After importing mine in 2016 I FINALLY got round to getting some paint work done that I'd been meaning to do from the beginning.
...but not after I opportunistically bought some CZP intercoolers. I saw them for sale after someone had test fitted them to their car for a few days (without an engine), but then decided to scrap the car. So I got them for a good price, and thought it would be good to get the front bumper off and get them fitted, before the bumper was resprayed, so that I didn't have to take it off again. I'm not much of a photo person, but I got a few.
I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to take the bumper off!
Here's an original intercooler behind it's duct
And here's a CZP one
They are advertised as being direct bolt on replacements, with only trimming of the duct required. I watched a video of someone else bolting them straight into place, but there was no way in hell that was happening for me. After a lot of faffing, I had to bend the inner bracket on each in the vice. I also found that the duct wouldn't bolt directly to the face, the mounts ended up about 1cm from the face of the intercooler, so I had to mess about spacing them out which was a real pain. So I'm less than impressed with CZP calling them direct replacements.
Also the amount of 'trimming' required was very extreme! Don't have photos, but I must have taken 5cm off the leading edge of each. I also had to trim the outer top edge as it fouled the indicators. But ultimately, they're in and the fitment is fine once finished, so I'm happy.
Took it for a test drive and wow I really thought they made a huge difference, way more than I had expected. Seemed like it had more low-end grunt/less lag to me, maybe that's a symptom of just more power overall though? Who knows, but I'm dead chuffed with them! I had also changed the steering rack bushes - wish I had done that years ago! Always thought the steering felt a bit dead, changes direction like a fly now.
As an aside, I contemplated doing a carbon cannister delete whilst I was there, but once I read into it I personally thought it sounded like a stupid idea. Fuel tank vent hanging around open in the front bumper? No thanks....
Anyway, managed to get them done a day before it went in for paint. Both the bumpers needed doing, and the rear hatch had a small bubble in one of the rear corners. the rest of the car is completely rust free and it was undersealed as soon as it came in, so I wanted to nip this bit in the bud! The rear spoiler also had some cracks in it, and there were various bits and pieces here and there that needed minor attention.
Was nervous about the rear screen coming out, but it was all fine.
You can see the bubble. Luckily it hadn't gone all the way through, so it was relatively easy for the shop to get rid of all of it. The other corner had some surface rust as well, so good to get that sorted.
Paint code is QN0 which is a 3 stage pearl white. Pearls are notoriously hard to colour match. Even Nissan themselves did a shit job matching them from the factory IMO. Look at almost any picture of a pearl white zed, 350z and 370z included, and you can see a big difference between the bumpers and the rest of the car (some angles and lighting look worse than others of course though). So honestly I think the shop did a great job, here's the end result (got it all polished too which was well wothwhile)
Missing it's pinstripe at the moment, it's in the post. I'm very pleased with it, I had sort of got used to the poor condition of the bumpers before, it looks soooo much better now.
I used Andy's Autobarn in Ashford (west London), not cheap but you get what you pay for! I would recommend them.
Now just got to wait a while until the missus forgets how much I've just spent, then want a new clutch and flywheel as I'm pretty certian the cheap XTD one in there I took from my last zed is rattling, and put my refurbished gearbox in as the current one leaks! There's always something isn't there...
After importing mine in 2016 I FINALLY got round to getting some paint work done that I'd been meaning to do from the beginning.
...but not after I opportunistically bought some CZP intercoolers. I saw them for sale after someone had test fitted them to their car for a few days (without an engine), but then decided to scrap the car. So I got them for a good price, and thought it would be good to get the front bumper off and get them fitted, before the bumper was resprayed, so that I didn't have to take it off again. I'm not much of a photo person, but I got a few.
I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to take the bumper off!
Here's an original intercooler behind it's duct
And here's a CZP one
They are advertised as being direct bolt on replacements, with only trimming of the duct required. I watched a video of someone else bolting them straight into place, but there was no way in hell that was happening for me. After a lot of faffing, I had to bend the inner bracket on each in the vice. I also found that the duct wouldn't bolt directly to the face, the mounts ended up about 1cm from the face of the intercooler, so I had to mess about spacing them out which was a real pain. So I'm less than impressed with CZP calling them direct replacements.
Also the amount of 'trimming' required was very extreme! Don't have photos, but I must have taken 5cm off the leading edge of each. I also had to trim the outer top edge as it fouled the indicators. But ultimately, they're in and the fitment is fine once finished, so I'm happy.
Took it for a test drive and wow I really thought they made a huge difference, way more than I had expected. Seemed like it had more low-end grunt/less lag to me, maybe that's a symptom of just more power overall though? Who knows, but I'm dead chuffed with them! I had also changed the steering rack bushes - wish I had done that years ago! Always thought the steering felt a bit dead, changes direction like a fly now.
As an aside, I contemplated doing a carbon cannister delete whilst I was there, but once I read into it I personally thought it sounded like a stupid idea. Fuel tank vent hanging around open in the front bumper? No thanks....
Anyway, managed to get them done a day before it went in for paint. Both the bumpers needed doing, and the rear hatch had a small bubble in one of the rear corners. the rest of the car is completely rust free and it was undersealed as soon as it came in, so I wanted to nip this bit in the bud! The rear spoiler also had some cracks in it, and there were various bits and pieces here and there that needed minor attention.
Was nervous about the rear screen coming out, but it was all fine.
You can see the bubble. Luckily it hadn't gone all the way through, so it was relatively easy for the shop to get rid of all of it. The other corner had some surface rust as well, so good to get that sorted.
Paint code is QN0 which is a 3 stage pearl white. Pearls are notoriously hard to colour match. Even Nissan themselves did a shit job matching them from the factory IMO. Look at almost any picture of a pearl white zed, 350z and 370z included, and you can see a big difference between the bumpers and the rest of the car (some angles and lighting look worse than others of course though). So honestly I think the shop did a great job, here's the end result (got it all polished too which was well wothwhile)
Missing it's pinstripe at the moment, it's in the post. I'm very pleased with it, I had sort of got used to the poor condition of the bumpers before, it looks soooo much better now.
I used Andy's Autobarn in Ashford (west London), not cheap but you get what you pay for! I would recommend them.
Now just got to wait a while until the missus forgets how much I've just spent, then want a new clutch and flywheel as I'm pretty certian the cheap XTD one in there I took from my last zed is rattling, and put my refurbished gearbox in as the current one leaks! There's always something isn't there...
Edited by Chris
Fixed pictures