Leaderboard

MOT pass today with no advisories. Great result for a thirty year old car.

Hey all. well I’m happy to say my engine saga is now pretty much behind me and I’m free to move on with my car! So, what does the future hold…. Well I’ve pretty much got to start again. I’m yet to finalise what is salvageable and what isn’t, hopefully I’ll get a definitive answer on that in the not to distant future. However, I know the crank and turbo chargers are goosed and will need replacing. I’ve already sourced a replacement crank and block should I need to replace that…. Turbos are by far my biggest future expense, so will have to take some time to consider my options. I do know I won’t be staying on GT525’s, I simply can’t make full use of my build specs on these turbos. Even with all supporting mods, I’ve hit the limit of what they can safely produce without E85. im also going to do some chassis mods while the engine is out. This will mainly be refreshing bushings and arms with a bit of powder and zinc coating thrown in for good measure. looking forward to getting started and being active again in the Z community….. I’ve really missed it!

I get more excited about this type of stuff, than the big works like the engine build. Both the metal platers and powdercoaters turned it around quicker than quoted, and at great prices, so very happy. Oh so shiny 😍….

O finally managed to take the car out for its first (with me) spirited drive last weekend around the Surrey Hills and down to the coast. Ironic that it took so long considering how long I had to wait to pick it up but...life. Reminding myself this one is for the long game! I'm very glad to report that no serious issues arose which was still a concern for me considering how little I know about the car. The brakes don't seem overly happy when hot with quite a bit of squealing and what I convinced myself was some binding towards the end of the day. Once cool though, all symptoms disappeared so something to look into. Otherwise the car was sublime to drive and I really enjoyed the day. I had set out around 6.30am and didn't get back home til about 3pm so a solid day of driving! I managed to take some pretty photos so have posted a few below. I'm hoping to take the car to Jimmer at the start of September for its manual conversion and a full service. Depending on how long Jimmer will need to keep it and on the weather late Sep / early Oct, I'm hoping I can get out on another drive to enjoy the new manual box before tucking the car away for the cold and wet months..

here are some pictures no wear on the interior like new.Standard exhaust and wheels

I just got back from the Classic Car show at the NEC and WOW, what a weekend, but more on that in a minute! If you remember from the previous blog that damage was going to be fixed by a company that my employer had arranged, so I went over to drop the car off on the Wednesday (1 week before the show). Here is a transcribe of the conversation: Me: "Hi, I'm here to drop off my car" Matey: *pokes damage* "I can do that, but it will be a different colour" (no self introduction) Me: "Sorry, what? Why?" Matey: "Its an old car, its faded" Me: "Its been in storage most of its life and on Friday it had the bonnet, both wings and both bumpers resprayed and they matched fine" Matey: *Walks around car twice* "Oh yeah, well its irrelevant because I'm booked up until January" Me: "It's booked in today at 10am, there is a hire car due here any minute for me." Matey: "I'm not taking it today" Short argument about car needed at car show in 6 days time and my employer told me it was booked in for 10am Matey: "Come back Monday, I might have it ready Wednesday evening." Me: "Hmmmm" As you can imagine this conversation didn't instil a lot of confidence in the car being ready in time or the quality of the dodge, I mean fix! On the drive home, I happened to be passing my guy who did the panels 4 days previous and on the 1% chance of him saying he could do it and more just wanting to show him I popped in: Me: "You know your hard work....well look at this" *points* Glynn: "?!?!?!" Me: "Its bad I know" Glynn: "?!?!?!?!" Me: "Is there anything you can do?" Glynn: "?!?!?!!" Me: "Its due at the car show a week tomorrow..." Glynn: "?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" Me: "?????" Glynn: "I had a phone call today, some guy was supposed to drop his car in 20 minutes ago, he has cancelled. I could do it for you" Me: "I could kiss you" Glynn: "Please dont..." So 2 days later, I got a phone call: Before: After: I could not believe it, I couldn't see or feel any damage! Glynn even polished and waxed the car as well as taking out a few scratches and swirl marks he found too. Thanks Glynn (Again!) So the car was set, I was set and after an age, Thursday came round. I got up at 03:00, left at 04:00. got to the meeting point at 08:45, jet washed the road crap off the car, topped up the tank, waiting for @Aff68 and @AndrewG and then drove convoy to the NEC where @ianl was setting up the stand already. Thursday was a blur of setting up the stand, washing, cleaning, polishing, cleaning again, polishing again, pointing out a missed bit, cleaning again until my entire body hurt. @RichardS dropped in to say hi, to help out and keep us fed and watered which was really nice! At about 18:00 we felt the stand and the cars were ready and I had decided I needed professional help as I found myself cleaning the inside of my wheel arches: "Hello, My name is Tom and I have a problem....!" We had a walk around the show, some clubs were still setting up and others were ready. Having a quick look around really showed the logistical nightmare. When you visit for a day, you don't realise just how much work goes into putting on a show like this. Take our stand for example: A van and trailer stuffed to the gills with professional lights and equipment that had been begged, borrowed and "stolen" was driven up the day before we arrived by some Ian and volunteers, The lighting rig was put up and all the lights setup before we got there, the next day, by Ian and his volunteers. The van was needed else where, so returned to its home, the trailer was left in a carpark the other side of the county and the volunteers had to make their own way home. We had never met these people and yet they were prepared to give up their time to help setup our stand. A massive thank you to them! During our walk around that evening, I turned into a gooey mess when offered a chance to sit in my dream car, which I did not turn down! Then it was off to the AirBnB that had been rented for us for the weekend. The next day we were up early ready for the first day. We cleaned the cars again, tidied the stand and got ready to meet and greet the public! We took it in turn to man the stand, so we could also have a look around the show. Ian and myself managed at two halls a day. Here are a few photos from the day: We met up with Howard and Richard for dinner before heading back to the house to have a beer and sleep. The next day was a long day, the show was opened at 09:00 (so we had to be there at 08:00) and closed at 18:30. Being a Saturday it was a lot busier and where the Friday had lull periods, Saturday was a continuous, constant stream of visitors. Being on your feet for 10 hours is hard work! I had a visit from a special person on Saturday which made my day too! Sunday was the last day of the show. We got there at 08:00-ish again and made sure the cars and stand was perfect. Craig popped in with some club leaflets and t-shirts to make us look a bit more professional which was great! The day was busier still, but went really quickly and at 17:00 it was announced that the show had finished and was closed, to which every car beeped and held their horn on for a good two minutes in celebration. After 4 days, 39 hours on stand, 23-ish hours sleep, 47 microfibre cloths and one stig visit we had done it! However we couldn't leave just yet: Teardown was just starting. Once again, massive thank you to Ian's volunteers, they turned up with a van, a dodge pickup and the trailer from the car park miles away to breakdown the rig, pack everything away and load it up into the vehicles. We stayed on to help as much as we could, but these guys were like a well oiled machine and I think we hindered more than helped in some