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

So what was changed in your tailpipes Si ? Here is a pic I took at Coventry

 

So what was changed in your tailpipes Si ? Here is a pic I took at Coventry

 

 

Nothing at all has changed with my tailpipes, Gaz - after they upped the price so drastically to modify the system to meet the new downpipes, there was nothing left in the budget to have the tails changed.... :(

Nothing at all has changed with my tailpipes, Gaz - after they upped the price so drastically to modify the system to meet the new downpipes, there was nothing left in the budget to have the tails changed.... :(

 

They look great the way they are Si :yes: Loving your Z :thumbup1:

They look great the way they are Si :yes: Loving your Z :thumbup1:

 

I love her too, Gaz. And, from certain angles, the tailpipes look great. But, from others, they protrude too far so I'm pretty certain I'll get them changed at some point.

 

At the moment though, the piggy bank has nothing but cobwebs and dreams in it!! :(

My John Dixon-chipped ECU arrived yesterday morning from Yowser, so I swapped it into my car and thought I'd take her for a bit of a spin to see if I could notice a difference. :)

 

Straight away, the idle is lower (which is nice) and she certainly seems to pull a little harder now, though whether that's also down to the new downpipes or not is debatable. It's nice to know that there's now at least some uprated mapping to go along with the boost increase and intake/exhaust modifications!

 

Also, in other news, Andy P recently fixed my clock and it's performing faultlessly. So thanks to Andy for that little bit of work :thumbup1:

I decided to spend this afternoon messing around with my instrument cluster and pods as I wasn't happy with the lighting. This'll be about my fifth attempt but, some LEDs and filters later, I think I might've cracked it at last:

 

 

 

 

Aside from an additional filter on the redline part of the tachometer (to make it as red as the fuel and temperature gauges), I think that's about as good as it gets. :biggrin: The camera seems to have made the gauges appear brighter than they are in real life - they're not that overpowering when viewed in person! Just a nice even spread of white light, with a splash of red in strategic places.

 

Happy Mondo at last! :thumbup1:

It is always difficult to get across with a picture or video of the cluster, pleased you're finally happy, nice touches here and there with the red Simon - you've always got the dimming switch if need be though !!

It's taken long enough to get to a point where I can say that I'm happy with it, so this is a bit of a milestone for me :)

MOT day! 11am, to be precise.

 

The couple of advisories from last year have been rectified so I'm hoping it's gonna be a clean bill of health this morning....! :sweatdrop:

MOT day! 11am, to be precise.

 

The couple of advisories from last year have been rectified so I'm hoping it's gonna be a clean bill of health this morning....! :sweatdrop:

 

Good luck mate.. :clover:

MOT day! 11am, to be precise.

 

The couple of advisories from last year have been rectified so I'm hoping it's gonna be a clean bill of health this morning....! :sweatdrop:

 

Good luck Si.:clover:

MOT day! 11am, to be precise.

 

The couple of advisories from last year have been rectified so I'm hoping it's gonna be a clean bill of health this morning....! :sweatdrop:

 

Best of luck buddy, hope it sails through for you:thumbup1:

Not one advisory this time around!! A totally clean bill of health for the old girl! :biggrin:

 

The tester was very impressed with her overall condition and said she's a credit to me. :) All done for another year :thumbup1:

Not one advisory this time around!! A totally clean bill of health for the old girl! :biggrin:

 

The tester was very impressed with her overall condition and said she's a credit to me. :) All done for another year :thumbup1:

 

Congrats! :thumbup1:

I've taken some positive action today. :)

 

After months of trying to live with the tailpipes that Infinity put on my new exhaust system (at my insistence), I've given up and decided to have them changed for something a little less... lairy...

 

It's prohibitively expensive to travel to Bristol and back for them to do the work, so a specialist in Middlesbrough will be doing them a week today. Can't wait to get these enormous cannons changed for something more subtle!

 

:thumbup1:

Well, I'm in the prelim stages of redesigning my cabin this afternoon. I've done a few little testers for ideas and a lot of them don't work nearly as well in real life as they do in my head!

