DJ_Party_Favor

REASSEMBLY PROCESS (DAY 2) For the second day of the reassembly phase, the plan is to start installing as many of the parts for the front end of the car as much as possible with the primary goal of me getting the front bumper bar mounted up and bolted down onto the car as the final step in the process. This means that I'll need to install a whole bunch of little parts first in a specific order to make sure I don't miss installing anything along the way before I eventually get to the installation of the front bumper bar. Nissan Murano Sports Horn Installation Starting off will be another new and exciting set of parts to install onto the Z which will be the brand new set of Nissan Murano optional sports horns which will be replacing my original OEM factory horns as an upgrade to modernise the sound of my car's horn setup. But straight away I was confronted with an annoying little problem that i wasn't expecting to have to deal with when I tried to install one of the new sports horns onto the front frame rail. As it turns out the new larger sized sports horns were now to big to fit in between the tiny gap between the front frame rail and the new intercooler ducts. Even though I had spent a good deal of time test fitting the new sports horns onto the front frame rails successfully months ago, I unfortunately never accounted for the intercooler ducts to end up posing a clearance issue for the sports horns once they were installed. Not wanting to give up on such a small problem, I tried every possible position and or angle to try and find a way to make the new sports horn fit in the original factory location but after several minutes of trying it was clear to me that nothing was going to work as the gap between the frame rail and intercooler ducts was just too small and the new horns were just too big to fit. Luckily for me, I was able to use to the mounting point on both of the frame rails that are used for the mounting location of the OEM horn covers as the perfect substitute mounting location for the new sports horns. Being further towards the center of the car meant that this new mounting location would allow the new set of sports horns to fit between the gap between both of the front frame rails and intercooler ducts with room to spare but it also meant that I obliviously wouldn't be able to install the set of OEM horn covers alongside the new sports horns that I was really looking forward to see mounted onto the car but it was either going with the above setup or revert back to installing the original OEM horns onto the car instead of the new sports horns which I very much didn't want to do. https://i.postimg.cc/jdXSzzS7/1-Sports-Horn-Installation-1.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/NfY09NBt/1-Sports-Horn-Installation-2.jpg With the new mounting setup for the sports horns finally figured out, I then orientated the body of each sports horns to point downwards which will tuck the new horns away behind the intercooler ducts nicely and hopefully prevent any further clearance issues occurring when it comes time to install the replacement 2kspec front bumper bar onto the car later on in the reassembly phase. https://i.postimg.cc/66C3Qssz/1-Sports-Horn-Installation-3.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/htZ4Ycx4/1-Sports-Horn-Installation-5.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/8CFkQ9BR/1-Sports-Horn-Installation-6.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/YCCq8hvy/1-Sports-Horn-Installation-4.jpg All in all I am very happy with the setup and installation of the new Murano sports horns onto the Z. Its just disappointing that I couldn't also add the OEM horns covers to the new setup. Lower Frame Rail Brackets Installation The newly restored lower frame rail brackets were then mounted into place under each of the front frame rails even though I wouldn't be able to utilise them for mounting the OEM horn covers anymore, I still wanted to have them back onto the car like they were before the accident. https://i.postimg.cc/CKWhF7mW/2-Lower-Bracket-Frame-Rail-Installation-1.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/0QD8rS4r/2-Lower-Bracket-Frame-Rail-Installation-2.jpg CZP Headlight Foam Seal Installation https://i.postimg.cc/pd1ZyhjN/CZP-Headlight-foam-seal.jpg The next set of new and exciting parts to install now was going to be the pair of CZP replica headlight foam seals that attach to the rear of the front headlight bucket panels and help to seal the rear of the headlight assemblies up against the openings in the headlight bucket panels. But of course there was the tiny issue I had of me not knowing how the hell I was suppose to install these new foam seals onto the car and because they didn't come with any included instructions, I had no choice but to do a quick google search to find whatever photos I could on the internet to figure out the correct way to install these replica foam seals onto the car. Thankfully, it didn't take me very long to find a handful of photos that I was looking for that showed me the correct factory position and orientation of both foam seals on each of the headlight bucket panels and even though my core support is slightly warped and crinkled in some areas, I was still able to install both of the foams seals onto the car without to much trouble. https://i.postimg.cc/5954VwvR/3-Headlight-Foam-Seal-Installation-4.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/2yYCW6pG/3-Headlight-Foam-Seal-Installation-5.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/Wz7TwvTv/3-Headlight-Foam-Seal-Installation-3.jpg Now the only thing I wanted to mention regarding the installation of these new foam seals, is that I found it very odd that more then half of the rear adhesive backing on both of the foam seals didn't end up having anywhere to mount onto on the rear of the headlight bucket panels and my concern is that those exposed adhesive areas will eventually collect all kinds of dirt and grime overtime which may or may not cause other issues done the road but I found it very strange that this was occurring at all. In my opinion all Nissan would of had to do to fix this issue I am having with the foam seals, is to only apply adhesive tape onto the back of the seals where it will contact up against the bucket panels unless I'm missing something here. Unfortunately as these new foam seals that I installed are exact replicas of the original OEM foam seals, I guess this must be how they are suppose to be like from the factory and even though it might be bugging me like crazy after installing them, there isn't really anything I can do to fix the issue, so I'm just going to leave them as is for now and look into it more later on in the future if needed. 2000 Model Xenon Headlights Installation So with the new headlight foam seals now in place, it was finally time for me to reinstall my very expensive and professionally restored set of factory xenon headlights back onto the Z after both of them were badly damaged in the accident. The passenger side (LH) headlight was first to be installed into place and though the installation was a success I did noticed a bit of resistance in getting the headlight assembly back far enough to align all of the mounting points for the headlight to where it needed to be to slot it into place onto the headlight bucket panel. https://i.postimg.cc/FKJvncNG/4-Xenon-Headlight-Installation-1.jpg Moving onto the drivers side (RH) headlight now and here is were things went from good to bad. As I was trying to install the drivers side headlight into position on the headlight bucket panel, I was having a lot of trouble getting the body of the headlight back enough to get all of the mounting points on the headlight assembly to line up with the 4 mounting holes on the RH side headlight bucket panel. As I struggled to get the headlight assembly where it needed to me, I was having to push the headlight assembly back with more and more force in an effort to overcome the resistance the new headlight foam seal was now creating and even though I was trying to be as delicate as possible, eventually the unthinkable happened and I heard a snap sound come from the headlight. What ended happening was I unintentionally broke off a plastic side mounting tab piece on the outside of the headlight's plastic housing and this mounting tab is what secures the LH side lower mounting frame piece for the headlight onto the plastic body of the headlight assembly. As you can imagine I was very upset and extremely frustrated at what had just happened and my fear was that the damage I had just made to the headlight was unrepairable. After inspecting the break in the plastic housing more closely, it appears that the mounting tab I broke off was repaired and glued back onto a very thinly repaired part of the damaged plastic body of the headlight housing which had been plastic welded back together. According to my Dad it was probably only a matter of time before it would have probably broken off on its own anyway and on top of that, the break had caused a small hole to form where the mounting tab had once been which would now expose the internal parts of the headlight assembly to the outside elements and would definitely allow moisture to enter and form inside the headlight overtime so it was a big problem to now have to deal with. Like always my Dad came to my rescue and took charge to start the process to repair the damage I had caused to the headlight assembly. The plan was to fabricate a replacement metal bracket that we will use to reattach the plastic mounting tab back onto the headlight assembly and we use the new bracket to hopefully cover and seal up the hole I created in the plastic housing to prevent any moisture from entering inside the headlight. With my Dad now off working on the repairs to the driver side headlight, I was left to figure out where to go next but I was so upset with what had happened that I took one look at the headlight foam seal I had just install and in a moment of anger I just grabbed the seal and ripped it off of the car tearing it into pieces. With my emotions running high at this point, I felt like the world was coming to an end and I wanted to blame something for the situation I was now in and the new headlight foam seals felt like the main reason this had happened. I even went as far as to uninstall the passenger side (LH) headlight assembly to remove the replica foam seal as well from the rear of the headlight bucket panel and though I just wasted $30 USD doing so, I was too angry to care. https://i.postimg.cc/15995fr5/4-headlight-foam-seals-removal.jpg The repairs to the headlight assembly will take a while to complete so once I had calmed down, I decided to push ahead and continue my reassembly of the front end of the car hoping my Dad could pull a rabbit out of a hat and fix what I had broken. Upper Fender Air Guide Installation https://i.postimg.cc/W1zTgCyB/5-Upper-Air-Guide-Piece-1.jpg With only a handful of minor parts left to install now, I decided to go with a part that I have been wanting to install onto the Z for a long time now and that is because it was a part that never got replaced during the repairs done to my Z after its very first accident that occurred way back in 2007. This air guide piece as Nissan calls it, goes up inside the front fender just above where the fender mounts to the front bumper bar. Though installing this part would have been a lot easier to do with the fender off of the car, I was confident I could snake the part and mount it into its factory location without to much trouble. Eventually I did managed to succeed in installing this part up into the front drivers side fender but it did take me a good 30 minutes or so of fiddling with the damn thing to get it finally in place and clipped down. https://i.postimg.cc/9FJc4CLP/5-Upper-Air-Guide-Piece-2.jpg Front Side Lower Splash Guards & Upper Center Air Guide Installation Next was the installation of the 2 front side splash guards and the upper air guide that mounts onto the air filter housing assembly which were pretty simple items to the car. https://i.postimg.cc/fRPZK5nJ/6-Air-Guide-and-Side-Splash-Guard-Installed.jpg Z1 Rear Lower Engine Splash Guard Installation The last item to install for the today was the new Z1 alloy rear engine splash guard which I was very excited to finally see mounted up onto the car. The install was very easy and all of the included mounting screws with the new splash guards worked great to mount the new splash guard onto the underside of the frame of the Z. Very happy with the new splash guard indeed. https://i.postimg.cc/9Mdhch47/7-Z1-Alloy-Rear-Engine-Splash-Guard-Install.jpg Unfortunately for me at this point in time, I still couldn't get over the fact that I had broken one of my very expensive xenon headlights pretty badly and I felt very defeated and responsible for what had happened. So I decided to stop any further progress for today and try and reset myself mentally as i know that accidents do happen and though it was my fault, it was probably a blessing in disguise as if the breakage hadn't of occurred I probably would have had an even worser issue to deal with later down the track with moisture forming inside the headlight degrading it further and I wouldn't exactly know what was wrong until it was too late. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have been able to move on from this incident and be excited again at finishing off the rest of the installs for the front end of the Z and fingers crossed the car will be all back together once again.

