Hi All,

 

I mentioned in various previous posts that I would start a thread about my new and first 300zx. I’ve copy and pasted an introduction that I posted in the newbie section a while back (with some updates) so you can get an overview of the car;

 

Almost two months ago at the spur of the moment I went and bought a lovely Jap spec blue 300zx TT Manual LWB with 98k miles.

 

An over view of the cars spec is;

- 390bhp tuned by ProTuner

- stock turbos and internals

- 800cc injectors, selin twin maf conversion

- Kakimoto mid and rear section exhausts

- aftermarket turbo elbows, downpipes, front pipes etc.

- 98 spec fairly new manual gearbox

- K Sport big front brakes, stock rears

- Veilside Andrews racing split rim wheels in gunmetal grey

- two tone grey/black leather seats, hicas lock out, fairly new polybushed rear end and BC Racing shocks. List goes on but that's some key bits from memory.

- 98k miles

- Has been very well maintained with a lever arch of service history from the previous owners.

 

I've got plenty of plans consisting of refreshing the car including modernising where possible to create an OEM+ look (no cheap chav bits don't worry).

 

The Zed was booked into the bodyshop 23rd March but sadly due to the coronavirus lockdown, these works are now postponed. The works were to fit;

 

- 99 spec front bumper

- Respray to bonnet, both front arches to get rid of peeling lacquer, drivers door, rear bumper and getting rid of surface rust to around rear lights/boot

- Replace side indicators with genuine Nismo clear indicators as existing clears ones seals have fallen apart

- Fit new trims that were missing between boot and rear lights

 

I’ll have all this done as soon as the lockdown is over and the bodyshop is back open.

 

I’ve got on the to do list the following;

 

- Source a 2nd hand AC compressor and get it reconditioned and then installed as the previous item exploded under the last owners ownership

- Full leather retrim as existing leather is cracking up/poor quality.

- Get a double din music system trim kit so I can fit a nice double din screen unit with modern features such as bluetooth etc. and also change all speakers

- Paint the stock rear Z32 brakes in black to match the K Sport fronts

- Sills need re-doing as they have rusted in areas from where its been jacked up in the wrong location!! Paint has obviously been damaged and flaked off leaving the bare metal to rust so will get this sorted

- Fit Michellin PS4 tyres when the current tyres have worn out

- Probably go for more power in about a years time maybe but for now coming from a 2 tonne 270bhp 4x4, 390bhp is more than enough to make me giggle.

 

I’ll start a new post with what I’ve done so far with photos of course!

 

Pics of the car when I bought it;

 

 

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Since riding around in my older brothers 300zx since the age of 6 and dreaming of owning a perfect example with a 99 spec front end, the day has finally come where I’ve got that dream Z, albeit with no engine in there! [emoji7][emoji3590][emoji2] and many many more emojis is what I’m feeling now.

Leaving early morning and taking the 3 hour drive there tomorrow to see her all finished. She’s being fully cleaned and all dust removed tonight for another 2-3 hours, ready for tomorrow.

Cannot imagine what she’ll look like in person, but these photos will give an idea. Me and the wife will be sure to take a tonne of photos, which I’ll upload for sure.

On the return journey, we’ll be popping into Jimmers to say hi and check out the engine too.


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....


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I have no words! ?

And he just sent me through some more pics!... [emoji7][emoji7][emoji7]


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Look at the brothers parked up together the bodyshop says haha. Front end sitting a tad high as it’s engineless, but other than that, an absolute dream come true.


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It looks absolutely stunning!!

What an amazing sight Raja. Great to see another Z32 in A1+ condition. Looking forward to seeing your pride and joy in person soon.

Edited May 21, 20223 yr by AndrewG

10 hours ago, Raja93 said:

Look at the brothers parked up together the bodyshop says haha. Front end sitting a tad high as it’s engineless, but other than that, an absolute dream come true.


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Sisters, not brothers. Anything mechanical is actually considered female. it harks back to the French I believe and their use of male/female pronouns. My car is definitely a "her"; costs me a lot of money, but great fun when you are in her.... ?

It looks awesome Raja, love the colour!

6 hours ago, TheRealNips said:

Sisters, not brothers. Anything mechanical is actually considered female. it harks back to the French I believe and their use of male/female pronouns. My car is definitely a "her"; costs me a lot of money, but great fun when you are in her.... ?

Gender neutral these days!

