As with most projects and rebuilds, they all start in the same place, mine was no different. However, this isn’t truely the start of my forever ongoing Z project. I’ve owned this car (my second Z) since 2008 when I purchased it from a former member. For the first 5 or 6 years I did the usual mods with suspension parts and basic bolt ons. For reasons unknown, whilst running stock boost, piston 5 cracked a ring land during a track day at Castle Coombe. A forged build and a remap later all was well until a sunny October’s day 2013 at Bruntingthorpe killed that engine with what at the time was a suspected head gasket failure at 181mph..... And this is where I shall start my journal.

 

The Z was stored off the road from Oct 2013 until March 2015. I’d had a major knee operation at the beginning of 2015 which meant I was going to be off work for 6 months. I’d saved up enough to start thinking about a parts list to rebuild her and frankly, after a couple of months of staring at the same 4 walls, I was going stir crazy! I employed the help of a good friend and decided to pull the engine and see what was what.... just a head gasket my arse!

 

March 2015

Problem 1: It turns out stainless steel, exhaust wraps and condensation don’t mix well

 

Before I’d even got the engine out, a new set of downpipes was added to this list. These AMS items were only 2 years old, so I was far from impressed! I contacted the retailer and after a bit of tooing and froing I secured myself a set of replacements for free... how long they will last, only time will tell!

Good guess.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But no

CSL wing.

CSL wing.

 

Foul, insider information.

:lol:

 

Sorry Nick.......not sorry. :p

CSL wing.

 

Pfff party pooper........... only because I told you weeks ago :P

 

So after much consideration I decided to buy the spoiler I’ve had my eye on for AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGES, the WinFactory CSL-R. Despite my best efforts, I haven’t got a decent picture of the spoiler...

 

But it should look something like this when fitted

 

As previously mentioned, I like the OEM+ look a lot, and over the years my taste have matured a bit. I liked the “JDM”ness of the bomex wing, but it gave the car a bit of a “boy racer” image when taking the Mrs to nice venues. Something more subtle like this not only gives the rear of the car a much needed rounding off, but gives the overall appearance of a sleek sports car that the general public don’t know what it is. Surprisingly, the Mrs took a fair bit of convincing as she always thought that the Bomex made the Z, well, MY zed. But after explaining the above thought process, she came around the the idea of the CSL wing.

 

An opportunity presented itself just before Christmas to save myself a considerable amount on postage from the states, but it was very short notice. I trusted my instincts and man maths’ed the hell out of the situation and went for it.

 

Through no fault of our own, the postage opportunity disappeared, so i had to wait until the Xmas period was over (both FedEx and UPS wanted over EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!!!! To post from around the 18th Dec until early jan). I used DHL via a third party agency and managed to get to wing delivered for £160.

 

Best bit of all, (stand by for aforementioned man maths) I managed to sell my old Bomex high and low level spoiler for more than the Winfactory wing cost me..... so all in all this wing has cost me £140.

 

Full of Win (factory)

Edited January 8, 20187 yr by nickz32

Pfff party pooper........... only because I told you weeks ago :P

 

 

 

 

Lies!!!

 

You told me MONTHS ago! In fact, it may even have been years as you first told me about it in 2016! ;)

[quote

Full of Win (factory)

 

Hahah... I see what you did there :lol:

[quote

Full of Win (factory)

 

Hahah... I see what you did there :lol:

 

Da dum tissssssh

 

 

I thank you, I thank you

Sorry Nick [emoji17] Glad to see you finally got it over here and for a reasonable price too, look forward to seeing it all together. [emoji41]

Sorry Nick [emoji17] Glad to see you finally got it over here and for a reasonable price too, look forward to seeing it all together. [emoji41]

 

Mate, it’s no worries at all. Like you said, it’s a good thing that the situation finally got me to commit to buying it.

 

Anyway, about that OEM+ membership.....

Anyway, about that OEM+ membership.....