REASSEMBLY PROCESS (DAY 1) [PART 2] 2000 Model NA Intercooler Ducting Setup Installation Time to move onto something new and exciting to install onto the car, which will be the installation process of the 2000 model NA intercooler ducting setup which once installed will further complete the factory look of my 2000 model replica 300zx. Starting the process off, I first installed the pair of NA model specific factory mounting brackets for the ducts which I installed onto both the two front frame rail's and under each of the headlight bucket panels like so. https://i.postimg.cc/RVwwq63c/7-During-Assembly-Process-RH-Intercooler-ducting-Mounts-2-Installed.jpg I then attached the intercooler ducts onto both of the mounting brackets using all factory hardware to complete the install. https://i.postimg.cc/Pxc1v1zM/_7_During_Assembly_Process_(LH_Intercooler_Ducting_Installed).jpg https://i.postimg.cc/7PFgxMLH/7-During-Assembly-Process-RH-Intercooler-Ducting-Installed.jpg Once everything was set in place, I was definitely very happy with how it all went with this new factory ducting setup on the car. Coolant Overflow Bottle Installation Next was the installation of the coolant overflow bottle, which required 3 mounting fasteners to hold the overflow bottle in its factory location underneath the LH side front headlight. https://i.postimg.cc/Qds1785v/8-During-Assembly-Process-Coolant-Overflow-Bottle-Installed.jpg Auxiliary Fan Installation Moving my attention now to the front of the of car along the radiator core support, where I installed the new later model auxiliary fan assembly onto the lower radiator support in front of the condenser. https://i.postimg.cc/FKCLw0qQ/9-During-Assembly-Process-Aux-Fan-Installed.jpg Air Filter Housing Assembly Installation The restored air filter housing assembly was next to be installed onto the car and will be replacing the old aftermarket K&N pod filter setup I had on the car before the accident. After positioning the filter housing in its factory location between the two front headlights, I was faced with my first challenge of the day where the alignment of some of the mounting holes along the core support did not line up with the mounting arms for the air filter housing assembly. Fortunately for me, I was expecting this to occur as you all know the core support did suffer some damaged in that area from the impact. So with my Dad's help we did some minor panel beating work to the core support which helped to realign all of the mounting holes for the air filter housing assembly just enough to allow me to then install all of the factory mounting fasteners for the air filter housing assembly which secured it to the radiator core support. https://i.postimg.cc/htrxbk1v/10-During-Assembly-Process-Air-Filter-Housing-Installed.jpg Cooling System Installation Process The last group of components I wanted to installed for the first day of the reassembly phase, was for the cooling system which needed to be in place before I could eventually get the engine running by the end of the day. Starting off the installation process will be the factory cooling fan, which I mounted onto the fan coupler assembly. Each of the 4 mounting fasteners for the cooling fan where installed and torqued as per the FSM to 8 Nm's each. https://i.postimg.cc/SKx9Zggr/11-During-Assembly-Process-Installing-Torquing-Clutch-Fan.jpg Next I fully assembled all of the components that mount onto the new Koyo radiator which included installing the new replacement OEM fan shroud, as well as install the new Z1 silicone overflow bottle hose. https://i.postimg.cc/QtRWdhh4/11-During-Assembly-Process-Radiator-Assembled-1.jpg With the radiator all set up, I then inserted the new radiator into its factory location behind the core support panel. Thankfully the slightly larger sized Koyo radiator fitted into place perfectly and no clearance issues were found with this new radiator when compared to the fitment issues I had with my previous PWR alloy radiator that was on the car during the accident. https://i.postimg.cc/pT9Fvpb5/11-During-Assembly-Process-Koyo-Radiator-Installed.jpg To finish off the radiator install, I mounted the pair of newly restored NA radiator mounts onto the top of core support which will hold the radiator in place securely. I also connected the new Z1 silicone overflow bottle hose onto the hose port on the factory coolant overflow bottle. https://i.postimg.cc/d3rZ7p0q/11-During-Assembly-Process-Radiator-Mounts-Installed.jpg At this point in time, we were now ready to start filling up the cooling system with antifreeze and then the plan was to start the VG30DE engine for the first time in 3 years. I will admit I was a little nervous about starting the engine as it had been sitting for such a long time without being run once but I was hopeful everything would go as planned and the engine would start up with no issues. I installed a factory specific 12V lead acid (75D23L) battery onto the car's factory battery tray compartment which for me is located on my JDM car on the LH rear of the engine bay. The battery which was the original battery I had on the car during the accident had already been fully charged several weeks prior. Then we attached a spill free cooling system funnel tool to the top of the Koyo radiator and began filling the new Koyo radiator with a 50/50 mix of green coloured antifreeze until the overflow funnel was half way full of coolant. All that was left to do now was to start the engine, So I got into the car, insert the ignition key into the ignition barrel and turned the key to the start position to start the car. https://i.postimg.cc/9QhypYVb/12-Prepping-Cooling-System-for-Coolant.jpg Thankfully my solid as a rock VG30DE engine roared to life, with the rpms initially fluctuating slightly before the engine slowly started smoothing out the rpms and idle around 900-1000 rpms. For me this was such a relief to see and hear as I was worried that there might be a small chance that the engine wouldn't start after sitting for so long and with any number of things that could of prevented the car from starting but luckily for me that didn't happen and I was very happy with the status of the engine's being able to start up and run after 3 years of sitting. https://i.postimg.cc/5NvwLRcj/12-Engine-Running-bleeding-Cooling-System-of-Air.jpg After giving the engine a good 5 minutes of idling, the rpms had smoothed out to around about 800 rpms and with the engine temps slowly rising we moved our focus onto bleeding all of the air out of the radiator and cooling system. We closely monitored the escaping air bubbles coming out of the radiator and into the spill free funnel for about 20 minutes or so until we were satisfied that all of the air had been bleed out of the system before we then removed the spill free funnel and installed the new Z1 radiator cap onto the Koyo radiator. By the end of the bleeding process the engine was now idling as excepted, the engine temps were holding and I was definitely feeling over the moon with the running status of my 30 year old VG30DE engine with nearly 300,000 km on the odometer and with that I decided to call it a day for the first day of the reassembly phase. I can only hope that tomorrow will be just as productive as today was and if all goes well I may even have the car all back together again but as I have come to expect you never know what could happen when working on a 300ZX.

REASSEMBLY PROCESS (DAY 1) [PART 1] Finally after 3 long years of working on fixing my crash damaged 300ZX, I am now ready to begin the final phase of the rebuild process which includes the reassembling of the front end of my Z back together again. The plan I have devised over a 3 day long weekend will included getting the car mechanically back together again and then attempt to hopefully start and run my VG30DE engine for the first time in 3 years. Once I have successfully confirmed the status of my engines running condition, I will then continue the process of installing all of the parts that I have either replaced and or restored over the last 3 years back onto the front end of my car so that i can not just make my Z look like a car again but to hopefully drive it to its new home for the first time since I have owned my Z. A quick clean up of the headlight buckets, front lower radiator support area and the lower frame rail sections using simple green and some elbow grease got everything looking smick before I began the process of installing everything back onto the car. Before https://i.postimg.cc/Hnc0dPm4/2-Before-Assembly-Process-LH-Frame-Rail-Before.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/XY0K68zd/2-Before-Assembly-Process-RH-Frame-Rail-Before.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/5tbmL35b/2-Before-Assembly-Process-Front-Chassis-Section-Before.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/J4X3FgPR/2-Before-Assembly-Process-LH-Headlight-Panel-Before.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/BZXgZncg/2-Before-Assembly-Process-RH-Headlight-Panel-Before.jpg After https://i.postimg.cc/SQ37DqLZ/2-Before-Assembly-Process-LH-Headlight-Panel-After.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/z3Yh5z08/2-Before-Assembly-Process-RH-Headlight-Panel-After.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/CK7sNqJD/2-Before-Assembly-Process-LH-Frame-Rail-After.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/br7xJHNX/2-Before-Assembly-Process-RH-Frame-Rail-After.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/3RbCMQsx/2-Before-Assembly-Process-Front-Chassis-Section-After.jpg Front Tow Hook Installation Starting off the reassembly process will be the installation of the 2 front tow hooks, which was a straight forward install for this item. https://i.postimg.cc/Y2ZxvBdw/3-During-Assembly-Process-LH-Tow-Hook-Installed.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/GhDxYgfT/3-During-Assembly-Process-RH-Tow-Hook-Installed.jpg Very nice:) Carbon Canister, Mounting Bracket & Hoses Installation Next I installed the carbon canister, its restored mounting bracket as well as connect all of the new silicone vacuum hoses onto their respective hardline ports leading back to the fuel tank. https://i.postimg.cc/FHQgxgtW/4-During-Assembly-Process-Carbon-Canister-Installed.jpg Windscreen Washer Reservoir Installation On the other side of the car on the RH side frame rail now, I installed the windscreen washer reservoir back onto the car and reconnected all of the washer fluid hoses back onto the washer pumps for the washer nozzles. https://i.postimg.cc/d0s2bsVG/5-During-Assembly-Process-Windscreen-Washer-Reservoir-Installed.jpg Air Intake Ducting Components Installation The intake ducting and hoses were next on the list to go back onto the car. I first installed the upper mounting brackets for the intake pipes that connect off of the intake filter housing. https://i.postimg.cc/hG2LgkX6/6-During-Assembly-Process-LH-Air-Intake-Pipe-Mounts-Installed.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/xCqKd6HC/6-During-Assembly-Process-RH-Air-Intake-Pipe-Mounts.jpg Then both the LH and RH intake ducting's and all of the joining hoses were installed into place. https://i.postimg.cc/Bnc57L4q/6-During-Assembly-Process-LH-Intake-Ducting-Installed.jpg