cases. By 20:15 everything had be packed up, we said our thank yous and good byes and we all drove out. I found it quite emotional, we had been a small part of one of the most prestigious car shows in the country, our humble cars had been lined up with Astons, GT 40s, even a £1.5m Bugatti Veyron and had held their own. So many people had come over to talk to us, to tell us that they had owned one, that they had one or that they wanted one. People young and old were taking photos and asking questions and taking an interest in our cars in such large numbers that it made you realise that young people don't just live on their playstations, older people don't only care about MGs and flat caps and that, most importantly, no matter how much electric gets pushed through in the coming years, people still want to see a massive, complicated JDM V6! Here are some photos from the last day: The drive home for me was the longest at 186 miles. Andrew, Ian and I convoyed until Andrew stopped to get some fuel. Ian and I carried on until he turned off on the M25 and then I carried on by myself until I got home just after 23:00. I am truly thankful for being given the opportunity to take part in the show and to help the club in promoting itself to new comers, un-registered owners and people interested in owning our beloved Zeds. I am also incredibly thankful to @ianl and his team who gave up their time, petrol and money to help us put on the amazing stand that we had. Without them, we would have had a square of carpet and 4 cars. I do hope I get offered the chance to help out and show my car next year, but if others wish to have the experience, I will willingly give up my place for them as it is an amazing experience. Yes its hard work, yes its tiring, yes your feet hurt, yes you spend too much on autoglynn products, but the four of us helped each other along, spurred each other on, supported each other and became really good friends in the process! Until next year....

We did a video earlier this week, the Z hasn't been out the garage since July 2020. So happy for this, this is miles away from professional video, and the guy who helped me with the drone and editing, well he is not really into cars. But still happy. Enjoy Location is Torcross Beach, Devon.

Hello guys! I just wanted to share the fantastic news with you all today - the car was found and recovered by the police earlier today! With all her bits and bobs seemingly in the right place, I believe. I'd like to say a huge thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to Avon and Somerset police. I can't say any more at this time, due to the ongoing investigation, but I'll be back zedding! Thank you all for your thoughts and kind words. All the best, Simon

MOT pass today with no advisories. Always a nice feeling to drive away with that result.

Despite owning a 300zx for almost 12yrs, I've never had a fully working sound system. I wasn't too bothered as I quite like taking in the sounds of a full throttle driving experience but with a Euro road trip coming up and lots of motorways til we reach our destination I decided now would be a good time to replace the redundant Japanese system with something more modern. I had attempted to modernise my last 300zx as well, identifying the components I'd need for my build and even having someone fabricate a double din android tablet holder but I never managed to finish the job before selling. Fast forward to 2023 and there is a lot of choice when it comes to Android headunits which are plug-and-play. The headunit runs Android and can take it's own data-enabled sim but I just hotspot off my mobile instead of having to pay for another mobile contract. My phone also connects via BT for calls, messages, etc. As an Android unit, I can also use all the other usual apps - Waze and GMaps, Whatsapp, GMail, YouTube, Netflix, Prime, etc. I've also installed NDSI for live diagnostics. For speakers, I've kept what was in the car already. I believe the fronts are aftermarket but the rear are stock. I've installed a Cerwin Vega spare wheel (slim) sub which is immense. I contacted CW and discovered that they do not ship or support sales outside the US so I had to do some digging to find a supplier Stateside who would ship to me. In terms of accessories / peripherals, I've installed a USB ODB adapter to work with the NDSI app. It works perfectly except for not reading speed but I'm aware of the fix and just need to get around to doing it. It's proven so shouldn't be any issues there I hope. I've also installed a bullet-style reverse cam fitted in place of the tailgate lock. It's not the highest resolution but much better than expected and is very, very useful. Finally I've installed a wireless charge-pad connected to the quick charge port of the Atoto and situated it in the centre console. The idea is that when I get into the car, I turn on hotspot and then put the phone away in the console, using the Atoto for anything and everything whilst driving. I've been able to do away with the unsightly phone holder and charging cables entirely. Removing the old stuff was also very good as there was a LOT of stuff...the previous owner was definitely running some sort of big AV setup as well as the Japanese told card reader, etc. One thing that has stopped working is the melody box. It must have been wired into the old system but we couldn't figure out how to refit so I'll be looking into replacing that as I loved the authenticity it gave the car...or feeling of! The finished product sounds and performs incredibly well so I'm absolutely chuffed! So is my 2yr old who came for a ride today and was quite content sitting in the back watching Paw Patrol on the HD screen..lol . . .

A few months ago now, when getting an MOT for the Z, the tester left the jacking pads wound up on the sliding jack that sits under the 4 poster lift. Consequently, when the car was reversed off, the jacks were at the perfect height to catch my front bumper lip. 🤦🏻‍♂️ Luckily it was at a very low speed so no structural damage was done to the bumper, however the deflection exceeded the flex of the paint! Some hairline cracks in the paint appeared around the arrested areas so it was off to the bodyshop to refinish. Fast forward missing the AGM, a drive out with Vig and Andrew (in the Z at least), Simply Japanese, some local shows, cars and coffee and I finally have the car back, almost in 1 piece! Just the pin stripes and clusters to go on and it’s good to go again. 😎

I’ll throw a red one into the mix!

Today I was able to replace the light switch pod mount as it was broken and the pod itself was loose and flapping around. No it’s nice and solid for turning on the lights I was also able to fit the 99 rear lights and centre panel I bought from Z Centre. Really easy job, 14 nuts to undo, cleaned all the manky old mastic off with some white spirit (looks like some old gasket was still on there and it had been mastic’d around! Bit of a bodge) but that’s all gone and the kit even comes with a roll of mastic ready to simply unroll on to the back of the lens and then 14 more nuts to do up. It’s very much plug and play. I took care not to do them up too tight as don’t want them to crack but they fit flush and take years off the car.

To finish of took her out of the garage for a good clean and polishing…then put her back ? and there she’ll sit the near as dam it 700bhp beast ?

So, a long overdue post, sorry. Redundancy, change of job, impending house move, first time grandparents, daughter buying house, all seem to have side tracked me away from here. Sold my zeds last year, as some of you would have seen at the time, and more recent ads appearing. Was sad to see them go, but there was good reason behind it. We were weeks away from moving house, and they were sold to fund some much needed work at the new place. I had my blue zed (ex AndyP) Nikk had a purple zed, which had some turbo issues from when it was built and the builder disappeared before fixing. We had the green zed (ex TonyB). As i needed to sell them all fairly quickly, i managed to negotiate a fair enough price with Ifti to take the lot, considering 2 had no MOT at the time. I could certainly have got a bit more if i had sold them separately, or had the time to fix the little issues they all had, but with an impending house move, moving them quickly became the key requirement. However, the house sale/purchase fell through, a couple of times actually, and we ended up staying where we were, but now zedless. After some consideration, we decided not to replace them with another zed, and that gap has been filled with a completely different animal. So i would like to introduce you to the new ride. I hope to be coming along in it to the Sandringham show that Richard has got us space for, so look forward to catching up with some of you again after the previous couple of years isolations. As ever with the zed, niche car ownership brings along a never ending list of little jobs to do, and this is no exception, but i am hoping will add to the enjoyment... ?

First changes for me were to have the big belt service done and fit some Rays 350z wheels along with some coilovers and a boost controller and a Specialty Z chip. After chip install I had the map checked and boost controller set at a local shop. It was making around 330bhp at this point. I had numerous issues after this which I will not go into but the car was in and out of the garage for big engine out jobs (turbos, head work, wiring looms, etc, etc) - a lot of this work was likely not needed or not actually correctly dealing with the issues as it turns out but this is not the place to go into that here. This was at a time when I was taking the car to a certain garage in Doncaster. I will leave it at that. Obligatory breakdown picture below.. It had gotten to a point where I was being told I would need to rebuild my heads (after they had only been done a few months before, apparently) to fix a smoking on overrun issue when I finally turned to PowerZed/Jim for a second opinion. He correctly diagnosed the problem (It wasn't the heads!) and also performed a whole load of other excellent work for me. Suffice to say I wish I had gone to him sooner. The car ran perfectly after PowerZed had worked on it... not to mention the increased performance. There is indeed a reason everyone recommends him here and I could not recommend him any higher myself. He is the best for these cars. Spec at this point is as follows: - Z1 GT535R Turbo Kit - AMS V2 Exhaust Manifolds - AMS 3" downpipes (w/ 3" to 2.5" decat pipes and 2.5" mid section and back) - Z1 BA Intercoolers - Z1 2.5" Intake Piping Kit - Nismo 740cc Injectors - Specialty Z Flywheel & Clutch + Fork Kit - Tein Coilovers - HKS EVC S Boost Controller - Specialty Z Tune As before, I had the car setup on a dyno locally to set the boost controller and check the map. Instructed them not to go over 470bhp to save the engine as compression figures are not the best (will get a rebuild with PowerZed in the future, once my business is more stable and Jim has some time). Final figure was 465bhp, as requested.

History & Context So since selling up my last 300zx in 2016, I've been out 'sowing my wild oats' with other, more modern sports cars in the mistaken assumption that newer (and more expensive) cars were obviously better! I had owned my last 300zx for 10yrs and during that time my friends had overtaken me in the prestige of their machinery and I was sold on the idea that the grass would be greener on the other side. However after a few years of driving and owning a range of other cars I came to the conclusion about 2yrs ago that it wasn't flat out speed, modern tech or price tag that really excited me but the analogue driving experience and quirks that I'd come to love about my old 300zx. And so my search for a replacement manual LWB TT began in earnest! The Search Over the past 2yrs I have been scouring ebay, FB, Autotrader, Pistonheads and this forum to find 'the one' that I would keep forever. The search was slow and I wasn’t holding out much hope. Unfortunately the examples that did come up didn’t quite fit the bill or would involve a little too much remedial work for my appetite considering I’m not single and at the start of my career this time around but married with two kids and a mature career which demands much of my time. About 6mths into my search, I was recommended Josh at Gorilla Imports by Jimmer and Joel as a possible alternative option for sourcing a clean example. A quick phone call with Josh later, I was setup on Gorilla Import’s auctions portal. Over the next 12mths, I was checking the auction sites religiously, on a daily basis. There were a (comparatively) huge number of 300zx in a range of conditions and coming up with some frequency that I was convinced that my next 300zx would almost certainly come directly from Japan! Having never experienced importing a car before I was quite apprehensive, especially with how casual it all felt at the beginning. The idea of buying a car without being able to 'kick the tyres' and handing over all the money to someone I'd never met was pretty unnerving so it took me a while to pay over the deposit to demonstrate my commitment and get access to the auction sheet translation service. Things escalated pretty quickly from here and before long, I had bid (and lost!!) on two lovely examples in the space of a week! Lucky I did though as I learned a lot about myself through the experience and my tolerance for risk…and so my starting budget went up by about 50%, just in time for ‘the one’ to show up! The first I lost The second I lost... The Import Journey As soon as I saw the auction listing I knew this was it. A 1999 version 300zx, something I hadn't even realised existed before seeing this one. I'd seen lots of Version R / S come and go but never one like this and how lucky I was as I'm not a fan of the Recaro seats the others had and was planning for a tan re-trim whichever car I ended up with. I got the auction sheet translated and an on-site visit by Josh’s ‘man on the ground’ who was able to share several photos and videos both inside and out. It looks to be in respectable condition but was listed as a Grade 3 (out of a max 5). The auction sheet and on-site visit didn’t suggest any major issues except for some hesitation from the engine. Josh assured me that all cars must get in/out of the auction house under their own steam which gave me some level of confidence and so after a short deliberation, I went in for a max budget bid….and then went to bed and tried to sleep which was a near impossible ask with the amount of butterflies that were flying around in my stomach!! Due to the time difference, the auctions happen during the early hrs of the UK morning so when I awoke, it was the best surprise to find that I had actually won! The date was Thursday 8 Sept, 2021. The realisation that I had just won a car having never seen it in person and now had to stump up the full amount, knowing it could take weeks til I got my hands on it meant my excitement very quickly turned to apprehension once again and questions of “what have I done??” and “what if the car’s a dud?!” were flying around in my mind. A few days passed during which I made the full payment to Josh and he was able to confirm the car was cleared for transport. From the auction house it made it’s way to the port and I received a few more photos. This helped ease my mind massively as at least I knew it had driven there and was a real car (i.e. not a scam!) and the additional photos showed it looking pretty damn good! Unfortunately, this was when the waiting game really started. The date was Friday 17 Sep, 2021 (auction + 9days). For some reason, despite the shipping delays due to the blocking of the Suez Canal earlier in the year and Covid of course, I was still expecting that the car would make it onto a ship pretty quickly. This was not to be and with each passing day I was again wondering whether I’d made the right decision. A problem exacerbated by seeing a few tidy examples of UK cars come and go on the sales sites here…and usually for less that I had paid. The car did finally make it onto a ship called the Sanderling Ace on Tuesday 26 Oct, 2021 (auction + 40days) and was scheduled to land in the UK on 16 Nov. The neat thing about the internet is that you can find pretty much anything these days, including daily tracking of international freight shipping! So as you could expect, I had the browser page open and refreshed it multiple times a day, pretty much every day. You could likely also imagine my frustration when the 16th of November came and went and the ship was still on the other side of the world to the UK. In fact, freight tracking had its next stop as Jeddah at that time. Cue a flurry of messages to Josh to ask ‘wtf’ but at the end of the day, there was not much he could do about it either other than to assure me the car was real and it was on the ship and the ship was indeed on its way! It felt like a very slow end to the year, where the clock seemed to stand still on the import journey. On Sunday 19 Dec, 2021 the Sanderling Ace landed in Zeebrugge where the car was taken off and would await transhipping to the UK. The New Year brought with it new adventure and on Tuesday 18 Jan, 2022 (auction + 132days) the car finally landed in Newcastle. I had assumed that from here on, the car would be in my hands within a few short weeks but it took almost a week for it to clear customs before Josh could collect it. From there, it made its way to Gorilla Imports where it would undergo a MOT and registration with the DVLA. And no surprise, this too was to be a rather lengthy process, largely driven by covid and a combination of understaffing and I suspect working from home at the DVLA. In the meantime, Josh was good enough to give the car a clean and take some photos and videos for me. In doing so, he also diagnosed that engine hesitation/vibration as a loose injector which once seated correctly, was fully resolved. I was finally able to let out a massive sigh of relief! The following days and weeks were rather eventful with no real news or updates forthcoming. I was however grateful that the car was still with Gorilla Imports, tucked up inside as the weather had been atrocious with one storm after another! On Friday 18 Mar, 2022 the car passed its MOT and finally, on Tue 3 May, 2022 (auction + 237days) Josh confirmed it was registered with the DVLA and ready for me to collect!! Ironically, my schedule was manic in May and I had zero free weekends to travel all the way up from London to Saltburn to collect it but with some brainstorming between Josh and I, we managed to find a mutually convenient date and time for collection. After almost 8mths, I was finally able to see, touch and drive my new Fairlady and it lived up to all my expectations (despite being a stock engined auto!). The 5+ hr drive home was amazing, the sun was out, the car drove perfectly and the traffic around me seemed to part as I approached. Fun & Games Unfortunately due to the time of my arrival home following collection, my wife and kids were not able to come out and see the car so I parked it up on the drive for the night. The following morning I took them out to see it. The girls (aged 1 and 4) had a hoot sitting in the rear bucket seats and I couldn’t wait to start it up so they could feel the exhaust burble underneath them. My memories of my last 300zx are fond though I probably spend as much time having to tinker and fix things as I’d spent driving it and so it seemed this car would continue that tradition, at least initially. On turning the ignition, the car turned over but refused to fire. I could see my 10yrs of previous 300zx ownership flash before my eyes, as well as images of my wife telling me not to repeat my past mistakes by buying another! The show and tell ended fairly abruptly and we went back inside where I’m sure I played with the kids amongst other things but really my mind was just going over all the possible things that might have gone wrong between my parking it up the night before and the morning. It was a pretty short list! I checked a few things but nothing stood out as being broken / out of place but upon turning over the engine once more (and for a little longer) it was my 4yrs old who asked me whether the car wasn’t working because it was leaking….? I jumped out pretty quickly to see a trail of fuel streaming down the drive. Fortunately AndrewG lives just around the corner and with his help a few days later we identified the exact source of the fuel leak and were able to sort it relatively easily. Future Plans Since then the car has been cleaned and driven about fairly locally but due to a busy schedule and terrible weather, I’ve not been on any longer drives just yet but hopefully that will improve over the summer months. In terms of plans for the car, aside from a full service asap, I’m planning for a manual conversion and a PowerZed rebuild sometime down the line but am in no particular rush for either. My focus is to keep the car OEM+, akin to a few others in the Club like AndrewG and JoelyP. Most of all is to share my love of the car and motoring in general with my kids so hoping for a much better ratio of driving:maintenance with this one!

