Yesterday saw me head down to Kent to pick up my new Shortie! :D I got on the motorway to come back home about 4pm.

 

At 9pm, I was safely tucked away... on the hard shoulder of the A1(M) near York with a grand total of 1 wheelnut holding my rear passenger wheel on!!! The other 4 studs decided to shear off while I was in the outside lane - there was an almighty bang, the back-end of the car went completely loose so I had no choice but to dive for the shoulder! :(

 

The recovery truck arrived at 11pm and I slowly edged my new tripod onto the flatbed, before we headed off back to mine.

 

Spoke to Mr F this morning and he's ordered me 10 new rear studs, so my new car is currently undrivable. Seems it had cheap slot-on spacers on the back, no spigot rings and the end result was 4 wheelstuds missing.

 

Gotta love Zeds, eh...?!

Edited December 4, 201411 yr by Mondo

looks wicked mate, mine need doing too. I'm not an oval fan which mine has. Very dated IMHO.

Finally! I have some more suitable tailpipes :biggrin:

 

3" slash-cut, inwardly rolled... I really should've opted for these in the first place. Still, lesson learned and they're changed now so that makes me happy :)

 

Collecting the newly-painted calipers tomorrow at some point and they should be fitted in time for the NEC. As should my interior.....

 

Nice job matey:thumbup: fire a a few pics further back from the car, they look really well from all angles:thumbup:

Nice OEM-look tail pipes :)

I just had to get rid of those 4" spud-cannons. The biggest problem wasn't the size - it was the fact that they stuck out a little too far and the straight-cut ends gave them the appearance of protruding even further than they actually did.

 

These are much nicer and, I think, suit the car well. :thumbup:

Finally! I have some more suitable tailpipes

 

Not sure they're long enough now :tongue_smilie:.

Not sure they're long enough now :tongue_smilie:.

 

Shurrup......

You will have the whole of Thursday afternoon to do any last minute cleans and polishes once on the stand, apart from when we keep moving the cars around to get the right layout :lol:

You will have the whole of Thursday afternoon to do any last minute cleans and polishes once on the stand, apart from when we keep moving the cars around to get the right layout :lol:

 

Are you suggesting that she's... filthy...? :blink:

You will have the whole of Thursday afternoon to do any last minute cleans and polishes once on the stand, apart from when we keep moving the cars around to get the right layout :lol:

 

I'll probably be making use of every last minute of that day haha! I'm even bringing the DAS6 this year knowing that we're near a wall so will likely have some cheeky power!

^^^^^ I'm soooo out of my depth here.....

So today, this happened:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice to see the old girls looking a bit better in Candy Red, and infinitely better than the tatty gold colour that they were! :biggrin:

Very nice Si.....

 

......And since I have got red callipers on the AMG, I have come to like the idea and might paint the Zed's red too.....:thumbup:

Thanks, Rich. :)

 

As with the current caliper setup (which is also candy red), the idea was to break up the exterior as it's so very silver and grey. So the splashes of colour from the calipers and the wheel badges help to liven it all up a little.

 

I know there are those who hate and detest coloured calipers but I simply refer back to the fact that it's my Zed :thumbup1:

They look great Si.

They're looking "Bloody marvellous" matey!! :rockon:

In other news... I've actually finished building the new covers for the seats!!

 

Hopefully I'll get them fitted tomorrow. Might put some pics up from the NEC or something.... ;)

Really? No comments on the Celica in the background? :lol:

Brembos should be red. No arguments there.

Today is seat day. But I have to do it with the added wrinkle (no pun intended) of having a plasterer here to make the kitchen look presentable again.

 

So juggling his likely need for a gazillion cups of tea and trying to sort my seats out and trying to keep a rein on the two hounds suggests that it's going to be an interesting kind of a day.... :blink:

Well, that's one done:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the design is now a little different from Recaro's original. I just wanted them to stand out a little more than they did, without going too far and veering too wildly from the source design.

 

For the centres, I actually took a design cue from Aston Martin and I think the vertical seam (rather than it being a simple pleat) alters the look just enough. The Alcantara inserts on the inner bolsters were a serious labour of love, but they help to expand the centre cushions outwards and (hopefully) make the transition from the Alcantara to the leather a little less blunt. :)

 

And I changed all the topstitching for silver; partly to tie in with the exterior colour and partly to give it a little more punch against the dark red leather.

 

I like it. I like it a lot! :biggrin:

Nice one Si :)

Very nice! They are subtle and very high end.

Very nice! Good work Si!!

Well, with the best will in the world, there's no way I'm going to get all the relevant parts of the interior trimmed before I have to leave for Birmingham. Which is a shame as I really wanted to have it all (re)done, but events today have devoured a lot of time and I also still need to get the front brakes swapped out. Oh yeah, and thoroughly clean the whole car too!

 

But at least the seats will be done, which is the most important part of the revamp. Everything else is really just me being a bit fussy...

 

As I said, things have happened today that have taken up a lot of time so I'll get the driver's seat done tomorrow :)

Loving the seats Si and the stitching looks great.:thumbup1: