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

Paint choice has changed again!

 

It is made! :)

 

Along with all the other things I'm doing to it, there's no way I'll go back on that. :D

Black wheels too Si !!?

black wheels too si !!?

 

Glad to hear it!

Few other bits powder coated. These were the originals, now I could have bought new ones, but mine were rust-free. The issue I find with a lot of the black metal components in the 300zx is that the paint quality is quite poor. They're single stage wet painted, they scratch, scuff and discolour very easily, so I had these and the lower bumper support bracket powder coated to give a more durable finish.

 

New rubbers too and new screws. I didn't realise that the original screws for this slot are actually black, always thought they were silver.

 

 

I did replace the lower metal support bar about 8 years ago and despite polishing it regularly, it discoloured too - no rust on it, just the same single-stage ultra-thin Nissan line paint.

 

My powder coat guy said the paint on these parts blasted off with absolutely no effort and was surprised that the parts weren't rusty!

 

They look a little more glossy than they actually are. They're a satin black which matches all of the rest of the black painted parts

 

 

 

Should have a few strip-down pics tomorrow. 3 more boxes of stuff due too, 2 from the US and 1 from Nissan UK.

Edited March 21, 20178 yr by Funkysi

Had a decent spare passenger seat which gave up its life for my drivers seat.

 

As we all know, the foam bolsters do collapse over time, more so with fabric seats than leather as that just wears through, my drivers seat was no exception although it isn't the original seat and its history is unknown.

 

The velour type material doesn't really wear through with saggy bolsters but the fabric stretches, loses its shape and creases as a result. Steam can be used to get some of these marks out, but I wanted it to look like new.

 

No before pics, but here's the state of the foam and old bolster.

 

 

 

Here's the old bolster fabric removed, you can see the creases down toward the bottom section. The pile is squashed and even if you re-used it, there would still be lines left.

 

 

 

 

Had all the foam swapped over, so it's lovely and firm and new-looking. Well worth doing IMO.

 

Edited March 24, 20178 yr by Funkysi

How's the strip down/re spray coming along Si?

Any more recent pictures?

How's the strip down/re spray coming along Si?

Any more recent pictures?

 

I went to the paint shop earlier in the week. I didn't take photos as most of the car was under plastic sheeting. I only dropped off some bits that I'd stripped down. Doors are off, blocked and semi prepped. Wings are off and prepped as are the bumpers. It's going to slow a little whilst they finish off a classic M5 that's almost ready for paint. Glass will be out soon I think.

 

I've never taken the wings off before so it was nice to see the condition of the forward section of the sills, inner front arches and behind the wings, wonderful condition! Happy days! I had slight and historical jacking crease on the drivers wing which has been straightened out, it was only very minor, but wanted that looking spot-on.

 

They're going to send me some photos at some point which I'll post up here.

I went to the paint shop earlier in the week. I didn't take photos as most of the car was under plastic sheeting. I only dropped off some bits that I'd stripped down. Doors are off, blocked and semi prepped. Wings are off and prepped as are the bumpers. It's going to slow a little whilst they finish off a classic M5 that's almost ready for paint. Glass will be out soon I think.

 

I've never taken the wings off before so it was nice to see the condition of the forward section of the sills, inner front arches and behind the wings, wonderful condition! Happy days! I had slight and historical jacking crease on the drivers wing which has been straightened out, it was only very minor, but wanted that looking spot-on.

 

They're going to send me some photos at some point which I'll post up here.

 

Sounds like the car is coming along nicely Si.

Must be satisfying to see areas of the car for the first time and find them in such great condition.

 

Reference the vertical lip that runs along the underside of the car at the base of the sills, will you be having them painted black, or leaving them white?

I noticed on mine that they are black, and thought how well it accentuates the subtle curve of the sills.

Sounds like the car is coming along nicely Si.

Must be satisfying to see areas of the car for the first time and find them in such great condition.

 

Reference the vertical lip that runs along the underside of the car at the base of the sills, will you be having them painted black, or leaving them white?

I noticed on mine that they are black, and thought how well it accentuates the subtle curve of the sills.