Now that the car had somewhere safe to park, I figured it was about time to get it properly detailed and paint corrected. It certainly needed it with all of the carcoon damage! We have a couple of detailers as partners in my other car club so after some back and forth with them, I took my car over to Car Detailing and Protection based in Feltham. Nav is a lovely guy and really loved having some old JDM to work on to break up the 'monotony' of super and hyper cars! The difference is astounding! I feel like the gold wheels suit the car much better now it's not covered in swirls!! However this will be the last paint correction I'm able to do as the paint is now too thin in a lot of places to take another correction. I may need to bring forward me wrap / paint plans. Nav was also able to pull out about 7 small dings - I was only aware of 3! Something else that Nav was able to do for me was to validate the feedback I'd received from others about some damage to the car - confirming that a previous detailer has burned through the lacquer on my rear bumper and due to not taping anything off, has burned into my window trims. Neither error can be reversed or corrected and is a detailing 101 mistake to make. Unfortunately too much time has passed since I had that detail done for any recourse but my lesson learned is to never take a recommendation at face value, even if it comes from someone otherwise highly reputable.. I won't mention any names but I'm extremely p*ssed about it. The window trims alone will set me back a substantial amount to replace. . . .

Nothing today (yet) but on Saturday, I replaced my heater control pod with a shiny new (well second-hand form Ebay) one..... The text around the washer controls had faded over the years, so this is a big improvement!! I then polished the headlamp/cruise control pod with some Autoglym paint renovator so they both match once more 😉 One thing I learned about the heater control.... The actual control switches/display unit come out of the control pod.... So you can buy either a series one or series two, remover the four little screws that hold in the switch section and replace it with your original one. Handy to know, if you can't find a nice example of the right one for your Zed 🙂

Hot on the heels of the AV setup, I also wanted to adjust the stance. I had been looking into BBKs such as the Akebono and when I discovered that they wouldn't fit under my BBS LMs, the thought did cross my mind to replace the wheels but wanting to delay that expense, I opted for spacers. The fronts, as they are running Porsche calipers, already had 10mm spacers on them but the rears were not. I opted to go 20mm on the front and put the 10s on the rear. I think the rear sits perfectly now but the fronts could do with some positive camber adjustment BEFORE AFTER . BEFORE AFTER . BEFORE AFTER

Finally getting around to making a thread for my Z. Wanted to get one going for my own sake just to track the history and changes on the car. Currently the car is off the road and has been for the last year as I started a business in January 2021 and needed a sensible vehicle for that, not to mention not being able to afford running a weekend car while trying to get a business off the ground but at least I managed to save myself from selling it! It was my daily driver for a period prior to going back into hibernation thought. It has undergone some changes while it has sat in my garage, I think not being able to drive it tends to drive you to fettle! It is probably going to take a while to get this caught up to the current day but will update as and when I have some time. The owner prior to me had a thread going which can be found below - but any core info and pics are in this post. I actually managed to get in contact with the previous owner via email and they shared some old photos and confirmed some details about the car. Prior to him taking it on from a friend of his in 2011, the car had been stood after said friend damaged the turbo housings after a failed downpipe swap - I assume it then became a project that was never returned to. I believe prior to that it was owned by someone who was also personally known to the owner before me and was bought as a work vehicle from new. Pictures from its initial rescue from "barn find" state are below. The previous owners intent was to restore the car to OEM state only and when I bought the car it was indeed standard all the way through - including the original radio, etc. They mechanically restored the car and had a body shop perform a full respray in 2011 too. The car then spent event more time unused between the project completion by the previous owner before it was sold on and listed for sale by a dealer sometime in 2017. Once again it sat around, this time for sale at that dealership for a couple of years and I believe they originally had a very high asking price (at the time) for it - at least based on the comments on the Pistonheads article about it here: Nissan 300ZX: Spotted | PistonHeads UK The comments in the link also feature some input from the previous owner and someone else who knew the car. I ended it's time sitting at the dealership and bought the car in 2019. Pictures from the day of pickup are below.

Also cleaned up the fuel rail as that looked a bit worse for wear. Here's a before shot Before after is to be continued once all cableing sorted...

Still a work in progress but its the furthest its been from my garage in a few years nearly.

Finished putting the engine bay back together this morning and got out on the road. Went straight to Shell and filled up with V power and pumped tyres up. Bought one of those fancy Ctek battery chargers which reconditioned it and fully charged before I got her out. Started right up trouble free. Few pics of the engine bay below. Hard to appreciate the new powder coated bits and zinc coated bolts without seeing it in person. Driving it was absolutely glorious. Forgot the attention this thing gets - within a few hours had 3 different people talking to me about it! God Dam I missed driving the beast 😍.

Hi all, My name is Tom, quite a few of you will know me, have met me and already cant stand me! For those that dont know me, the rumours are true and believe everyone! 😁 I have been strong-armed(!) into becoming the clubs NEO or National Event Organiser which involves planning, organising and attending shows for the club. I have always enjoyed this aspect of club membership and have been planning events and meetups for the past couple of years in the South Region. With COVID in the rear-view mirror and spring around the corner, I would like 2023 and onwards to bring us all together once again. We all love these cars and it doesnt matter if its a pristine garage queen or a rusty project, we need to see them out and about. You, yourselves need to get out in them and enjoy them. Chasing perfection will never make you happy if the car stays stuck in the dark. Meeting up with all of us for a drive, a lunch, an overnight stay or an epic trip will put a smile on your face and bring the mojo back! As I am based in the South, I know the local shows around here well, however Im not so hot on the rest of the country and google can only take me so far. I am asking all of you to post about shows that are local to you, regional to you or even national. Dont assume I know about the show! My plan is to create a map here on the website with: Shows/events as one type of marker Fun meeting places as another type Nice routes to drive as another I will keep the map up to date with your suggestions so that you can find things easily and if you are travelling to a new area you can look up some nice locations and routes. On top of that, I will keep the events threads up to date with shows and meetings, organise club stands at shows and be welcoming to all of you! Its very easy for a small club like us to become clicky. We are inclusive and open, so if you see any of us at a show come up and introduce yourself. Lets get to know each other away from the keyboard...

Hey everyone, Hardly a newbie but have been inactive for so long figured this would be the best place to reengage. Really good see most of the old gang on here still promoting the Z32. Began doing a full top to bottom rebuild of my Fairlady last year. Motor stripped down and delivered to TDI with goal to produce a fast high reving NA with over 300bhp. You may have seen the social media updates from TDI of the VG30 with the orange block, that's me. Certainly not the most frugal option but I love my NA and plan on making it the best in the UK. Will be updating/replacing the full drive train, new wiring looms, window out paint job, you get the picture. Currently sharing a lock up with Nick Z32 who is a real source of inspiration and knowledge. That's it for now, will begin posting stupid questions and rude banter regularly after I get my membership sorted.

