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.

nice, is that my 99 front and lip :)

Hey guys

 

Just thought id drop a quick hello.

 

Been out of the country for nearly a year now, missing my zed.

 

Will be back in the uk for a few weeks next year so going to try to start stock piling some parts to finish her off.

 

Are the twinz rear bumpers easy to get hold of yet?

 

Started doing a few business trips to Tokyo recently so might be able to get some cool stuff over there to.

 

Any interesting projects been on the go recently?

Hi Dougal its good to hear from you again mate:thumbup1: There was a group buy on the Twinz kits back in June so its getting a bit easier to buy there stuff.

http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?177369-Twinz-Design-2014-Group-Buy&highlight=twinz+group+buy

If you can't wait for the preorder which won't see the part delivered until April 2015 (ish), twinchip are the EU dealer for the TwinZ gear and the type II rear bumper should be available to order. The type II version 2 will only be available through the preorder which has some slight different design accents (and hasn't appeared on twinchip website yet).

http://www.twinchip.com/index.php?info=p213_z32_twinz_design_2_seater_type_ii_rear_bumper.html

Hey all,

 

I've been back on the site quite a bit recently, it seems a little quieter than it used to be. Good to see there are still some familiar faces around though.

 

There are some cool projects- especially nice to see another vh beast around

 

I'm back in the Uk early May for a few weeks and I'm putting aside a good bit of time to hopefully get the zed up and running eventually.

 

So far as far as I can remember the jobs are:

 

Fit cam belt- full kit going on order

Fit new engine harness. - going to order an engine specialist one from the U.S., has anyone tried one?

Fit upper plenum,injectors,water bypass etc- new hoses going on order

Set up fuel lines- I have some AN fittings to go on

Clean injectors and fit new seals

Fit new battery- mounting behind pas anger seat

Remove the front bumper and finish wiring I left in a hurry, then refit properly.

Fit fuel filler neck- and new mocol filler

Put in fuel

Shout at car until it decides to run

Fix the enviable leaks ets

Oh- put in some oil and a filter and some water!

 

After that I have to fit up the rear caliber, add fluid and bleed them

Rebuild clutch master and slave, fit new braded line and then fill

Free off shifter linkage- the short shifter is one of the only bits I skimped out on, maybe I shouldn't have!

Then I need to lift it up and check that every single bolt is done up and the wheels are pointing in roughly the right direction.

Fit new front wheel bearing

Set up ride height

Fit some spacers so it sits rights and clears the calliper so.

Get a new screen fitted

Fit the rest of the exterior trim- window bottoms and windscreen

 

I guess after that lot it will be just about ready to run and maybe even MOT

 

Sorry for the epic list, it's usefull to see it all and visualise what I need to do.

 

So does anyone think I'll get it done in a week?

 

Oh and I've tried to find out if the twins group buy is still on, I've left a message on the thread but no updates recently

Welcome back,

 

That is an epic list indeed. As for the 'done in a week' bit, Maybe if you had more than one pair of hands and every part you need is already with you. Dont want to miss the simple things when your in a hurry though.

 

Really looking forward to some more pics of this!

Well I managed to get back to the UK and got a spare week to work on the car so I thought I would share some of the progress

 

The first thing I did was pick up a used set of nismo lmgt4s

 

They are 19 x 8.5 front et25 19 x 9.5 rear et30. The fitment is going to be about perfect, however they are currently running the wrong tyres (275/35 r19 all round) and my arches are std so I have had to add a load of camber to the rear and the front has no clearance.

 

Anyway here are a few pics

 

 

 

 

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Well I managed to get back to the UK and got a spare week to work on the car so I thought I would share some of the progress

 

The first thing I did was pick up a used set of nismo lmgt4s

 

They are 19 x 8.5 front et25 19 x 9.5 rear et30. The fitment is going to be about perfect, however they are currently running the wrong tyres (275/35 r19 all round) and my arches are std so I have had to add a load of camber to the rear and the front has no clearance.

