Funkysi

Yeah, that's a bit much for me. Even on that Aston and I really don't like satin paints - it would look REALLY cheesy on a 300zx. I've just ordered a new C-Class AMG-Line actually in iridium Silver which is a really nice bright silver. I was going to go for white, but....probably time for a change, my last 5 cars have been white! :rofl:

There are some nice modern silvers out now. Much brighter and more vivid that early silver paints.

Cheers Dave! Might be slow progress, hoping to have it back by the end of April. I have told the paint shop not to rush as I want it looking perfect. :)

Features and benefits of the new versions over the old?

More bags of shite.

Small selection of new parts. More are coming over from the US next week and also Nissan UK in a few weeks! This t-top hook is almost too nice to fit. The gloss in person is amazing, even the end plastics are high gloss. Wiper, cover and seal Top-trim from rear screen - the expensive one. This is even gloss! Front panel lower rubber moulding. These miss-shape over time and after being removed and refitted. There is tape also on the contact edge to keep it perfectly straight as you tighten up the metal retainer. New squirter...just because.

That rhymes!

Yes, a number of folks know and I'm shite at keeping schtum about work being done to my Z. In an ever increasing quest to have the cleanest Z I could possibly create, I have become more and more fussy with how things look resulting in me going back to a more original look. So over the past few months I have been buying up more and more original new OEM parts; dispensing with my 2-din Z Thirty Two fascia and replacing it with a brand new OEM one were the first steps, a rare DIN cubby with door from Richard Smith, all new centre console plastics, re-foaming the seats, all sorts of other things and many brand new exterior pieces. Spurred on from JP's awesome example and Andrew's take on OEM+ and idealistic car plus deep knowledge, my Z is going back to the paint shop next week for some major surgery. I've been let down time and time again by poor quality workmanship from the various bodyshops I've used (which has been both stressful and upsetting) and this time around, I've decided to go all-out, get more new stuff and have the car stripped of what's already on there and repainted properly. Not content with trying to find somewhere locally to me and getting let down as previously described, I've elected to use Kraftworks near Chelmsford who are some 3 and a half hours from me and a trailer is being sent next Friday to pick it up!! Some folks may have heard of these guys as they are the very same paint shop that did Joel's car who many have seen and love (myself included). I was lucky to get hold of a brand new OEM 89-93 spoiler (still boxed), so that's going on....and because I thought it would be great idea to de-wiper and de-aerial my car whilst being in a terrible mental state following a nasty relationship breakdown, I made some silly mistakes and welded up stuff that I really shouldn't have, I have decided to go back to how the car once looked (my Z originally came over from Japan with no spoiler, so it's never had this fitted in my ownership) and despite liking the 99-spec, I think the original looks a lot better, at least on light coloured cars like white and silver and more befitting of the car's age (it's a 1991) and the rest of the body. Gary (GSC60) very kindly gave me a non-welded tailgate with no rust on it (VERY hard to find these days). I have a brand new wiper arm, seal and all the gubbins to go back in it. The aerial hole is being re-instated and that's going back in. I argued with myself on what spoiler to go with for a while; having made up my mind on the TwinZ Type 1 as I love the style and have never seen a decent quality copy of the original, I went with what I thought was my only and best option, that was until a brand new original one was found, still boxed! AndrewG and myself, I think, took the last two available from Nissan, they've been NLS for about a decade in the US and I had thought they weren't available here either (Thanks for your help Ash). The quality of original spoilers is fabulous, they're very tactile and fit like a glove, something cheap fibgrelgass replicas just don't do, there's also a way of protecting them against spoiler-rot found in older cars (thanks to AndrewG for that one). I'm very excited. The rest of the car will look almost the same....except for one thing...the paint!! I'm totally done with pearl white paints. They can look nice, but almost all of them look cream/beige in off-light situations and that has started to bug me. The rear quarter of my car is a very slightly different shade on my passenger side for reasons unknown and the previous paint shop just couldn't rectify it; some keen beans may have noticed that when they've seen the car in person! Trying to rectify damage or repaint areas with pearls is an utter nightmare as you end up chasing the paint round the car in an effort to blend.......soooooo......the new colour is going to be a metallic white which is a paint I'd not really known about but had wondered whether one existed. It turns out quite a few do and I've had the colour chips through today of those that I'm interested in comparing. The beauty of these new metallic whites is that they lay like a traditional metallic so you don't have that pearl mid-coat that is the thorn in my side. Metallic whites don't look beige or off-beige/cream out of direct sunlight, yet they still sparkle in the sun like a pearl coat, some more than others. It's almost like a modern take on QN0 which is a pearl white used on 94+ Z32s, but with half the maintenance and a better look. Although mine's in good condition, a new t-top bar is going in and rear screen top trim and other new things are going on. I have boxes and boxes of new Nissan parts. The colour - Jaguar's glacier white metallic as Nissan don't do anything similar. I looked at a VAG metallic white also, but this didn't have much metallic in. So the Jaguar colour has been chosen as of today! It's a stunning colour and really quite subtle. Range Rover also use this same colour code (2201/NAK) under the 'Yulong White' moniker. I thought about a straight-white, but I owe it to the car's origins to keep a special finish on it. Here are a few images of the colour in various lights.