That little Audi Q2 that Brian has is apparently quite a rare beasts ?‍♂️limited addition only 100 made he has one of 76 in the uk ? It’s got loads of extra’s and has 376bhp the Lamborghini is a STO special addition 631bhp and sounds amazing I never said anything about my zed other than some crazy bast—d from Bristol built it on the m56 they were shocked especially young dave in his Lamborghini when he booted it and found me along side him…we dropped the Audi at touch of the throttle ? when we arrived at cars and coffee dave said how was that possible the old Datsun keeping up and the Lamborghini not pulling away ? said he was selling it as soon as he gets home ?

Took the Z out of the garage to do some detailing on the BMW and Lee took this picture. On the 1st of June it will be taxed and back on the road ?

Taxed and tested ?

New wheels on! 18” Work Emotion GT5’s with Pilot Sport 5 tyres. Very happy.

Took the car out for a blast yesterday. First run since last November (NEC show). Started on the first twist of the key and ran like the proverbial sewing machine. Such nice cars to drive. Even got a howl of approval!

Intro - After more than 15 years of ownership, many great meets, road trips, and track days, my Fairlady is going through a full top to bottom rebuild. During many of the meets I discussed building the ultimate NA with Slick Pete as we shared the love of high revving NA motors. Almost everyone recommends going TT conversion or LS swap as the easy way to high power but I wanted something unique. So after securing some workspace with NickZ32 the tear down began. Its been slow going but continues to move forward. Will provide updates as I pull together photos and details

Looking forward to collecting my new Fairlady 300zxtt on Monday its now arrived from Japan.Took a little longer to arrive as the ship had to go around the Cape instead of the Suez.Will post some pics next week.

I've not been working on my zed for a very long time, since the last engine failure to be more precise. Few months back i managed to get a lockup in my area which i originally planned to move all my zeds into and start working again stripping and building back up what i needed to get the purple zed back on the road. However this place wasn't exactly insured in any way and also wasn't the best place for security either so only the two breakers were moved in, then unfortunately time went on and i never had time to do much on them. The only thing i've managed to do on the breaker was lift one of the spare engines out, and that's now sitting on a spare tyre. Working out costs of this unit and the costs of the office that i currently rent i'm taking the opportunity to combine both next month and upgrade my unit to a proper works unit and build and move into a new office. The new place is clinically clean compared to the old unit but it will likely take a month to move everything over and then i still need to build my new office inside that unit too; so lots to do in a month. Planning wise we are going to build a new office base inside this larger unit with an operational place to work with the garage being used for stock and the play toys. This place will be fully insured, alarmed and covered by cctv so happy to move the purple zed in and start work again. So hopefully within a month i'll get the old zeds fully broken up and the purple zed finished with the working engine out the black zed for now and in the future when i get the performance engine back off jimmer i can get that fitted. Lots to do over the next months and with me wanting to attend the NEC this year again we dont have much time to do it all.

Body repairs were delayed due to my body guy needing an Op but the Sills have finally been completed. A lot more work was required than I imagined, and the complexity of the sill construction was the highest the welder had ever seen in a non-convertable, Did you know there are 5 layers of metal in the sill? A few more small jobs and should be ready for paint!

....And today I collected my Zed from the paint shop....! I also had the OS rear quarter resprayed, as I have never been 100% happy with that panel since 2018. Oh, and I had the spoiler re-done too; the fibre glass had cracked above the brake light screws.... 😉 They did a very good job, the colour matches perfectly! Albeit after I got home, I noticed they forgot to paint the lower part of the rear bumper, so I'll have to drop it back for a day next week. It's just a blemish on the textured part of the lower LH corner, an easy fix - but it did bother me a little that it wasn't done. He's is a good guy though - proper old-school skilled sprayer... He's recommended by all the classic car owners in the surrounding villages!

Assorted pictures from this years show (click for hi-res). And of course no NEC show would be complete without...

Fresh from my 5day and almost 1700mile trip to Switzerland, my overwhelming takeaway is that the 300zx, even in near stock form is an absolute delight to drive (and drive v v hard!). I went down with a modified R35 GTR and a stock V8 M6 which meant on the straights and motorways, I was nowhere near being able to keep up on pulls but once we were on the Alpine passes, it was a totally different story! The lower power and lighter car, the 300zx was incredibly nimble and at reasonably high speeds. The car never once stepped out on me, even in the wet (except when intended for some cheeky sideways action)! The only problem was a tyre blowout on the first full day due to hitting a rogue rock which had rolled across the road. A huge annoyance which almost ruined the trip and the day but we managed to salvage and get a replacement fitted the same day. It did however damage the rim slightly and I have a very small leak as a result but this didn't cause any issues for the remainder of the trip so I'm not rushing into an urgent fix but am considering binging the refurbishment f the rims forward in my plans instead. I think I may upgrade the brakes at the same time. The only thing stopping me from getting a BBK previously was that the ones I was thinking of wouldn't fit under my 18" LMs but if I'm changing those anyway, then I may as well hange the brakes now too. I'm quite happy with the power but may also sort out an EBC and get it installed and mapped (and the 115mph limit removed!!). There is so much I could recount but most of it is documented on my IG - I'll include some links below with some of the best photos which sum up the trip. https://www.instagram.com/itsmrvig https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxWLqYdtQj9/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxY1xlstQvA/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxbfKsjt4Wq/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxgsQgkNl3r/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxjUAf2NS4O/?hl=en Grimsel Pass Furka Pass San Bernadino Pass Zernez (next to our hotel or the night) . Stelvio Pass Top of Stelvio . Gotthardstrasse (just outside Andermatt) Susten Pass . Susten Pass around Golden Hour Arch Dam - Lukmanier Pass - it was blowing an absolute gale so the drone was really struggling. The videos have come out better than the photos .

