NemesizX

Apology accepted Ali.. Might I say that the zoom function can really come in handy sometimes :lol:

I do get tired of this type of comment.. Its a 1980 chevrons square body pick up truck and has a large V8 which is capable of pulling your z in two halves Ali. The guy wanted an as American theme and decided on these flags accompanied by the body colour of the car. The choice of words Decorated in Christmas's wrapping paper and candy stixka by the look of it" I find quite offending as this is a piece of my work that I'm quite proud of. I do wish people could think before they type these things in here.. Oh and just so you can see the 7.2ltr V8 chevy engine it's being bolted to, here it is again in all its Christmas paper glory :angry:

I've decided on the next upgrade to my z's appearance.. I'm gonna sort out the scuttle panels and roof trims. I done a little test on a ropey old scuttle panel today and decided I'm going to do it. Here's what I'll be doing

Can't do anything on the z at the moment, can't even drive it but been keeping busy with work and hydro dining stuff for people. A good friend at work has a 30 year old square body yank truck and he's in the middle of a complete overhaul. He just bought an edelbrock intake manifold and asked me if I could make it a little more interesting than the rough cast alloy that it was.. So here's the before and after..

Ted, if you break that car I'll personally slap you! Cmon man, if you need help just ask! I'll give up a weekend to drive over and help you, it's not like your round the corner but I'll be damned if I'm gonna watch you put all that work in to give up on fitting a box! Get in touch Ted and we can sort out a time to get over. Maybe I can pick up russ or tomomontana on the way and get some hands on the job? Of course if they're not busy.. Whatever happens though, take those for sale posts down and sort your head out.. You're gonna finish that car and drive it in to the sunset pal whether you like it or not! Time to pull together and help a desperate man guys...

I've got a twelve year old daughter ikon.. I know.. I know.. My keys are always in my pocket :lol:

Keep your keys well hidden ikon, next thing you know shell be driving past you waving :shock:

Great stuff Richard.. Glad to see your enjoying it again. Can't wait to get my old girl in to be fixed up. Looking forward to finding out what a new set of turbos feels like. Just hope the rest of the car can take all that new performance again. I'll be driving her very calmly from now on though and going back to the occasional turbo boosting.. Couldn't cope with another high price problem for a little while. Maybe now you're up and running again Richard, we can arrange a mini meet somewhere on a weekend sometime soon?

This thread is becoming somewhat nursery grade.. I've read through its entirety and to be honest I'm failing to see where the argument is? Shifty had put his car up for sale at what's deemed in the market place as fairly top money for a z. From what I've seen of shiftys car, it is a fairly good example of the car and hat off to him for asking the price he has, we all know how much money goes in to keeping these cars up. That said however, mondos comments after the vehicle being for sale for a while and the price being decreased isnt insulting in any way. In fact if he'd given me the same advice or comment I'd have seen his point quite clearly. The fact that one of the seats has a hole in it and is showing the framework is something that I would have seen as a big down point as a prospective buyer and if you look at what mondos has said, shifty might have got his initial asking price and sold the car quicker, had he just found a good condition driver seat and installed it. There's no insult here, just a suggestion to try and help a guy out. Think it's time people stopped tearing each other new butt holes over such trivial matters and used the forum as a place to communicate in a way that doesn't make it feel like a kindergarten.. If people are going to get butt hurt by such a trivial thing, it begs the question why? Nothing mondos said affected the cars sale, the car will sell itself on its own merits. Its not like he said that cars a piece of trash is it? Can't we just simmer down a little and behave like reasonable adults and members of the same club here? Seems like the place is sometimes so full of tedious and pathetic rows over such trivial things and to be honest it gets bloody tiresome sometimes.. If you're feeling particularly tetchy, take a day off. No one is here to do anyone an injustice, we're all friends here and all here for the same reason.. Such a shame that a farewell post becomes a fighting ground..

It's unfortunately not a case of squeezing in Ali, it's a public liability thing I'm afraid. The event organisers can only hold a certain number of vehicles and I was just too late to get in. After speaking to Karen, she has said that I'm welcome to come on the day and wait in the holding area incase of a space becoming available due to non arrivals but even then I wouldn't be able to get alongside you guys unless of course it's one of ours that doesn't arrive. I may decide on the day to come along and take the chance but the prospect of paying for fuel to get there and back with the possibility of being turned away is a little off putting to say the least, especially when my finances have been sucked drier than a Virginia at a vampires party at present! :lol: I'll see what happens closer to the time, although I'm not even 100% certain that my car will be ready to go as I'm having trouble contacting Mr dent at the moment. Anyway, I'll keep my ear to the ground as Tony has kindly told me he will let me know if anybody drops out. So maybe I'll see you, maybe not but ya never know!

Looks like classic and sports by the lake is a no go for me. Called to find out if I could get in and was told the patten is full.. Was given the option to drive there and see on the day if a space became available but I can't afford to pay for fuel and find I get turned around.. Gutted but there's always next year. Jae is the week after so, it's looking like that will be my last event of the year now.

See ya shifty.. Good luck with the jag and all the best mate.

So you leaving the seats grey Chris? Or are you keeping your original seats? Door cards look great by the way.. You can buy some stuff that protects dyes from uv.. It's spray on too. Think it's actually called dye lok

I continued cleaning the black stuff from under my bonnet and managed to finish it today between showers and trying to hold the bonnet from blowing away! Forgot to put the pics up yesterday but here's the difference. All clean now Still got to tackle the stuff trapped between the bumper and the body though. It seems this product won't shift it. Anyone know of a good way to remove this?

A socket works much better.. :lol:

Good to hear you got her out for a bit Richard. I'm not driving mine at the moment so I don't risk damaging anything until the trip to Lee dent. It's agonising walking by her every day and getting in the Ford, but I got to suffer a little longer in order to do the right thing.. I'd be mortified if anything else went wrong right now!

If Google is the answer you trust Ali, so be it. I'm just offering you friendly and experienced advice. Decals can and will lead to turbo seal failure, the only variation of how long your seals will last is dependent on how old your turbo seals are. My engine has only done 55,000miles when you total up the mileage from the initial kms before import and the miles that's been added since in the UK. I might add that it was meticulously maintained by the one owner it had since 1994 when it was imported and I am the second owner. The previous owner ran the car as stock on the original stock ecu and running gear so my car was in top shape in the opinion of the mechanic I use. Any good mechanic will tell you that removing the back pressure from a turbo may not cause immediate damage, but Will lead to premature failure of the seals as they are designed to run on the back pressure provided by the factory installed catalytic converters and exhaust system. As I've said twice now, and this the third. It's you're car and you have the ultimate choice on what you do with it, I am simply giving you the benefit of my own personal experience which has cost me a lot of cash that is at the moment breaking the bank! In my opinion, unless you're fitting upgraded turbos with 360 bearings and uprated seals, decatting your car can and will reduce the lifespan of your turbos. But hey, Google says it's gonna be just fine! Thats cool, just ask Google if they're prepared to pay £1500 for new turbos and a grand for fitting them for you.. I wonder what Mr Google will reply to that? Anyway, I've done what I know is the right thing to do and tried to give some sound advice to save you money. If I didnt speak up and just let you get on with it, I'd be wrong for not doing so. Wish you the best of luck with it Ali and hope it all goes well for you..

Managed to continue the cleaning under my bonnet today, now removed all the unsightly black tar stuff from everywhere possible to reach. Just got to get the Polish out and give it a good buff up and wax then it should look great. Forgot to take photos so I'll get some later today and post them up. Gonna get the Maguires polisher out over the weekend and go over the whole car. Looking for that mirror finish, hopefully I'll achieve it before the lacquer wears through :lol:

The cats provide back pressure to the turbos Ali, my turbos had never smoked in the slightest prior to removing the cats and I knew that removing them was a gamble. If you have new seals then it shouldn't cause a problem for a while but zero back pressure on standard turbos will kill your seals. It took two days to blow mine. I'd advise against it, but as I said it's ultimately your choice. Given the choice again, I do have left my cats in place. Infact I'm having the cats reinstalled when the new turbos go in and just sticking with a cat back. There was definitely no issue with my turbos when the cats were in place. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you if you're going to decat mate, it's just cost me nearly £1800 to put right, so I don't think it was really worth the extra 15bhp gained from removal.

Be careful Alic. Decats run the risk of the same situation I'm in. It was only because of the Decats being fitted to mine that caused my turbo seals to blow, so word of caution. I'd personally leave the cats in and go for a cat back system instead.. Safer option to retain some back pressure on the seals mate. Ultimately your choice but I'd think long and hard before decatting your car..

Hey Alic, how's the progress on the auto box going mate?

I'm happy enough to speak to the organisers and let them know why we pulled out, but as for the impression of the actual event, I'm not expecting anything from it really. These static events are now based so much on the newer models that us golden oldies get forgotten about. Nothing on the stalls etc.. Even the show and shine have now emailed me to say I'd not got in. No doubt full of gtr's and the like. In my opinion a show and shine should represent the older vehicles that gives a true representation of the care and attention to detail that an owner has given. Not just rock up in a new or freshly painted car and walk away with the prize with little or no effort. Regardless of this disappointment, I'm still looking forward to spending 3 nights In a tent and having a good laugh with my mate. There does seem to be more on this year but for a 4 day event it's still looking like a lot of times going to be spent just sitting around and drinking etc.. Could get messy :lol: I shall report back about the event anyway..

:w00t: Chuffed for ya mate.. Well done

Hey osty, I wasn't sure if my car would be done in time for this but just had the book in date confirmed by Lee dent. Should be able to make this as well so you can put me down for attending.. Thanks to bedzeeman for reminding me about it!

I'm going to jae with another club this year and they have entered me for the show and shine! With this in mind I began looking around my car and making notes of places that she needs work concentrated on to really bring her up to standard. One of these places was along the tops of the wings inside the bonnet and the underside of the bonnet. There is a lot of hard black tar like muck stuck to it and had a go at cleaning it with some autoglym engine and machine cleaner.. It took it off really easy but I also noticed te cloth turning red as it began also taking the paint surface off! I had read the packaging and there was no mention of possible paint damage so fairly annoyed about this! Anyway, I obviously stopped immediately and rinsed the areas. I then bought autoglyms tar and spot remover, this stuff is the dogs danglys.. Here is the difference before and after. This was after a simple soft rub of the cloth over the affected areas. After So if you guys out there want to remove the nasty black stuff from your engine bays, avoid engine and machine cleaner from autoglyms but use their tar and spot remover! My tip of the day :lol: