Yes, a number of folks know and I'm shite at keeping schtum about work being done to my Z.

 

In an ever increasing quest to have the cleanest Z I could possibly create, I have become more and more fussy with how things look resulting in me going back to a more original look. So over the past few months I have been buying up more and more original new OEM parts; dispensing with my 2-din Z Thirty Two fascia and replacing it with a brand new OEM one were the first steps, a rare DIN cubby with door from Richard Smith, all new centre console plastics, re-foaming the seats, all sorts of other things and many brand new exterior pieces.

 

Spurred on from JP's awesome example and Andrew's take on OEM+ and idealistic car plus deep knowledge, my Z is going back to the paint shop next week for some major surgery. I've been let down time and time again by poor quality workmanship from the various bodyshops I've used (which has been both stressful and upsetting) and this time around, I've decided to go all-out, get more new stuff and have the car stripped of what's already on there and repainted properly.

 

Not content with trying to find somewhere locally to me and getting let down as previously described, I've elected to use Kraftworks near Chelmsford who are some 3 and a half hours from me and a trailer is being sent next Friday to pick it up!! Some folks may have heard of these guys as they are the very same paint shop that did Joel's car who many have seen and love (myself included).

 

I was lucky to get hold of a brand new OEM 89-93 spoiler (still boxed), so that's going on....and because I thought it would be great idea to de-wiper and de-aerial my car whilst being in a terrible mental state following a nasty relationship breakdown, I made some silly mistakes and welded up stuff that I really shouldn't have, I have decided to go back to how the car once looked (my Z originally came over from Japan with no spoiler, so it's never had this fitted in my ownership) and despite liking the 99-spec, I think the original looks a lot better, at least on light coloured cars like white and silver and more befitting of the car's age (it's a 1991) and the rest of the body. Gary (GSC60) very kindly gave me a non-welded tailgate with no rust on it (VERY hard to find these days). I have a brand new wiper arm, seal and all the gubbins to go back in it. The aerial hole is being re-instated and that's going back in.

 

I argued with myself on what spoiler to go with for a while; having made up my mind on the TwinZ Type 1 as I love the style and have never seen a decent quality copy of the original, I went with what I thought was my only and best option, that was until a brand new original one was found, still boxed! AndrewG and myself, I think, took the last two available from Nissan, they've been NLS for about a decade in the US and I had thought they weren't available here either (Thanks for your help Ash). The quality of original spoilers is fabulous, they're very tactile and fit like a glove, something cheap fibgrelgass replicas just don't do, there's also a way of protecting them against spoiler-rot found in older cars (thanks to AndrewG for that one).

 

I'm very excited. The rest of the car will look almost the same....except for one thing...the paint!! I'm totally done with pearl white paints. They can look nice, but almost all of them look cream/beige in off-light situations and that has started to bug me. The rear quarter of my car is a very slightly different shade on my passenger side for reasons unknown and the previous paint shop just couldn't rectify it; some keen beans may have noticed that when they've seen the car in person! Trying to rectify damage or repaint areas with pearls is an utter nightmare as you end up chasing the paint round the car in an effort to blend.......soooooo......the new colour is going to be a metallic white which is a paint I'd not really known about but had wondered whether one existed. It turns out quite a few do and I've had the colour chips through today of those that I'm interested in comparing. The beauty of these new metallic whites is that they lay like a traditional metallic so you don't have that pearl mid-coat that is the thorn in my side. Metallic whites don't look beige or off-beige/cream out of direct sunlight, yet they still sparkle in the sun like a pearl coat, some more than others. It's almost like a modern take on QN0 which is a pearl white used on 94+ Z32s, but with half the maintenance and a better look.

 

Although mine's in good condition, a new t-top bar is going in and rear screen top trim and other new things are going on. I have boxes and boxes of new Nissan parts.

 

The colour - Jaguar's glacier white metallic as Nissan don't do anything similar. I looked at a VAG metallic white also, but this didn't have much metallic in. So the Jaguar colour has been chosen as of today! It's a stunning colour and really quite subtle. Range Rover also use this same colour code (2201/NAK) under the 'Yulong White' moniker. I thought about a straight-white, but I owe it to the car's origins to keep a special finish on it.