FACTORY SIDE SKIRTS OCTOBER UPDATE The last section to talk about this month related to SEC-767 or more importantly the section that illustrates all of the components for the factory 2000 model Version R side skirts. During the rebuild project my pair of factory side skirts went through a restoration process to repaint both side skirts as well as fix all of the factory mounting hardware that came off when both side skirts were removed off of the car. Once the pair of side skirts have been restored the plan is to then reinstalled both side skirts back onto the car during the big reassembly phase of the rebuild. 2000 Model Version R Side Skirt Restoration Process Going back to 2012 when I had my Z resprayed by a professional spray painter, my brand new pair of 2000 model version R side skirts were painted and installed by the spray painter onto my car and wow they looked absolutely amazing finally on the car and I was very happy with how my car's new side profile looked with the new side skirts in place. https://i.postimg.cc/HkRpb51w/New-Version-R-Side-Skirts-Look-2012.jpg Fast forward 10+ years later, and it would seem that the paint finish on both of my 2000 model side skirts had deteriorated quite a bit and unfortunately for me I never had the funds or even the means to get the deteriorated paint finished fixed. However thanks to the extra funds made off of the insurance payout after the accident, I finally had the ability that I needed to put a plan in place to finally get the side skirts paint finish repaired and restore them back to how they were when they were fitted to the car back in 2012. So the first step in the restoration process for the skirts was to remove both of the side skirts off of my car and though my dad managed to do that in 2022 the removal process caused more then half of the side skirts 24 factory mounting tabs to pop off and so an extra step of re-bonded all of the popped off mounting tabs would need to be done after the skirts had been repainted. https://i.postimg.cc/RV098GM1/After-Side-Skirt-Removal-1.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/ZnbZJx6S/After-Side-Skirt-Removal-2.jpg In January 2024, when it came time to begin the painting process on all of the body panels for the rebuild project. Both side skirts were stripped down to remove all of the old flaky paint finish and then scuffed up before an acrylic primer was sprayed onto the both side skirts and left to cure for several days. https://i.postimg.cc/hvjwCy9f/Side-Skirts-During-Primer-Process.jpg Then a silver metallic basecoat and clearcoat was applied to both side skirts which completed the new look paint finish for the skirts. https://i.postimg.cc/50pTSdQh/Side-Skirts-During-Painting-Process.jpg A follow up mock up test fit of one of the skirts was done a few months later to compare the paint colour match which i think turned out pretty close to matching but a wet sanding and polish will need to be done to finish off the paint coating on the skirts. https://i.postimg.cc/kXznr8Y2/Side-Skirt-Test-fitting-4.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/SQZSrHW7/Side-Skirt-Test-fitting-2.jpg The last item to address now was with all of the side skirts separated mounting tabs which will all need to be in place on each side skirt so that I can then reattach both side skirts back onto the car. With the help of my Dad, we first began by scuffing up both of the matting surfaces for each of the separated mounting tab's as well as the matting surfaces for each of those separated mounting tabs on the underside of the both side skirts. This was done to assist the bonding agent we were going to be using to not just glue the mounting tabs back into place but to also provide a long lasting bond so that in the future this situation of the side skirts mounting tabs separating and popping off wont happen again. https://i.postimg.cc/fbnGwvhr/Side-skirts-During-Grinding-2.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/LstrhZ96/Side-skirts-During-Grinding-3.jpg A bonding silastic glue was applied to each of the mounting tab's matting surfaces before they were then pressed down onto the backside of each side skirt in their original position and left to cure for a as long as possible. https://i.postimg.cc/BnKW9VRF/Side-skirts-After-Grinding-3.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/4NMC0g2Z/Side-skirts-After-Grinding-2.jpg And that concludes the restoration process for my factory side skirts, I am very happy with the new restored look of my 2000 model version r side skirts came out and I look forward to installing both of this parts back onto the car hopefully in the coming weeks. Side Skirt Rear Panels & Hardware Layout https://i.postimg.cc/qq1rq6GC/Side-Skirt-Rear-Panels-Hardware-Part-Codes.jpg

BONNET & NOSE PANEL OCTOBER UPDATE So here we are at section 650, and this is one of the big ones for me as it was the section that saw one of my biggest scores ever when it comes to finding and buying rare 300ZX parts and thanks to me being in the right place at the right time, I managed to win an auction for an original fiberglass SMZ nose panel. Another big ticket item that was worth mentioning in this section was the process I went through with replacing and restoring the new replacement factory aluminum bonnet for the car which along with the nose panel are the two last items needed to finish off the rest of the front end body work for the project. Stillen SMZ Nose Panel Restoration Process (Stillen P/N: 10882) Probably one of the biggest purchases I made during this rebuild project so far was with me finding and buying an extremely rare and valuable original Stillen SMZ louvered nose panel. Many years ago while researching information on the Stillen SMZ 25th Anniversary models, I discovered a set of photos of one of these rare nose panels which was being sold off online and in these photos I was able to see the 3 unique identifying markers that these panels have when compared to an original polyurethane Stillen louvered nose panels which you can find online and are readily available to purchase even today. So there are 3 specific things you need to look for to know if a Stillen louvered style nose panel is an real SMZ nose panel or just a regular polyurethane nose panel. First of all and most oblivious is the fact that all of the Stillen SMZ nose panels were made out of fiberglass when compared to the more common place polyurethane versions you can buy nowadays. Also all of the SMZ nose panels have a Stillen business card glued into the resin on the underside of the panel as well as a hand written Stillen part number of '10882' present next to the business card also on the underside of the panel. The polyurethane nose panels only unique identifying marker is that the 10882 part number is embossed on the underside of the panel and that's about it. https://i.postimg.cc/tgDLMBRR/Stillen-SMZ-Nose-Panel-Red-1.webp https://i.postimg.cc/9MnsWzqv/Stillen-SMZ-Nose-Panel-Red-2.webp So one random day while looking through yahoo auctions which I do frequently, I found an listing for an auction which showcased the sale of a Stillen style louvered nose panel and contained within the auction were several photos of the item being sold and what I found was evidence of both the Stillen business card and the hand written Stillen part number '10882' which identified that this nose panel was a real and original SMZ nose panel. I of course immediately emailed my Japanese contact in Japan and organised with him to make a bid on the item for me and after several days of waiting I was lucky enough to end up winning the auction and as you would expect I was over the moon with excitement at winning this item and I couldn't wait to get it in my hands. https://i.postimg.cc/x8NhqYvq/Stillen-SMZ-Nose-Panel-White-1.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/pyN7F7CC/Stillen-SMZ-Nose-Panel-White-2.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/RC3ZwHGJ/Stillen-SMZ-Nose-Panel-White-3.jpg When the panel arrived to me here in Australia, I quickly got to work and removed all of the factory hardware off of the panel as the intention was to repaint the panel to match the same paint colour as my car as I will be installing and running with this nose panel when the car is finally back on the road. https://i.postimg.cc/T3j8rRZD/SMZ-Nose-Panel-Stripped-Down-08-10-22.jpg From there the nose panel was sanded down and painted in an acrylic primer and left to cure for several days. https://i.postimg.cc/sDhCgPmK/SMZ-Nose-Panel-Paint-Prep-2-12-02-23.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/d1NcL4gN/SMZ-Nose-Panel-Paint-Acrylic-Primer-19-02-23.jpg A factory 673 Silver Metallic acrylic basecoat and clearcoat was then applied to the nose panel. https://i.postimg.cc/9QH5R4N2/Stillen-SMZ-Nose-Panel-Painted-Silver.jpg In August of 2024, I went about removing a small section of the aftermarket wire mesh screen which had been bonded to the underside of the panel by the previous owner and is covering over and making it hard to see the two identifying markers that prove this nose panel was made by Stillen and would have come off of an SMZ 25th anniversary model. After a bit of cutting of and pulling, I was able to remove the wire mesh screen directly above the center section of the underside of the nose panel and with its removal you can now clearly see the presences of the Stillen business card and hand written Stillen part number, confirming the panels authenticity as being real and genuine. https://i.postimg.cc/jjKb9Wzc/Nose-Panel-During-Removal-of-Wire-Mesh-1.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/59kf02V9/Nose-Panel-After-Removing-Wire-Mesh-1.jpg The last modification I wanted to make on this panel before I could install it onto the car, was to paint the exposed wire mesh screens on each of the 6 cutout louver's on the topside of the panel. I first masked off the areas around the louvers with masking tape to prevent the new KBS paint I was applying to the wire mesh from getting onto the rest of the body of the panel which i wanted to keep in my factory silver metallic paint colour. [img]https://i.postimg.cc/76HqCChh/After-Paint-Rust-Seal-6.jpg I then painted the wire mesh sections using KBS rust seal and chassis topcoater to achieve the look I was going for and I was very happy with the end result. https://i.postimg.cc/0QVP78Kf/After-Paint-Chassis-Topcoat-2.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/0Nd82G8h/After-Paint-Chassis-Topcoat-1.jpg Replacement Bonnet Restoration Process One of the few parts that were damaged beyond repair during the accident was of course my original factory aluminum bonnet which had suffered a slight bend in it that would be near impossible to massage out and so the decision was made to replace the bonnet with a good condition used bonnet which I managed to source from a local 300zx parts guy for $200 AUD. The replacement bonnet was painted in a black and so the first step in the restoration process was for the old paint to be chemically removed using paint stripper. This process didn't go to well generally speaking and required my Dad to put in a lot of man hours to strip the bonnet down enough so that it could be primed and repainted to during the painting process. https://i.postimg.cc/MKvKbjDj/Bonnet-Paint-Stripping.jpg Once the bonnet was ready for paint, my Dad sprayed down 3 coats of Valspar's acrylic primer to both the top and underside of the bonnet surfaces. https://i.postimg.cc/x1mfBDBf/Bonnet-Primer-Painting-Stage.jpg Once the primer had cured over the course of several days, my Dad then painted the bonnet in a factory silver metallic acrylic basecoat and clearcoat paint and with very promising results once the bonnet had finally cured a week later. https://i.postimg.cc/DyHfCyjp/Bonnet-Painted-Silver-Metallic.jpg Bonnet Seals & Hardware Layout https://i.postimg.cc/wMPzb0VR/Bonnet-Seals-Hardware-Part-Codes.jpg

FENDER & ACCESSORIES OCTOBER UPDATE For Section 630 (Front Fenders), not much needed to be done in terms of replacement parts or upgrades. But what I was able to do in this section was develop an effective and efficient cleaning and coating process which I used on several parts making them look like brand new parts again. Other than that the only other item worth mentioning was to do with me finally purchasing and eventually plan on installing an OEM part that for the last 10+ years or so has been missing from my car all because of the first ever accident that I had in the Z from back in 2007. Air Duct Cover RH Side Replacement Part (P/N: 62830-40P00) For those of you who don't know about the story of my first every car accident in the Z, basically while I was on my way to pickup my partner from her parents place. I was hit by a car while travelling at about 80 kmph, where the other driver made a blind U-turn right as I was about to approach him and though I tried to avoid the impact of the car hitting me, as you can see I was unable to avoid the hit to my drivers side front fender and I was unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time when the accident occurred. https://i.postimg.cc/tTBxQNDy/first-accident-in-2007.jpg For the full story: https://aus300zx.com/index.php?threads/my-poor-zed-was-in-an-accident-yesterday.257664/ Anyways after getting my Z back from the repairers, I was obliviously happy to finally have my Z back and it was fully repaired and looking better then it did before the accident. I assumed that the repair shop was able to and replaced all of the broken parts on the car during the repair process but as I would find out a few years later, they didn't replace all of the parts. As it turned out they seemed to have left out one small part because its located under the front fender panel and because you wouldn't be able to see it, they obliviously didn't care to replace the part I'm referring to. However that is all about to change and after all of these years later I will finally be able to fix that mistake and finish off what the repair shop didn't do back in 2007. The part that referring to is a small plastic piece that is mounted up inside the front of the fender above where the front bumper bar mounts up to the fender. Though its not an essential part for the car to run and drive, I'm sure it suits a purpose and being listed as an air duct by Nissan, I assume it must help to channel air flow down into the intake air ducting mounted under the headlight bucket panels. https://i.postimg.cc/4ynhJHFc/62830-M-Air-Duct-Cover.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/7P912rsH/62830-M-Air-Duct-Cover-2.jpg Luckily for me this small part isn't discontinued by Nissan as of 2024 and is still available to purchase which I did from Nissan in Japan and it has been patiently waiting for me to install it onto the car when the final assembly of the Z back together again eventually happens. Front Side Splash Guards Hardware Layout https://i.postimg.cc/brMSdYKB/Front-Side-Splash-Guards-Hardware-1-Part-Codes.jpg

