dougal200

thanks mate

too much shiny, just looks like a pile of broken mirrors. needs some black to make the chrome stand out

well bit more of an update im a bit bored of bodywork after the mammoth effort to get the bay painted so i thought id start on getting some of the details in the engine bay sorted and im going to build up the front suspension so i can move it. last night i cleaned up the drivers side inner arch and applied some stone chip except for areas that will have suspension etc bolted to them, they get a coat of hammerite over primer. here is the wheel well other side will follow later this week but it is a horrid job. ive been treating myself to some stainless bolts and some black anodised countersunk washers etc, the cost adds up quick but the finish is well worth it. here is the new pas pot mounting with its new bolts. as you may be able to see, the black countersunk washers dont really stand out that well on the black paintwork so i think ill keep these for mounting chromed and silver itens to add a bit of contrast, ill order a set of silver washers with black bolts for mounting the wings etc. ive also started to shot blast and paint a few of the front brackets, these are the oil cooler bracket and the front support. im not sure anyone will see all this but i will know its there and i hate doing a bodge job. just need to sort out a couple of the hard pipes for the oil cooler and pas pot. finally here are some of the front suspension bolts back from the platers, quite happy with them really. the fasteners that are visible from the engine bay have been wire brushed (with electric drill) pollished, bright zink plated and then lacquered where as the rest were wire brushed back to shiny metal then brigh zink plated with a yellow passivate and a light dusting of laquer. here is also a quick trial fit of a subframe bolt with a stainless allen bolt and washer im going to try to fit the subframe tonight along with the o/s suspension. i have a new set of spl upper arm which i need to figure out which is the right way. ive also stripped one of my tein coilovers, cleaned up the body ready for paint and shot blasted/painted the springs. also a small request, does anyone have one of those long plastic clips that go up through the front cross member and into the chassis legs, i can only find 1?

ebay is your friend

get it up off the floor or you will flat spot the tyres, give the interior a good clean (just makes it nicer to get back into and might stop the steering wheel going mouldy) if it has leather give that a good treatment. as you are doing the engine there is not a lot else, perhaps bleed the brakes incase there is any moisture in them and push the caliper pistons right in. i took my zed off the road last december and its still not back yet although i have reshelled it

i have loved all my cars but i do miss my mk1 mr2. the best car i have owned was my s14 200sx (still have the white one as long term project)

ive just been given one of these by my dad to use as i have been car sharing with the mrs since i took the zed off the road in december. nice car, full leather, heated seats climatronic etc. only does 30mpg though

if you have done it once then it wont be to bad the second time, as said before you can only flush about 2/3s of the oil out so each time you change it it gets cleaner, even if you could just drain the oil its well worth cleaning the strainer again. you can take it off and give it a good clean out in petrol. to be absolutely sure you could give it another change in 6 months once the weather is better

looking good mate, when you hoping to finish by. we must have a meet up next year with the two new zeds. painted my engine bay at the weekend so im actually starting to put things on the car instead of taking them off

i would guess the bumper has been off and the splash guard put back incorrectly

well first off you should try turning the damping down. damping can have a huge effect on ride comfort. how low is the car btw

how about your cas connector

any pics, are they the cast ones with the logo or just the tubular ones

thanks mate

there is just too much shiny black there at the moment, my camera phone does not take the best pics for this type of thing. cant wait to start on the build up. bought some black anodised countersunk washers this week to go with some stainless countersunk bolts and started getting the suspension bolts etc plated. very sad and obsessive i know but it makes me happy

well its been a little while since my last update, ive been very busy with work and our bussiness. the rest of the time i have spent sanding the engine bay, reapplying high build then sanding again. anyway here was the result. this has taken far longer than i had hoped but its important to me that i do it right so ive just kept plodding on. i spent a good few evenings this week sorting out the garage and trying to get rid of the dust etc. this morning i decided to go for its as it has been nice and warm. first off i built a kind of light plastic sheeting bonnet to cover the engine bay after spraying then put up some more plastic sheeting around the engine bay to keep the dust down. next i gave the bay a wipe down with pannel wipe then left it to dry off and heat up a bit. i have put an electric heater in the middle of the engine bay to help the 2k go off in the not too ideal temps. mixed up the paint, tack ragged the engine bay then set too. a picture is worth a thousond words etc so here you go a few runs and a bit of dust in the paint but im very happy with the results, its having a bit of a bake now under its blanket

you have poped an intercooler hose off, have a look under the wings/bumper

looks like a good job, just a few tip, dont sand that base coat and if you can give it a wipe down and tack rag before the laquer. the oil from your skin will be on that paint now so you really need some panel wipe. the tac rag will take off all the dust etc just before paint

slicktop too. shame

i think for applications such as the arb bushes and perhaps the inner front arms poly bushes are great. however for the tension rods i would stick to either oem or rose jointed arms, they not only have to rotate but they also need to twist, the poly bushes are too hard for this and can tear other suspension components. i have poly bushed several of my cars before and generally the results were great with only a little extra road noise/vibration. However i would not recomend doing the rear suspension. i replaced all the bushes in the rear of my 200sx which has the same rear end as the 300, im not sure if it was the bushes or the general design but it made the ride apauling making the suspension way too stiff. the back end has a very complex arangement with 4 arms per side (if you include the hicas) all of the upper bushes are designed to flex and replacing them with poly bushes effectivly locks up the rear suspension. its the springs and dampers that are suposed to damp/shock absorb and the poly bushes do not let it do its job. This is of course just my experience and others may disagree. however if you do want to tighten up (not stiffen up) the rear suspension i would advise using some aftermarket arms with spherical bearings. these however will be harsher.

well its the same diff as used in an s14 and ive never heard of one of those going and some run silly power inc rb26s and chevy ls1s etc

does anyone have pics of their chrome/painted bonnet catch. im wondering what to do with mine. would love to buy a pile of chromed bits for my rebuild but the money will have to go on more sensible things like a clutch and cam belt kit for the time being. was thinking of just stripping it the getting it bright zink plated for the time being unless there is one going cheap that is

i guess the answer is dan make sure your engine is in good health then stick a decent decat/exhaust on it, better filter, perhaps cooler plugs and a remap from john dixon or zedworld then run 14-15 psi and enjoy. going above this is an expensive jump as you will need bigger injectors/turbos/intercoolers but will get you alot more power, there is no middle ground really as one of the above mods without the other will result in no real power increase or a dead engine. technically speaking a boosted engine will put less strain on its rods (up to a certain limit) the highest stress on a rod is in tension at tdc after the exhaust stroke, if there is a turbo pressuring the combustion chamber at this point the stress will be less than on an equivalent N/a engine. obviously wack a load more boost on and you will load the rod higher at another point in its cycle. its dett that will kill an engine, not just by burning through a piston but the sudden shock loading it places on the rods/big ends. by limiting to 14/15psi you should be keeping the engine away from it detting. if its coked up, with bad timing, bad plugs or breathing heavily it may well dett which is the real engine killer.

i managed to get my rear screen out without smashing it. accordig to jeff you can replace the main seal with some std u section which looks almost identical. why not take the screen out before the respray. you never get a very good finish around the seals anyway.

im looking for one too