Replaced both OEM windscreen washer motors which (in my experience) are prone to seal failure and leak washer fluid onto the floor. Bought a pair of Trico aftermarket motors from the US. These are the exact same size as the OEM units and pop into place. I reused the short motor harnesses/plugs to wire up the motors to the existing body harness. For reference: Front washer motor: chassis/body harness plug LG/B (light green/black) wire is Acc switched +12v, P (pink) is switched ground signal. Rear washer motor: chassis/body harness plug LG (light green) wire is Acc switched +12v, LG/B (light green/black) is switched ground signal.

Just a few pics covering the tear down plus the last pic I have of me driving the Z from Oct 2017. Engine looked OK when mounted but pretty worn as it was exposed. Bearings showed some wear after over 200K miles but not bad considering how hard I pushed at track days. t

Went down to PowerZed on Wednesday, left at 5:30am with my friends driving my daily down in a convoy. Always a good drive down the M4 😁. Got my oil and filter changed, power steering J hose swapped for a genuine item, coolant leak fixed which was due to my original rad to engine coolant pipe pitting by the hose join, letting fluid seep out and my BDE transmission mount swapped for a new Nismo one. My old transmission mount was powdercoated and new hardware was sourced, so all fitted squeaky clean. I polished the beautiful Kakimoto exhausts with some Autosol, whilst they were off the car and they look brand new again! Dropped the Z off at the bodyshop afterwards to:- - refix the targa A pillar rubber which wasn’t put on right on the passenger side - fit replacement tail lights as my original ones cracked when the tuner left it out for a month in last years august heatwave - fix the drivers side sill which the tuner bent, minor straightening of the passenger one - sort some heat damage to the T bar area paint from last august and polish out some lacquer burn. They’ll finish it off by a 3 stage polish to the areas not PPF’d (from the doors and back) and new ceramic coating. Hoping to pick up next weekend and enjoy for the rest of summer 😍😀. Jim donated a used engine harness bracket for the left of the plenum as the loom is loose currently - worried it may damage the left strut tower paint from rubbing. Going to powdercoat and fit it soon. Got a plan to refinish all the throttle linkages - Jim suggested he could send me some spare bits he’s got so I can refinish at my local metal platers, then I can go down to him to simply swap it all over, rather than have any downtime.

Got mine out of hibernation, a good wash, then new matching plates fitted.

A few pics after today’s clean - good old car park lighting, for maximum effect [emoji41]

So on Saturday, I headed west to Infinity Exhausts - next door to Jimmer - to have a nice new exhaust built and fitted.... ........It looks just like the BB system from America, so the tails fill the apertures in the rear bumper very nicely. I didn't go for an X- or H-pipe link, keeping each side separate, just like my old Mongoose. Mindful that I didn't want it too loud, the guys at Infinity added a small silencer each side, just after the cats.... So it makes a nice burble right out back at idle, yet still remains relatively quiet at motorway speeds. Plus I asked for the tails not to protrude past the rear bumper, like my old system did.... And they got everything just right!! Needless to say, I am extremely happy with the result ? Plus I popped in for a chat, a cup of tea and a sandwich with Sir Jimmer too!!!

And some more progress [emoji7] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Put a good few miles on the beast this weekend..obviously trying not to press that loud pedal to much as Julie goes nuts at me ? but roof off and plenty of smiles over the last few days really enjoying what we/jimmer have built ?

Thought I’d spoil the old girl with some nice new rear lights

Great news, we have officially been offered a stand at the NEC Classic Motor Show 2021. This year we will be in Hall 5 - Stand number: 5-270. As a subscribed member of the 300ZX Owners Club and to gain access to public viewing of the show please use the discount code CCS750. More information about the event and who can put their car on the stand will follow shortly.

I Genuinely feel sorry for any 300zx owner who has been turned over by any so called 300zx specialist. These traders are not trading here as they have been banned or they dont have rights to sell here. This is the 300zx club for enthusiasts were you will get help and advice of the highest quality. Do not confuse us with Face Book pages they have little moderation on members who go bad so stay away from them. Do your posting here and support a club which will look after you. I have had a 300zx for over ten years now with no major problems so my advice is buy a good one, keep it as near standard as possible and join the only 300zx club in the UK and Ireland for the best advice from proper enthusiasts.