What have you done to your zed today? Part 4............

Finally installed my illuminated kick sills

 

Well mine has ended up being a complete respray and rebuild putting engine bay back together atm then I have to atack the rest hopefully it will b finished in 6 months

 

not myself, but the golden retriever puppy decided to try eat the front bumper around the fog lights, both sides and a little above the fog lights on the drivers side. needless to say the paints well fkd and we have a nice fur rug now.









fur rugs optional at this stage.

 

Replaced the rear hatch struts, it's nice to have the hatch open itself. Also fitted some hood struts, they work well

 

Replaced both (nearly 30yo) O2 sensors with new Bosh units from Z1 which are pretty much identical to OEM but thicker wires. Easy job on Auto Z using the correct tools

Battery removal is required for the LHS sensor for easy access.
RHS, easy as, all done from the top.
Copper grease on threads during installation.

 

Went to UAS for a tune, upgraded from a nistune to link g4+

14psi 271rwkw

17psi 304rwkw

Injectors at 80% but happy with power...

Stock motor, High flowed auto turbos, big smic, 550cc injectors, 3inch split dumps to 2 1/2 system, walbro 460 pump, turbosmart fpr...

The dips in the graph is wheel spin

 

Jimmeyz - where did you get those doors sills from? They look good.

Spent most of the day pulling trim apart to find an stop rattles. Then a wash and wax

 

Damn, I guess it's a good thing, I should spend that $$ on other parts.

 

Recovered interior panels over the weekend.
Grey microfibre cloth and black leather on the centre cover.
-3 Stainless steel braided clutch line.

 

Though for a LHD car. Z1's single piece clutch cable still works nicely, despite the extra length (coiled neatly).
Anyway 2 air bleed points are better than 3 and down to 2 connection potential leak points rather than 7

 

Don't know what the Z1 hose (not cable) cost but that cost me $56, all Speedflow fittings and hose bought from Couplers Perth.
Its for an aftermarket master cyl to T56 6 speed though.

 

Got paint correction done on the Z plus the hydrophobic paint protection.

I was always skeptical on the whole ceramic coating paint protection which a lot of people are now doing at a hefty cost.

Obviously it depends on the detailing business and what product they are using but the results really blew me away.









I used MFD here in VIC and they don't have stages of paint correction, they just cut and polish it back within a certain budget you stipulate to get the best results possible and then on goes the ceramic coating.

The paint job on mine looked ok from far away but standing up close, it's basically covered in swirl marks being from neglected for many years and lived through 2 recent garage engine swaps. I wasn't careful with the paint, I just wanted the car to work. All swirls are gone, the paint that had oxidised and faded in many parts is now bright and looks red again. I provided touchup paint as well and they even fixed up all the chips.

Never believed it could look like this again. I'm glad I kept this car as was close to parting it out on 2 separate occasions.

Red was apparently easier because it's got no clear so they can cut it back a lot more. The paint protection aspect I'd say will benefit cars like JEDI-77 or ADAMZX that already have nice paint to begin with.

 

looks amazing mike i appreciate the kind words on how my paint looks on my car but its pretty bad from my point of view. because i DD my z it has a lot of paint chips around the car as well as peeling/bubbling paint on the side skirts which i hope to repaint myself one day in the future. i have never polished my cars paint if that means anything mike. i hope to one day try and do it myself but i am still trying to learn basic polishing techinque from youtube videos before i go ahead and try.

how much roughly did you budget/pay for this job?

 

Painting it might not be necessary, I've seen your paint and believe me it's a lot better than mine. Mine had white patches of oxidation where the paint bubbled because it wasn't dried properly during the last respray and they just sanded the bubbles down.

This photo was taken by Krausy 2 years ago (which he edited to boost contrast) and you can see the grainy finish of the paint. That's all gone!



Here's another one, even far away, with the lighting on an angle the swirl marks and oxidised parts are pretty obvious:



I've done basic detailing at home but to be honest I could never achieve this sort of finish. Spoke with the business owner and he sort of gave me an idea on finding the right compound for each car's paint else it'll just scratch it more.

You'd be surprised how much you can salvage from the existing paint job, I was actually thinking I might get the car repainted some day but won't need to now. I budgeted $1k for the entire job including the ceramic coating. Considering the price of "good" resprays and the inconvenience, very happy with this alternative as this 8 year old $1500 paint job was done cheaply and badly by a shop I would never use again.

 

Great results Mike, budget seems pretty sharp too!
This sort of thing would actually be ideal Adam if you don't have time to polish yourself, especially with your zed being parked outside, budget pending of course & probably not at Chrissy time!

 

thanks tim but nowdays I prefer to do all the work on my car myself for everything. ive had too many bad experiences with mechanic shops and panel beaters over the last few years to make me avoid using them unless absolutely necessary.

The other big problem for me to deal with with my current income, is i just cant afford to spend more then a few hundred bucks a fortnight to either buy parts or whatever which really limits my options for anything when fixing the z. i found out today i need to replace both my upper control arms as the bushes are shot and as much as i would love to buy nismo replacement arms, $600 aud from the states is like 8 fortnightly pays (of $150 each) worth of affordable income i can use to buy something that expensive. i hate it but thats my reality and ive just had to accept that until my situation improves one day. for now doing it myself is the best i can hope for and if im lucky i may have something as good as mikes flawless looking car one day.

 

Actually Tim's right, if you are using it daily, leave it outside, people in parking lots "accidentally" opening their door on you etc, the coating is a worthwhile investment Here's a video of the coated and uncoated comparison. I always thought it's total bullshit and probably like selling snake oil. Wish I got this done earlier. No need to wash it, just rinse it down and blow dry using a leaf blower.



If you don't trust shops, Mirror Finish Detailing that did my car I can highly recommend. Z32, R33, R34 were all done by them. The ceramic coating they use can only be bought and applied by approved shops.

I accidentally bumped the R34 the other day with a spare tyre and left a black scuff mark, thankfully already had that car done and with just a couple of wipes of a microfibre the mark just came off like nothing happened. Stuff is magic.