RADIATOR CORE SUPPORT OCTOBER UPDATE Moving onto section SEC-625 which is for the radiator core support and surprisingly there are a few interesting parts I purchased for this section which you may all find neat to learn about and though I'm really excited to put these parts on the car when the time comes, they are all just cosmetic and there isn't anything in this section that is going to improve or upgrade the radiator core support at this point in time. CZP Headlight Foam Seal Set (CZP Part Number: CZP-62568-40P00) https://i.postimg.cc/d1qRtQkv/CZP-Foam-Seals-for-headlights.jpg First up I purchased a set of reproductions of the OEM headlight rear foam seals made by Concept Z Performance. These replacement foam seals adhere to the rear section of the headlight buckets panels on the core support and they help to seal the rear of the headlight housing to prevent any kind of debris from entering into the engine bay while the car is moving. Funny enough I didn't realise at the time but back in 2011 when I removed both of my original headlight assemblies from my car for the very first time ever, there was no signs of these foam seals being present on my car at all. https://i.postimg.cc/4dB6KCVc/First-time-pulling-my-old-headlights-2011.jpg Now I'm not sure what that means exactly but its possible that the previous owner may have removed the headlights on my car in the past and removed the degraded seals then and not replaced them, or my specific December built 1989 model didn't come with these foam seals from the factory, who knows really and I guess ill never find out why but it doesn't really matter anyways. Still with all that being said, I would like to bring the car back to a factory setup for all of these little things that are missing as much as possible and though it doesn't state it in CZP's listing on their website, but I hope there wont be any issues installing this seals along with the 2000 model headlights when the time comes. Powertrix Carbon Fiber Air Guide Set (Powertrix Part Number: CF3PRAGNISZ32) Continuing with my recent desires lately of adding more and more super car carbon fiber parts to my Z, I recently purchased a complete set of the Powertrix's carbon fiber air guide panels which not just look super cool on the car, but will also serve a purpose at covering over the now repaired and crinkled looking metal radiator core support which I know would eventually drive me crazy with it not looking as it did from the factory. https://i.postimg.cc/k5NFmR5f/Powertrix-cf-Air-Guide-Set.jpg Some of the exciting plans I have for these new air guide panels is that I'm going to be installing all of the factory engine warning labels that are normally located on the core support like say the aircon label & spark plug warning label etc onto the Powertrix air guide panels in their factory locations as best I can replicate. I'm doing this so that instead of the information on those labels being hidden under the panels like what I've seen most people do with these panels online. Instead they will all be clearly visible for me, other z owners and any future mechanic to see note the important information on those labels in the future which I think is good to have incase a mechanic 50+ years from now needs to note that information down and perform the required servicing correctly in the future. I also want to install my VIN Chassis plate panel onto the center air guide panel as well, that way all of my car's original factory information is listed and visible to see when opening the bonnet. But as excited as I am for installing these new carbon fiber parts, they all will require some modifications to be able for me to make them mount onto the core support which is not an ideal situation I think for such an expensive part but it is what it is and so before I can stick on any labels or what not, I will need to figure out an effective mounting setup for each of these panels so they would fall off and possibly get damaged. VIN Plate & Headlight Seals Layout https://i.postimg.cc/7hhg0BnW/VIN-Plate-Headlight-Seals-Part-Codes.jpg

2000 MODEL FRONT BUMPER BAR COMPONENTS & REO BAR OCTOBER UPDATE Another big section that I needed to go through this month was for SEC-620 which is the section where all of the components are located for the front bumper bar and the front reinforcement bar. Now considering that this is the part of the car that took the brunt of the impact in the accident, you would probably expect that I would of had to replace a lot of parts in this section, but in actual fact there was only 3 major parts that needed to be replaced after the accident and those parts were of course the front bumper bar, the bumper bars upper mounting bracket and the front reinforcement bar. 2000 Model Front Bumper Bar Rebuild Process Starting off I'll go over all of the developments i went through with getting my new front bumper bar and the rebuild process it went through over the course of the last 3 years. First off here is a photo of how bad the damaged was to the 2000 model OEM front bumper bar after the accident and I knew straight away that I would need to replacing the front bumper bar as part of the my early project goals in the early stages of the rebuild. https://i.postimg.cc/0QyFcN1m/Front-Bumper-Bar-Damage-After-The-Accident-2022.png Having made the decision to replace the damaged front bumper bar, I first toyed with the idea of changing from the OEM 2000 bumper bar design I've been running for the last 12 years and possibly going with an Escort front bumper bar which looks just like the OEM 2000 model front bumper bar but it comes included with a moulded front lip in the design which i thought looked pretty nice. https://i.postimg.cc/yx5MJC5R/Escort-Front-Bumper-Bar.jpg Unfortunately after thinking about it, there were several issues I found with me going with an Escort bump bar and the big one for me was the fact that the escort bumper bar was made out of fiberglass instead of polyurethane which I'm sure will eventually form cracks in the fiberglass from all of the little impacts I'll unavoidably make on the bar with the hitting the ground while I'm driving over things like speed bumps and going up driveways overtime in the future. Also the costs involved in not just buying this bumper bar but the cost in also shipping the bar from Japan to me here in Australia was going to be way more coin then I was willing to spend and when compared to the price of a locally sourced OEM 2000 model bumper bar including shipping from RGS Performance to me, it was a no brainer to just stick with the OEM bar and so i went ahead and purchased a new 2000 model OEM bar and within a week I had my new front bumper bar in my hands. https://i.postimg.cc/Fswvz056/2kspec-front-bumper-bar-arrival.jpg Next I needed to figure out how I was going to get the bumper bar painted so that it could be colour matched to the body colour of my car and long story short but my initial plans to use the services of either a mobile spray painter and or a body shop to get the paint job done by a professional was something that I frustratingly found out was never going to happened and no matter what I did, I just couldn't find anyone willing to help me out and paint not just the front bumper bar but the rest of the body panels that needed painting as well and so the only option I had to go with was to just paint the parts myself. So after sourcing all of the required acrylic paint products and tools to do the job, my Dad took it upon himself to prepare all of the body panels for paint and he started off by sanding down the surfaces of the panels using various grits of sand paper and scuffing pads to get a adequate rough surface for the primer to be able to bond to each of the panels we will be painting. https://i.postimg.cc/FFB5C0RK/Dad-Prepping-panels-for-paint.png After a couple of days of hard work my Dad had finished all of the preparation work on the front bumper bar and so the next step was for him to spray down some primer and so we assembled a basic spray painting setup at home as best we could and then my dad began spraying down several coats of Valspar's AP33 acrylic primer that I was recommended to use by the owner of Spray Shop Supplies, who was the person who encouraged me to use his paint products to do the painting job at home myself. Anyways after my Dad had finished laying down the required 3 coats of the acrylic primer onto the surface of the bumper bar, the results were looking very promising. https://i.postimg.cc/N04Z6HSB/Front-Bumper-Bar-Primer-Coat-1.jpg From there we gave the acrylic primer several days to fully cure on all of the panels, before my Dad then began the sanding down and scuffing process of the new primer paint layer on the surfaces of the front bumper bar and several other parts to aid in the base coat having its best chance to bond to the surface of the part as much as possible. The panels were then painted in 3 coats of acrylic basecoat matching my factory silver metallic body colour (673) and following the basecoat, we sprayed down 3 coats of acrylic clear coat and after several days of curing the results were very good and for a novice painter, my Dad sure did a bloody good job for his first try at spray painting and I am very grateful he was able to paint the car when no one else would for me. https://i.postimg.cc/BnWW4s29/Front-Bumper-Bar-After-Paint-2.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/K8t6YV5K/DSC-0109.jpg As part of my buildup to the eventual reassembly of the front end of the Z, we test fitted the newly painted front bumper bar onto the car several months later to not just check the fitment and alignment of the bar against the headlights, nose panel and fenders but to also compare the colour match of the new paint job against the existing paint on the fenders and as you can see the new paint is very close to a perfect colour match and I couldn't be happier with the end result my Dad was able to achieve. https://i.postimg.cc/q7k5v7RY/Front-Bumper-Bar-Test-Fitting-After-Paint-1.jpg Upper Mounting Bracket Replacement for Front Bumper Bar Though the front bumper bar was relatively easy to source and replace, finding a replacement part for the front bumper bars upper mounting bracket was going to be a little bit more difficult as according to Concept Z Performance, this part is now discontinued. So a used unit would have to be purchased to replace my original one which was bent out of shape and beyond repair. Luckily for me I managed to source an undamaged used replacement mounting bracket off of a guy who had a backyard full of wrecked cars including 8 wrecked 300zx's where I was able to grab one of these for a very cheap price. https://i.postimg.cc/1Xfx53WP/Before-Cleaning-Paint-Stripping-4.jpg Not wanting to put a dirty old part back onto the car, I decided to try and restore the used mounting bracket as best as I could which required me to disassemble the bracket and then strip down the various metal parts attached to the bracket back to bare metal. The mounting arms for the bracket I left unpainted in their raw aluminum state which actually matches the OEM setup these parts on all 94+ models. https://i.postimg.cc/wBpdcHBc/After-Wire-Wheel-Cleaning-1-02-03-24.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/Y9XKHWzb/After-Wire-Wheel-Cleaning-5-02-03-24.jpg A steel bracket that i removed off of the mounting bracket was repainted using a spray on chassis paint before I then reassembled everything back together completing the restoration process for this part. USDM Reinforcement Bar (Reo Bar) Replacement Story The last item that I needed to replace was of course the reinforcement bar or reo bar for short. My original fiberglass reo bar had been completely destroyed in the accident and finding a replacement reo bar was going to be like the front bumper bar, a definite purchase for the rebuild project. Though I could have easily have gone with and purchased a brand new replacement reo bar from Nissan in Japan, I was more interested at trying to sorta upgrade the reo bar setup on my car this time around. And so I have always wanted to look into the possibility of running the very unique USDM reo bar which differs from the JDM, UKDM and even ADM models standard one piece fiberglass reo bar you all should be running outside of the US. So what is so special about the USDM reo bar your probably wondering by now. Well instead of being a one piece all fiberglass panel, the USDM reo bar is instead a multi piece designed reo bar with an aluminum center bar which provides the main reinforcement protection of the car as you would expect. Then there are 2 opposing sided fiberglass fog light bucket panels which are attached to either end of the aluminum center bar piece and obliviously allows for the typical mounting of the OEM fog light assemblies onto the reo bar. The last unique feature of this reo bar design is how it mounts up onto the car and instead of bolting the reo bar directly to 2 front frame rails, the USDM reo bar uses a pair of shock absorber mounts which not just mount to the frames but also partially inside them as well. https://i.postimg.cc/pd64cHW6/USDM-Reo-Bar-2.jpg This different type of reo bar design was made so that all of the USDM 300ZX models sold in the US, could meet a restrict government road law called the "5mph Bumper Law" introduced in 1974 in the USA. The law required that all auto markers at the time selling cars in the US had to design a front bumper bar so "that no damage to the car's lights, safety equipment and engine would occur in the event of an angled 5mph impact". Also the fact that there are a lot of 300zx cars still driving around over there and with a larger supply of spare parts If i ever need to replace any parts from this new reo bar I should be able to source used items them from either Z1 motorsports and or eBay. The last reason as to why I wanted to go with this reo bar setup was the simple fact that no one here in Australia has even done this conversion before, that I know of anyways. Because of this having this setup on my Z would make that little bit more unique and different to all the 300ZX's cars out there on the roads over here in Australia, even though I know you wouldn't be able to see this unique part on the car without having to remove the front bumper bar off. So with my mind made up, I sourced a used USDM reo bar from the US off of eBay and it ended up costing me around $400 including freight to me here in Australia. https://i.postimg.cc/CxYgbS5C/USDM-Reo-Bar-Ebay-Photo-1.jpg After the reo bar had arrived to me in Australia, it was disassembled into its individual components and cleaned thoroughly. https://i.postimg.cc/yNd2TdHR/USDM-Reo-Bar-After-Cleaning-1-25-02-24.jpg USDM Reinforcement Bar (Reo Bar) Modifications There was one thing that I needed to modify on the new reo bar just so that I would able to install a specific OEM support bracket onto the reo bar to allow for a complete installation of the 2000 model front bumper bar onto the car just like how it was done from the factory. The bracket in question mounts onto the underside of the front center section of the reo bar and up against a lower tab on the 2000 model front bumper bar with 3 mounting holes in it hidden under the licence plate location. https://i.postimg.cc/cHCkf5fB/Reo-Bar-and-Mounting-Bracket-Feb-Update.jpg The later model JDM fiberglass reo bar I found out back in 2010, included the required 3 mounting rivnuts for the bracket to be installed onto and I would need to recreate those same 3 mounting holes on the USDM reo bar which would have been easy if we hadn't through the now destroyed JDM reo bar away weeks earlier. Top (Early Model Reo Bar) Bottom (Late 2000 model Reo Bar) https://i.postimg.cc/C1rttVw2/JDM-Reo-Bar-Differences.jpg With no other option to go with we decided to roughly guess the location of the 3 mounting holes using the 2000 model front bumper bar as a guide to hopefully get the location of each mounting hole correct. We marked the holes and then drilled them out before my Dad tapped a thread into the aluminum so that the screws could be installed straight into the reo bar instead of using rivnuts like from the factory. Once the modifications were complete the OEM support bracket could now be installed onto the reo bar as per the factory setup on the 2000 models. https://i.postimg.cc/g0dfLDMg/Bracket-attached-to-reo-bar-2.jpg We also test fitted the USDM reo bar onto my JDM model 300ZX just to see if the bar would for one bolt up the frame rails as expected which it did. And second see if with 2000 model front bumper bar would fit to the car and everything line up as it was suppose to and thankfully it all worked out in the end and the installation of the USDM reo bar was a big success for the project. https://i.postimg.cc/9MX5KpZD/2-Reo-Bar-Fitted.jpg Reinforcement Bar & Hardware Layout https://i.postimg.cc/V6hGgBRQ/Reinforcement-Bar-Hardware-Parts-Codes.jpg

2000 MODEL XENON HEADLIGHTS OCTOBER UPDATE Now here's a section I haven't talked about much during the rebuild and now that we are at the tail end of the project I can finally talk about what's been happening with regards to my repaired factory xenon headlights. So as you all know my beautiful and expensive pair of factory 2000 model xenon headlights were crushed in the accident and a lot of the plastic housing on the back of the lights were damaged. https://i.postimg.cc/K8GwG08g/Damaged-Headlight-1.jpg I managed to find a workshop early on in the rebuild who offered to help me to repair the damaged headlight housings using a plastic welding technique to get them all back together again and I gave them no specific timeframe to get job done as I had plenty of other things to worry about at that stage of the rebuild. In late February of 2022, the workshop contacted me saying that they had finished off the plastic welding repairs on both of the headlights housings which I was able to inspect and though they didn't look pretty on inside but they were at least tnow fully intact and all in one piece again. https://i.postimg.cc/gkDtT3Hc/Xenon-Headlight-repair-progress-March-2023.png Now while the headlights were in this dismantled state, I wanted to look into restoring the internal chrome trim bezel found inside the headlights as I had noticed that on both of my factory xenon headlights, the factory chrome effect on the bezels had began to delaminate after years of sun exposure. I had seen on YouTube a special and expensive chrome paint that was easy to apply and would give me a mirror like chrome finish that would be perfect at replacing the factory chrome effect and being a paint finish if covered in a 2k clear coat would be able to withstand the effects of prolonged sun exposure when compared to the factory chrome finish. So I asked the guys at the workshop if they could restore the bezels for me and they stated that they had a paint company that had a chrome paint they were wanting to test out for future projects and would be willing to use it to restore my bezels with. After a few weeks of waiting I got an update from the workshop who sent me this photo of the newly painted trim bezels and though they did look really good, they were no even close to a mirror like chrome finish and instead looked more like a basic silver paint coating to me. https://i.postimg.cc/CKtQ4YHj/Headlight-Bezel-1st-Painting-result-in-silver-2.jpg Wanting to go that extra mile for the project, I looked into purchasing the chrome paint I had seen on YouTube which turns out is called Ezi Chrome, a new reflective mirror like chrome paint product on the market that would give me the mirror like chrome effect that I wanted to replicate on the bezels. So I purchased a small quantity of the chrome paint from a paint company in Queensland and then give that to the guys at the workshop and had them redo the painting job on the bezels which they were more than happy to do for me. The results with the new chrome paint product were amazing to say the least, and I was extremely happy with the new look of the restored trim bezels. https://i.postimg.cc/K80VRt1p/Chrome-Painted-xenon-headlight-bezels.jpg Shortly after the bezels had been painted, I managed to find a listing for the sale of a used LH side xenon headlight on yahoo auctions in pretty average condition which was going for around $800. As expensive as that is for a used average condition xenon headlight the chance to replace one of my damaged headlights with an undamaged headlight housing was to hard of an offer to pass up, so I purchased the headlight off of yahoo auctions and once it arrived here in Australia I gave it to the workshop to use as a replacement to the damaged LH headlight. https://i.postimg.cc/ry5P5Bdr/Used-LH-Xenon-Headlight-from-yahoo-auctions.jpg It would be another couple months of waiting before the workshop finally contacted me stating that they had finished the restoration work on both of the headlights and I was going to be able to pick them up later that week which was a huge relief for me because this restoration process had now taken nearly 10 months to get to this point and I was now at a point in the project where I needed the headlights back to be able to continue progress with the repairs to the car. When I finally saw the now restored pair of 2000 model xenon headlights, I was over the moon with excitement with the quality of the workmanship done on the repairs and modifications by the guys at the workshop and the headlights themselves looked amazing with the new paint job on the bezels and I couldn't be happier with the final product I got in the end. https://i.postimg.cc/hPg3s2x3/Restored-Headlights.jpg Unfortunately here is where the story took a turn for the worst for me. You see when it came time for the payment side of things, the once friendly and supportive workshop began to show its true natural and I had one person giving me one figure to pay and the other giving me double that amount which I couldn't afford to pay at the time. Basically when I spoke with the owner of the business who I original organised getting this repair job done with 10 months ago, the plan was for them to do the job off the books so to speak, do it after hours and they would give me a fair honest price for the restoration of the lights. I did not signed or agreed to any specific per hour pricing and I gave them no timeframe to meet, hoping that this would help them not have to fast track the job as I didn't need the headlights during the early stages of the rebuild. When I spoke with owner of the business the week I was picking up the headlights from his shop, he apologised to me for how long it took for them to get the job finished and to compensate me, he offered me a verbal $800 AUD price for the cost of the entire repair/modification process the workshop did for me. I was surprised but happy with that price as I was expecting the work to cost me over a thousand dollars initially. But when I went to the workshop in person to pickup the headlights, I was dealing with a different person at the shop, the actual person who did the work on the headlights. When I offered the $800 payment to him he said to me "no its $1800 for the job." I was obliviously confused at this point and I had told this other guy that his boss and I had agreed on $800. He said no its $1800. So I called the owner of the business via phone to confirm with him the price for the job and at first he said yes $800 was fine before quickly changing the price to that of the workers price of $1800, like I had heard him wrong the other day and that I was now $1000 short of the payment. At this point in time I just wanted my headlights back and me not wanting to make fuss about it, I asked them if I could pay the rest later on, as I didn't have the extra $1000 on me at the time and the owner said yes that will be fine. So I took my headlights and drove home knowing my wife would absolutely flip it at me as we didn't have a spare $1000 to pay the workshop at that time having overspent on the budget for the rebuild project by then. The next day while discussing the situation I was in with my work colleagues at work, I was told that in their opinion I was being taking advantage of and that because they had let me take the headlights from them the day before, that any further costings for the repair job that they wanted from me were no null and void. Taking this advice I decided to ghost the workshop as I hoped that they would forget about me, as it took me 10 months of constantly messaging them for them to get the work done and maybe they would be so busy doing other things to not care about chasing me for the remaining funds that I apparently owed them. Funny enough I ended up seeing the owner and the worker from the workshop a month later on separate visits at my workplace who while chatting with about stuff, never mentioned anything to me about the money I owed them from the headlights and so I figured, maybe I was off the hook but then I got a message from the owner about 2 weeks later asking me about fixing up the money I owed them for the headlight repairs. Sticking to my guns, I blocked the owners phone number so I wouldn't be able to receive any more messages from him regarding the money owing and I hoped that if I didn't respond for a certain amount of time, he might just forget about me and not be bothered to come down to my workplace to chase me for the money. However another month goes by and then all of a sudden the owner of the workshop turns up to my workplace and after a quick chat with him, he asks me about when I'm going to pay the rest of the money that I owe them. Prepared for a verbal fight with this person, I tried to discuss with him calmly about how I felt like I was being taken advantage of and that his initial offer he gave me verbally of $800 was all I was willing to pay him for the job and that I will not be paying them anymore money. He insisted to me that he never offered me $800 and was additament that he said $1800 was the total cost of the job. I stuck to my guns and told him that the during the whole time the repairs were being done, I had to constantly contact the worker to get updates on the repairs and the fact it took 10 months to complete meant that for me $1800 was way to much for them to charge me considering this was suppose to be off the books so to speak. Not to mention that no price per hour costing had ever been consulted with me so what was I paying for with this job and before I could go any further with my complaints and say I wanted a receipt to know exactly what the costings breakdown for the work done was, he abruptly said to me "If your not happy then don't worry about it" and he stormed off. As I was at work, I managed to walk away and into the back storeroom of the shop away from any customers to kind of hide from having to deal with him any further before he eventually left store. I couldn't believe I actually managed to talk my way out of this very scary situation I found myself in and I was lucky that I didn't get taken advantage by someone who I thought was on my side and wanting to help me, like i see on YouTube channels all the time. Thankfully it has been almost a year now and I still haven't had any contact from the workshop at all and so I think I managed to pulled it off and save myself from having to pay the extra $1000 they wanted from me. Though I wont mention the workshops name ever again, they did do an amazing restoration job on the headlights and if things hadn't gone down the way they did, I would have been promoting their workmanship to the hills and back but it was not meant to be i guess. Lamborghini Diablo Carbon Fiber Trim Cover Upgrades Moving on from the headlight repairs now and I'd like to talk about a modification that I have been wanting to do on my headlights for over a decade now and its a modification that I'm pretty sure no one in the Z community has even considered doing and or installed on their Z ever. That is to install the Lamborghini diablo carbon fiber trim covers that are famously known around the internet and most likely the world as the way Lamborghini was able to use the Nissan 300zx headlights on the diablo and be able to hide that fact by covering over the Nissan logo moulded into the glass lens of the 300zx's headlights. https://i.postimg.cc/c4NPjxqh/99spec-Diablo-Healdight-trim-piece-1.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/Vst3DSh5/99spec-Diablo-Healdight-trim-piece-2.jpg Before the accident this idea was just a pipe dream for me to implement onto my Z, as to buy a pair of these carbon fiber trim covers directly from Lamborghini was going to cost me around $1200 for a set of 2 which is crazy lambo tax stuff right there. However after the accident I obliviously had a bit of spare cash to spend on the project and so what I ended up doing was buying a cheaper aftermarket replicated carbon fiber trim covers which only set me back around $800 for the set off of eBay which was still expensive but more affordable for me to buy at the time. https://i.postimg.cc/X7ct6R4b/Aftermarket-CF-Lambo-headlight-trim-covers.jpg When the trim covers arrived the excitement for me was extreme and I can't believe these 2 little trim covers cost me $800 and the biggest issue I still have yet to really figure out is how I'm going to install these onto the headlight lens themselves as I don't want either of them to come off in the future while driving the car. https://i.postimg.cc/7h1tDzvV/Kit-3.jpg My current thoughts are to use either 3M branded double sided tape or maybe an adhesive silicone to stick the covers down onto the glass which I believe is how Lamborghini did it from the factory for the Diablo's headlights. Still I want to do more fitment testing to see how the covers will sit on the headlights first and slowly figure out which is going to be the best method of gluing the covers down so that these very expensive pieces never go missing once they are on the headlights. Headlamp & Fasteners Layout https://i.postimg.cc/nzDwR50N/Headlamp-Fasteners-Part-Codes.jpg

