(LONG THREAD WARNING) Hey all, I?ve had my z for a while now and I thought I would post it up after almost owning it for 2 years . I really should have posted this up a long time ago as it has been more a rebuild/restore of a neglected and abused car. I ended up picking up a rather shabby looking black slicktop na auto in early 2010. The previous owner had it sitting in his garage for almost a year before posting it up on boost and then becoming my very time consuming money pit. It was bog stock apart from the 19? chromies and after market speakers and head unit. The paint was as rough as guts, the stock spoiler was lifting and the interior wasn?t a whole lot better with faded the faded cloth trim numerous missing trim panels. As with most cars sold through boost, it had no rego or a roadworthy certificate and was mocked by many for buying a poor condition 300zx and not a skyline or silvia, but that didn?t stop me. Once I got home, I gave it a full service and found that there were a lot of little tedious jobs that needed to be done before it could pass a roadworthy. I had a mechanic mate of mine come around and tell me that I needed new brake pads, horn wiring repaired, new rear bar, exhaust (had a massive hole in the right muffler), passenger side locking mechanism to be replaced, left hand steering arm boot to be replaced and rims and tyres. It took a good month to get all that done, but when I finally got it on the road I was so happy. Note the half torn off na front bar lol. This first mod I did to this car was getting in on the 2000 spec tail lights GB and fitting them ASAP and what a difference did it make. At the time I also had a white 180sx which I had planned to turn into a drifter. After realising that I would much rather sink my hard earned into the zed rather than the 180, I sold it and picked up a non running TT with a shagged auto box with the intention of swapping it for the NA. It had good interior and the most underestimated but one of the most important spare parts you can get..... screws, lots and lots of them . I had originally had the idea to swap the engine myself, get a tt auto box and buy a SAW kit but ended up deciding against it (and the auto) and enlisting the help of Eric (a2zed). So I dropped 2 cars off at his workshop to make my na auto to a tt manual . The tt engine was quickly removed and so I could pick up my shell and give Eric some more space in his workshop. Now, there was a bit of a problem with getting the shell home. My place has a crazy steep curved driveway where only brave and foolish dare to drive up. To top that, there isn?t a whole lot of room to move it around once you get it up there. Luckily my old man drives mobile cranes and his work is literally 500m down the road from a2zed. We borrowed a crane and truck and ill let the pictures to the talking. The green was the weight, 2 ton with the block, spreader bar and blocks of wood 0.9 ton was the block and spreader bar, so the shell with auto box would be around a ton allowing for 100kg of wood. I had bought a 56mm radiator, new intake and radiator hoses, huge SMIC?s and an eboost2 to be put in when the engine went in, but the engine wasn?t as good as first thought. The intake valves were bent, so the head was rebuilt, the turbos were seized, so they were rebuilt as well. The tt front bar was put on as well to accommodate the side mounts and from a distance you could almost not tell it was a gunmetal grey bar on a black car. The next upgrade was changing the rims and exhaust. I found some Rays EVO4 rims for a good price and a single cat back cannon (temporary). I also bought a 350z style gauge pod which I cut and fit to the dash, the whole thread can be found here..... http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=308266 Before: After: Sick of looking at the horrible bubbling spoiler, I ripped it off only to find a sizable rust hole which was covered up with the 3dr brake light infill panel. Don?t worry it will be cut out when I respray it. The rear wiper was removed and the holes were covered up with back electrical tape to keep the weather out. The brake master, callipers and slotted and cross-drilled rotors were next to be replaced and with the red paint, added a healthy 25rwkw to my beast . The TT brakes came off the shell, rotors from the US and unfortunately the brake master from Nissan as it was completely stuffed and couldn?t be rebuilt. The result ended up being more aesthetically pleasing than anything. Shortly after, I went into have surgery on my shoulder which I dislocated playing footy. It turned out that the ?O ring? that is supposed hold your shoulder in place and stop it popping out, was torn from 2 til 9 (think of a clock face). It was getting in the way of work and being young and able to recover reasonably quickly I thought I should get it done sooner rather than later. With my arm in a sling for 6 weeks and not allowed to lift my arm higher than horizontal for 2 months, not a lot of big things were accomplished. I did however start to get rid of the old cloth and put on the leather kit from the group buy which I still haven?t quite finished lol. I started to sand back the whole car in preparation for a stock black respray. I have a vented nose panel, not sure if I?ll keep this or a de-badged one, Bomex? spoiler, ztoy stillen lip, ztoy fog light ducts, stillen side skits and door fillers and rear valance. The later 3 are on their way from the states with a sparco seat base for my bucket seat left over from my 180. I have also got but have not been fitted yet are nismo front and side indicators. More pics to come this weekend. Mark
Man, you've really gone the whole nine yards! Great work. You've taken probably the worst Zed money could buy and converted it to the rarest - TT slicktop manual. Plus the stillen bodykit and bucket seat... this is going to be awesome! Gotta say. You bought an NA auto and converted both the engine and transmission. Why not just buy a TT manual? :S
I just assumed you had the car towed away like most normal people, turning up with a crane is doing it the cool way. Nice work man.
Great build thread Mark. Way to bring a near dead and buried old girl back to life. like the shots of the gf in the front seat helping out Looking forward to seeing more as you go.
Didn't ya know gmbrezzo, she WAS helping she holding the dash in place with her feet so it didn't fall out :rofl:
Thanks guys Anti, I was always after a slicktop and TT manual's were hard to find at the time. I had planned to run the SAW kit when I got this auto, but i missed driving a manual so i got it converted. The girl in the car is my gf's sister actually, she said she liked the seats lol. Just like their cat which was on the drivers seat. She does want to get a 350z in the future, but im working on her to get a 300 :zlove:. The missus was on facebook at the time, I think u can just see it on the laptop screen in the photo. I can't find my phone cable, so no photos until I get to work tomo, but all the trim is done apart from the door cars. I'm glueing it in sections since its a bit tricky and will hopefully have it done sometime during next week.
Bit of a busy week last week, I was out in the field for a couple of days and the reductions had to be done asap so not a lot was accomplished. But the weekend did give me sometime to some more glueing and sanding. This piece was probably the hardest. I had 3 goes at trying to smooth everything out and I think most of the creases will be hidden when the glove box is shut. I just have to tidy up a few of the pieces then it can go back in my car finally . The CZP order for the body kit and seat rail has been processed and will hopefully be here by the end of next week!!!! Also, new rims and tyres might be purchased this week and ill post photos once I pick them up .
Not yet, I've only test fitted on the front quickly before work this morning. I'll lower it off the stands and fit all of them up soon.
Just a quick update, a big box arrived from COZ! I picked these up from Mr G's place last night . Stillen rear vallance, side skirts and door fillers and a sparco seat base/rail. This is the seat ill be fitting up finally. So hopefully I can do this soon :br: Also, i fitted up the new rims to the rears to see how they fit, and it will need a bit of guard rolling. Old rims New hotness The front of the car is still up on stands otherwise I would have rolled it out to get a few full car shots.
Definitely! I'm on the look out for some second hand coilovers and camber bits, otherwise I'll be buying new ones once I save enough. I'd like to have the rears tucked, but I would prefer to keep it at a legal height.
Just a quick update. I got some adjustable goodies in the mail, as well as 2 of 4 coilovers lol. It came wrapped like a sarcophagus But they look sooooo good! I've got to pick the other one up from the post office after work today. Its a bit strange that they dropped one off but not the other. Oh well, I'll add more pics when its LOWERED :zlove:
