I was searching for about 6 months before I found this Z32 for sale. Doesn’t have any written history with it but it was imported around 2004 as shown registered in January 2005. It’s only had 3 previous keepers.

It’s LWB, Twin Turbo, manual targa too currently showing 93,000 miles roughly but apparently the first 70k is actually KM and the last 20k in miles so approximately 63k miles although I can’t verify this.

The previous owner to me had the car about 3 years and had the sills and arches replaced due to rust and then had it resprayed in a Mercedes Black. It was originally black anyway. The car has some Brembo brakes off an Evo 8 on the front and a large wing on the back.

Interior is standard grey velour and is in really good condition, has a few interior pieces that have cracked but everything works! Has a double din radio installed with car play which is cool but the fascia is a single din that’s been ‘modified’ for it to fit. I’ll need to get a proper double din one at some point.

Engine is stock, although it has a Mishimoto radiator and an open cam cover so has obviously had some work done at some point. Also has some aftermarket HID’s I believe.

The wheels are Axe, I don’t know the model, but are 18” and 8.5j all round.

It has a very light oil leak but runs and drives really nicely, no crunching in the gearbox and pulls nicely.

Initial Plans

As I don’t have any history with it, it’s going to Jimmer for a full service, new belts, new gearbox oil, diff oil, filters, the works. If anything else needs doing then I’ll loook at that. Probably a rear main seal too but I’ll wait and see what Jimmer says. That’s happening at the beginning of May.

I’m having the brakes changed to R33 Skyline callipers as the current setup means it’s hard to find new wheels to fit.

On to wheels, I’m choosing a new set soon to replace the current ones as they are in poor condition!

Im planning on ordering a new wing and some other bits from Z1 and will get them fitted by a bodyshop.

I’ve got a set of 99 rear lights and centre panel read to be installed, bought from Z Centre, which will look great. Just need to get round to fitting them.

Depending on how much money I’ve got left I’m planning on taking it to get the underside stripped back, rust treated and under sealed to give it some protection.

 

 

The long term plans for the car are about keeping it relatively stock with a few nice upgrades, OEM+ If you like. I’d like to redo the interior with Alcantara.

I might look at upping the power in the future as well but probably no more than 400bhp as I want to keep this as a nice cruiser for weekends and to take to some shows.

It’ll live in my garage and probably be mainly a summer car!

They cleaned up nicely

So here’s a question. Im missing some trim and have been putting it back on bit by bit, around the inside of the boot lid are a couple of strips I’ve got but I still feel like I’m missing something and not sure how to attach them.

Can anyone help me out here?

I’ll put up pictures of what I’ve got but there are still some holes where something else was clearly attached before

As far as I remember they fit under the rear spoiler (mine is the 1990 spec) so you will need to remove what you have there to fit them.

That might explain it, have you got any photos? Might need to bodge mine

I took some photos of mine the other day - not sure if it’ll help you much or not...[emoji2375]


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In hindsight I shoulda taken some further away pics so you can get a better idea - will do soon and upload.


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Thanks Raja, think they will help

Good news! Passed the MOT today, 3 advisories, minor non structural corrosion underneath, and brake pipes on one side obscured by muck etc

Happy with that. Plan to get the underside all cleaned up and undercoated next year anyway.

Well done Howl ?

This weekends task was to fit the Mongoose Catback exhaust I bought second hand from Banzai Breakers!

With it up on axle stands, I found that the Cats have obviously had some work on them before as it looked like a new bracket had been welded on and some previous bolts had sheared and some headless bolt threads welded in. It was a bit of a bodged mess.

We ended up having to drill out 3 of the 4 holes in the end and have used nuts and bolts to attach the new exhaust. The easiest thing was to remove the whole exhaust including the Cat section so we could really get at it rather than trying to faff about with it still attached. Was very easy to take off and the nuts were quite loose where the Cat section attached to the down pipes.

There were also no gaskets where the down pipes meet the cat section so we made some up from a sheet of gasket material and then we found the gaskets from the Cat to the Catback had almost completely disappeared! I think a previous owner had just reused the ones that were there when they put the Japspeed on and they were total garbage. Will explain I got a fume smell under throttle when the windows were down!

I’ve also found a hanger on the cat is totally missing, and two hangers that should be on the car further back are also gone so a trip to the exhaust shop is coming up next week to get it all squared away!

Anyway, the exhaust is now on as best I can, there may be a cable tie or two on it temporarily! Once it was on, I took it for a gentle run out, and after it was warm I pulled over and it appears a weld has failed on one of the sections as it was blowing a bit.

These are the challenges with second hand parts but still, should be an easy fix when the hangers get done!

It does, however, sound and look great! I’m really pleased with how it has come out. The drone has gone and it’s quieter when cruising and has a bit of a rasp too it under acceleration!

