Lexx

MJP (phone them) CZP Z1 COURTESY Parts Rock Auto Nissan Dealers (not always the out expensive option)

The main reason for low turn out is that Japfest is pretty much the first "show" of the season. A good majority of owners hibernate their Zeds over winter, and witht he weather over the past few months most won't look to tax until May/June. Also on top of that there is a high amount of club cars currently off the road for rebuilds/refurbs or general tinkering (I include my own in that). A turn out of 10+ is a good turn out for a club that is relatively small and represents a car who numbers in the UK are not as great as many other marques. Hell, when I organised the 25th anniversary meet at Coventry I had to fight tooth and nail to get the numbers into the 50's. And that was a dedicated club event, and I hammered the forum to death with info and reminders for months before hand.

What's so bad about agreeing with me?!

In honesty I am not sure what some of you guys expected? Did you want all the club members to stand in a little group around their car for the entire day talking to each other and not go see anything that was on show? Doesn't work like that. This was the first year of Japfest at Silverstone, and as such is still developing. 370AD did a sterling job once again of organising the event across the 3 Z-Clubs. I understand complaints about location etc, however he has no control over where the club(s) stands end up. You're put where you are put and that's it. I've attended 100's of events and shows over the years (mostly Jap themed) and I've always found you get out of them what you put in. Standing by your car waiting for people to talk to you doesn't tick that box. Parking at these events is difficult. As you don't know the exact size of your area until you arrive, and you don't know how many cars you are going to end up with on the day. It's a pain in the backside to get right, and you cannot please everyone. Easiest way I have found is do a first come first served. That said, the lag of club flags is a failure (same has been discussed over on 350z-uk as we forgot to take flags too).

Not a North Sea Tiger (did one trip offshore when I packed in working deep sea and said never again). I'm skipper of a harbour tug based in Aberdeen.

There's a few members local who may be able to help you out. Bird (Lee) would be my first guess as he has a variety of diagnostic gear and has had Zeds for years. He's up in Sunderland. Paulzx may be able to help, although I know he's very busy at the moment. He's in Hartlepool. I'm in Hartlepool too. But currently on a train to Aberdeen and won't be home for a couple of weeks.

Got a full day in the garage whilst the wife is in London with the 2 youngest, and the other two kids were in nursery. So got front calipers on, new brake pipes fitted at the front, and all bled. Wheels on, battery in, and started for the first time since November. bit dusty: Quick wash: Tucked away back in the garage:

Hi Jeff. If my Zed gets through its MOT in a few weeks I'll be bringing it up to Aberdeen. You could have a poke around. (And yes, I'm the same lexx as over on 350z-uk)

I owned a 350z for almost 3 years, and sold it due to a messy break up (I associated that car with her). Replaced it with a VXR8 which I then sold to finance a house deposit. I had been hankering after a new toy to tinker with for a while, and really wanted to keep myself in the Zed family as I was still running the 350z-uk forum. I didn't want another 350z, and couldn't afford the time to restore a 240z/260z. And whilst the 300zx had never totally appealed to me aesthetically, I had been keeping an eye on them for some time as part of my role as an organiser of LakeZ and other inter club shows. So when one popped up on here as an MOT failure and had been for sale for a year I made a ridiculous offer which the owner accepted. My wife had not long given birth to my twin boys, so she remembers none of the conversation we had about me buying it. But she did get quite annoyed when she walked into the garage and found a blue Zed there! Anyway, role on 3 years and the car has grown on me greatly. It infuriates me regularly and I have threatened to sell it numerous times. But now that I am almost complete with the suspension and brakes overhaul I intend to drive it a lot this summer. It'll be the first time it has ran like Nissan intended so hopefully I will find a new love for it and it won't try to kill me again. "If" I keep it, then I think a LSx will find its way under the bonnet sometime in the future.

I've got 4 x 5ft single strips in the garage/workshop. They were installed by the builders as part of the original specs. Now that we've finally moved in I can confirm that they offer nowhere near enough light. If your putting down lighters in, then in addition I recommend the corner fitted strips like they use in spray booths. They greatly help when working in the arches.

Thanks Joel. Found them £5 cheaper on Amazon with prime delivery so have order a set. Cheers!

As part of the cars ongoing refresh I'm replacing all the crap or under performing bits. The 501 LEDs in the JDM sidelights were old ones I had lying around and are practically purple. So anyone got any RECENT experience of the best ones to buy. Looking for ones with a colour output similar to my 4300k Hids.

NA rear subframe. Came off a 60k mile JDM breaker last year. Mounting bushes all ok with no leaks. Diff mount bushes have some wear. I can supply 4 x Whiteline subframe bushes for £90 extra Also have Energy Suspension bushes for the different (price TBD). COLLECTION ONLY FOR SUBFRAME

Got the interior back together today. And then remembered the roll of dynamat I meant to put in first. Bugger.

Busy couple of days Si! Thanks for sorting out the brake pipes for me. I'll try and pop round this week to pick them up.

If a half shaft is gubbed then rotating the wheel 90° during alignment checks should show up as a difference. If the car has a history being a track car it could have been in a shunt at some point.

Have you had a full geo/alignment done? Check everything is within tolerance.

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Front calipers off this morning. Managed to crack one of the brake pipes between the caliper and hub. Quick shout to Mondo who was at Lee Dents today and Lee kindly made me up 2 replacements for Si to bring back North for me. I'll be taking the calipers to work with me next week to clean and rebuild.

Ah. Usual Daily Fail nonsense. As Andrew says, this was back in 2012 and was the usual media *****cks

I didn't fit them in the end. When I stripped down my rear shocks I discovered one of them had completely collapsed which explains the horrific handling and wheel hop. Had a good look at the current subframe bushes and they seem to be ok, so to save myself some effort and get the car back on the road for this summer I decided not to fit them.

Yesterday I managed to get another hour on the car. Handbrake properly adjusted (although may need to do again). Exhaust refitted - a bloody difficult task singlehanded and on your back underneath the car! I was going to refit my Fujitsubo exhaust instead of the stainless steel one as it is a much better fit and look. But the corrosion around some of the welds is just too far gone. Pretty sure it's good for nothing but scrap now. Should get a few hours tomorrow morning to get the rear wheels back on, drop the rear and then strip the front calipers off. Might even get chance to strip them down whilst at home. Although not having access to a compressor is a pain in the backside.

In my opinion JAE has always been overhyped. If I wanted to pay a small fortune to go camp in a field I'd much rather go to Le Mans - at least there is a half decent race to watch whilst there. I've done JAE twice, the second time only because it was the only show I could make that year due to work commitments and wanted to catch up with friends. Both times it was dire. Generally in the UK single day events are better organised, better attended, and better entertainment value.

Got a few hours in the garage in peace today. Both rear shocks refitted ( a difficult task single handed!). Both new rear disks fitted. Both rear rebuilt calipers refitted. Handbrake adjusted. I hope to get the rear on the ground again on Saturday, and then make a start on the front and get the calipers off so I can take them to work to rebuild in my free time.

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