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

I am not entirely sure how the electric backs work on the Z seats. Wouldn't it be a case of stripping both seats to the frames, cutting out the motor and support and welding it to the Recaro backing?

I am not entirely sure how the electric backs work on the Z seats. Wouldn't it be a case of stripping both seats to the frames, cutting out the motor and support and welding it to the Recaro backing?

 

Nope. Because the Speeds recline using a knob that is attached to one end of a metal bar that runs between both sides of the backrest. The motor would have to attach to that somehow.

 

Also the Recaro shell is incredibly shallow - it wouldn't be able to physically accomodate the motor without significant changes to it's structure and, because of that, it's look.

 

The OEM Zed seat has a cavity at the rear which houses the motor and associated wiring loom. There'd need to be a similar cavity within the Recaro seat. But the Recaro upright shell is nothing more than a piece of pressed steel with no provision whatsoever to house motors or anything.

 

There'd need to be an "extension" for want of a better word attached to the back of the seat shell, which would completely alter the look and shape of the seat.

 

Sorry!

Speeds are much easier to retrim than OEM Zed seats, Pete. I'd happily retrim Recaro seats all day every day as they're such a well-made seat.

 

Add to that the fact that replacement foam is readily available and it's super-easy to get an absolutely mint pair of seats :)

 

Unlike our next caller.....

 

 

 

Hypothetically speaking: lots of hard work! And even then, it wouldn't be exactly as you want it...

 

The best I think you could hope for would be to have electric movement (forwards and backwards) for the seat base. Nissan's motors wouldn't be easily compatible with the Recaro backrest adjustment, if at all, so you'd still have to rely on the manual wheel for that.

 

The raising and lowering function should still work on the driver's base but I'd expect the hybrid seat to sit a few inches higher than it normally would afterwards due to the dimensions of the Nissan rail and motor assembly.

 

Best person to speak to is Gibster TT as, if memory serves, his Corbeau recliners have had the Nissan electric rails fitted to them.

 

 

Good to know Si. I've got a very particular look I'm after, I'll have to get the sketch book out. I won't fill up you build thread, a pm will be heading your way some time soon

Nope. Because the Speeds recline using a knob that is attached to one end of a metal bar that runs between both sides of the backrest. The motor would have to attach to that somehow.

 

Also the Recaro shell is incredibly shallow - it wouldn't be able to physically accomodate the motor without significant changes to it's structure and, because of that, it's look.

 

The OEM Zed seat has a cavity at the rear which houses the motor and associated wiring loom. There'd need to be a similar cavity within the Recaro seat. But the Recaro upright shell is nothing more than a piece of pressed steel with no provision whatsoever to house motors or anything.

 

There'd need to be an "extension" for want of a better word attached to the back of the seat shell, which would completely alter the look and shape of the seat.

 

Sorry!

 

Hmmmm. Thanks for the info; that's that idea well and truly flushed down the toilet!

Good to know Si. I've got a very particular look I'm after, I'll have to get the sketch book out. I won't fill up you build thread, a pm will be heading your way some time soon

 

I look forward to receiving it, Pete :thumbup1:

 

Hmmmm. Thanks for the info; that's that idea well and truly flushed down the toilet!

 

Your only really viable option (in my eyes, at least) would be to source a pair of electric Recaro seats as it's then simply a matter of making the OEM controls work with Recaro's loom. But you'd probably just use the Recaro controls anyway.

 

As I said, electric runners isn't too much of a headache, but I honestly can't imagine a straightforward or, perhaps more importantly, an aesthetically pleasing way to graft the Nissan upright motor to a Recaro Speed seat.

 

Bin the electrics, source a pair of Z32 Recaro frames and job's done. Honestly, how often do you actually adjust your seats anyway...? :)

 

Bin the electrics, source a pair of Z32 Recaro frames and job's done. Honestly, how often do you actually adjust your seats anyway...? :)

 

All the time! The electric seats stay I'm afraid - It's a GT, I want all the bells and whistles to remain! :)

50% of an update today - I've just finished changing all the illumination and resistors in my new S2 climate control pod (thanks, Baz) and refitted it. :) It now lights up in red, with white telltales :)

 

Just the ECU to change out now. Reading up on it, it sounds like fun (not)!

Further to the above post, I've just spent the last couple of hours swapping out the climate control ECU for the S2 one. That was fun (not at all)!

 

Driver's seat out, dash panels off, heater ducting out... and there was still no room to get at anything, even with me laid on my back in the footwell. But it's all done now and, thankfully, everything works as it should do :)

 

I now have complete control of where the air is being directed and a 4-stage fan speed :thumbup1:

 

A successful morning :)

Here's a job that's been niggling me for months and months now, that I finally decided to get sorted: the handbrake handle.

