Raja93

Great find! My washers are shocking, barely comes out one side and the other isn't the most powerful so I will get one of these. Probably need to try cleaning out the hoses as may be part clogged. I would keep yours as a spare for the future.

Welcome to the club! You will get lots of invaluable advice from here, so post up any queries you have. Upload some photos of your new Z - that's mandatory for new members 🙂.

+1 for CTEK

Found a black SFS Performance engine bay hoses set to replace the blue ones currently fitted. Just need to get around to ordering. I believe they’re the only properly lined hoses that don’t seep. Heard the Z1 hoses aren’t properly lined, from a couple of forum posts on here over the years, otherwise would have just got their set. Jimmer gifted me a harness bracket for the left of the plenum - will get this powdercoated in black and fit. Final thing in engine bay to complete the tidying up will be to paint the power steering reservoir as it’s started to corrode and pit - nasty looking!

The Z has been parked up since late October when we had constant torrential downpours. The usual winter hibernation prep ensued and checking in here and there to make sure all ok. Was very busy last year, moving home etc but still managed to do 4K miles which was brilliant fun. Will do much more this year now I’ve got less things eating up my time. Picked up a replacement fuse box cover for the engine bay - the old one was all scraped to bits. Fitted an AMS brake stopper which has been on the list for years! When I did the engine bay tinware powdercoating last year, I couldn’t do the cruise control end cap, which has bugged me since so sourced a beautifully made Z-Spec cover in black. Got the retrim booked in for end of the driving season this year (end of Oct 2024), so will be getting done whilst the car would be off the road anyway, so not losing any dry weather driving time 😃. Need to get the sound system replaced as mine is abysmal (only one side speakers work). Going to order a Z spec double din fascia soon then work out what to do with the speakers. Would also like to do the reverse camera in the boot key hole that Vig did. Last thing to do is replace the ancient alarm system.

Happy Birthday Gary, have a great day 😃🎉

What Tom quite rightly says, should do the trick as I've been told the same thing by MOT testers, so try that first.

Go to plates for cars.co.uk for legal small reg plates. It’s all about the letter spacings, size and the postcode of the plate manufacturer being stamped on the plate that makes it legal, from memory.

Glad you did the new front plate, looks much better than the oversized standard one. The UK spec rear wheels you were after would complete the car 👌🏽.

Sorry Tom, sister is coming down to see us this weekend for first time since she moved away, so can’t get out of that. Don’t get washed away!

Insitu - I unbolted the straps in front of the tank and let them hang down to the rear. I only did this as I knew rust was found and sorted to the top of the tank previously, so no need to drop it. Based on there being a chance of rust above the tank where it meets the boot floor and also under the straps, I would definitely remove the whole tank over winter and property take it all back to bare metal and refinish. Jimmer did say the tanks are super thick metal and I believe strengthened in case of rear end accidents, so shouldn’t be easy for it to rust through in theory, but better safe than sorry!

Great news! Whilst it’s off the road for winter, I would loosen the fuel tank straps off and inspect where the straps hold the tank. Mine had surprise rust hiding there and was pretty bad, considering the rest of the tank was absolutely mint, not a spot of rust elsewhere. Took it back to bare metal and sorted it though thankfully. Think it happens there due to being a moisture trap.

Z4m with a carbon CSL intake 😍. German TVR people call them - S54 a fantastic engine. If E46 M3’s were still £10k like they used to be, I’d have one as a daily but sadly now around £18k for an equivalent example. Really like the C6 corvette, LHD would be a PITA, although should be ok as a weekend car in reality.

You must be sporting a big set of cojones to be parking in there! No room for a single wrong manoeuvre!!

Ah yes I’ve got that problem and Andrew explained to me this same process 2 years ago but still not done it! My rear quarter panel has shrunk and given way mostly, drivers door card bubbles, b pillar major bubbling, targa handle surrounding vinyl all crumpled/shrunk, drivers seat big rips, bolster wear, gaiters nackered, list goes on…

That stock reliability is exactly why I said not to modify it! Thankfully I’m now at that stage that it just always works - hurrah! I’d look at doing injectors, series 2 PTU and maybe a new fuel pump, purely for reliability reasons. Nothing else needed on yours. UK spec wheels will be the icing on the cake, will fill out those rear arches nicely. Your interiors in much better condition than mine so I’d leave well alone for a good couple years at least.

Well…..😬 I’ll end up tidying small bits and bobs here and there but other than the interior, alarm and music system, no other major work to be done. After 3.5 years, it now drives amazing, looks beautiful and most importantly is reliable, so the key box’s are ticked. I don’t actually enjoy the modifying at all (just the end result I enjoy). It cheeses me off how changing one thing opens up a can of worms and then results in another part needing changing. That’s why I told Tom to never modify his Z, other than absolute essentials. I would have much preferred to buy an already mint car that doesn’t need anything doing to it to save all the hassle and time wasting. Other than the suspension refresh and 99 headlights, everything else done to the car was down to faults it had when I bought it unfortunately - compression issue + turbo seizing, paint lacquer peeling in various places, tired trim and minor rust, brakes getting old etc. Interior is shabby hence the retrim next year. So fingers crossed by the end of 2024 I’ll have a finished Z 😃.

Haha 😂, no no you got it all wrong. I’ve been cured of my modifying addiction - look at my first post from Wednesday, been driving it loads! Hence why I haven’t posted anything since early May. Now moved home to a 5 min walk from the garage I rent which makes it easy to jump in and drive anytime weathers decent. Reason I chose winter 2024 is so I can save for it and secondly because it goes in the garage anyway from November to end of March, so I then don’t lose any summer driving time 😎.

Exactly what I’m thinking. The second tan sample that was far too expensive, is perfect in regards to creasing - typical!! Muirhead do make custom colours so may send them the sample and see what their custom colour pricing is like. Although whenever you add the word custom or specialist, pricing goes through the roof ☹️

I’m not getting this done until November 2024 so got plenty of time to sort the tan leather spec out! Interior Innovations do front seat foams so may order a set of those whilst I’m at it. Would help get that perfect leather fit appearance and avoid creasing.

Interior retrim plan is:- - New muirhead leather to match OEM colour and grain to A & B pillars, upper door cars, rear quarter upper trim, rear quarter window surrounds, targa handle surround - Tan leather to all seats, lower door cards, rear lower quarter trims, gear and hand brake gaiters, glove box, under steering wheel and around transmission tunnel sides. Seats centres hoping to go perforated leather.

I wasn’t too happy with the creasing in this tan sample so got a Porsche nappa tan as below image, but as expected, it is shockingly expensive!! Makes the job 75% more expensive, even though it’s the same quality as the Muirhead leather. Annoyingly Muirhead don’t do dark tans which is where my issue lies 🤦🏽‍♂️. The search continues…

The chosen Tan sample shown below, compared against the door card colours and the blue paintwork. Also compared to the Fawn sample which is too light.

Ordered some samples from Muirhead leather which is all top notch lovely stuff. Most turned out to be completely different colours than what I thought but the Fawn (top one) interested me as it’s super smooth and thick nappa. After some thought and chatting to Vig, I decided It’s too light for my liking, so got some alternative samples which hit the nail on the head.

Been a while since the last update. After the rebuild and paintwork last year, I didn’t get the Z back on the road fully until October last year which only gave me a month until winter hibernation. This year I’ve been driving it quite a bit which has been fantastic; evenings after work on sunny days, all throughout weekends and since I’ve changed jobs to another firm who pays private car mileage, I’ve been using the Z to drive to work meetings where I know the roads are great 😃. Whenever I’m driving hard (most the time!), I’m grateful I had Jimmer build the engine as it’s been faultless over quite a lot of mileage this summer. Next on the list is interior; sound system, modern alarm and retrim.