After showing my car the NEC Classic Car Show in November, I had the battery warning light come on the drive home.

I already had the car booked in for an alignment at a Nissan Specialist so thought I’d just get him to look at it.

On the drive, I found it was sounding rough and vibrating noticeably on idle.

At the specialist, I found that the alternator was on its way out and only charging at 4k RPM. But the vibration was actually being caused by it only running on 5 cylinders with no. 5 not firing.

Going to do some investigating soon to try and figure out the problem, hopefully just an ignition pack that needs replacing!

Thats a great looking car with some nice changes, definately like the new wing over that high wing. 

Thanks Jay!

To try and solve the problem with cylinder 5 I’ve done the following:

1. Swap the ignition pack with cylinder 1. Didn’t fix it.

2. Cleaned the connectors on the PTU. Didn’t fix it.

3. Swapped the spark plug with cylinder 1. Didn’t fix it.

The cylinder will fire on a cold start for the first 30-60 seconds before it stops so I feel like the injector is ok as it’s obviously working then.

I’ve read about all the Series 1 PTU’s failing so I’m going to upgrade it to a series 2 and see if that helps! It’s been relocated at some point in its life and the wiring looks ropey so that will probably need doing as well.

New problem!

While putting the balance tube back on after swapping coil packs etc, the two screws that hold the passenger side on have both dethreaded the inside of the plenum. ?‍♂️

Hey Rob,

Looks like you may have found your miss-fire problem mate! Upgrade to a S2 PTU and (proper) wiring harness....

...And as for the balance bar, gently re-tap the threads in the plenum with a tapping tool and get some new bolts.

Inconvenient, but not insurmountable ?

Good luck mate!

Richard 

It feels like it’s been forever since I last drove the car!

Well it’s now with Nispro in Haddenham. Walton (owner) is a Nissan expert, more with the RB and SR engines, but he seems to know his onions and with Jimmer being so far away I thought give them a try.

Its currently in for a new alternator and HICAS joints and then an alignment but the main thing will be pulling the plenum and installing an injector kit to allow the later style injectors to be mounted on the earlier fuel rail.

I also bought a second hand plenum off Banzai Breakers to replace the one with the stripped threads.

I bought the kit from CZP and ordered all the gaskets. At the same time, Walton is going to do the coolant delete as well.

I hope this solves the problem (it’s cost a few quid already) but if it doesn’t then I think the loom must be knackered!

Compressions test results all good. All cylinders up around 140-150 so happy days there!

The intake hoses however were all pressing and brittle, fortunately I had a set of Mishimoto ones in the garage that I was going to fit when it was back anyway!

The pipes are 30 years old this year so probably not going to be the last that’ll need replacing. 

Not bad for 30 years of service to be fair! Glad compression is consistent and ok. 

9 hours ago, Raja93 said:

Not bad for 30 years of service to be fair! Glad compression is consistent and ok. 

I have definatly seen worse....on some of my old cars! 😆

Yeah could have been much worse!

New injectors are in and it’s being put back together. The second hand plenum cleaned up way better than I imagined it would. It looks shinier in the photo to be fair than in real life but happy with that.

Enjoying following along!

Edited March 17, 20232 yr by Peage

Got the car back today, I’m very happy, my wife and credit card are not! 😂

It’s had a lot of work done, the mechanic faced a few hiccups along the way but ultimately the new injectors are in and the engine is running really smooth and idling nicely. When taking the old ones out, he found the connectors were very corroded and one was really brittle and started to fall apart as he removed it!

The new injectors were mounted in the fuel rail and pressure tested and had no leaks so the kit I bought was a good one.

The coolant delete has been done and there are new Mishimoto air and water hoses, and a few new fuel lines as well replacing some of the brittle old ones. The alternator is also charging the battery again!

While replacing the Hicas ball joints and setting the car up he went to adjust one of the tie rod ends (I’m probably wrong with this component but picture shows what I mean!) and he found that the thread had previously snapped off and where as there is normally an inch or so of adjustment, he had about 2 threads!!! Bit of a close call there.

I’m very happy with how it ran on the drive home and hopefully now, although it’s cost a fortune, it should be set for many more years of running. The only downside is he said he might  or want to work on the VG30’s anymore as it was such a pain!

Next thing to do is install the new double din fascia I’ve bought and when the weathers warmer and drier I’m planning on taking the front seats out and giving them a full on wet vax and soapy clean!

Glad to see it running nice again Rob, I'm going to be doing injectors I think next 😃 enjoy

Had a cheeky engine bay clean up today. Nothing amazing but a good scrub and clean up has taken a lot of grime off

Edited March 27, 20232 yr by RobHowl