 

Plastic, tatty, scuffed... just an eyesore, really. :( So this morning, I changed it to this:

 

 

 

 

 

Solid and perforated Andrew Muirhead Sateen Black leather - gorgeous stuff :) I added the French seam on the top edge solely for decoration, then hand-stitched the rest.

 

It looks and feels infinitely better than it did and, thankfully, is no longer letting the rest of the cabin down :thumbup1:

Looks great Si :thumbup1: Did it take long to do?

About 2.5 hours, plus a bit to fit the new assembly into the car.

 

:)

About 2.5 hours, plus a bit to fit the new assembly into the car.

 

:)

 

Fast turn around. :)

Fast turn around. :)

 

Takes about the same amount of time to trim that a gearknob does. Which means my hourly rate is rubbish! :lol:

 

Solid and perforated Andrew Muirhead Sateen Black leather - gorgeous stuff :) I added the French seam on the top edge solely for decoration, then hand-stitched the rest.

 

It looks and feels infinitely better than it did and, thankfully, is no longer letting the rest of the cabin down :thumbup1:

 

Très jolie Simon!

Off topic a bit but Si could you check your emails plz :)

So, Mondo made the trip across to Lancashire yesterday (via Huddersfield) for some of Andy's hospitality and workmanship :)

 

I'd already "smoked" the insides of my JDM indicators to help them blend in with my gloss black 'tache, but this then meant that the foglights were pretty prominent in their chromeness. A look reminiscent of a UK-spec Zed, someone said.

 

But I wanted full stealth on the front end, so me and Andy put our heads together and came up with these:

 

 

 

 

The full internals of the foglight have been sprayed gloss black (reflector and fog bulb removed), new lenses and side sections, and all secured with black silicone. The new internals comprise of a black-painted board with 6 super-bright LEDs mounted in each unit. So, as you can see, the entire thing just looks dark and blends in very nicely with the black 'tache and the smoked indicator units :D

 

But! When you turn the sidelights on....

 

 

 

 

 

These are seriously bright and, frankly, look absolutely sensational! They really (in my opinion, anyway) update the front end of this car and don't look like any of those stick-on DRLs that you can get off eBay. Everything just looks factory, especially as the foglight lens diffuses things just enough that the LEDs are all but invisible when switched off, then hit the lights and BAM! - a nice bright white light that isn't dazzling to other drivers. :thumbup1:

 

I love 'em. Happy Mondo!

I like those Si, looks like another thing to add to my list when I visit Andy next time

They do look good Si and well done Andy :thumbup1:

Can you write up a how to guide along with what you bought and where from? Looks great!

Can you write up a how to guide along with what you bought and where from? Looks great!

 

No write-up needed - just click here for a statement from the man who built them! :thumbup1:

Car is looking Grrreat Simon [emoji106]

All my new seals, pistons and clips were delivered this afternoon for my brake caliper rebuild :D

So I'm now accumulating parts for a few jobs that I'll be tackling over the winter. This will hopefully include refreshing the interior, but certainly the brakes, Hicas, rear subframe and wheels should be seeing some nice updates and changes over the next few months. :)

 

I foresee a couple of days on Lee Dent's lift in the not-too-distant future!

Happy Mondo is happy this morning! :biggrin:

 

As you might remember, I hunted for ages to try and find a pair of rear SWB spats. After a couple of false starts, I managed to come across a pair on eBay so I snapped them up. One of them, sadly, was carrying a little bit of damage (2" split on the underside and damage to the top mounting hole) but I bought them anyway as they come up for sale so infrequently and I just had to have the proper ones for my Shortie.

 

The damage was repaired and then I had them prepped and sprayed when the full respray was done and that was that. You couldn't really see the issues but I knew they were there. And it always niggled me... :(

 

So imagine my delight when these bad boys landed about 15 minutes ago:

 

 

 

 

Proper OEM Shortie spats in absolutely superb condition! Not a mark or a crack or a split anywhere. :)

 

It seems Facebook has it's uses after all as that's where I found them for sale. So now I need to get them prepped, painted and lacquered, then fitted. And then decide whether to keep the other pair as spares or sell them to another Shortie owner so they can have the right stuff on the back of their car :thumbup1:

 

Happy Wednesday! :biggrin:

And then decide whether to keep the other pair as spares or sell them to another Shortie owner so they can have the right stuff on the back of their car :thumbup1:

 

Alright.........i see what you've done there :xxx:, the LWB ones i have on the rear are not eating me up, in fact nobody will realize they're the wrong ones so let's keep it quiet from now on please......sssssshhhhhh !!