vern936

I'm sure when I first started coming on here a few years ago there was a thread that had a list of free improvements like removing things that weren't necessary etc - where has it gone? Or am I thinking of another site? - if so can someone point me in the right direction lol.

What would be the normal repair for this? Clean up as much as possible treat and paint? Would you put a skim of filler over the the turret mount patch just to smooth it out? Thanks for looking, James

Where does everyone get the clear diffuser for the lights from then? Been thinking about 99 spec lights for some time but can't decide if its worth the money for the real thing. It's gotta be worth trying this first if it's only £10ish lol. Also - anyone any tips for polishing the plastic on the outside of the lights? you can really notice swirl marks on the middle panel of mine.

Just to check - has the wiring been checked to the extent of bridging the pins where the relay should go out to see if the clutch clicks or have you just checked everythings connected? As if one of the new valves is leaking or there's a leak anywhere on the system iirc the system has a low pressure switch which will stop the clutch kicking in ;) Worth checking if you havent already before you go to the trouble.

Hmmm sounds like release bearing to me - how long does the noise last for?

Almost definately ignition live and constant reversed if it worked OK in the other car. What was the other car the DVD head unit was fitted to? Might be a case of someone had to swap the ignition and permanent lives over to get it working previously and they now need swapping back - common in vauxhalls ;)

I've already had the jetwash on it today haha. Yeah think I'll probably go on a shopping trip to Halfrauds tomorrow if the weathers OK and see what they've got in the way of rust treatment (have seen Kurust in there before so will probably end up being that - dont recall seeing any dinitrol products there before) and hammerite. Will probably try to get some pics of before and after to see what you all think :) Thanks again for the advice

Cheers for the replies. Dougal200 - It would be great to have the time to free all the rusty nuts and bolts to take the parts off and the space to paint and protect them properly but I've not got the use of a garage to store all the parts in whilst I paint them - only have the drive to do stuff to the car on :sad:. Plus when sorted my zed will be a daily driver so the arms will get mud, salt and everything else thats all over our roads on them and will no doubt be in the same state again within a few years. My plan was more to protect as far as possible with some direct to rust paint with all the suspension parts still in place for the moment - then as things go wrong (as we all know they will ;)) I'll replace knackered, rusty nuts and bolts as I go along. I'll make sure to remove the current underseal around the bits of rust showing through at the moment and clean them up, treat and paint then underseal the lot when its done and hopefully it should give it some decent protection and I'll look into whats needed to use cavity wax as I've never done it before. Looking further into the directions for using por 15 it seems its not really suitable unless the arms are completely covered in rust as it doesn't stick to existing paint - looks like hammerite will have to do ;) Car.Mad - you're not wrong there. I suppose its the same as any other paintwork - it's all in the prep. BTW I will still be wanting a replica OEM spoiler off you at some point but everytime I get time to do some work and spend some money the zed something comes up and I forget about it for weeks lol :whistling:.

My first thought was hammerite but then I had a look on google and people were reporting it chips off easily. I have to say though-in the past when I used hammerite on my ninjas swinging arm I thought it held up great and it was right in the line of fire from the rear wheel lol-but I sold the bike after a couple of months so no idea how long it actually lasts. Having said that for 11 quid a tin for the brush on stuff you could re-coat it if it got too chipped and I suppose regular coats wouldn't be such a bad thing anyway. Cheers for the advice, James

I've got my zed up on stands at the moment to change the prop and I want to set about tidying up the underside while im there. The sills need looking at but I'm hoping to get them done by a professional so I just want to dab a bit of paint over the suspension components etc and any rust I can see both for protection and for aesthetics. Then I'll probably use something like waxoyl/shutz/dinitrol to underseal it once everything else is all cleaned up. Can anyone recommend anything for painting the suspension arms? Is POR-15 still recommended for this sort of stuff? Cheers, James

Awesome wheels - should have known they'd be damn near impossible to get hold of in decent sizes for a shorty - IMO it wants 18s at most. Any idea where the wheels where bought from? Apologies for the threadjack :whistling:

Looks great mate - what wheels are those? Hope to get my car looking as tidy as yours in the not too distant future and really like the wheels.

Sounds a lot like mine was when one of the loom earths on the back of the plenum was loose - worth a try?

boldy - that looks pretty decent for sheilding the weather - mind if I ask where you got it from and how much it set you back? How stable is it in the wind?

According to dutycalculator.com (found through google) I won't get any import duty because they're under £135? but I'll have to pay VAT on the value of the carbs (buying them for $50 as they need a good clean) so that works out at a total including delivery with USPS and including VAT of £78.38 according to that - still £110 cheaper than buying them from DK Motorcycles the breakers in the UK ;) Cheers, James

I'm buying a replacement set of carbs for my XJ650 Turbo from the US. The guy I'm buying from says the 'US Post Service' is $46.30 - does this sound about right or would you recommend I ask for him to post it with another company? Thanks, James

Yeah I'd imagine its just a skim of filler on mine over previous repairs that havent worked lol. I'll make sure it's done properly this time.

Looking at pics in PaulC's respray thread it actually doesnt seem too unusual to use quite a lot of filler including on the sill. Looks like its not as bad as I first thought - just worrying when you're finding filler and you didnt know it was there. I suppose the thing to do would be to find a good body shop for after I've finished putting the car back together to repair sills and arches and respray the car and seal it underneath. Can anyone recommend anywhere in/around Stoke-on-Trent? Artztogo has recommended Parkside Autos to me in Wednesbury who I'm yet to ring but if anyone can recommend anywhere else I'll get prices and probably ask to look at previous work and go from there - I don't mind travelling similar distance to Parkside Autos (about 30 miles) for people that know their stuff. Also - some of my suspension arms etc are looking dirty and tired - would it be possible to get the body shop to blow a bit of paint at them or would this be something the suspension would need to be stripped for? I'm in no rush to get this done but want it to be a good example by the time I've finished :) Cheers, James

You might remember the post a couple of weeks back of a rusty arch that seemed to have had some sort of repair in the past with a skim of filler covering all of the rear O/S quarter as far as I dared to removed paint. Well I set to cleaning up the sills a few days ago as JeffTT pointed out a while ago at an initial assesment the rear sills need treating before they got any worse I discovered this on the rear N/S: Deep filler covering a severe dent in the sill next to which is a previous repair - with rust all around it as you can see and as I removed the filler enough water to make a puddle of water on the drive came out of the sill :sad:. I was hoping to get the car back together with new tension rod bushes, single piece prop and new HICAS arm then have it resprayed over the winter anyway but looks like it'll need sill repairs as well now as after I found this i checked the others - the O/S rear is surface rust but seems to be sound; I've poked holes through the back of the sill with a screwdriver on the front O/S but on the bright side the front N/S seems OK lol. On top of this - the engine is now pouring heavy blue smoke on idle which is great - can't test it while its under load as the car is up on stands at the moment but its enough at idle for the car to almost disappear :blink: What would you do if it was your car at this point after finding filler on the sills and rear quarter? I'm getting concerned as to where else there may be filler but I don't know how the check for it as the magnet test doesn't feel any different to me on the areas that I now know are filler? Do i need to strip paint back on every panel and the whole length of the sill? :huh: Cheers, James

Artztogo - I'm interested in hearing a bit more about Parkside Autos as they're only about 30 miles away from me. Unfortunately I'm not subscribed at the moment so cant PM but would appreciate it if you could let me know an idea for prices of Rear N/S sill repair, Front O/S Sill repair and maybe a full body respray? Or just let me know the contact details and I can ask for myself? Send any info to vern936(at)hotmail.com Cheers, James

Born April '91 (19 at the moment) Drive '93 Corsa 2.0 Redtop Own '89 Jap TT SWB Z32 (from this thread looking promising for affordable insurance just in time after a respray, new interior and a few new bushes etc from the old tired ones - hopefully all sorted by the time I turn 20 ;) ) Ride '81 Yamaha XJ650

The weird thing is I dont know whether I'm using a magnet either too strong or too weak but their doesn't seem to be any noticeable difference to the rear skimmed panel to any other panel on the car or even the exhaust for that matter - I did try this method to test for filler when I bought the car. Think it's going to be a case of spraying what I've taken off with some hammerite for now to stop it getting any worse - getting an arch repair kit and depending on what's required with the repair kit (dual skins??) either repairing the arch myself then sending it for respray or just giving the bodyshop the repair kit to do for me during the respray. I'm sure the last time I took it to a local body shop (a few months ago) they quoted between 800-1000 for a respray in the same colour. Cheers, James

I'm not really clued up on the processes of respraying - I've done painting on motorbikes with aerosols before but in doing so I've always taken back to bare metal - would they do this as part of the respray? It's been for an assesment at zedworld and Jeff mentioned that the rear sills needed cleaning up and painting but it was just surface for the time being so fingers crossed they are ok. Cheers, James

Decided to have a look at the rust on my rear drivers side arch and when cleaned up the area around the spots of rust i decided to see how far the filler from a previous repair had gone - it looks like the whole panel has had a light layer of filler with some thicker bits where it has perhaps been dented causing the rust in the first place. What would you do if you had discovered this (see pics) on your zed? Whats the recommended repair procedure? The car will be resprayed within the next few months anyway. Its got me wondering where else there's filler on the car! Look forward to your opinions. Cheers, James

Bump? Are they still available? Have funds waiting for these.