dougal200

No problem mate, once it is done i will need no excuses to get out and drive it

This ok for you http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=143092

ive driven through geneva in early jan, was -20 but perfectly ok worst bit was driving back up the m20

sounds good to me. there is a vast difference in labor required between a quick blowover and a proper job which this sounds like what colour blacks are those, my car has gone from metallic to solid you can spend alot more than 2.2k on a paint job but this should be good

Just finished my first triathlon today. quite pleased with myself, 1/4 mile swim, 17 mile bike 4 mile run - 1 hour 42 mins not exactly the fastest time (1hour 15) but not to bad considering ive only been training for 10 weeks

we bought a new flat about 5 years ago but moved out after about a year, we have been renting it out ever since with no real trouble. we use an agency and they take their 10%, but they do deal with any maintenance issues once they have asked us etc. we live about an hour away so cant always get over there. it is in quite a nice area and isnt at the cheap end of the market so it does tend to get better looked after. just my experience

i used to have a set of those on my s14, they worked well, but need the right springs on them, the 10/8s were way too stiff

thanks guys, your encouragement goes a long way to keeping the motivation up. off for a swim now, triathlon in 3 days ahhhhhhhhhhh

thanks guys, kind words indeed

Thanks for the kind words jimmer, maybe one day i will grace it with one of your amazing rebuilds. thats it for the moment folks future plans are to have the underside painted before it gets too cold, suspension/new brake lines and maybe engine in over the winter. most of the body work is painted (all removable bits) so its just the shell to paint in the spring and finish rebuilding for next years jae. oh i have forgotten to take photos of the retrim. maybe ill save those. going to bed now anyways

on a more positive note the rebuild begins new inner sills are available but expensive and alot of work to fit, where possible i have made my own repairs. this is the outer inner sill and is import to get right as a lot of the strength of the car is in this area, i have made it in two parts both layers at the front have been replaced, this was quite a tricky part to get correct. i am aiming to do seamless repairs where possible and it should look oem once painted up i also had to make to inner skin, i used 1.5mm plate here as opposed to the 1mm used everywhere else same goes for the rear inner skin, notice the embossed holes, these were a bitch to make all welded up and painted, ive not removed the excess weld here as its a pain to get to and i dont want to fill the body full of metal grindings. not got much further than this, tomorrow ill make up a plate for the rear sill reinforcer and then a new outer skin, i could have cut this area back less but the swage line gives a good amount of stiffness to the area so the there will be minimal distortion when welding, it was also dented so i wont have that to worry about. last bits to go on will be the sill and reinforcer, these are new oem ones and aint cheap but are well worth it if you want the car to be done right.

now onto the latest work ive spent the last month or so working on the passanger side, i had a week of work and i thought id have it all sorted in that time. how wrong i was, its a good demonstration of how well these cars can rust without any real indicators fron the outside. bear in mind this car was a low mileage import which has been in this country about 10 years. this was the only sign after a good prod with a screwdriver someone had already attempted a repair to the rear arch after cutting back to good metal this is what was left and this was what was on the floor front was nearly as bad and this is the area behind the arch and as on the other side the rear panel had to be removed to fix damage/rust

a few shinny pics to brake up the rust i stripped the bonnet catch apart then polished it and had it chromed. photo dosent really show but it looks superb against the black also made up a battery cable with heat sheath, this runs to a junction box (std 6 cylinder e36 bmw) which will then run to the boot where the battery will live and a comparison to std disc new plated bolts ready to go wheel installed checking what spacers ill need (9" front 10" rear) new rad and ceramic coated manifold and im not sure if ive shown it before but i dont care as they are so damm sexy. 355mm discs (std fitment to a production car but its a secret) and brand new brembos as fitted to the mg sv, rims are 17" by the way

passanger side chassis leg has suffered due to poor jacking and subsiquent rust luckily i have a spares car which was in perfect shape in this area not got any pics but the chassis rail is now back on and as good as new for those wondering about the funny camera angles this might explain it allows great access and makes cleaning up the underside far more pleasent small areas of ruct being treated with deox gel cleaned up rear chassis rail

new sill for drivers side only repair needed to rear sill rear panel (behind bumper) removed, shot blasted, dents removed, rust repaired and welded back on small repair to the inner arch in the usual area and here

well to start up i thought id share a few pis of the car before all this started trying 99 spec for size refurbed wheel diy 99 spec rears late spec jdm recaros

looked very nice mate, very well done and lots of attention to detail. im hoping to get to about that std but without so much gold ive just spent ages loading up all my pics so here we go

the quattro is great in the snow but the a3 platform is not the same as the a4 etc, its the same as the r32 etc. basically a fwd but with a computer controlled clutch to the rear wheels Last winter i was driving a bora 2.8 4 motion (same platform) and whilst it was better than a fwd i would not say it was miles better. as stella said with the right tyres it might be a different story

thanks mate its been a bit side tracked by the 300 tbh i was only intending to do a bit of a tart up, which has turned into a reshell and concourse restoration as these things do. the e46 are going all round, front wings are done and the n/s quater panel. i was half tempted to do it to the 300 but i dont think it would suit the style. priority is the 300 though which i hope to have done for next years show season. might take a bit of time off from car building then and maybe back onto the 200 in the winter

its been ages since i updated here. guess i should get downloading some pics off my camera to get you all up to speed ill try tonight

I have done similar on my s14 too here is the link http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=345900&highlight=400sx and here was the sill

just finishing a big shell overhaul, the sills etc looked good from the outside, but a different case once you peal back the outer skin. my targa drains were all still intact, the obvious problem is the factory wax protection. where wax has been applied the panels are perfect but as the rear sill section are very complex (up to 5 layers in places) the factory wax has missed and the metal dissolves. if they are still good inside (WHICH I DOUBT) then some more wax will do the job. the sill areas are always going to be exposed to moisture and with no real airflow through them they are a perfect breading ground for rust, once it sets in little will stop it. have a look at redwines rebuild thread for a good idea of how much it will spread

ive got two spare std tt rads if you want. both in good nick. one auto and one manual. ive got a japspeed one to go in so they are just taking up space. yours if you want to pop up

i have removed mine too. spot weld drill is the neatest way. i should have similar access on the other side as i have removed all the gubbins over there too

as said above you are far better getting a 2k primer on there, i would guess that (its not meant to be an insult) that your prep would not be up to the standard where they would be able to just blow the top coat over, particually with a black. strictly speaking a body shop is not allowed to spray 2k anymore (they are alowed a small amount every year) modern paint systems are water based and require skilled opperators and top gear. im just doing my car, back to bare metal but all myself with 2k. take off as much trim etc as possible, the results will be much better, also perhaps in the case of the door you would be better off getting a replacement. there must be loads going for next to nothing. ive got two mint doors just kicking around no real demand for them when breaking a car. pete