Back at the start of the month I picked up a new project.

(Gallery of full size pics Here)

Drove straght down to Wales after work and arrived back home early on Thursday morning with it.

 

 

Ok, so 2am is not the best time to be taking pics :D. Heres a few more in daylight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She's a JDM '99 NA in midnight purple, has already had a manual conversion and a few extras (EGR delete, HID's, Japspeed exhaust) but is in need of a bit of tidying up (and some turbos :D)

Edited August 29, 20169 yr by Mightysi

on the stock wheels it looks fine

more stance :tt2:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]100943[/ATTACH]

 

18x19 et35 rear and 18x17 et30 front? [emoji1]

Carlos Fandango

Wow Si you really have been busy. It's nice sorting cars out bit by bit going through all the niggles. I loved that car but once i bought my twin turbo the love for it just disappeared and it sat on the drive not moving for 6 months. Good to see some new life being breathed into it now.

 

No idea about the gaitors. I've had enough zeds to know the difference between the two but probably just screwed a new centre console trim in from another car. There was a sticky relay in that alarm box behind the dash which dean mentioned, I guess that isn't playing up any more and it was never a problem when the car was in weekly use.

 

I look forward to seeing the car progress, I was going to twin turbo manual it but only got as far as taking out the shitty autobox. Will be an awesome Z when finished

(I'll worry about wiring in a fog light somehow later, I'm thinking maybe two of the reverse lights)

 

Si, we have a resident lighting Guru in the traders section, Andy (Phutumsch) can sort out your rear fogs and anything else you might want doing :thumbup: Have a look at his page, he's done some pretty cool stuff, including fitting the EL 300zx glow panel to the '99 spec centre:thumbup1:

Its been a busy few weeks for several reasons, but mixed into the middle of it all was some serious work on the Z.

Theres a few spots that are letting the bodywork down, not surprising for a 90's Jap car really, even this '99 is 17 years old after all.

 

Got an arch repair panel for the worst side, These cover the whole arch but luckily only needed a small section actually needed replacing

 

Piece cut from the repair panel and removed from the arch, and some removed from the inner panel too

 

New piece welded in

 

After the first round of filler and some paint, the shape is looking pretty good but it still needs some work

 

After some more work and a quick coat of purple, thats this one good enough to go to the bodyshop

 

The other side was not quite as bad, only needed a small piece removing

(took the photo before tidying the inner panel on this side)

 

Again, after welding, a bit of fill and paint, this one has the shape back and is ready for proper painting

 

Finally onto a few bubbles in the front arch, luckily this one was not so bad but would only have gotten worse, so the paint and a few spots of rust came off, back to clean metal

No welding needed this time.

 

The car is booked in with the paint guy in a few weeks time. Hopefully I'll get chance to clean up and refresh the undersealing before then.

Looking forward to having those big nasty jobs done and some shiny new paint... :thumbup:

I don't miss owning this car but I'm glad to see its in good hands now... hopefully you can get a TT lump in it at some point

hopefully you can get a TT lump in it at some point

 

Yep, paints happening soon, then I need to refresh some of the undersealing.

That'll probably be it for this year, then hopefully I can get it turbo'd early next year.

Yep, paints happening soon, then I need to refresh some of the undersealing.

That'll probably be it for this year, then hopefully I can get it turbo'd early next year.

As in bolt turbos onto an na engine? It's not that simple.

As in bolt turbos onto an na engine? It's not that simple.

 

Agreed, I think NA's have a different compression ration, so may not be suitable for turbo charging.

Edited October 19, 20169 yr by redwine300

I think NA's have a different compression ration, so may not be suitable for turbo charging.

That's why I said it. IMO either rebuild the block, or do a complete TT swap.

That's why I said it. IMO either rebuild the block, or do a complete TT swap.

 

Just backing you up bud.

It's not that simple.

 

 

I mean, I have gaffa tape and my mate has two of these spare...

 

 

I just dont get where the exhaust goes in on these turbos... :whistling:

Time for a few more pics, as the Z is back from paint...! :clap:

 

 

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Its starting to look like a different car to me, with the new wheels, spoiler and all painted up nice :thumbup:

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Me likey

It's been a while since I updated this, and now the weather has been better I've been busy, so here goes.

 

Had a few starting issues over winter which turned out just to be a dodgy earth lead, but in the process of finding it I stripped, cleaned, greased and rebuilt the starter, put on a new battery and then replaced the whole earth lead.

Unsurprisingly she now starts better than ever before.

 

 

Replaced a faulty o2 sensor. Changed the headlamp wiring so now the HIDs stay on when you're using high beam. And made myself a set of shifter bushes to replace the crappy worn plastic ones in the short shifter.

 

 

Finally got round to making a loom up for the neutral and reverse switches on the gearbox, and at the same time converted the center lights to do reverse and fog.

(Phone camera really does not do white balance well, the reverse lights are not that yellow)

 

 

 

 

and everything together

 

Add to that some general servicing tasks, including new oils everywhere and that already sounds like a sizeable update.

But no, there's more. I'll have a whole post on new coilovers and replacement brakes soon, but for now I'll just leave this final image here...

 

Excellent work there Si, car is looking really well:thumbup1:

Shiny parts waiting to be fitted

 

 

Fronts all fitted

 

 

some under sealing whilst its all accessible

 

 

I'm not sure if this is a pass or a fail, I can't fit a shoe in under the arch but it does still sort of wedge in place??

 

 

Managed to get out today and get some better pictures of the new height

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its taken almost a year (all but 6 weeks) to go from this

 

 

to this...

 

 

Pictures alone don't do the change justice, it is a different car now.