 

Interesting point there mate!

 

IMO, for a car which has seen regular use - or one where the sill seams have seen better days, then simply painting them black makes the whole car look more tidy. However if the seams are dead straight, with no rust or creases, then I'd make sure they were body-colour; just as Nissan intended.

Interesting point there mate!

 

IMO, for a car which has seen regular use - or one where the sill seams have seen better days, then simply painting them black makes the whole car look more tidy. However if the seams are dead straight, with no rust or creases, then I'd make sure they were body-colour; just as Nissan intended.

 

Mmmmm, not sure how to take that. :lol:

 

I have known my car for over 20 years, and I am 100% certain that the black highlight I referred to was factory, hence my reference to it.

Maybe a UK thing.

As far as I know, they were all body colour and any that are black have been done as an aftermarket thing.

 

In answer to your question, because my seams are almost perfect (they will be perfect after repaint), they'll be left body colour as they currenrly are. I hear what you're saying but I don't want to hide the condition of a standard part that's in excellent condition....if that makes sense.

 

Edited March 24, 20178 yr by Funkysi

Another silly little job done today, a little more 'hidden tech'. Not particularly exciting, but it feeds my OCD.

 

My new Alpine audio in addition to having bluetooth connectivity also has phono and USB connectors. You basically get bare connectors with most aftermarket head units and rather than having cables hanging out from somewhere or in the glovebox, I decided to do a really neat job and put a flush fitting connector in. I looked at several styles and places to put them and decided on a little area at the back of the arm rest cubby. There's plenty of clearance and Nissan left me a nice little bit of real estate just the right size for such a connector.

 

So this is the little flush fit USB/Phone combi connector.

 

 

Detectable at the back.

 

 

Cut out the back with a blade and test fitted the connector.

 

 

Because of its location, I don't want to fit the centre arm rest back down as-is in case I crush wires. I also HATE bad / messy wiring. I've seen so many Z32s with appalling wiring with it either bunched up in a tangled mess, hanging out from various areas or general poor routing, I wanted mine to look neat, be secure to prevent damage or chafing.

 

I got myself some little P-clips and took up the cable size variance with some electrical tape as insulation padding.

 

 

Handily Nissan designed this console area with plenty of fasteners, so lots of places to put a p-clip!

 

 

Cable routed neatly out of the way of mount points and secured nicely.

 

 

Nice, neat and tucked away. No drilling holes in the dash or having cables hanging out inside various cubby areas.

 

Edited April 1, 20178 yr by Funkysi

Does it have some sort of 6th sense to do this !

 

Or did you mean detachable ?

 

 

Detectable at the back.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]105347[/ATTACH]

 

:rofl:

 

Yes, quite!

Another option someone has done is on the mirror controls,

though I would say your solution is more convenient to stash your phone away in the console and shut it with no wires dangling anywhere.

Exactly why I didn't put it there. It does look neat in that mirror control unit, but again, yeah, you'd be left with wires dangling about when your phone is charged in, also if you have a USB drive in there, it'll stick up in the way and finally, my mirror control unit is brand new and at a cost of nearly £100, I didn't really want to go cutting into it.

thats a nice job i like it, since i have a spare usb connector on the radio i think is a job to do, the list keeps growing...

Very nice Simon, liking that [emoji106]

Very nice Simon, liking that [emoji106]

 

He's getting the hang of this OEM+ stuff now! Nice job Simon.

Impressive work there Si.

As you say, it would have been too easy just run wiring here and there.

You attention to detail is excellent.

New speaker covers turned up today!

 

 

One side has a few little indentations and the other side a few spots of paint missing. Amazing how much nicer the new covers look in person. They're a nice satin finish too.

 

Here's the little dents. Didn't really notice them too much when the door cards were on the car. Had to replace them anyway!

 

 

Side by side.

 

Lovely jubbly. Cleaned and de-greased the panel where the speaker cover sits. Fitted the new one.....my OCD loves this. :)

 

Edited April 3, 20178 yr by Funkysi
Correcting autocorrect......

I've got the Bose versions of these and mind when I fitted them, look real nice :)