Oh Andrew! Behave! The thing the badge is resting on is actually a colour chip........

Just a little teaser - I couldn't contain myself! :D

I have 2 tyres on my Z that I've swapped for a slightly smaller size as the fronts were a little oversized. I am dropping to a 255 30 19 so that leaves 2 265 30 19 Pirelli P-Zeros. Great tyres offering tremendous grip! These have no curbing damage, nor have they any puncture repairs. Tread is around 5-6mm £100 for the pair - collection, or I can deliver in areas I regularly visit such as London, the south and the Midlands.

If you want poor quality brittle stuff in your car, sure. The Z Thirty-two 2-din dash console is a prime example of that. It appears to be made from the same substrate used in many 3D printing systems. It's brittle, weak and doesn't have the finish or quality you'd expect from an original part, in fact, it's worse than 25 year old sun baked original parts. I get it, you can't expect a little manufacturer to invest in £100ks worth of injection moulding tools - but this is precisely why I am a big advocate of original plastic parts.

They were in there solid. Had to burn those *******s out! :lol:

This is correct, CZP buy through a dealership in the Phoenix metroplex area.

Removing my third brakelight/perspex panel at the weekend, so it's up for grabs. It's in great condition and is not faded, cracked or scratched. I bought it new and it's been on my car since fitting it. It comes with the clips, screws and bulbs. Due to the fragility of this part, I am not willing to send it via courier. It is collection only - or I can deliver to certain parts of the country that I travel to regularly, south coast, London and the Midlands.

Aaaaah! Has quite a deep exhaust note for an NA and it picks up not far off of a very stock TT.

As we know, parts are being discontinued at an alarming rate for these cars; many trim and plastic components that were available 6 months ago are now no longer available. Things like the plastic trim that sits on the outside of the door pillar for example are not available at all through Nissan USA however strangely one side is still available from Nissan Japan. I am buying up brand new OEM parts as quickly as I can when I replace them. I was extremely lucky with my brand new OEM rear spoiler for example and new headlights (granted the headlights were bought from someone who'd bought them new 10 years ago and never fitted them), but things are getting tough now, especially for those wanting a more concourse example. My point being, I've been trying to get quite a lot of parts for my impending bodywork which starts next Friday and a number of parts were not available from the usual sources such as Z1, Courtesy etc etc. We all know that there's a huge amount of stock in North America, however, North American dealerships, which are generally where the specialists get their parts from, all draw from a huge inventory stored at their headquarters in Tennessee. UK dealerships draw from their European distribution centre in Amsterdam which in turn draws directly from Nissan Japan. A number of recent examples - the front grille for TT cars that is clipped in behind the bumper - these often break and fall to bits - these are not available in North America, however a phone call to a local Nissan dealership showed that they're able to draw this product straight from Japan. I may still not being able to get this as parts only show as obsolete on Nissan UK's system after someone has tried to order it, it isn't automatically updated - I may be that person who tries to order only for the part to be updated as NLS. Lead time is 3 weeks though, so it should get here by the time my car is back at least! :rofl: Further to that though, I've had various other bits of trim and clips that can't be sourced through Nissan USA, but Nissan Europe were able to get hold of them. It helps that the cars were available in Japan for another 4 years and stock levels are 4 years in advance of what they might be elsewhere. If you can't get it though the usual overseas sources, don't give up on using Nissan UK or MJP. Use this page to give your dealership a helping hand with part numbers. http://nissan4u.com/ - this is for Euro cars which share about 95% of parts from JDM models, but those with FAST should be able to get part numbers for specific JDM parts.

The unremarkable little part that I'd been hunting for for months has now been refinished. It's the little things. :) Now with new OEM screws - ready to fit. :)

Those US states that have 'inspections' don't require handbrake to have the adjustment check that we do at MoT time which is why many 'ebrakes' as they call them point to the sky.....it's a neglected part. I couldn't live with it looking like that even if it wasn't an MoT requirement. Some states don't even have an inspection or a smog test. You can just keep on driving it regardless.

Since my front bumper will be coming off shortly, I might go for a set of those. The Bosch horns could be slightly louder!

Indeed, they are. Awful things. Replace them with some Bosch dual tone horns and you'll be doing yourself a big favour.

It's the bolts underneath you should have removed, you don't take the ones off facing you. I replaced the little top-hat bushings a few years ago with OEM nylon ones. Nice crisp, slick gear change.

The thread title should give that away......

Hope you didn't fit that awful spoiler dude! :rofl: Sounds like stock boost from that video.