 

Message from the office of compliance and assurance:

 

“Hi Nick, your application has been received but we need to draft an applicable assessment criteria coding for that particular amendment as it doesn’t currently appear on the OPE regulatory documentation. The details are with the council of the senate and the committee chair will report back and update any legislative procedure alterations as required.”

Dropped into the bodyshop this morning....

 

 

First coat of primer has identified a couple of defects that weren’t previously noticed. They should be easy to sort out before next coat of primer and final prep for base coat of Super Black KH3

 

Also lined up the WinFactory spoiler. While it fits perfectly across the top and sides, a significant gap is apparent where the bottom edge of the boot is, where the Perspex strip would have lived

 

 

Having spoken to Winfactory, this gap is intentional as the spoiler was designed to go over the top of the third brake light panel. A window seal type gasket has been suggested to close that gap, I’m not so sure that’s the best long term option, neither is filling it with filler.

 

Time for a ponder

Dropped into the bodyshop this morning....

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]110245[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]110246[/ATTACH]

 

First coat of primer has identified a couple of defects that weren’t previously noticed. They should be easy to sort out before next coat of primer and final prep for base coat of Super Black KH3

 

Also lined up the WinFactory spoiler. While it fits perfectly across the top and sides, a significant gap is apparent where the bottom edge of the boot is, where the Perspex strip would have lived

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]110247[/ATTACH]

 

Having spoken to Winfactory, this gap is intentional as the spoiler was designed to go over the top of the third brake light panel. A window seal type gasket has been suggested to close that gap, I’m not so sure that’s the best long term option, neither is filling it with filler.

 

Time for a ponder

 

designed to go over the top of the perspex strip?

so you could refit the perspex strip, and paint it black to match the car rather than be perspex, so that it blends in?

It’s more the recess that used to be filled by the strip. Once the spoiler is fitted, you wouldn’t see that recess as it cover it. It’s more that there’s a gap between the recessed part of the boot lid and the inner surface of the wing that you would see once the boot was opened. On top of that, I can imagine it wouldn’t take long for moisture to travel up through that gap and get trappped an the subsequent tin worm. Ideally I’d like to fill the gap and then bond the spoiler to whatever I use to fill it so no moisture can get between the spoiler and boot lid (if that makes sense)

The two boot lid lip trim pieces should cover that gap?

 

The two boot lid lip trim pieces should cover that gap?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]110249[/ATTACH]

 

Yep, Joely reminded me of that aswell. I knew something didn’t look right, but couldn’t put my finger on it

Here is another view.

 

Bought new ones for mine. Shame I damaged one of the old ones when removing. Both of them ended up going to landfill. I'll see if I have the other one, they're still available new from Nissan but lead time isn't great.

Bought new ones for mine. Shame I damaged one of the old ones when removing. Both of them ended up going to landfill. I'll see if I have the other one, they're still available new from Nissan but lead time isn't great.

 

I’ve still got mine, I just completely forgot about their existence. They came off ok apparently so hopefully they’ll do the trick

Ok, so I’m getting a little excited now

 

 

Not too shabby straight from the gun!

Not too shabby straight from the gun!

 

Not shabby at all!

Looks good, Don't forget the nose panel.

 

And the engine bay could do with some deletes in that top left corner *shudder*

PS dont delete the vacuum check valve :lol:

Looking great Nick! :)

 

So nice to see the Z come of age and getting the quality attention to restoring them to high quality that they deserve rather than nailing bits of fibreglass and poo to them in a feeble attempt to try to make it look better.

 

Good work!

Looking great Nick! :)

 

So nice to see the Z come of age and getting the quality attention to restoring them to high quality that they deserve rather than nailing bits of fibreglass and poo to them in a feeble attempt to try to make it look better.

 

Good work!

 

+1 my plan

Yeah, it’s a bit messy up there at the moment, but that’s where the MAP sensor and Boost solenoid now live. A bit of sensible re routing and it’ll be presentable I assure you