Chris

Pro calipers have said they'll do just the powder coating on all 4 for £320, should make the total cost around £400/450 once I do my own seals which is a bit more reasonable!

Oooooo that's more like it, where did you have them done? Edit: Oh just realised you said painted rather than powdered. I'm not against painting, just wondering about powdering first

Took the 350z front Brembo's off my black zed to put on this weekend, but the seals have completely had it! Was considering getting them powder coated anyway as they look a bit manky, think this may have persuaded me as they need to come apart anyway. I'm happy to rebuild them myself, does anyone know a decent place to do the powder coating? You here so many horror stories about getting them back full of grit that it's made me nervous. I got a quote from pro-calipers.co.uk for a full rebuild but £620 to do those and the stock rear calipers seems pretty excessive. They want £150 just for the front seals! Only $35 from Z1 or CZP.

I know what you mean, but I wasn't sure how good a job I would be able to do scrabbling around on the drive underneath it on axles. Wasn't confident I'd get all the cavities properly. This guys attention to detail was very good though, he noticed a rubber grommet in the door missing so he used his endoscope to look for it in the door in case it had been pushed in. The fact he had an endoscope says quite a lot as well! Said he used it to have a good look around :thumbup:

Took it to get undersealed today! No pictures unfortunately, but it now stinks :-P Went to Ultimate in Egham, was a bit apprehensive as it's obviously difficult to tell if they've done a good job! But the guy said he'd been doing it for 11 years and does maybe 5 zeds a year, and explained why they were nice cars to do due to the underbody profile so gave me some confidence he knew what he was talking about! Dropped me off and picked me up from the station as well. Was £490 inc vat, he said the coating will last 10 years happily, but the rust inhibitor lasts 5, so up to me when to get it redone. Said it was really nice underneath, and that there was really nothing to tell me about it because it was so clean, all the suspension and everything, so I'm pleased with that :-) 4 wheel alignment next because it's off, but need to decide whether I should raise it a little first. Was a 45 minute drive and I only heard the wheels catch lightly 2 or 3 times, but still. Worried about going over a big dip on the motorway, and it doesn't like speed bumps

I did use heat in the end, worked a treat with no cracked paint. Used a heat gun to get the arch liner tabs just hot to the touch, only took about 15 seconds on the lowest setting, then bent them in a bit by hand. Front right is still rubbing a bit over big bumps, but it's miles better and driveable now. No idea what is rubbing though, got a good amount of clearance now and have set the coilovers to be pretty stiff. I also picked up a single recaro rail on eBay a few weeks ago so fitted my drivers seat. Not perfect condition but really not bad, the picture makes it look worse than in real life and only paid £200 for the pair. Certainly better than what I had and will do until my Mondo retrim! The rail was attached to a third seat I got for £230 posted and have just sold the seat again for £185 posted so didn't cost me much! Will probably buy a passenger one new now

No one got any tips?

Forgot to ask, any tips when bending the front arch liner tabs? I don't want the paint to crack. Is it ok to heat them up with a heat gun to try and soften the paint first? I certainly don't want to damage the external finish!

I don't think you'll find many people on this forum that agree the Skyline looks better! :tt2: Me included!

I adore the colour of this, it's stunning. Is it the original yellow pearl?

Taking it's manual gearbox et al, clutch and flywheel is the big one as my white one is auto, but also one piece prop, 350z front brakes, exhaust, intercoolers, air filter and then a lot of other little bits and pieces, like my red nose badge :thumbup1: So nothing too major. I didn't bother measuring them as it became a moot point (see below), but I'm reasonably sure. Can check tonight though out of interest. Who says all wheels have the same mounting hole depth though, could that not be the difference? They're only 16" wheels and don't fit over the 350z brakes on my black zed, not planning on swapping the brakes for a while so it'll have to stay on axle stands for now. Must say though I was amazed at how hard you have to brake to get the auto to stop! Yes I'm used to the slightly bigger (though hardly massive) brakes on my black zed, but it really took me by surprise!

No they're the cheap ones, I'm not using them

Depends which ones you mean, yea the ones I swapped over from my old zed are, 22mm front and 5mm back, both H&R. The ones I took off are cheapo ones, not hubcentric, and not even the same both sides, one was 10mm, the other I think 7.5mm!

Ha-ha suppose it is :clap:

Wanted to start a thread for my newly imported zed, but it's really hard to think of a name :-P Put the number plates on at the weekend so this is something of a rebirth for it! Swapped the wheels over from my old zed as the ones it came with had a terrible offset, needed 10mm spacers to get over the front stock calipers and thus only had 3 turns on the nuts. Tried to take it for a drive, but the front right wheel was catching so badly I only made it to the end of the road and back! Was then too late to adjust anything. Bit surprised really as it doesn't look that low, might need to stiffen the dampers. So not a great maiden voyage :-P Wheels are filthy bit didn't have time to clean them. Plan on driving it around a little bit just to check everything is alright before starting some proper work!

Out of interest, who do/will you entrust to do the paint? I'm always worried about colour matching with stuff like this

Can only get 3 turns on the nuts with the wheels on my new import, so not really very safe! I'm going to swap the wheels over from my old zed, but I don't want to leave that one with unsafe wheels either! The wheels don't have to be stock (though that would be nice), I don't really care what they are tbh so long as they fit reasonably well. 4 reasonable tyres would be ideal so I don't have to mess about with them. I'm in Wokingham (near Reading) but willing to travel a bit. What have you got?!?

Holy cow the price shot up quick. Looks to me like the sill is a bit bent juuuust above where the mud flap is fitted on the picture Garry put up, could well be hiding a world of pain....

Long time coming but got there in the end! I'm a happy boy today :-)

I know where I'm breaking in to tonight!!

If I were to buy second hand seat, do I need them to come with any rails at all? Or do these bolt directly to the seat and there's nothing else needed?

Yea £400 to do both, should have snapped up dans!! But an option anyway

My retrim might get a bit more interesting then :ninja:

Everybody is always saying how rare the OEM recaro rails are... http://www.jdmdistro.com/shop/interior/nissan-350z-370z-300zx-seat-rail-bride-recaro-sparco-etc/ Do these not do what I think they do? :confused1:

Isn't there a test you can do without a PC to test the O2 sensors? Something about a light flickering on the dash at 2000rpm...