Why not to buy a Zed 4000km away? (long read)

Hi, I'm Megan and a new forum member but certainly not new to the world of Zed ownership.

You may all know my husband Bryan or to you he is O?Connor Television. I?d like to introduce you to him differently ? MacGyver to be exact.

I noticed Bryan, doing his usual internet surfing through the forum website. He came across a white 300zx for sale. No idea why but it appealed to me instantly. I?d previously told Bryan we are not to get anymore cars, and that we should now be saving for a house. You can already see where this is going.

Whilst we checked through the comments in the thread I became more interested in the car. It was like the adrenalin rush I get when buying shoes. This adrenalin rush cost me hell of a lot more than a pair of shoes though! After days of negotiation I was the owner of a another ZX.

Now I just needed to arrange its collection with a transport company and I was set...So I thought.

The transport company, collected the vehicle although they?re idea of collection and my idea were totally worlds apart. I had no idea I was dealing with total imbeciles and morons who had no appreciation for a decent looking car.

To our knowledge when arranging the collection of the car we were told the car had not been lowered.

This is where the purchase of the year went from gold to lemon in seconds. The car company rang to say "there's a problem that the car is too low to transport BUT we've moved it to the depot and in doing so we had to remove the cars bumper". My response, was shock horror because if the cars too low how the hell could it be moved to a depot but no further?? and why the hell did they take the bumper off well RIP it off and crack it in several places beyond belief when there was no intention to move it any further? MONEY, total ignorance and lack of respect for a great looking vehicle is the only answer I'd be willing to accept. They were total morons and given the car was damaged already no other company would touch it.

So we arranged for the clutch to be fixed and flew over to drive the vehicle home. Forgive me but I still felt I'd bought a LEMON and how could you blame me when the car was with a bumper that was held on by 100 mile tape ? black and obvious as dogs balls ? and it would not would not idle without conking out. My adrenalin rush had been fizzled.

The car was ugly.

All I wanted to do was hail another cab back to the airport but Bryan had faith despite its taped bumper, scratched and dented paint work, vacuum leaks all over engine, electrics cut and wired by someone without a brain in their bloody head, the nose panel missing and not to mention the stereo I?d paid for, gone.

Bryan, held his composure and set to work to fix it so it was driveable. First stop: Repco, $120.00 later we had tools enough car fluids that we wouldn?t have to buy anymore??? That was the wrong thought.


The hose at the front was clearly hanging off yet the mechanic didn't fix it! It was so obvious, me with no mechanical knowledge could hear the car was idling like the sound of an emphysema sufferer sounds in the morning! Bryan set to work with his bush/Macgyver mechanics fixing the air leaks and changing hoses. It wasn?t until we were about to leave the shopping centre car park that we checked the electrics and the cars lights. This was the beginning of more problems.

Wires were cut and not soldered anywhere; a fire waiting to happen and in fact 300 Km from Adelaide we did have a fire! The brake lights were all that worked. I don't know how anyone could drive a car in such bad shape a total nincompoop owned this car, the state of the electrics meant it was a fire hazard!

Anyhow, Bryan aka Mr MacGyver was able to source from other fuses (from mainly a 30amp fuse) enough power to run both the fog and headlights from one spot and then discreetly hide the abomination of poorly maintained electrics out of sight and out of mind.

We finally left Perth and its 37 degrees temps and started home. We never got far before the car started to overheat. A bit of water and some coolant and we were back on the road. Although, we did not get much further, more water was needed.

By the third stop Mr MacGyver was seriously wondering what the hell is happening? The car should not be overheating this often. This is when we found that the Coolant catch reservoir had not been replaced correctly and the coolant was leaking out like a seive. It was attached to nothing and able to be removed far too easily. Anxious to get on the road, we persevered, checking water pressure every 20 ? 30km. Hence, we only got about 230km from Perth the first night. We stumbled across Wynns Stop Leak ? it was a godsend. It got us a litte further away from Perth but not as far as we?d planned. We?d hope to be close to the WA border given that our unregistered permit expired in 48 hrs.

Our second day delivered just as many problems after using Bars stop leak. After using this the water temperature gauge jumped to excessive temperatures with only minimal distances travelled. We needed to call RACV (WA equivalent and get a truck out with water - we only carried at that stage 5 litres of water.) The mechanic was unable to help really and also caused more damage to the car by jacking the car up from beneath the radiator so the bonnet does not shut smoothly anymore. He felt it was a head gasket we had damaged but was not prepared to fix it and recommended we drive to Kalgoorlie. We stopped overnight in Kalgoorlie and got some more water, spare parts and tools and left early in the morning to make up for lost time.

We had worked out the car by now drive 200km and stop and cool down add water. We'd worked out each of the petrol station stops across the Nullabor adn were set. We'd even became well known to the truck drivers by this time who would radio ahead to others on the road to keep an eye out for us and to stop if we were in trouble.

Another stopover in Madura somewhere in the middle of the Nullabor; met some local folk and avoided the risk of being taken out by a Kangaroo, camel or emu that cross the highway at any given time without warning. We left again early morning and saw 3 eagles, 1 echidna, 3 Kangaroos and 4 emus. I had my first real drive of the car by now plus it was my first time driving a manual in 9 years!

We made it to the WA/SA border in the nick of time, yes the permit had expired but now we were to aim for a town called Yalata WARNING NEVER EVER EVER STOP THERE! It is sacred land and very rundown. We stopped in at the local police station (no weapons there though) got the permit and were out of there ASAP. More damaged was done to the car here by the local children who we oblivious to it. They were greasy and dirty and were climbing all over the car, the bonnet, playing with our luggage, our GPS (which failed to work properly after that, thank god its the only road to Vic!). They even refused to let go of the car as Bryan started reversing away. Very scary, we were not sure what was going to happen. We'd been warned later on that they could have claimed our car since it was on their land!

We were doing pretty well now and on the way to Adelaide we had another unplanned stop in Crystal Brook where we slept in the car at a petrol station and waited for the rain to stop so we could look under the bonnet and find that a small fire had started in an electrical part that ignites and starts the car. Bryan had an idea to construct a new part using pieces of wire that were already cut and soldered the ends to it using some solder and a cigarette lighter. I have not seen much in the way of soldering but he did a a great job. Check out the photo.



We finally arrived at our friends dad?s place in Adelaide, had showers, ate and slept a little, well I did, whilst Bryan worked on the car and then left there at 11:30pm so I could be at work at 8am the next day. NOT A GOOD IDEA when its normally an 8 hr drive! We were struggling to keep our eyes open and had several power naps along the way. We made it home by 8:30am. I was at work by 10 am and subsequently told by my boss, to go home!

The car is now at our new workshop and waiting for some Bryan TLC.

There are a couple of things I need to do first such as, consult my lawyer (aka me) to write a letter of demand recouping some compensation from the transport companies and mechanics for damage and loss suffered and then we?ll start looking at the long list of things to do ? that list is below which will give you an idea of what we?re getting ourselves into:-

Exterior ?Bit of scratch and dent repair;
Rust converter ? to dab in a couple of spots;
Fibre glass repairs to front bumper;
Re-spray entire car; and
Perhaps add some decals promoting the hubby?s business;
Wax and polish.
Replace front light where cracked
Replace blinkers
Repair Windscreen crack with repair kit
Install better fog lights
Refresh by removing house paint from wheels;
Personalised licence plates

Under the Hood-
Replace Radiator
Replace radiator cap (1.3 bar)
Replace Thermostat
Repair and replace Relays
Install HID lights
Improve and replace hoses ? both vacuum and fuel hoses (needing at least 4metres each of both 4mm and 6mm hose)
PCV Valves
Replace Water Pump considering an electric Davies Craig brand
Essentially carry out 100,000km service
Various belts
Spark plugs
Plennum pull & EGR delete
Replace all intake and boost hoses
Replace all injector connectors
Install a catch can
Install new pod filter
Battery connectors and battery holder
Oil and filter change

Interior -
Replace all car mats
Replace steering wheel
Replace interior globes
Install stereo and speakers
New gear stick knob
Find and replace gear stick console
Re-spray all door handle and moveable console items
Leatherette the last of the cloth interior
Tyre shine all plastic consoles removing white powdery residue
Locate spare wheel
Clean and shine leather seat covers and dash areas
Install all new digital/ analogue gauges

Then finally she will be registered!

We?ll keep you all informed of our progress for those of you who are interested in my new project as a new Z owner.

PS: Scotty (aka samuraigecko) she ain't yours, not after the pain we went through!

 

bry told me this was the most fun he ever had hahhhaah

 

So you bought an unregistered Zed without looking at it, drove it 4000k's back home through the middle of nowhere with loose wires and major cooling system issues plus more problems you may have not discovered yet??? You're either brave or very, very.......

Stick to the shoes I think

 

I'm hoping this isn't that veilside abomination for sale by a member "hoang le?". Does it have ferrari tail lights?

I personally wouldn't have even prodded that zed with a stick...

But anywhos, good luck with the compensation part, that's downright wrong. That's something you guys probably should have pursued while you were there, face to face with the dealer. Now there's 4000km's stopping you from slapping the dealer in the face if it comes to it.

My 2c. anyways..

 

I'm gonna drive to perth just for fun. Not taking the Zed tho, gonna get a cheap 2002 model ford oh and an auto for such a long trip haha.

 

Jesus christ, thats like the road trip from hell

MoulaZX

 

We just bought a kluger from QLD and drove it the 4400km home to perth. To make it more fun we also bought a boat and dragged that across the country too.

However, toyotas are fairly bulletproof, zeds are not. I'd never had done it in my zed and that was a very well looked after and reliable!

BTW, did you stop in wilcania? we did....

 

ahaha yes it was Hoang Le's Z. And yes, Bryan was warned :zlove:

 

You could have bought a basket case here without the 4000klm trip.

 

Great story Megan and welcome to the world of Zed ownership.

Quite a feat to make it from Perth to Adelaide by the sound of it.

Take your time and work your way through the whole car and fix everything. It's a lot easier at home than on the side of the road, especially if you don't need to drive the car. Hopefully there is a sound core in that car.

 

Holy cow, after that effort you better put that car back into showroom condition or better! I dont think I would have handled that situation too well (kids on/in the car, I would have exploded at them[TIS])

 

This made me laugh. Some people are crazy.

 

The road trip went well by the sound of it. l.o.l . So you met the natives l.o.l . O h yes i will never forget my first meeting with the natives up on a island off arnhem land.Faaark the plane had just dissapeared into the distance and wasn't comming back for a week.I was told by the driver of the ute to run inside and lock the door and they would come back later.Hell no i wasn't getting out of that ute. With all the rocks coming our way and not to mention the ( house ? ) had no doors , walls or floor i wasn't getting out.I can laugh about it now but it scared the shit out of me then.Some road trips leave you wondering how you ever got home.Looks like bryans got a bit of work to do.Should only take him a week or two to get it going with a proper set of tools l.o.l.
I'll catch up with you's soon.
Dave

 

why on earth did you buy hoang's z? that thing looked like a piece of shit from the pics why you expected it to not to be is beyond me??
all the best anyhow

 

Super story - but living it would be somewhat less pleasant.

I have done it four times - well not quite 4,000km. Sydney to Brisbane, Adelaide, Launceston and Melbourne. Each time I flew in armed with conzult in one hand, a return air ticket in the other, and a debit card in my rear pocket. The result? - two ticks, two crosses.

The main lessons I learned:

1. the internet lies. You have got to touch and feel a car before even thinking about parting with the cash. Contrary to popular belief, a picture is worth less than a thousand words.

2. If you are not prepared to walk away, you shouldn't be looking in the first place.

Enough moralising, you have an adventure to tell your grandchildren, and the story will no doubt become even more interesting over time. And I am sure with enough money and Bryan's time a really nice Zed will emerge and the pain of its birth will be soon forgotten.

Happy Zedding

 

That's the golden rule right there

 

That's the good thing, retrieving another one from turning into scrap metal, anyone should be commended no matter how bizarre the events surrounding the trip to remember are, I've been at that roadhouse in Yaluna, lol, it's an eye opener i can tell you, they have some really nice art inside though lmao

 

.. lol megan and bryan .... what a story and what a trip ......

.. your adventures have to rate as the "Thread of the Year"...

you both deserve several GOLD MEDALS each ....

 

Thanks for the comments!

I'd say my actions were brave rather than stupid. I didn't care for the car's registration or lack thereof and its over heating issues etc as we hadn't planned on driving the car back, it was to be our project car. It was only when the truck couldn't transport it that the crap hit the fan. BUT having said that and experienced a rough ride home we learned and saw so much and I can say it was pretty awesome. A planned trip for some can be great but the unplanned ones there's just something about them!

At Bryan's Brytech Electronics' shed there's a tonne of spare parts, engines, the whole kit 'n' kaboodle so it'll be on the road in no time. Of all the problem's we had I got to say the cars ride is bloody smooth, slightly better than Bry's yellow car and most cars I've been in. Really, and I say this as the novice that I am, I think its a pretty good shell for our next project.

 

post progress pics Meg, should be a good ride when done!