BATTERY & BATTERY MOUNTING FINAL UPDATE Next up is all for the components for the battery section (SEC-244), which included the main 12V battery, insulation cover, plastic drip tray and mounting hardware. The battery I had needed some recharging after sitting for 3 years and was dead flat when I tested it several months ago. As you all know I replaced one of the corroded battery mounting arms and I added rubber grommets to prevent a electrical current running through the battery hold-down and everything else in this section was cleaned up to look as good as new again. Battery, Box and Hold-Down Layout https://i.postimg.cc/C1H6Fqc6/Battery-Box-and-Holddown-Part-Codes.jpg

COOLING SYSTEM OCTOBER FINAL UPDATE After last months huge update on several sections, this month I will be starting off with SEC-214 which has all of the components related to the radiator as well as the auxiliary fan which are going to be necessary for me to install if I intend to drive the car home once it has all be put back together. OEM Radiator Foam Seal Installation (P/N: 21496-30P10) A part most people forget to install when replacing or changing over the radiator in the 300zx, is the upper foam seal for the top tank of the radiator. It's purpose I think is to prevent airflow from escaping from the gap between the radiator core support and the top of the radiator. https://i.postimg.cc/RFmf0R4z/Radiator-Seal-Before-Assembly.jpg To install it, you just peel off the adhesive backing of the double sided tape on the seal and then stick it onto the top tank of the radiator like so. https://i.postimg.cc/SKCCq50r/Radiator-Seal-After-Assembly.jpg NA Radiator Mounts Assembly The last item to finish off for the cooling system, is the assembly of the newly restored upper NA radiator mounts which I painted nearly 4 months ago. https://i.postimg.cc/4yN96xYL/Radiator-Mounts-Before-Assembly.jpg I inserted the rubber bushing into the center of each of the 2 radiator mounts like so. https://i.postimg.cc/FH23Mv6z/Radiator-Mounts-After-Assembly.jpg The rest of the cooling system was checked over thoroughly and everything has been accounted for and I am now ready to install this system back onto the car. NA Radiator Cap & Hardware Layout https://i.postimg.cc/SsL6LPDs/NA-Radiator-Cap-Hardware-Part-Codes.jpg Radiator Fan & Fasteners Layout https://i.postimg.cc/fR3YqyB1/Radiator-Fan-Fasteners-Part-Codes.jpg Radiator Hoses & Mounts Layout https://i.postimg.cc/65bdhnLd/Radiator-Hoses-Mounts-Parts-Code.jpg NA Transmission Cooler Hoses & Clamps Layout https://i.postimg.cc/5yxwsmRm/NA-Transmission-Cooler-Hoses-Clamps-Part-Codes.jpg Overflow Coolant Bottle & Hardware Layout https://i.postimg.cc/vHZr939Y/Overflow-Coolant-Bottle-Hardware-Part-Codes.jpg Aux Fan And Hardware Layout https://i.postimg.cc/yNZXxxR0/Aux-Fan-And-Hardware-Part-Codes.jpg

At long last everyone, I have finally finished writing up my 2024 October monthly blog update for my Z's rebuild project and I know I have been struggling lately to maintain a constant update schedule for the rebuild project as of late with the last several monthly blog updates taking me longer and longer to finalise and then post up online and I hate the fact that you all are the ones really missing out of all of the developments I have made behind the scenes and are now months behind where I'm at with the rebuild project right now. That is why I have really slowed down making further content progress on the car after the events of this month in an attempt to try and reduce the amount of work I will need to do to hopefully smash through posting up the next 7 - 8 blog update posts on the project to try and bring everyone back up to speed as fast possible to where we are now as I post this blog in June 2025. So moving past all of that, let me give you a brief description of what has been going with the project and more importantly what has happened to the car after the events of October 2024. Well I have some big news to tell you all and it relates to the fact that my beautiful silver metallic pride and joy Nissan 300ZX is finally all back together again as you probably would have already noticed from the above thumbnail picture and boy what a ride it has all been for me over the last 3 years or so getting from the massive set back I had with crashing the car in 2021 to now having my Z fully reassembled back into a car once again and I am very proud of myself for what I was able to achieve during the course of this 3 year rebuild project. So continuing on from last months efforts i finalised all of the remaining part sections I still needed to complete for the front end of the car and once that had became a reality, I then prepared myself to reassemble phase of putting the car back together again over a 3 day long weekend at the end of the month. The plan I devised was to first get the car mechanically all back together again before my Dad and I would then start the car and get it running as functionally as possibly. The next step was to then spend the next 2 days slowly putting the rest of the front end of the car back together again installing all of the new, used and restored parts back onto the car during the process and as you can imagine there were plenty of ups and downs along the way but ultimately I succeeded in completing the primary goal I had put on myself to get my car back together again and if I was lucky I would then get to drive the car home for the first ever. Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ADAMZX Instagram: instagram.com/adamzx_z32[/center]

AIR INTAKE DUCTING SEPTEMBER FINAL UPDATE For the final section I'll be covering this month, will be SEC-747 which has all of the components related to the lower engine splash guards or under shrouds. It also contains the part codes for the front upper air guide panel and a pair of lower frame rail brackets which I was able to restore back to brand new again. Upper Air Guide Restoration Completed The upper air guide panel went through a quick and easy restoration process way back in February. BEFORE AFTER One of the exciting discoveries I made with this part during the rebuild project, was figuring out the original mounting location and setup for this air guide panel which mounts onto both the reinforcement bar and the air filter housing. Lower Frame Rail Brackets Restoration Process Completed Located underneath the front 2 frame rails these mounting brackets went through a lengthy restoration process which included stripping the brackets down and then repainting them using the KBS coating system. BEFORE STRIPPING AFTER STRIPPING Once stripped down, I used a wire wheel to scuff up the metal surface before paint was applied Then the brackets were coated in KBS rust Seal and KBS Black Top topcoater to achieve the desired look I was going for. Overall I am pretty happy with the end result of the restoration of these brackets. Front Air Guide & Frame Rail Brackets Layout Z1 All Aluminum Front Lower Splash Guards or Under Shrouds (Z1 Motorsports P/N: 21033) One of the new and exciting upgraded parts that I purchased early on in the rebuild project was the new 2022 Z1 all alloy set of front and rear lower engine splash guards which have been designed to replace the original plastic versions of the 2 front and rear engine splash guards that over time get covered in oil, sag, discolour and eventually fall apart. I replaced my original pair of OEM lower engine splash guards back in 2011 with a brand new set and I was hopeful that these brand new splash guards would last at least 20+ years before they would start to deteriorate but what have I found is that even after only 10+ years of regular use while on my Z, the new OEM plastic guards have already began to show their age and for a long time now I have been looking into buying a replacement set of metal splash guards and it just so happened that Z1 released their new set of all alloy under shrouds soon after I had my car accident. The new Z1 under shrouds as they call them, will be able to hold up against all of above issues with no problems as each splash guard's metal surface has been professionally coated in an stain black anodized finish and on top of that the new guards come included with additional air vents to help increase airflow through the front of the car to help direct outside cooler air into the engine bay from under the rear splash guard which could assist in keeping engine temperatures down for my Z in the future. The kit also came with a full set of anodized mounting fasteners to replace the old factory units with and I was very happy with the overall quality of the new splash guards when they arrived. I did a quick comparison between the Z1 guards and the OEM variants and the only main difference I found that wasn't included in the new Z1 under shrouds was the mounting points for the factory lower support foam panel for the lower lip of the front bumper bar. The new z1 design had removed the 3 mounting points from the guard and there was no way to retrofit it to the new front splash guard either which was a bummer but not a deal breaker for me. I am very excited to install these onto my Z in the coming weeks. Z1 Aluminum Front Lower Splash Guard & Hardware Layout Z1 Aluminum Rear Lower Splash Guard & Hardware Layout

INTERCOOLER DUCTING, UKDM OIL COOLER MOUNTING & CARBON CANISTER HARDWARE SEPTEMBER UPDATE Moving onto something a but bigger and a little more complex is SEC-640 which contains several different components for 3 key setups located in the front of the car underneath the front bumper bar. They include the 2000 model NA intercooler ducting setup as well as the remaining components for the rest of the carbon canister setup. The last set of components listed in this section is related to the mounting setup for the UKDM oil cooler which I plan to install as part of my automatic transmission cooler upgrade sometime in the future one day. Carbon Canister Mounting Bracket Restoration & Lower Vacuum Hoses Preassembly Having already preassembled the upper part of the carbon canister in SEC-173, I can now finish off the assembly of the lower vacuum hose setup as well as go over the restoration process I went through with the carbon canister's mounting bracket. Like the upgrades I mentioned in SEC-173 where the 3 upper rubber vacuum hoses were replaced with cut to length silicone vacuum hoses, the lower hoses also got the same treatment but only for the smaller 6mm sized diameter hose, as there are no silicone replacement hoses, that I know of for the special Y hose piece that connects to the lower hose port on the bottom of the carbon canister. All of the original spring style hose clamps for these hoses were also replaced with new aftermarket hose clamps to complete the upgrades for the carbon canister. Then there is the restoration process I went through with the carbon canister's mounting bracket which like the several other metal parts mentioned eariler, required months of work to strip down a prepare the metal surface of the bracket so a new more durable paint coating could be applied to not just restore the look of the bracket but to also protect it from degrading in the future. Due to the mounting brackets size, chemically stripping the old factory paint turned out to be quiet difficult to get any kind of results, so an abrasive method was used to finally get the bracket down to bare metal. The mounting bracket was coated in KBS Rust Seal before a second coat of KBS chassis topcoater was applied to complete the restoration of the mounting bracket. Pretty happy with the results overall. Carbon Canister Parts Layout 2000 Model Intercooler Ducting NA Model Setup Final Update Next we have the final update on the very rare 2000 model NA intercooler ducting setup which I am going to be installing onto my Z to further follow the factory setup of the 2000 NA models cars as much as I can. I was lucky to have been able to source 95% of the components for this setup brand new from Nissan when I did and I only had to fabricate one of the outer brackets as they are now discontinued new from Nissan in Japan. The fabricated bracket that we had to make, was cut out of a flat sheet of steel, which we hand bent it into shape using the original bracket I was able to source as a template along with installing a pair of nut rivets into the lower section of the bracket which will hold one side of the plastic intercooler ducting. The bracket was painted using a Raptor gloss black roll bar & chassis spray paint (RRBGB/AL) to protect the metal from corrosion and renew the gloss black paint finish to be better then brand new. Overall I am wrapped with the new bracket my Dad and I were able to make. Intercooler Ducting Complete Part Layout UKDM Oil Cooler Mounting Bracket Restoration September Update Last but not least is the update on the restoration process for the UKDM oil cooler bracket that I will be using to install not just the UKDM oil cooler onto but to also install the Sonny power steering cooler onto as well one day in the future allowing me to complete the factory setup for both of those items. Anyways, the process like all the others required me to strip away all of the old factory paint off of the metal surface and I tried several difference methods, including chemically trying to strip the paint away, then I tried soda blasting which didn't end up going so well for me and I barely removed anything off of the bracket but that ended up being my air compressor not being setup correctly for me to blast properly. Anyways like I have discovered during this rebuild project, nothing beats a good old wire wheel abrasive paint stripping and once I figured that out it was a breeze getting the mounting bracket back to bare metal. The next step in the process was to paint the entire mounting bracket using KBS Rust seal and KBS chassis topcoater to make this part look a million bucks once again and I am wrapped with how this mounting bracket turned out. Unfortunately I will not be installing this oil cooler bracket setup onto my Z just yet as I am fast tracking the re-assembly process for the front end of the car and the extra time it would take for me to complete the restoration of several other parts for this setup to be functional on the car would just drag this rebuild project out longer then it already has gone on for, so I will be skipping the installation of the oil cooler bracket setup for another date in the future. UKDM Oil Cooler Mounting & Support Bracket Part Layout

TOW HOOK & HARDWARE RESTORATION SEPTEMBER FINAL UPDATE My original factory front tow hooks have finally finished their 8 month restoration process which has been something I have been wanting to do for years now. The hooks now have a beautiful gloss black paint finish to them and should blend well with the all black lower splash guards under the front of the car. Like all of the other parts, I started the process back in March of 2024 where I first had to strip down all of the old factory silver paint off of both tow hooks. I first attempted a chemical paint stripping method which was only able to remove half of the paint off of the hardened steel metal surface of the tow hooks. Not wanting to waste anymore time after the failure with the chemical method, I then went to town on the tow hooks using an abrasive method which finally gave me the result I was chasing. Finally after 5 months of prepping myself for paint, I then coated the exposed metal surface of both tow hooks first using KBS Rust Seal and then KBS blacktop chassis coater making the look you see now. The end result was a high glossy black paint finish that is extremely durable and long lasting which i hope doesn't chip off if i ever get my car towed again in the future. Knock on wood Overall I was very happy with how they turned out in the end. Tow Hook & Fasteners LH Tow Hook & Fasteners RH

FRONT JDM FOG LIGHT ASSEMBLIES PRE-ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER FINAL UPDATE Following the progress made in SEC-261 on the front side indicators, now its time to focus on the process of assembling the brand new JDM fog light assemblies from SEC-263 which I also purchased in early 2022 so that I could replace the absolutely destroyed original fog lights after the events of the accident. So the plan is to obliviously assemble the 2 halves of the fog light assemblies into a completed light assembly but while I am it I also took the additional step of upgrading the factory parker and H3 fog light halogen globes with brand new LED versions further modernising the lighting scheme on the Z. Installing Fog Light Rear Housing Rubber Seals (26153-30P00) Starting off the process is the installation of the main rubber mating seal that inserts into a channel along the outer edge of the inside on the rear housings casing. The seal are designed so that they can only go in one orientation into the outer channel and without it, moisture would most likely be able to enter inside the fog lights and burn out the globes inside the light assemblies prematurely. Once in place the seals fit nice and snug along the channel. Narva LED Parker Wedge Globe Installation (18240BL) Next is the installation of the new Narva branded LED T10 wedge globes which will replace the original halogen globes for the parkers inside the fog lights. Stedi H3 LED Fog Light Globe Installation (LEDCONV-H3-SOLID) Now onto the installation of the new Stedi H3 LED conversion globes which will require the use of an connector adapter which I purchased from CZP and made converting from the factory H3 globes to the new LED H3 globes a plug and play affair. Finishing Off The Assembly Of Both Fog Light Assemblies With all of the new globes now inserted into their respectful globe sockets, I then carefully installed each globe socket into their factory locations inside the front lens housing. Marrying the 2 halves of the fog lights was the next step in the process and it wasn't without its challenges, as getting the internal wiring harness all tucked in and out of the way, proved to be more difficult then I was expecting and it took me a few tries before I eventually succeeded in getting the 2 halves together for the first time. The final step in the process was to lock the 2 halves of the fog lights housings together which required 4 mounting fasteners located at each outer corner on the rear housing to be hand tightened down to secure everything in place. I also loosely installed the 3 rear mounting nuts onto the mounting studs which be necessary to install the fog lights onto the reo bar during the final reassembly stage of the rebuild. All in all the assembly of both of my new fog lights was a fun experience and not too difficult for me to complete. I am happy with how they turned out and I am excited to see how the new LED globes with look when illuminated at night. Fog Light Assembly LH Layout Fog Light Assembly LH Layout

2000 MODEL FRONT SIDE INDICATOR ASSEMBLIES PRE-ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER FINAL UPDATE Time to switch things up a little bit and look at some lighting components now and first up we have the 2000 model front side indicator assemblies from SEC-261. These are of course brand new units which I purchased in 2022 as my original assemblies were unfortunately damaged in the accident. Along with the new indicator assemblies I also went about finding a set of replacement LED globes for the new assemblies to update and modernise this part of the lighting system on my Z. With all of the parts now sourced, I began the process of pre assembling the indicator assemblies with the new LED globes before they can finally be installed back onto the car. The first step in the process was to replace the factory halogen indicator globes with a brand new set of Canbus style LED replacements (18272BL) that I picked up from my work. The new LED globes were inserted into each globe socket and locked into place. You will also notice in the above photo, that I have also installed onto each of the globe sockets, my hand made custom wiring harness adapter which I made back in 2011 to allow for me to connect the later model indicator assemblies onto my early model body wiring harness on the car, making the install all plug and play. All that was left to do now was to insert and lock in place the now assembled globe sockets into each of the front side indicator assemblies. All in all a pretty straight forward install. But what I am most excited about for this section specifically is to do with these new Canbus style LED indicator globes which I hope will produce the correct resistance value through the indicator wiring circuit so that the OEM flasher relay located inside the car will function exactly like it does when a set of halogen globes are installed inside the light assemblies. I have been wanting to solve this issue for several years now and is why I haven't installed any LED indicator globes into my car up till this point in time. Unfortunately I wont know for sure if the new LED globes will cause any negative affects until I put the Z back together again and turn the indicator switch on and hopefully everything works as intended. 2000 Model Front Side Indicator Assembly Layout LH 2000 Model Front Side Indicator Assembly Layout RH

