FuZTT

The car's now on eBay, and can be found in the 'Cars for sale' section. Thanks for all the guidance and advice with this everyone, it's very appreciated.

Hmm, that's good news then. That leaves the brake lines as the next major job - anyone know how much of a chew on that is?

Gutted like, I've only had it since July :(

Yeah, I think it's the best course of action - I don't have the resources or time to fix it. I'll list it up with all the history, all the mods and what the guy told me today, and I'll see what happens.

I reckon I'll be putting the car on eBay tomorrow :(

hmm... I don't think breaking it is really an option for me. As for fixing it, is it possible to drop the rear subframe out of the car when I've only got axlestands and jacks and limited garage space?

Right, I've taken the car in to see a friend of a friend, who's an experienced mechanic. I basically said "here's my car, can you look over it all and tell me what's wrong with it" and here's the list: Front ARB Bushes Adjustable Tension Rods (or non-adjustable) Front Brake Pads Front ball joints NSF Flexi brake pipe Rear crank oil seal OSR Shock absorber boot Rear hydraulic brake pipes (all) 2 Rear track rod ends Rear link bar bushes Rear ARB bushes Rear subframe bushes OSR Hub (bearing shot, hub possibly damaged) Knackered front sills Questionable rear sills (previously been repaired, but covered with underseal) So, now I've got the decision, declare the car SORN for the winter while I fix the above issues... OR Sell the car with the above issues. The car's a K-reg LWB TT with leather interior, stainless exhaust, ZedWorld remap, aftermarket alloys.... but how much is it worth like this? £2k? The parts aren't majorly expensive, but the labour is going to be very expensive as the whole rear of the car needs to be dropped out to replace the rear subframe bushes and the brake lines. The leak from the rear crank oil seal isn't too bad so that can wait for the moment. The stuff on the front isn't too bad. I'm really split between the 2 decisions because I'm struggling to weigh up which would be better for me financially :S

Mine's off the road now, so I can spend the winter sorting the suspension, correcting the paint and finishing off retrimming the interior. By spring, a minter will be driving out of the garage! In the meantime, I'm driving around my newly purchased Merc 190E :D

You can fit them to whatever you want mate, however HIDs on the main beam is probably a bit excessive, and apparently they don't cope well with being switched on and off repeatedly

I got mine about 4 months ago from JAM Performance (jpparts) on eBay. I received the same kit that's on the Zcentre site. They're still working, quick delivery, but I can't comment on aftersales service as they've been faultless for me so I haven't needed it!

Aye, just a little bit above budget that one! I'm waiting for the guy to email me decent sized pics of this: http://http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AUDI-COUPE-2-2-5-cylinder-1989-SERVICE-HISTORY_W0QQitemZ250528808222QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAutomobiles_UK?hash=item3a54ae3d1e

Hmm, I don't think I'll be buying a minter by any means - I've only got £4-500 to spend :D Glad you guys approve though!

Hi, I'm looking at taking the Zed off the road for the winter while I sort my suspension out, and buying an old Audi Coupe. I can't find any decent reviews of these online, which is really weird, and I've been unable to find any MPG information for each of the engines, can anyone point me in the right direction? Also, what would be the likely cause of the dashboard guages failing (fuel, temp & speedo), as I'm looking at a cheap one on ebay with this issue & was wondering if it was an easy fix? Cheers for any input\advice, Brian:duffer:

Right, this is what I've got: Silverline Rotary Polisher Menzerna Compounding Pad (White) Menzerna Polishing Pad (Orange) Menzerna Finishing Pad (Yellow) Menzerna 250ml Sampler Kit (Details Here) The orange pad, with a medium-cut polish works very well. TBH, the white pad is too abrasive and requires finishing to remove marring, and the yellow pad isn't needed if you have an orange one. Put simply, the orange one is the only one you really need. The silverline polisher is very cheap, but does have enough grunt to break down the compounds with the above pads as they're only 5" diameter, which matches the plate on the polisher.

Not at all mate if you're careful. Start off with a low-abrasive compound and pad and work your way up. The cars are old and it's impossible to know how much clearcoat is left on it before you start hitting paint without a paint thickness guage. For that reason, I would completely avoid any areas that have been resprayed. The paint won't have been baked at as high a temperature as the original paint, so will be nowhere near as hard so the risk of causing damage is much higher. As for ease, yeah it's pretty easy, there's very good guides on detailing your car over at http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk, and it's worth having a look at a few videos on youtube first to get an idea of how to work. What machine are you using to polish your car? As a complete newbie, an orbital polisher\sander is recommended as it limits the amount of damage you can inflict! Rotary polishers are generally left to the more experienced guys. I'm heading out to the garage in an hour or so, and I'll get you a complete list of what I've got. This is only the second car I've done, so I'm a complete noob to this too, but I've done a fair bit of reading up on it, so feel free to ask away, but don't take my response as gospel :)

Hmm, for the advice guys, I didn't think about contesting the MOT. I still haven't had the car looked over by a pro yet, but TBH I doubt very much that the car is unsafe or anything, I just think that a number of things were probably left out of the advisories section. That said, I'll know more later this week. I honestly don't think the car is a dog and that the previous owner was trying to pull a fast one as he spent a lot of cash on it, right up to the month he sold it: Zedworld remap, BOV's, rear sills, 2 services within 2000 miles, new discs & pads all round, new alloys with tyres and more. This lot's just caught me off-guard I think. Jeff - thanks for the offer, if there's anything that comes up that the guy's not sure on, we'll give you a bell :D

oh, and a twin set of halogen worklights on a stand.

Hi all, This week gets better, just been outside and my garage has been broken into and the standard 300zx alloy wheels I've been stripping to use as winter wheels have been stolen, along with a Hoselock hosepipe & reel. I know they aren't worth a lot but this bloody pisses me off! I've spend a good few hours on those wheels already, and they obviously knew about the alloys in advance. Anyway, if anyone sees\is offered 4 standard ZX alloys, 1 sanded, 2 have had nitromors on them and the other is untouched, let me know. 2 have cheap tyres with decent tread on, 1 is knackered, the other is worn. :mad:

Jeff - you're a legend. Thanks for the extra info, and the offer to come down. It does sound pretty dodgy, the owner told me that the front bumper had been resprayed prior to me buying it because of "stone chips". Was the impact damage old, or has he just lied to me and the car's been in some kind of incident? Unfortunately the round trip to you and back is going to cost me £60-£80 in petrol alone, which I'm going to have to put into getting parts for the car, plus a day off work, so I can't really justify it at the moment. Hope I don't sound ungrateful - don't you fancy opening a branch in the North-East? :D Certainly does! It annoys me that people dish out MOTs on a "mates" basis, MOT testers shouldn't be allowed to have friends!:tongue: Cheers for the advice mate. I'm not going to touch it myself, I'm going to get it sorted properly. I've had a very good recommendation from a guy at work for someone who has a history of restoring cars and doing major chassis work, so this should be a breeze for him. Cheers Paul, my mate's cousin is a mechanic and is hopefully going to give the car a very good look over for a few quid and give me a definitive list of any part which isn't 100%. I've been offered a couple of transverse links in very good condition which I'll hopefully be getting, and I know I definately need new upper links. When will you be going to see Mike? I'm going to try and get a list together ASAP so I can start buying parts. Thanks to all who have been offering parts, as soon as I know what I need, I'll be in a position to start buying!

That panel actually only took around 5 mins to do, which is why I was especially happy :dance: The time of year means the temperature in my garage seems to be ideal for working with the compounds. Last summer I tackled my BMW 530i on a roasting day in direct sunlight - now that was a nightmare!

Hi, Thought I'd take my mind off my suspension woes and upload a couple of pics of the quick paint correction test I did at the weekend. Unfortunately the pics were taken on my phone so they aren't of the highest quality. I decided to test on the nose panel, as you can see from the pic, there's a ridiculous amount of swirling in the paint, it's dull and the metallic flake in the paint barely shows through: The panel is clean and free of wax and any other products. I have an orbital polisher along with a selection of Menzerna pads and polishing compounds. After 1 hit on half the panel, this was the result (the linear light rays are the result of my crappy camera, not holograms or anything) : At this point, there's no wax or filler on the paint to hide anything, needless to say I was very impressed with the results! This is the finished panel, again, still no wax applied and the linear light rays are due to my crappy camera: After this I applied some Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection, and job done! Now just for the rest of the car...

Ok, there's a bodyshop near me that I've used before, I'll take the car over there and see what they recommend. As for the suspension, I'm weighing up my options. Basically, if I replace the parts with those from a breaker, I could end up in the same situation a few months down the line, as I can't tell a good suspension part from a bad one. I could take this opportunity to uprate my suspension with aftermarket parts, but this would have to be on a very tight budget this close to Christmas.

Aaah, so it's still 'safe' then? What would be the best way to proceed with this then, as the sill will eventually rot through from the inside in a place that does matter. Sorry for all the questions guys, your replies are much appreciated, my head's just spinning at the moment with all the things I've got to consider. I like my Zed :cry:

It should be ok, I jacked it up the other day from the crossmember and then used the axle stand points described in the service manual as advised on here, which is obviously not what someone has done in the past. The reason I bought the car in the first place was that it'd had a lot of mechanical work done to it in the past, so it seemed like it would be a good buy. I may have to take it to ZedWorld and get a pro's opinion on the condition of the car.

Just checked through the paperwork, and the car was at ZedWorld on 5th June 09, and and they advised that the front and rear sills needed attention to pass an MOT. Then on 23/07/09 ZedWorld did repair work on the sills costing £260 exc VAT, then on 26/07/09 if flew through the MOT with no advisories. IIRC, the guy I bought the car from a few months ago said they'd repaired the rear sills but I can't remember him saying anything about the fronts. I'm confused. Thanks for the offers on the parts guys, at the moment I have no idea what i'm doing with regards to suspension, hence why I needed the problems diagnosed by a garage. I'm all for fitting stuff myself (tbh I think that's the only option), however I wouldn't have an idea where to start. I have a copy of the service manual, would this give suitable detail for a noob?