Set alarm for 5am ended up waking up at 4:30 from sheer excitement haha. Anil and his colleague are true old school craftsman, pay attention to every single detail, some details even the most picky of enthusiasts won't notice.

From the honest and transparent advice, to the regular updates, the understanding of how our cars are shaped and put together in the proper manner, I could not have asked for or imagined a better job. He genuinely suffers from OCD, which works out to be a huge benefit to the customer. He hasn't discounted the price or paid me to say kind words about them, I just feel true craftsman like them who are so rare to find, are worth all the credit they are due. 

I congratulated them on achieving such a fantastic finish and thanked them for all the work they have put into my pride and joy. Highly, highly recommend them to anyone who is after the perfect finish. I made a lot of sacrifices to fund this work, but both me and the wife wouldn't think twice about the decision. 

Had a good look at his Skyline, Chevy Nova and Civic track car he's had for around 15 years. Proper enthusiasts providing impeccable work for the like minded enthusiast! 

If anyone wants any advice on using them, don't hesitate to ask. 

I also made a table of all the body trims, clips, retainers and rubbers I bought with associated part numbers and quantities. I've passed this onto AdamD for his respray, but if anyone else wants this document, please ask and I will send to you. 

Edited May 22, 20223 yr by Raja93

Superb to see the results Raja. And a lot of hard work has clearly gone into this!

I expect at some point down the road I may consider a full body respray so I'd love to take you up on your offer of the doc if that's ok.

8 minutes ago, sumshiftyguy said:

Superb to see the results Raja. And a lot of hard work has clearly gone into this!
I expect at some point down the road I may consider a full body respray so I'd love to take you up on your offer of the doc if that's ok.

Thanks for the kind words and glad you’re enjoying the updates. More to come! Yep sure, happy to send over. Message me your email address and I’ll ping it over to you tonight [emoji1417].


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Edited May 21, 20223 yr by Raja93

Few points to note. The front bumper hasn’t been fully bolted on as they want to make it easy for Jimmer to remove for the engine work. They still have to fit the new decals to the rear spoiler, fit the rear wiper arm and realign the rear number plate as it’s very slightly wonky. The rear quarter window trims I purchased the Kuruma Z replacements as you can’t purchase OEM 2+2 replacements without buying the whole quarter windows. Unfortunately they are a very dark shade almost black and did not match the OEM door trims so they kept the originals. They are going to apply a oil to the original one to darken it down to match the 2 year old nice door trims. The rear bumper as with a lot of Z bumpers has slight ripples as you get from sun damage. I didn’t mind this and opted to keep my original bumper rather than buy another used one which will have the same issue long term. They still stripped right back to the bare material and did the best they could with it. I was nervous about the spoiler choice but I’m very happy I went with it. I feel it compliments the Z boot perfectly, adds a nice curve to the otherwise very straight block like rear ended, which modernises it a touch to make it timeless - in my opinion of course. Appreciate the original spoiler for all its own merits also, just a personal preference. I’ve always like the CSL-R spoilers but prefer this one as it’s less curved.


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Edited May 21, 20223 yr by Raja93

Popped in and saw Jimmer on the way back. Pleasant visit as always. Took a look at my newly built engine with all the new bits on - very exciting. He was telling me how some of his customer cars with high HP fare against some expensive super cars, which has got me even more excited. The traction control Greg Gush can install sounds absolutely fantastic and capable of putting down the high horsepower very well. The benefits of modern tech courtesy of the Link G4X and Greg’s magic!


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All looking fantastic mate!
 

You may have mentioned already, but what was the main issue that had caused the engine trouble, was there anything specific, or just wear and tear over the years?

2 minutes ago, Dazsw said:

All looking fantastic mate!
 

You may have mentioned already, but what was the main issue that had caused the engine trouble, was there anything specific, or just wear and tear over the years?

A couple of the hydraulic lifters were getting stuck causing idle issues and compression issues as a result. We believe it was due to the oil pump slowly failing, due to age. By failing, it couldn’t provide sufficient oil pressure and oil to the heads, therefore starving the lifters of oil. This was a symptom of its way to failure. One of the turbos was seized as from memory one of the boost pipes was hanging off on one side, causing the opposite bank turbo to over boost, and seize. Compression was down on a good couple of the cylinders - I’m on my phone at the moment so difficult to scroll back and check, but I detailed the issues back in last September/October. I’ve got a photo of the old engine heads and they are squeaky, I mean squeaky clean, which backs up the amount of oil changes you and all the owners have done on this car. No sign of any darkness or varnish layers as you get with engines that have not been maintained. 