 

The scheme I'm working with at the moment seems to be playing out ok, but I won't know for sure until I get a couple of complete parts mocked up.

 

There won't (shouldn't, at this point anyway) be any huge changes to the overall appearance... more an updating and embellishing of things. But I'm all too aware of how easy it can be to go too far....

 

Fun and games....

If you go to far we will let you know for sure. :biggrin:

If you go to far we will let you know for sure. :biggrin:

 

I'm in a bit of a quandary, to be honest...

 

I want to jazz it up a little as I was never 100% happy with last year's retrim. But then, I don't want to change it too much as I don't want it to be too fussy.

 

But then again, I'm a little "concerned" about it being boring (well, as boring as a red interior can be!) as, realistically, it should be a bit of a mobile showcase for what I do!

 

Aaaaaargh!!!

I'm in a bit of a quandary, to be honest...

 

I want to jazz it up a little as I was never 100% happy with last year's retrim. But then, I don't want to change it too much as I don't want it to be too fussy.

 

But then again, I'm a little "concerned" about it being boring (well, as boring as a red interior can be!) as, realistically, it should be a bit of a mobile showcase for what I do!

 

Aaaaaargh!!!

 

Just go for it Si you have good taste and know your trade.

Just go for it Si you have good taste and know your trade.

 

Guess we'll find out in due course whether you're right about those points or not! :lol:

So the planned alterations to the exhaust haven't happened yet, mainly down to how Infinity have designed the rear boxes.

 

Because they're angled (to the side and up), the existing tailpipes aren't simply welded on straight - they're actually partially tucked into the boxes themselves and then welded up. And there's a lot of weld been used to seal any gaps. So swapping them isn't as straightforward as I first hoped. :(

 

I basically have to decide whether to have the tails swapped or just have new backboxes made up. Ultimately, it all comes down to money....

 

In other news though, I'm now about halfway through my new retrim. :biggrin: I'm having to do it bit by bit as I'm stupidly busy at the moment, but it's looking good so far.

 

As I've said previously, it isn't going to be a huge departure from the one I did previously; the same colours and materials. It'll just be a little more ornate and eye-catching... and less rushed!! :thumbup1:

If we liken Zed ownership to a soap opera, then I have a few dangling "plot threads" that I'd like to resolve before my car hits the stand at the NEC next week.

 

First and foremost, the interior. As I said before, I'm partway through retrimming it now - I just need to finish this Lancia Beta Spider off and then I can return to my own cabin. But that's going to be interrupted by...

 

Brakes. My new Brembo front calipers have been stripped of all the seals and pistons and are currently being blasted and then painted in Candy red. Even though the seals and pistons were all in superb condition when I removed them, I've ordered new seal kits anyway. It shouldn't take long to rebuild them and then it's just a case of getting everything fitted and the brakes bled through.

 

That leaves my exhaust, which has been niggling away at me ever since I had it built! The system itself is absolutely fine - I simply chose the wrong tailpipes. The fact that they're straight cut doesn't help with the image that they protrude too far either.

 

So Friday afternoon will see me finally having that issue rectified and the new look should be a little more subtle than four 4" cannons sticking out of the bumper! :lol:

 

So there's still plenty to do before next Thursday morning, including giving the entire car a thorough scrubbing (metaphorically speaking). Just not enough hours in the day!

First and foremost, the interior. As I said before, I'm partway through retrimming it now.

 

Brakes. My new Brembo front calipers have been stripped of all the seals and pistons and are currently being blasted and then painted in Candy red. It shouldn't take long to rebuild them and then it's just a case of getting everything fitted and the brakes bled through.

 

So Friday afternoon will see me finally having that issue rectified and the new look should be a little more subtle than four 4" cannons sticking out of the bumper! :lol:

 

So there's still plenty to do before next Thursday morning, including giving the entire car a thorough scrubbing

 

Oh dear, think i'd better put myself back on standby !!!!!

Get yourself some stainless nipples Si!i!i!i!i!i!

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.....