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

God I love your interior. I can't help but think that cup holder would be really useful in an auto, but not so much in a manual!

 

I had a cup holder in my LWB Auto and it was unusable even in an auto. Took it out in the end.

Looks fantastic

 

I really like the detail of the slightly smoked fogs. I will have to copy that off you :-)

 

The interior is top notch as always, where is the cup holder from?

 

God I love your interior. I can't help but think that cup holder would be really useful in an auto, but not so much in a manual!

 

Thanks, guys :)

 

The cupholder is actually surprisingly useful, for me anyway. A can of Coke or whatever fits perfectly in there and doesn't protrude so far as to get in the way of the gearchange badly.

 

It's not the ideal place for one, granted, but it's better than not having one. I got it off eBay (from the US) but I haven't seen them advertised for ages now...

 

As for my interior, I'm in a bit of a quandary! The current seat trim was a serious rush job, just so I could actually have them finished, so there are a couple of areas that need some attention fitment-wise. I also want to change all the topstitching for silver grey, which means trimming everything from scratch.

 

That's not so much of a problem as I have everything here to do so (aside from time, of course) but I'm debating changing the designs a little, to make the seats a little less generic... but I don't want to go too far and spoil the overall effect...

 

Decisions decisions!

Looks like I'll be having a couple of days in Bristol next month. :)

 

I'm booked in with Infinity on June 8th to have my 3" downpipes fitted and a full 3" exhaust fabricated and fitted. So it made sense to book in with Jimmer for the day before to get my chassis stripped and sealed!

 

It's going to be a very expensive couple of days, but it'll definitely be worthwhile! :thumbup1:

That's a good looking motor si :)

That's a good looking motor si :)

 

Thanks Graham :biggrin:

 

I've also decided that I'm going to have a couple of little niggles tidied up before things like Beaulieu (sp?) and the AGM, so the front lip will be going off to be repaired and repainted, and I'll also get my replacement immaculate rear spats painted in the correct colour too. :)

 

Then, all being well, it'll be time to start thinking about the turbos....!!

Look forward to seeing the pipes, what outlets have you gone for, quads?

Look forward to seeing the pipes, what outlets have you gone for, quads?

 

Well, I keep changing my mind!

 

My original plan was to get them to replicate the look of the Veilside Evolution system.

 

But then I was offered a Veilside system recently for a very good price, only it was for the LWB so would've required extensive modification to fit mine. I don't care if it's sacrilege to cut one up or not - the only thing that stopped me getting it was the cost of having it modified to fit. :(

 

Then I thought that even emulating that system wouldn't look all that different to what I currently have fitted, so it was back to the drawing board!

 

I haven't completely made my mind up yet, so I think the best thing is to have a look at their selection of tailpipe options and go from there. I've given Infinity an idea of what I fancy, but nothing's set in stone yet. Apart from having a full 3" system with an X-pipe :thumbup1:

You want something that's refined Si. Too little baffle and they'll sound raspy and will annoy the hell out of you. Infinity are good, there was a guy in at Jim's who wanted his original system replaced with something that looked similar and to be very quiet. What was given back looked and sounded great. Slightly larger than stock with a slight burble, so they can create pretty much whatever you want.

You want something that's refined Si. Too little baffle and they'll sound raspy and will annoy the hell out of you. Infinity are good, there was a guy in at Jim's who wanted his original system replaced with something that looked similar and to be very quiet. What was given back looked and sounded great. Slightly larger than stock with a slight burble, so they can create pretty much whatever you want.

 

In all honesty, something with a similar sound to what I have now will do me nicely. Of course, the 3" pipework all the way through is going to cause an increase anyway so I'll probably end up having resonators fitted to the testpipes to dampen things down a little.

 

I have every confidence that it'll look and sound really nice. Plus a little performance increase won't hurt at all! :)

So I'm back from a couple of days down in Bristol and it's surrounding environs. :)

 

Tuesday morning saw me heading to Powerzed to have my chassis cleaned and sealed, and also to check that the downpipes would remove without any major issues. I got to Jimmer's for around 10am and he set to work.

 

Sadly, it seems I have some tinworm! :( It's not bad or terminal, but it needs dealing with now or it'll end up bad. So she'll be going back to Bristol in probably August to have the affected areas cut out and replaced. That should make her nice and solid again. :)

 

Big thanks to Jimmer for all his graft on Tuesday!

 

I left there and headed over to FunkySi's brand new house as I was staying there that night. Now, I thought he lived in Bristol but it turns out I actually had to drive past my dad's front door to get to Si's place! That's worth knowing for the future, I think.

 

Big thanks to Si for putting me up for the night and providing me with pizza too. :) And at least he's now been out in a zed that has BOVs fitted...!! :lol:

 

I left Si's about 6.45 yesterday morning and headed to Infinity to have my exhaust fabricated. After chatting with the fabricator, I decided against having the downpipes fitted at that point as I simply couldn't afford the cost if it turned out not to be straightforward. So the new system runs from the turbo elbows back instead.

 

Onto the system itself: it's 3" all the way through, with an X-pipe where the stock cats would've been, and it ends with two 4" round tailpipes on each side. As per Infinity's reputation, it's beautifully constructed and the backboxes are angled to aid the gasflow (the tailpipes are straight though). Despite being 3", it's actually a little quieter than the Powerflow system that it replaced and doesn't sound as "raw" either.

 

There is, however, a downside. I think I may have chosen the wrong tailpipes! It may just be because I'm used to the slashcut ones I had previously, but I'm convinced that the ones I've chosen completely suit the car :( I also think I may have situated them too far out of the bumper, although they don't protrude as far out as the old ones did (thank God!).

 

So a mixed bag here, really, and any issues are entirely my own fault. If I can't get used to the current pipes, I'll simply get them to make new ones when I go back to have the downpipes fitted and the system adapted to suit them. For now though, it's nice to know that I have a top quality exhaust fitted and it does seem to have improved the performance a little... it also seems to have "smoothed out" the power as it feels more linear now and less "surprising"....

 

I'll stick some pics up later this morning :thumbup1:

Opinions welcomed :)

 

 

 

 

 

Looks good, although it sits very close to the bumper!

I like the positioning... I just think I should've opted for slashcut instead.

 

I'll see how they grow on me and, if need be, I'll just get a new catback made up.

I like the positioning... I just think I should've opted for slashcut instead.

 

I'll see how they grow on me and, if need be, I'll just get a new catback made up.

 

Can't you just get Infinity to cut out and swap the tail ends if you want, save the hassle and expense of doing a full new cat-back??

Just my opinion Si, but I think it would look better if the tailpipes were more centre'd? they seem too tight to the outside of the bumper?? Maybe move them across a cm or two??

 

It just seem more OEM when it's centered.

Actually, you need to take a few pics from further away to get the full impact of the exhaust, maybe that's why it looks out, it's too "in your face", bang up some pics from further back buddy:thumbup1:

Just my opinion Si, but I think it would look better if the tailpipes were more centre'd? they seem too tight to the outside of the bumper?? Maybe move them across a cm or two??

Tbh I was thinking this, but like you said difficult to really tell so close up.

 

I would definitely leave it a week or two and see what you think then, you may just be so used to your old ones that anything else looks odd at the moment!

Any video clips of this exhaust Si??:thumbup1:

Any video clips of this exhaust Si??:thumbup1:

 

If you have a look on Infinity Exhaust's page on Facebook, there's a video on there that they took about 5 minutes after they'd finished everything. :)

If you have a look on Infinity Exhaust's page on Facebook, there's a video on there that they took about 5 minutes after they'd finished everything. :)

 

Cheers buddy:thumbup:

I've had this exhaust on for about a week now and I've decided that I will be having the tailpipes changed at the very least.

 

Infinity have said that that's perfectly doable and I think I've figured what (for me, anyway) the issue is:

 

 

As you can see, the swage line in the bumper is parallel to the join between the bumper and rear quarter - what I think I should've done is to have the tilt of the tailpipes match those lines, instead of being parallel to the ground as they are. Also, I think they protrude a little too far so I'll have the new ones (a different style) tucked in slightly, as well as angled up a bit.

 

This should all be happening in August some time when it goes to Powerzed for a little bit of welding ( :( :( ) and to have the rear crank seal replaced. While the 'box is off, Jimmer will be swapping the downpipes for the 3" versions and then she'll be getting trailered to Infinity to have the system modified to meet the new DPs and to have the tailpipes sorted.

 

Not cheap cars, are they...... :lol:

Sounds like a plan bud:thumbup1: you going to get the slash cut on an upswept tilt?? Sounds nice and sporty without being too in your face:thumbup1:

Sounds like a plan bud:thumbup1: you going to get the slash cut on an upswept tilt?? Sounds nice and sporty without being too in your face:thumbup1:

 

Something like that, yeah. I just need to give some proper thought to how the end product will look, instead of just choosing what I liked the look of on the rack!

 

It's quieter now than when it had the Powerflow system on. Not a massive decrease, but it's certainly less boomy on a long run. :)

I went to Pickering on Sunday for the Yorkshire Modified show. Here's a nice little picture that was taken as I was entering the event:

 

 

The Zed got lots of attention and positive comments, so I was a happy Mondo :)