Looking amazing this bud  ?  dare i ask what mods you have done to the engine? Traction control is a absolute must i never turn mine of though ?‍♂️ long story short on a recent trip out i out accelerated a new Audi RS6 advent ? the poor guy couldn’t believe it after i slowed down to give him thumbs up ? 

On 21/05/2022 at 18:53, Raja93 said:

A couple of the hydraulic lifters were getting stuck causing idle issues and compression issues as a result. We believe it was due to the oil pump slowly failing, due to age. By failing, it couldn’t provide sufficient oil pressure and oil to the heads, therefore starving the lifters of oil. This was a symptom of its way to failure. One of the turbos was seized as from memory one of the boost pipes was hanging off on one side, causing the opposite bank turbo to over boost, and seize. Compression was down on a good couple of the cylinders - I’m on my phone at the moment so difficult to scroll back and check, but I detailed the issues back in last September/October. I’ve got a photo of the old engine heads and they are squeaky, I mean squeaky clean, which backs up the amount of oil changes you and all the owners have done on this car. No sign of any darkness or varnish layers as you get with engines that have not been maintained. 

No worries bud, oil pump is something we don't ever really think about on cars, water/coolant pumps usually get changed, but you tend to forget about the oil pump with it being away in the depths of the engine.

Safe to say it will be good for many a year once you have finished it ?

On 23/05/2022 at 13:33, gray said:

Looking amazing this bud  ?  dare i ask what mods you have done to the engine? Traction control is a absolute must i never turn mine of though ?‍♂️ long story short on a recent trip out i out accelerated a new Audi RS6 advent ? the poor guy couldn’t believe it after i slowed down to give him thumbs up ? 

Thanks mate, appreciate it. Engine has pretty much had the usual PowerZed rebuild bits, probably similar to yours. Forged internals, AMS manifolds, Z1 B.A intercoolers, bigger intercooler pipework, 3" exhausts, turbos, better cams, 740cc's (already on there), higher flow fuel pump and some other bits n bobs. 

Jimmer mentioned that to me haha - sounds like your Z is an animal. He also mentioned flooring it in a high BHP Z on a test road near Greg's, and although the car felt like it was trying to break loose a little, it never came unstuck from the road. In a normal Z, it would have flung out sideways when flooring it like that he says. Sounds absolutely fantastic, and will help in keeping up with modern cars TBH.

On 23/05/2022 at 14:22, Dazsw said:

No worries bud, oil pump is something we don't ever really think about on cars, water/coolant pumps usually get changed, but you tend to forget about the oil pump with it being away in the depths of the engine.

Safe to say it will be good for many a year once you have finished it ?

Exactly yeah, I never would have thought that was the underlying cause to it. Anyway yeah, glad its all sorted and will be for a long, long time ?

Another batch of photos he sent through, showing some of the detail and also some great angles captured - better than my pictures!

This reminds me I need to get 5mm or so wider rear wheels. Ever since I put 10mm spacers on the fronts to clear the brakes, the rears have looked a bit skinny. Thankfully the bodyshop roll the rear arches on every Z they do and weld the inner arch lip to the body, under seal all the rear arches as well. They even filled all the cavities with wax which is fantastic.


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Engine is now in and running well reportedly! Forget the beastly power and fresh engine, one of the best jobs done is sorting out the AC [emoji7]. Expansion valve was at fault and replaced. Fully refurbished compressor fitted. Jims AC guy has been round and fully commissioned it - gone are the days of dreading traffic on a hot day, sitting in the green house like interior.

Greg is going to remotely put a base map on so she can be taken to get an MOT and run in by Jim, then off she goes to Greg towards the end of July.

In the mean time, trying to sort getting the whole front end covered in paint protection film and rest of the car ceramic coated.

Shame I won’t have her back for the best part of summer but ah well, should have back for mid August, so not too long now.


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Loving the freshly painted plenum, balance bar, valve covers and some new hardware/bolts. Just what the engine bay needed.


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Hi Raja,

I saw your Z at Jimmer's a few weeks ago and in all honesty the pictures do not do it justice, it is absolutely stunning in the flesh, the paintwork and attention to detail is amazing, the car itself looks better than new!