sort of spending

.


Anyway, I hope that you find this helpful/informative!


Comments and suggestions welcome.


Conor.​

 

[BIFCAIDS]

Great progress, the handles I'd have just bought from Nissan though.

 

[CPhillips93]

Great progress, the handles I'd have just bought from Nissan though.

Thanks [emoji106]

I doubt that I would have been able to buy the handles from Nissan for less than £100 and then they would have just been damaged the same again. Besides, I think it's much more satisfying doing the job yourself!

 

[CPhillips93]

Whiteline lower compression arm bush fitting


So those of you that have been following this thread or who have read it recently may know that the zed's recent P3 service flagged up two issues to be rectified with the car; passenger side compression arm bush had 'debonded' and the exhaust was leaking. Now the latter is not something that needs to be done immediately but it was always something that I wanted to change anyway so if anything it was a good excuse

.


However the compression arm bush definitely needed my immediate attention as for the last couple weeks the knocking was becoming unbearable, I really don't know how I didn't notice it before... must have been me listening to my music too loud

.


So after some discussions with Zmanalex and Ewen at Clark Motorsport on 350z-uk I decided it was probably best to go for some aftermarket polyurethane bushes. If I am going to change something may as well change it for something better! I went for the Whiteline bushes from Ewen (great service by the way!) as opposed to Superpro in the end as the Whiteline ones seemed to be an easier option as they are a 'push in' fit.


I got some time to fit them this weekend and basically followed the instructions in this guide - http://my350z.com/fo...ng-install.html


This package arrived:-

Which included 2 bushes (in halfs), 2 small washers, 2 large washers, 2 seating cones, 2 ball joint nuts and a sticker! I also purchased a set of split pins as it's also advised that you change the split pins on the ball joint (picked up a set of 150 from Toolstation for around £2.50).


First things first get the car up in the air and on stands. Once I had the car up the first thing to be removed is this plastic cover:-

Which is held on by 10mm bolts and two plastic pins. Once this is off the next item to be removed is the front underbrace. As mentioned in the above guide it's good practice to be liberal with the penetrant spray as I found the bushes were corroded to the stud/chassis. So after leaving the nuts soaking for a while I broke out the air impact wrench for the big 19mm nuts and the Makita impact driver for the smaller 14mm bolts on the frame.


Weapons of choice

and voila:-

Really heavy frame, make sure you avoid being underneath it when you remove the last nut/bolt!


Next step was to remove the split pin from the ball joint nut before removing the nut. Rather mucky nut:-

With that remove it was really just a matter of removing the 19mm nut. To stop the ball joint spinning in place I used a g clamp to push the ball joint into the seating cone like so:-

Genius idea right

? Again I used the air wrench for this one. So with this nut off and the frame off, both arms were able to be pryed off with the drivers side bush intact... the passengers side bush required a little motivation with some mole grips

:-

and the passenger side looking... well, worse for wear to say the least

Unbeknown to me this had caused some damage on both the arm and the frame:-

So regardless of the damage with the passenger side arm out first I cracked on with removing what was left of the bush which was the metal sleeve. After sawing carefully through the sleeve I punched it out:-

Leaving...

a nice gap for some nice new bushes

. The next bit was the easy bit, 'pressing' the new bushes in. My cousin has a fairly solid vice on his bench which we used as the ghetto press:-

Once the bush element of the kit was pressed in all that was left to do on the arm was to insert the metal sleeve through the middle of the bush. Plenty of copper grease was used on all of these parts as I didn't want anything to be squeaky or rubbing at all. Side by side of the OEM and Whiteline:-

The driver's side was a little more difficult due to the fact that the OEM bush was still intact but a drill and patience soon made short work of it! With both arms ready to be re-fit I took off the original seating cones that were still attached to both ball joints. These were quite hard to remove and unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the method but I used one of these pullers to remove it which can be picked up for about 20 quid:-

So the reassembly is just a reverse order of the removal. I followed the image below for all the torque settings of the nuts and bolts on the frame and also as a precaution used some thread lock. I also enlisted the help of my cousin to get the frame back on as it's such a pita for just one person.

Also, don't forget to replace the split pins after torquing up the new nut on the ball joint!


Some nice pictures of my nice new bushes!

No more knocking

! And surprisingly no noticeable difference in comfort/noise which I thought may have been affected by the difference in stiffness of the bushes. I now just need to get the car tracked just to ensure that the tracking isn't massively out of whack from having no bush to having a nice new one

. Would definitely recommend the polyurethane option to anyone out there with dodgy compression arms, very impressed so far!


Whilst I was under the car I noticed how bad the brakes are, particularly the rear discs - new brake pads, discs and braided lines next I think... any suggestions as to discs and pads?


So anyway, thank you for reading, comments and suggestions welcome!


Conor.​