for anyone who is interested here are a few snaps of where im up to on my restoration/customisation. ive mainly focused on the engine bay as that is what im doing at the moment

 

engine bay was taken back to bare metal, this is just about the last of it

 

 

pas pot has been moved to here

 

 

to here, hicas has been removed, inner wing deseamed/smoothed. all holes have been welded up (except a few that i still need)

 

 

same goes for this area too, there will be nothing here except the brake servo/clutch master cylinder

 

 

Alot of work has gone on in this area, the battery tray has been removed which revealed a few holes where the battery had leaked, the upper suspension mounting had also had a bit of a bash at some time and had distorted the reinforced panel. i cut out the whole panel in this area and replaced it with one cut out of my breaker. all spot welds drilled out etc and welded back to look factory-also checked to correct chassis dims. you can see which panel i mean as its red (weld through etch primer)

 

 

same goes for the passanger side, i have replaced the headlamp pod aswell, it had been repaired to a good standard but i was not happy, it would appear my breaker had a bad bump (bent the chassis rail) but they had replaced the headlamp pod with a new nissan item so this was grafted onto my car aswell. all looks perfect now. the fusebox will go under the nose panel on the inside of the chassis leg opposite the pas pot

 

 

 

both chassis rails have been given the smooth treatment too

 

 

fuel filter has been moved down here where all the aiv stuff used to live, the stock fuel lines have been tweaked to pop up under the chassis rail where you can just see the little notch. the fuel lines will then go up through the panel above (where battery used to be). ill use a jic bulkhead fitting here so in the engine bay i will have aeroquip type braided hoses with propper connectors in stealth black onto an adapted fuel pipe.

 

 

tomorrow i will spray the bay in a final coat of etch, then seam seal a few bits. might even get on to giving it a coat of 2k high build. Colour will be pure gloss black. im going for a very stripped out look in the bay, no wires showing and nothing but the engine to see. colour scheme will be stricktly black and silver/chrome/pollished aluminium.

 

hope you enjoy.

All my other bits arrived today so here are some pics

 

99 spec centre panel

 

 

And together with the rear lights

 

 

New oem gear knob

 

New rear parcel shelf

 

I was very surprised to still be able to get this so snapped it up as my current one is not up to the std I'm hoping for inside

 

 

 

Some odds and sods

Door handle surrounds

Rear sun blind clips as one of mine has broken

Stereo bezel screw cover clips (no more double sided tape)

Perspex strip clips

Cigarette lighter surround (the bulb holder has broken on mine)

New shifter bushes

Oil pressure sender plug

 

Final bits are a couple of z spec bolt kits

 

My timing belt cover bolts are not in the best condition and stand out like a sore thumb on my painted cover. Also the rubber washers that sit behind them are very scruffy.

 

Maybe I'm going a little too far but this kit replaces all of the bolts (I also have some missing) with the correct shoulder bolts. They are very nicely machined in stainless and have the optional poly washers which come in multiple colours. In this case I went for the very exciting black colour.

I also have a new set of plenum bolts with caps (optional throttle cover special bolt)

 

Also in the picture is the throttle spring washer kit as mine like most fell apart when I rebuilt them

 

Very nice, is some of that from the JDM Planet place you mentioned? Will order some things myself if you're happy with them, did the shipping take long?

Very nice, is some of that from the JDM Planet place you mentioned? Will order some things myself if you're happy with them, did the shipping take long?

 

Yes mate, just the shifter. No complaints at all, the price was very good, the postage was cheap and quick and the product was brand new oem so I would totally recommend them. They also take PayPal which is great as buying things from Japan can be a pain

 

The rest of the stuff came from z1 which seems to be a lot better if you choose to FedEx instead of the usps option.

Ok a few more updates of some new oem bit

 

New ashtray

 

 

New centre console

 

New cubby hole

 

 

And a new washer jet junction/ clip- many thanks to funkysi for this:thumbup1:

 

And a few other bits

 

Some chrome interior handles

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]89599[/ATTACH]

 

And a new Z1 air filter kit

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]89600[/ATTACH]

 

I also have a set of clear side repeaters on the way to replace the ageing carrots. I guess everyone has these, they are the std eBay jobbies

Nice to see new parts still going into our Z's Dougal :thumbup1:

Well I'm back in the UK now for a week with 1 intention- get the 300 on the road

 

So far I have

 

Replaced cylinder 5 injector which was causing a miss fire

Stripped the cam belt covers off again to chase a whining noise- still not solved

Bleed all the brakes and clutch- they work!!

Bone a boost leak test- now better

Fitted my new hid kit

Fitted oem shifter with new bushes and new gear knob

Fitted new centre console

 

I have a new windscreen being fitted Wednesday and some new tyres to go on

 

Today I'm hoping to get the engine running spot on, I need to do a temporary Earth on the neutral switch pin 44 which should help me bring my idle down, set timing and chech a few other bits.

 

Mot should hopefully happen Thursday

 

I try to post some pics as progress is made.

Whining noise could be a noisy bearing on the alternator mate or even the power steering pump.

Or gearbox in my case, yet it seems to be benign.

Thanks for the advice guys but it's defiantly the cam belt, quite noisy too. It's a shame as the engine is running great apart from that.

 

I'll get some pics up tomorrow of the rest of the progress, it's starting to look good

Love it :D One of my favourite projects :)

Interior finished off today including re routing the power cable as I have a mid mounted battery

 

 

All new centre console bits- leather arm rest and gaiters, centre console, ashtray cubby hole and gearknob

 

It's amazing how nice brand new stuff feels in comparison to the old stuff

 

 

Gear leaver returned to stock with new oem knob, the weight is spot on, not sure why I wanted a short shifter.

 

 

Finally a quick pic of the engine all sorted, except noise.

 

 

Also got some correct size tyres mounted today

For tomorrow I have a new screen being fitted and should also get it down on its wheels.

 

The mot is booked for Friday at 2!

Good luck on Friday mate :clover:

Good luck on Friday mate :clover:

 

Ditto,

Good luck on the MOT. Lovely car matey:thumbup:

Thanks guys

 

Got the screen fitted today and sorted out a few more jobs

 

The good news is that after taking the cam belt covers off for the third time this week I have traced the noise. Turns out the lover cam belt cover has been bent, I'm not sure how someone managed it. Because I'm now running without an air con pump, the cover is not quite so well supported. This allows the belt to rub ever so slightly on the cover causing a whining noise. A bit of fiddling with the cover and all is now good and I'm very relived.

 

I also tracked down the final problem with the running, I couldn't bring the idle down quite enough plus removing the act connection didn't change anything. Removing the idle valve and giving it a good clean has now resulted in a perfect idle.

 

Here is a screen shot from data scan . Can someone confirm that I have everything correct?

 

Tomorrow I should refit the front bumper and may well be my first ever drive in the z

Looks virtually spot on mate, i would bring the AAC percentage down to 15, for a tad headroom, but you probably wont notice a great deal of difference in real terms :thumbup1:

As above, looks great.

 

You may find that as the temperature creeps up a tad more that the AAC may just drop 1 or 2 points.

 

What version of Data Scan are you using by the way? I like the lay out.

It passed!!!

It passed!!!

 

:clap::dance:

It passed!!!

 

Excellent news, fella! :thumbup:

I'll get some more pics up soon but here are a few from yesterday, encountered a running problem after the drive home, the engine is hunting badly and has no power. After a bit of digging I think I have pinned this down to a massive boost leak, I've either popped a hose off or have a broken intercooler. I'll have to get a few bits off to find out. The passenger intercooler is not in a good shape anyway and was on my list to replace in the future, I hope I can patch it up for the time being