 

Anyway here are a few pics

 

 

 

 

The main focus for me was to get the engine up and running as it has not run since it was pulled around 5 years ago. Before I get into details of that I thought I'd share a few other details, mostly the interior which is 90% done now.

 

These are factory recaros, on the drivers side I have switched the centre material to alcantara to match the rest of my trim. The passengers side still needs doing and both sides could do with a new outer bolster on the base

 

 

I may well send both seats off to mondo as I'm not 100% happy with my effort. You can see my retro Nardil steering wheel which is a good colour match in person

 

 

 

And door cards

 

 

In this last picture you cand see my relocated gel battery along with more of the alcantara trim

The battery is absolutely tiny and fits in nicely behind the passenger seat. This moves a lot of weight from the front of the car, really cleans up the engine bay(which is a big part of my build) and prevents me from having a battery box in the boot

 

 

The power is run forward with some very heavy duty cable from an e36 bmw and I also use the junction box from that car to give me a jump point and allows me to use part of the old loom. It passes through the bulkhead where the old air con lines used to run

Ok on to the engine

 

Part 1- cambelt

 

The engine is about the only part of the car I havnt completly rebuild, the main reason for this is that it just hasn't needed it. Before it was pulled it had good compression and apart from some noisy idlers was in great Heath. Before reinstalling I pulled the engine down to a bare long block to give it a good clean and to replace all of the seals and gaskets etc. so stage 1 of the rebuild involves fitting the rest of the 120k cam belt kit

 

New lower gear and guides

 

New tensioner painted

 

 

All marks lined up

 

 

 

 

Cam belt covers shaved and painted

 

 

And belt finally fitted- I tensioned it to the specs but I seem to have some noise so I suspect it may be too tight. More on that later

 

 

In these pics there are still a lot of dirty parts on the engine

More updates to come when I sort out the pictures

 

Here is a little teaser

 

Love it!! Not long now Pete.

I'll apologise for not wanting to read through 216 posts - has this really been a 5-year restoration? Dedication!

My word those wheels are gorgeous. Where did you find them old girls hiding? Please let me know first if you ever want to sell them.

I'll apologise for not wanting to read through 216 posts - has this really been a 5-year restoration? Dedication!

 

Grab a tea/beer/Guinness/wine and have a read through it all bud. It's worth it :cool2:

My word those wheels are gorgeous. Where did you find them old girls hiding? Please let me know first if you ever want to sell them.

 

Thanks mate, they actually look much better in person but could do with a refurb. I've been after a set for many years. They were an option on the 350z (amongst other figments) and that is where these came from. I have just been waiting for a set to come up and had the cash ready so I was able to snap them up. They are very similar to yours really mate, in fact it was looking at yours that really inspired me to go ahead with these.

I was a little unsure if I could get away with 19s on a shortie but I think with this design it's just about right.

 

Obviously I'll let you know if I ever sell, however I'm hoping that these are the last set of wheels for the car.

Love it!! Not long now Pete.

 

Thanks for the usual encouragement :thumbup1:

 

Now when are you going to get yourself back in one?

Grab a tea/beer/Guinness/wine and have a read through it all bud. It's worth it :cool2:

 

I agree with that

I have just finished reading this whole thread myself. I just wish I had the skills, money and place to do such a build

well done !

Ok so the first update for me today is the fuel rail.

 

My aim is to go for a full on show engine bay while still keeping great performance and reliability. One major part of tidying up the plenum is the fuel system. The fpr and damper sit right on top of the plenum plus the hoses run across the top. I wanted them to be all around the back.

 

The easiest solution would be to buy a set of 300degree rails. I see three problems with this. The most obvious is cost, I would need to spend the best part of 1k on this setup with no real gain except future upgradability.

 

In addition I'm not sure they are the best solution from a heat point of view.

 

Third and final issue is that I like to make things myself, so buying these would be cheating.