 

Here are a few images of the colour in various lights.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 20178 yr by Funkysi

:rofl:

How about this little OEM + ashtray modification mate. Should be ok to pick up sound :innocent:

My ash tray is brand new, it stays rape-free! :rofl:

real estate indeed....love it :yes:.

Can i have your old squirter?

I only have one and that's the new one - you can't have that! :lol:

How about this little OEM + ashtray modification mate. Should be ok to pick up sound :innocent:

 

[emoji23]

Bye bye old friend, see you on the other side! You will be beautiful once again!

 

Interior almost fully stripped, bumpers held on with only a few bolts - rear lights need some heat! Alic still has my hair drier! Just need to drive to the bodyshop tomorrow to remove the rubbers, and other associated trim around the t-tops and a-pillars.

 

It really was quite an unnerving experience watching it disappear down the road! Some 4 hours time, it will be at the health spa for beautification. :D

 

Edited March 10, 20178 yr by Funkysi

Alic still has my hair drier! It really was quite an unnerving experience watching it disappear down the road! Some 4 hours time, it will be at the health spa for beautification.

 

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Thank Christ he didn't take your hair curlers too.

Thank Christ he didn't take your hair curlers too.

 

No need for those, my pubes are naturally curly! :lol:

:pinch:

No need for those, my pubes are naturally curly! :lol:

 

Never trust a straight merkin.

And so it begins...

 

 

You can tell from those pictures exactly how disappointing and poor the current paintjob is.... :blink:

You can tell from those pictures exactly how disappointing and poor the current paintjob is.... :blink:

 

The passenger side is patchy, I want to go back to the original spoiler which has to be a full tailgate paint, the passenger side and then to blend pearl, you'd end up doing half the front, half the rear end and part of the offside quarter too. You end up chasing the pearl coat round the car. It's actually just as straightforward to have a full paint job especially if you're not over the moon with the one it currently has and you've stripped 2/3 of the car to do the job properly.

The passenger side is patchy, I want to go back to the original spoiler which has to be a full tailgate paint, the passenger side and then to blend pearl, you'd end up doing half the front, half the rear end and part of the offside quarter too. You end up chasing the pearl coat round the car. It's actually just as straightforward to have a full paint job especially if you're not over the moon with the one it currently has and you've stripped 2/3 of the car to do the job properly.

 

Are you doing the strip down yourself Si?

Are you doing the strip down yourself Si?

 

Yeah apart from the glass removal. It was taken away a day earlier so I went down yesterday morning to finish it off.

Loving this latest incarnation. Nice work Si

When I saw your Z at Coventry it looked perfect mate but you know your car best so good luck with the new project and cant wait to see how she ends up.

When I saw your Z at Coventry it looked perfect mate but you know your car best so good luck with the new project and cant wait to see how she ends up.

 

Its always looked 'perfect', the problem is that Si is a perfectionist who absolutely loves his car. I would not want to be the paintshop now especially after what Si has called disappointing results. Fingers crossed he has found the top shop to do the job.

Its always looked 'perfect', the problem is that Si is a perfectionist who absolutely loves his car. I would not want to be the paintshop now especially after what Si has called disappointing results. Fingers crossed he has found the top shop to do the job.

 

So true. :)

You can tell from those pictures exactly how disappointing and poor the current paintjob is.... :blink:

 

PMSL, I was thinking that too......:wink:

Watching this with interest, a top notch Respray is on my list to get done at some point. Keep up the good work si

Looking forward to seeing the results Si

Paint choice has changed again! Having spent some time looking at the Jaguar colour, I do not like it one bit in low level lighting, so I've gone back to my second choice which is Lamborghini's 'Bianco Icarus' metallic white. This colour is available on a number of VAG models. It has less metallic in it than the JLR colour, but is brighter. I may have the yellow tinter removed when it's mixed, so it is potentially going to be a semi custom colour.

 

It has a very clean look to it.

 

 

 

Goes well with the 'black roof' syndrome! :)

 

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