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NISSAN MURANO SPORTS HORN & HORN COVERS SEPTEMBER UPDATE After the success of the test fitting for the new Nissan Murano sports horns and the OEM 300ZX horn covers onto the Z last month, I am hoping that this will be the final update for this section (SEC-253). I am eager to see the final setup and sound these new horns will make once the Z has been put back together again hopefully in the next few weeks. Nissan Sports Horns Kit Horn & Horn Cover Layout LH Horn & Horn Cover Layout RH

CARBON CANISTER UNIT, VACUMM HOSES & HARDWARE SEPTEMBER FINAL UPDATE Next up is the carbon canister unit from SEC-173 as well as the 3 vacuum hose's located in SEC-223 that connect from the 3 upper hose ports on the top of the carbon canister and then connect to individual hardlines mounted to the LH side frame rail, these hose lines connect the carbon canister to the fuel tank. The carbon canister was restored like all of the other plastic parts I've removed during this rebuild project and the unit did come out looking pretty good after its restoration process. I also replaced all of the old and rusty OEM spring tension clamps where needed with brand new aftermarket cadmium plated spring tension clamps. I also upgraded the 3 factory rubber vacuum hoses for the carbon canister with brand new SAAS silicone vacuum hoses. Each hose was cut to length to match the factory hose it was replacing. Once everything had been collected, I then pre-assembled the carbon canister with all 3 of the new silicone vacuum hoses and accompanying hose clamps installed into place which completes my preparations for these 2 sections for the next stage of the rebuild project. Carbon Canister Unit Vacuum Hoses & Clamps

AIR INTAKE DUCTING SEPTEMBER FINAL UPDATE Following the previous section here is all of the components of the air intake ducting's section (SEC-628) which contains the 2 main air intake ducts which draw air from the wheel wells and direct it into the air filter housing assembly as well as the 2 mounting brackets for the air intake pipes that mount to the frame rail under the headlight bucket panels. Using my 3 stage cleaning & coating process, I was able to fully restore both of the plastic intake ducts back to looking like brand new again. I also went about restoring as best I could, a pair of mounting brackets which secure the 2 intake pipes located under the headlight bucket panels using the previously mentions KBS rust seal and chassis topcoater. As for upgrades for this section, I replaced the original pair of factory intake piping's rubber mount grommets with a pair of Zspec silicone replacement grommets (PSGRMMTS). Even though they are sold to suit the replacement of the factory rubber grommets on the power steering reservoir, they are also direct replacements for the rubber grommets on the intake piping's mounting setup. Intake Ducting & Fastener Layout LH Intake Ducting & Fastener Layout RH Air Intake Piping LH & RH Mounts & Hardware Layout

AIR CLEANER SYSTEM SEPTEMBER FINAL UPDATE The first section we will be looking at for this month is the air intake system (SEC-165) and all of its related components. The system includes the air filter housing assembly which houses the 2 panel style air filters, as well as the location of the mass air flow sensor. Connected to the MAF sensor are air intake hoses that direct air flow from the air filter housing and up into the 2 throttle bodies attached to the intake plenum on top of the motor. As my car is an NA model this section also includes the specially designed resonator hose setup attached to the intake ducting's found in (SEC-628) which help to reduced engine noise on the VG30DE engines which the turbo model cars do not require. All of the plastic and rubber components for this section where restored using a 3 stage cleaning & coating process I developed myself with a thorough initial cleaning of each part inside and out using a 4:1 ratio of simple green concentrated all purpose cleaner (SG13003) and water followed by a treatment with Bowden's Tar Tar Tar (BOTTT) to remove any remaining staining on the surface of the parts before a coating of Meguiars ultimate protectant Dash & Trim Restorer (G14512) was applied to not just protect the parts from the elements for a short while but to also bring the shine and colour back to the rubber and or plastic components making them look like brand new parts again. This section also saw me replace several parts as part of many upgrades that occurred during the rebuild project. For this section specifically the Mass Air Flow Sensor needed to be replaced as the original MAF sensor had been crushed during the accident. My initial plan was to swap out the internal sensor and circuit board from the damage MAF sensor into a spare but fautly MAF sensor which had an undamaged housing. With the help of my Dad we were successful in transplanting the sensors from one housing to another but further testing of the unit was required before we could weather seal the housing back together. To cover my bases, I also decided to buy a spare brand new aftermarket MAF sensor which I purchased off of eBay, just to save me time if the repaired original MAF sensor ended up malfunctioning even after it had been repaired so to speak and with the spare MAF sensor in hand, I could swap it in and be able to proceed with the re-assembly of the car and not have to wait for a replacement sensor to be shipping in which could take weeks to arrive depending on where its coming from. I also replaced all of the original and rusty looking OEM 2 band style hoses clamps for the factory resonator hoses with brand new Tridon SMP stainless steel smoove banded hose clamps (SMP2XP) which will not rust in the future as well as not damage the plastic and rubber hoses due to the smoove band design of the new hose clamps. For upgrades I replaced the factory panel style paper air filters with a pair of K&N High Flow air filter (33-2036) replacements which are reusable and will reduce servicing costs in the long run. Air Filter Housing Assembly & Mass Air Flow Sensor & Hardware Intake Pipes & Hardware Resonator Hoses & Hardware

FINISHING UP THE RESTORATION PROCESS FOR A BUNCH OF MISCELLENOUS PARTS Starting off the progress report this month, will be the process I went through of me applying a new durable and glossy paint coating to several miscellaneous support and mounting brackets that I have spent the last 8 month or so preparing for new paint which I need to do before I can then reinstall those parts back onto the car. Back in April of this year, I tested out spray painting a couple of metal parts I wanted to restore using a spray on chassis paint made by Raptor and though I was happy with the look of the part after the coating had dried, the durability of the paint finish turned out to less then what i was expecting it to be and so going forward, I wanted to look into a more durable and easier to apply paint coating. That is when I found out about a paint coating system made by KBS, which according to the internet and a mate of mine who had first hand experience using this new paint coating system. Would give me the high glossy look and finish I was going for as well as give me a very durable anti corrosive paint coating that would not chip off easily and be able to protect the metal surface of the parts for an extremely long time. The other benefit of me using this new paint coating was the fact that I could apply the paint using a brush on method which I figured would be a lot easier for a novice painter like myself, to be able to apply the paint to the parts from inside the comfort of my garage. After all of the issues I had trying to use a spray on chassis paint, I was hopeful that this new brush on paint method, would eliminate some of those issues such as trying to paint parts in a confined space as well as not having to worry about any overspray from falling onto the walls and floor of the garage. Like with everything I do, I collected as many paint resources and equipment as I could to try and make the painting process as straight forward for myself as much as possible. I purchased several natural bristle brushes and even some roll on paint tools just incase one method turned out to be better then the other. The 2 paint coatings I will be using for this process will start with an initial application of KBS's rust seal which is the anti corrosion paint layer to protect the metal surface of the part from rusting in the future. I will then apply a second paint layer of KBS's Black Top Chassis Coater in a high gloss black finish and its purpose is to provide a protective UV paint finish for the rust seal paint layer so that it doesn't fade overtime from direct sunlight. The setup of the garage consisted of 2 cheap clothes hanging towers I purchased from the local hardware store and would allow me to hang each of the parts from at a suitable height using tie wire. A small table was also setup covered by a tarp so I could paint the exposed grill mesh sections on the Stillen nose panel. Lastly to protect the garage floor as much as possible I placed a medium sized drop sheet down onto the garage floor below the painting area just to prevent any kind of paint spillage that may occur during the painting process from getting onto the garage floor. Next I then needed to hang all of the parts to be painted from the clothes towers I had setup up, spreading them out as much as possible. With everything setup I popped open the first paint can and began painting the first couple of parts and this is where the issues that I hadn't accounted for began to appear using this type of brush on application. The first issue I found was the fact that as I tried to brush the paint onto the light weight parts, it would obliviously get pushed away preventing the new paint from really getting on the surface of the part. So to combat this I used an additional hold down point using a tie wire to tension the part and make it more stable and thus not move but this ended up making the part begin twisting on a pivot and so I was having to fight the natural movement of the part hanging downwards while I attempted to brush on the paint on by hand. This became very frustrating very quickly. The second issue I had was with paint runs which were unavoidable using this method on such small parts and though I attempted to fix as many of the runs as I could, it meant me having to go over the same part multiple times before I could move onto the next part slowing down my progress. Still with all of those issues aside, I did end up completing the first coat on all of the parts successfully but it took me about an hour or so to get all of the parts sufficiently coated in paint. The recommend dry time for the rust seal was 12 hours, so I left the parts to sit overnight and then start over again for the second coat which would be the chassis top coater. The next day I applied the black top chassis coater to all of the parts using the same brush on method which again was tough to apply as I still had all of the above issues to deal with for this second coat but I managed to get it all done in the end and though it was an experience I would never do again all at once, I was happy with how the paint finish turned out for the most part. And the best finish I ended up getting for the entire process, was with the nose panel which came out exactly how I wanted it to with all of the exposed cutout louvers painted in gloss black which looked so much better then it did before and it really goes well with the silver factory paint colour of the panel. If I had to do it all again I would definitely be using a spray on method of application for this type of paint job, mainly because the parts I was painting were so light weight that there was no effective way to hold the part steady while I painted it using a brush and it meant I couldn't get a consistent coating like I wanted.

At long last the final phase of the rebuild project is in full swing now and I have been very busy checking over as many of the sections of the project that I can to make sure I have everything that I will need when it comes time to put this car back together again. The other big development that also occurred this month was the completion of my restoration work on a whole bunch of metal parts which I have been slowing working on restoring over the past 8 months or so and with that accomplished now done, I can then focus my attention to when I will actually be reassembling the car back into a fully functional an drivable machine once again. The current plan is to do it over a 2 day weekend, with me staying over at my Dad's place to allow me to have as much time as possible to slowly install everything back onto the car and deal with any issues that might arise during the reassembly process. The excitement for me right now is definitely building and I just hope that all of this work and planning will make putting the Z back together as straight forward as can be. Unfortunately all of this content and effort has caused me to miss my timely monthly update window for the past 2 months which I apologise for and I will be working extra hard now to try and catch up my progress reports so that any further progress reports will not be so delayed going forward. Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ADAMZX Instagram: instagram.com/adamzx_z32[/center]

Thanks mate, things are getting pretty serious for me now with the next step of the process being to check over all of the part sections and pre-assemble as many of the parts as I before the big d day comes where I can finally put the Z back together again.