 

So- the plan was-

 

Buy two an-6 fittings, turn them down to fit inside the fuel rail, bore out the fuel rails and remove the hose fittings, braze the two together.

 

After a few issues with the brazing here are the results. I ultra sonically cleaned my old injectors, the new rails and refitted with a new set of o-rings and an-6 fittings (the red ones are just cheap temporary ones)

 

 

For the crossover section I used the standard fittings, I just used some high quality hose and some neat hose clamps. The rails are finished in an acid etch satin black that is supposed to replicate an Oem finish. I was very pleased with the results. The rails are sitting in a repainted lower plenum with new seals and a new ground strap.

 

 

The hoses then pass along the back and out to a universal fpr. I think this will get replaced by a smaller, blacker unit in the future. For now it will do.

 

 

The feed and return then head down to the chassis rail to the rigid pipes

 

 

Here is the position along with the fuel lines before I trimmed them up

 

 

And here you can see the adaptors to the hardline

 

 

 

I'm very happy with the results, apart from the fpr. In the future if I want to go crazy with the power mods I will have a setup that is very easy to upgrade. For the moment there is no need for a dual feed etc.

 

Anyone have any further ideas?

Next up is the wire tuck/new loom

 

My original intentions were to rework my existing loom and replace all of the old connectors.

 

However the cost of this ends up adding up and you still end up reusing old wires.

 

In the end I ordered up a new loom from wiring specialists, I comes with some neat features like a separate detachable injector loom and a switched positive feed. N the future if I want to change to new style injectors I can just order up a new sub loom.

 

One thing to note with the loom is that it has multiple connectors to handle different model years for things such as the cas and air con.

They advise that the unwanted connectors are trimmed off and the loose wires taped up. There is also only an option for a series 2 ptu.

 

Here is the loom, at this point I had already removed a large number of connectors

 

 

To get to this point I stripped out all connectors for

 

Aiv

Air con

Egr

Boost solenoids

Auto trans (the loom is common to both)

Plus a few more I'm sure I have forgotten

 

 

I also rerouted all wires to run under the plenum, in particular this applies to the coil packs, cas, temp sensors and throttle

 

Here is the cas

 

 

 

 

 

The temp sensors popping out behing the cam belt cover

 

 

 

Throttle sensor connections- you can also see the loom heading down to the chassis rail

 

 

Here is the first layout for the drivers side coil packs

 

 

 

And the final position, the wires on the right side go to the cas and temp sensors

 

 

And finally the coil pack connectors popping through the plenum

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the same time obviously I replaced the dett sensor cable, random picture below. All connectors were corrosion proffed with dielectric grease

 

 

 

Enjoy

Awesome build bud, really appreciate the depth of the restoration. Keep up the good work!

Beautiful standard of work that.

Gonna insulate the looms? or would ghe heat wrap make it untidy? May add a nice silver/ grey effect!

Beautiful standard of work that.

 

Ditto!

 

Fantastic.:bow:

Gonna insulate the looms? or would ghe heat wrap make it untidy? May add a nice silver/ grey effect!

 

The looms that run under the plenum are quite well wrapped. I had thought about putting heat sleeve on them but it would show up more plus it would mean pulling all of the connectors off. I can keep an eye on them easily, particularly as I can have the plenum off in around 15 mins due to all of the deletes :biggrin:

 

Thanks for all the kind comments guys

Ok guys I'm sure you have already seen lots of pics but I thought I would add an update on the plenum and a few other bits

 

Here is the plenum after cutting off all of the bosses etc I won't be using. I will also be delegating the pcv system, egr and most of the vacuume lines except the boost sensor and fpr.

 

 

Here it is back from the powder coaters. It's a textured black finish. As you can tell I'm not a fan of bling and im going for a subtle and simplified look. You can also see one of the rebuilt throttle bodies

 

 

 

A subtle mod to go with all of the stainless fittings, I converted the balance bar to use just studs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other bits ready to go

 

 

 

 

Painted throttle cover

 

 

 

And here are some fitted pics