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

she is looking crisp bud.

 

just keep taking pics ;)

Looking good si:),looks new.and yes love the black roof.

Funkysi did a thread on how to mod these Series 2 indicators somewhere.

 

This is the Z32.com writeup - "Method B" is the approach I took to do mine (minimizes the risk of scratching the front lense).

 

http://www.z32.com/clears.htm

Mmmm that tash, it's very black and very glossy, not sure Si and it makes it appear wider as well, the headlight inserts are grey, perhaps you could look at that colour and you could still clear coat it.

 

I had clear rear markers when I got mine, just didn't think they lit up as well with a red bulb but swapped them out for the red.

 

I like the front lip, not spotted that before, if I got one of those I'd be about 2 inch off the floor !!

 

And yes lose the amber cup in those indicators.

 

Finally, haha.....the number plate needs straightening and a white cap in the 9, unless it's a speed camera dodge :yes:.

I'm going a different route with the indicators, folks :)

 

Re the 'tache: as I said, I felt it needed to tie in with the rest of the paintwork or it would've looked very odd all on it's own. So I opted for gloss black. And it's definitely the same dimensions as it was when it was faded, horrible grey! :lol:

 

Got my spats refitted this afternoon and I have to say that having the proper ones on the back now makes a world of difference! Over the moon that I managed to find a pair! :thumbup1:

This morning... indicators modded! Big orange bowl now gone, insides tinted black and they look much better now! Thanks go to FunkySi for the idea in the first place :)

 

 

 

 

And all spats now refitted too. Much nicer to see the proper shape at the back end now - YAY for proper Shortie rear spats!! :biggrin:

 

 

:thumbup:

Nice, are you going to do the same with the fogs to match?

Nice, are you going to do the same with the fogs to match?

 

Probably...

It'll look good either way I think. As it is now gives it a UK spec look (which isn't a bad thing), a full tint adds continuity to the colour of the design, win win!

Still loads I need to do, Joel. Like get the interior swapped over!! :biggrin:

Looks great

 

What are the hybrid wipers?

 

I'm also jealous of the new scuttle, I'll have to add that to the list

The hybrid wipers are something that FunkySi discovered as an alternative to all the Aero wipers with the big attaching knuckles. They can be found here if you want to have a look.

 

And yeah, the new scuttles do make a considerable difference! :)

Ok, question time: what do you get at the end of literally years of planning, countless hours of hard work and a ludicrous amount of expenditure?

 

Well, if you're me... you get this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The interior is now all but complete!! :biggrin: Steering wheel needs a trim, as does the handbrake handle, but other than that... it's all done!

 

So the spec list now looks like this:

 

Recaro Speed seats (on rare factory Recaro rails) trimmed in Andrew Muirhead Sateen Virginia leather, with Red Ochre Alcantara centres, grey topstitching and grey embroidered "Recaro" logo. Brand new genuine Recaro bolsters all round.

 

Gear gaiter, handbrake gaiter and all three armrests trimmed in Andrew Muirhead Sateen Virginia leather (both solid and perforated) with grey topstitching.

 

All lower interior panels trimmed in Red Ochre Alcantara with grey topstitching. Doorcards have a custom-made line of piping on each one, made from perforated Andrew Muirhead Sateen Virginia leather.

 

Gearknob trimmed in Andrew Muirhead Sateen Black leather (solid and perforated) with dark red topstitching.

 

The transformation inside now the seats are complete is pretty staggering! In my opinion, it makes a fantastic contrast with the bright silver exterior.

 

Bring on the sunny weather!!!

Looks good mate, really like it!

 

Well done on the COTM aswell:thumbup1:

Bling....Stunning Si and will only get even better im sure as you find those little niggly bits to sort out.

Meantime mate well done.

It's certainly brightened up the driveway! :lol:

Just in nice time for Trentham and Lake Z too

Just in nice time for Trentham and Lake Z too

 

Yep. I wanted to have her looking loads better in time for the shows this year, mate :thumbup1:

Great work Si :thumbup: I love red interiors in silver and black cars.

Great work Si :thumbup: I love red interiors in silver and black cars.

 

It works really well against the bright silver exterior, Gaz :)

 

Bird and Harby were over last night and seemed to be admiring it really... ;)

Yeah, it's much better looking then the owner :tongue_smilie:

 

Does look really smart mate

WOW..... she is looking lovely now Si...... top work.... can't wait to see you both sometime this year.....

Cheers Russ :biggrin:

 

She went for a trip to Walworth Castle near Darlington on Sunday. Met up with some local mates and had quite the eyecatching convoy: my Zed, a Ferrari 355, a Nissan GTR, an R33 Skyline and a few other motors. :)

 

The seats are super-comfy now and the whole cabin's just such a nice place to be, especially on a lush sunny day! :thumbup:

Whilst I'm not a fan of red interiors, what you've done there looks remarkable, and top workmanship too. That seamlessly blends in as a high end OEM spec trim [emoji106]

Thanks, JP :biggrin:

 

Ok, story time! I've always liked interior trims that present a nice contrast to the exterior colour. For example, the very first retrim I ever did was on my first Celica. It was a nice red exterior, slightly darker than bright red, so I decided that ivory leather would look nice inside as a contrast:

 

 

When I then "upgraded" to my old SS-III Beams that was white, I quite fancied a red interior as the engine covers and wheel decals were red.

 

The leather I've used in the Shortie is Andrew Muirhead Sateen Virginia and I originally bought it for a customer's car. When it arrived though, I decided that I'd keep it for myself instead, and the plan was to retrim the white Celica's interior using it.

 

As it turned out, I never got around to doing that so the leather was simply stored away.

 

When I bought my first Zed a couple of years ago, I decided that the Muirhead leather would look nice against the black exterior so I got a far as making things like gaiters, etc but never found either the time or the motivation to trim the rest of the cabin.

 

So when I got the silver Shortie last year, I decided that a red interior could look pretty special so yet again planned to use the leather. But I changed my mind on one aspect...

 

The original plan, even with the white Celica, was to have solid bolsters and perforated centres. I kept that plan with the black Zed as well but I started thinking about minimising the perforated leather and using Alcantara instead. I just wanted to modernise the cabin a little and perhaps make it a little less "creaky" as well.

 

Finding a shade of Alcantara that either matched or worked well against the deep red leather was a whole other mission! It took me just over a year to find the shade I've used here, which is called Red Ochre.

 

So the end result is an interior that (in my opinion, anyway) isn't ludicrously "in your face" as it's quite a dark red. Even though it brightens up somewhat in the sunlight, it's still not a bright red. I'm genuinely not a fan of bright red interiors myself, so this was always going to be a bit of a gamble for me. Truth be told, when I got the new covers fitted to the driver's seat, I didn't actually like them! It was only when I got everything refitted in the car that it started to look how I imagined it would, and that made me happy!

 

The dark grey topstitching is another touch that helped me to keep things subtle. I thought silver thread would be too obvious!

 

I also bought all-new lower bolsters for the Recaros, just to make sure that everything looked as it should do. :)

 

And just to put it all into perspective: in materials alone (including the bolsters), retrimming the seats and interior panels have cost me just shy of £1k! Making pretty interiors can be a very expensive business...!! :thumbup: