Mondo

Anything above and beyond the deposit would stay with you until the work was completed, Richie. Put it in savings... hide it under the mattress... I don't care - just don't send it to me! :lol: Proper Zeds ;) would take about 10 days, Ash. Once I've given this some serious consideration, I'll go from there. It's a massive undertaking for me and, of course, it swallows a sizeable amount of time out of my diary... and I'm already disappointing people who want work doing but then do a double-take when I tell them it's well into the next year before I could start! :pinch:

Here are my thoughts thus far: if I go ahead with this, I'd most likely be looking to start the first job in mid to late September 2017. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, I'm already booked up well into next year and secondly, it gives everyone involved chance to get "show season" out of the way before the inevitable winter hibernation starts. So how does the above sit with any interested parties...? Obviously, this would run on a "first come, first served" basis so, if you're the 10th person to sign up (for example) then you're likely to have a sizeable wait before your interior gets done! I wish there was another way to do it, but there simply isn't as I'm only one man. The timescales would run something like this: a 2+2 that was having all seats and panels trimmed would take approximately 2 weeks from start to finish. So, for arguments' sake, if the first five people all had a 2+2 and wanted the seats and all the usual panels trimming, the 5th person would be looking at a likely start date of mid-November (based on me taking 8 weeks to complete 4 complete trims). Now it may be that these timescales don't work for people, and I can understand that. This is why I'm mentioning all this now, so interested parties can be fully informed before they agree to anything and especially before any money changes hands for deposits! So... what are peoples' thoughts on all of this please...?

Well, thank you. :) One thing that I think a lot of people either didn't realise or have simply overlooked is the fact that, at no point, did I explicitly say or suggest to Shifty that his car wasn't worth what he was asking for it. I don't know enough about the car in question to comment. I simply offered a suggestion, after he'd lowered his asking price twice, as to how he could potentially improve the appearance and thus get the price he wanted. That's all. Someone like the seller I mentioned with the pearl white NA is a different story entirely. People like that come in for a "bashing" more often than not but, as far as I'm aware, not one person bashed Shifty's car on here. The absolute worst thing that was said was by myself, and that was when I said about changing the driver's seat to lift the appearance of the cabin overall. But anyhoo, the car's sold and that's that. He got a good price, which should make him and the rest of us happy :thumbup1:

I've said my bit about this particular car, so I won't say anything further on that matter. There's a Zed on eBay (or Gumtree - can't remember which) that's up for a few grand. It's a pearl white NA. The seller describes the bodywork as being superb, yet there are two huge patches of rust on the tailgate! Granted, the rest of the body looks in good nick, but he doesn't even mention the rusty boot at all! We're not yet at the stage where these cars are making really good money even if they're a bit ropey, but people are seeing the prices slowly climb and are (understandably) upping the prices of their own Zeds. I've a suspicion that we'll encounter a period where tat gets dressed up like diamonds and sold for an appropriate price, but hopefully that period will be short-lived. My own viewpoint is that we, as owners, want our cars to be worth money. Like anything though, they have to either be in superb condition or ridiculously rare to be worth big bucks. It's when people start selling arguably average cars for strong money that the questions and the "bashing" start. We've seen it many times on here over the years and we'll no doubt see it again before this year is out. I don't think it's a case of certain portions of the membership just wanting to jump on anyone who feels their Zed is worth more than two apples and a big bag of conkers; it's simply that we want realism within our marketplace as the values start to increase. Those are my thoughts anyway.

You're thinking of Hollings, I think....

The Speeds are an SR seat, but I can't remember the code for them. Both versions were an option for the Z32; the Speed style (with the rounded shoulders) and the "original" SRs (with the more pronounced shoulder spikes).

Dougal's weren't Evo 9, mate - they were the SR, which is basically the same as I already have ;)

As most of you know, I have a pair of Recaro Speed seats fitted in my Zed. These were actually an option during the Z32's production run and, as such, are sort of "period correct." What are peoples' thoughts on changing them for a newer model of Recaro...? Maybe a pair out of an Evo 9, or even an Evo 10...? Should I "modernise" the cabin, or leave things as they are to retain a little authenticity (well, as authentic as red leather can be!)...? Go.....

Well according to the poll, there's enough "definite" interest for this to go ahead and almost enough for the full 25% discount! So I guess I'd better start giving this some serious thought....

I took a couple of hours off this afternoon and went for a drive around the North East coast. I don't know what it's like anywhere else, but it's perfect "roof off" weather here: warm, sunny and just a very slight breeze. :) Lots of people stopped and looked... a few thumbs-ups from the younger generation... just a really nice, chilled out drive. Loved it! :biggrin:

The Blacktop Beams is a cracking motor - about 210 bhp out of the box with dual VVTi and bags of torque! A nice little 4-pot screamer :thumbup1:

Wrong. Very wrong, in fact. The OP specifically mentioned people "bashing" high-priced Zeds in general, which was directed at me. I responded. Then Znut responded to me, and so on and so forth. Nothing off-topic here at all. All well within the OP's initial post.

In my opinion: the majority of the "high-priced" Zeds that appear have some quite glaring issues with them. Case in point; the guy on eBay who bought a blue wide-arch for around £7k and then put it up for sale a week later for £15k! I don't know Sumshiftyguy. I've never met him and I find it highly unlikely that I ever will now. BUT! As has already been said, he was asking very strong money for his car which, in itself, is no bad thing. It shows that prices are on the rise at long last and, perhaps more importantly, that people are prepared to pay them. :thumbup1: The only thing I did was to offer some advice when he dropped his price yet again. That's all. If he had a problem with that, he could have sent me a PM asking me to shush. As Znut suggested I should've done. Rather than doing that, he fired a shot or two in this very thread and they could only have been directed at me as I was the only person to post anything even remotely negative (even though my comments were constructive, rather than negative). Again, I didn't tear his car apart whatsoever. I'm personally very pleased that he got near his asking price for it! As Paul said though; why should we have to restrict dialogue which isn't derogatory to the PM system? This is a forum after all......

Is it a 120Y, Adam?

I'd still like to know precisely how, in your opinion, my comments regarding his driver's seat were "off topic" please? Y'know, seeing as how they were directly related to one of his bad points about the car that he was accepting offers on... Here's the funny thing: I watched all manner of "off topic" comments (by your definition, at least) appear in a steering wheel thread of mine... where people were discussing whether or not a set of seams were an equal length apart or not... twas a little amusing watching it all unfold, if I'm honest... But hey, if discussions on a "forum" should ideally take place via PM then perhaps I'm simply misunderstanding the actual purpose of a forum! As I said, I wasn't nasty or unpleasant regarding either the owner or his car in any way, shape or form - I simply offered a very constructive idea to help his sale. That'll teach me, won't it......

Is he not still on holiday, Paul?

Seriously? He was dropping his price and inviting offers, so I offer some "constructive advice" on how to improve the appearance of his car for potential buyers... and you reckon that's off topic...?! Uh huh.... :rolleyes: For your information, I've had some "off topic" comments on my leatherwork on here in the not too distant past and I must've missed the part where you turned up to save the day! I didn't tear his car apart in any way - I simply suggested that the state of his interior, as depicted by his worn-out driver's seat, might put people off from paying such a strong price for the car. If opinions and advice that are specifically based on the topic in question are no longer allowed, and an area that I specialise in no less, then consider me stunned....

They look great, Richie. :thumbup: Why the hell do you need eight calipers though...??

So that's where Dean's car got to! :thumbup1:

Do people just not realise that there's a trimmer on this forum...? :lol:

My John Dixon-chipped ECU arrived yesterday morning from Yowser, so I swapped it into my car and thought I'd take her for a bit of a spin to see if I could notice a difference. :) Straight away, the idle is lower (which is nice) and she certainly seems to pull a little harder now, though whether that's also down to the new downpipes or not is debatable. It's nice to know that there's now at least some uprated mapping to go along with the boost increase and intake/exhaust modifications! Also, in other news, Andy P recently fixed my clock and it's performing faultlessly. So thanks to Andy for that little bit of work :thumbup1:

I'm glad to hear you got close to your asking price. Well done. As for the part I've highlighted: I expressed a valid opinion and was indeed constructive with my advice, so I can sleep soundly tonight. If I personally went to see a "high-priced" Zed that was for sale and the driver's seat was worn through to the metal frame, it would be a huge black mark against the car! It would honestly make me question how much care the rest of the car had received if the cabin could be allowed to become so shabby. But that's just my opinion, and I'm quite at liberty to express it. :) Again, well done on the sale.

My biggest concern with this is how UV-tolerant it's going to be. My guess is "not very"...

Now there's a question... The answer is "No"... BUT, if I had the available funds, I'd quite happily get another SWB and have it done to that, which would allow me to have a stock bodied Zed and one with big hips as well :thumbup1: The only reason I wouldn't do it to my silver one is because the premise for that car was always to have it subtly styled.

If this is the one I'm thinking of, it's my favourite Zed in the whole world... I absolutely love the look of this car!!