Had a go at repairing the altia panel today. Started out well with a new EL panel and some high temp polymide tape. Unfortunately though I was getting some light bleeding through with power on. Altia fit a blackout type film around the logo as part of the assembly and unfortunately it looks like some of this has been damaged when removing the hold EL panel and foam backing. Probably shouldn't come as a huge surprise given the age etc. I didn't want to try repairing with paint as I don't think it (paint) would stick too well to the existing film. Instead I've ordered some blackout adhesive film from ebay so hopefully back into it next weekend.
Found some pics on facebook of when the car was resprayed by Alfa Bodyworks in October 2020. That's all I could dig out, probably not that interesting to anybody else lol
Got a little bit further with the altia repairs. Started by patching the secitons where the light was bleeding through with some Window Blackout Film. This stuff sticks OK to glass but not so much the plastic, so a little tape to hold it in place. Quick test light and we're all good Popped a little adhesive foam on the back of the panel. I measured the foam that came off the old panel at 2mm, so I went with 3mm to allow for another 20 years of compression. The foam isn't holding the EL panel to the light, I figure it's just there to keep some pressure on and help keep the EL flush against the back of the panel. Snapped a pic of the original inverter. I'm actually not sure if this had failed or the EL panel or both. Just putting this here to preserve the part number for anyone who's interested down the track. These were originally fit with a nice patch harness that splices into the tail light amplifier. It's a nice touch (I thought) so I've put a Duetsch DTM connector on there to use with the new inverter. And of course a quick vid of it assembled and actually working...
Finally got the car on NSW rego. Service NSW don't keep JDM plates in stock for new regos unless you order a custom plate and I'm not that keen on paying the annual fee for the privilege. So standard plates will do for now and some 2mm dry carbon fibre sheet to cover the gap in the rear bar. Cut to the same size as the JDM plate and add rivet nuts. Attach plate Attach car Not sure if i love it but it's doing the job for now.
You guys have premium plates? here in SA for a once off fee of around 150 you can select a slim plate for the front and a square for the rear. No no to bend the plate and fills the gap.
Yeah.... so if you don't already have license plates on the car (because you're transferring rego from interstate for example) you have two options. 1. Order custom content on a JDM size plate and pay $485/year for the custom content plus a one off fee $325 for the plate. 2. Turn up to Service NSW and pay $170 for a non personalised plate in standard sizes. Go home, put your license plate number into myplates website and pay another $325 to have that number reissued on a JDM size plate. Go back to service NSW when it's ready and swap your standard size plates for your new JDM size plates.
nice about to take side skirts of mine, after seeing this the motivation has increased, question: the rear bumper side reflector are you going clear or leave oem?, interesting you went nismo clear winkers instead of smoked to suit your front smoked I just went through this and chose clear to suit my series one nismo front clear, and thought oem 2k was off the table as I didn't want to introduce smoked lights but maybe it works.
Hi, The rear markers are staying OEM illuminated type as they are now. The clear front fender markers were on it when I bought the car, I will probably refit standard ones at some point. I have some here for it just haven't gotten around to it. I'm a little confused by this comment? The OE 2k front corner indicators are smoked. The OE 2k front fender markers are orange. Japanese front corner indicators are clear as are USA front indicators. In North America some were modified to remove the orange lenses and marketed as "Nismo" indicators althogh they were never a Nismo or JDM product. OE 2k front corner indicators won't fit an early series front bar. The fender markers are the same accross all series and all OE are orange/yellow. Nismo clear or smoked fender markers will fit all year fenders.
sorry I should of been more clear, I just fitted clear side winkers nismo calls them this and was tossing up between smoked or clear I went clear as the front and rear are also clear "nismo" I call them nismo because concept Z did when I got them and think its funny. But as you said 2k only come smoked, which is why I haven't brought a 2k front bar. I just thought it might have looked better in person having clear side - smoked front but now you say your changing to amber I guess that answers my question.
Technically the 2kspec front indicator assemblies are actually a clear lens but have an internal housing painted black giving the effect of smoked without the lens being smoked. Years ago a US Z member on 300zxclub was able to pull the assemblies apart and chrome the inside to remove the smoked look of the light assembly. From memory it was a very difficult process to do and he ended up broking a few lens before he was success.
Another little job checked off this arvo with replacement targa interior trims. These were pretty wrinkled and showing signs of having been played with before. It's an easy enough job remove the two screws shown below. Remove the screw from the escutcheon and gently pry the lock button off with a screw driver or similar. From here the panel will lift right off. Replacement is the same process in reverse. I also replaced the targa seals because why not...
The great thing about having a sporty exhaust and coil-overs is you become really aware of any rattles etc... Started by pulling the sereo fascia off. This was considerably easier than anticipated as somebody else had pulled it off previously, seemingly without removing the fasteners, and ruined literally every mount. I have a new one I managed to find on Yahoo Auctions (the blackwood fascias are discontinued so it was second hand or bust...) and this one can go in the bin... Found the typical birds nest of 20 years worth of stereo installs. I couldn't stand the mess of splice connectors etc so I replaced the lot with Deutsch DTM series connectors. Still kinda messy with some redundant wires from the head unit but much better than what it was. I've managed to remove a reasonable pile of wires to nowhere in the process. Mostly bits and pieces that look to be from previous stereo systems. The thing on the left is a Japanese E Tag reader type thing. The video below shows how they work etc. Kinda cool in a nostalgic kinda way but also kinda redundant... I have it set aside for a mate. Yes I do have the mic/speaker piece as well but the wires for the run up under the A pillars to the headboard and I have no desire to go removing those. Fortunately they had been cut previously so this bit came out without too much hassle. Ran out of time and parts to get the stereo back in and the new fascia installed so that might have to wait for next weekend...
So the window switch and stereo finisher trims in my car are the Nissan "Blackwood" type. The blackwood and carbon look trims are both hydro-dipped finishes that Nissan offered. I wasn't able to order a new stereo finisher as they're discontinued, and I didn't like my odds of finding a good condition second hand one, so a few months back I bought a used regular black type finisher and sent it off to get hydro dipped. Finally got it back today and I have to say I'm pretty stoked with the result. I had this done by the same business that did the carbon finish for my slicktop build, not cheap but there's a lot of work in choosing the right base coat, prepping, painting, coating, clear coat, polishing etc etc. As luck would have it I did very recently find an OEM blackwood stereo finisher in very good condition to put back in the car, so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with this one after all that... but hey worth sharing.
Spending pleny of time on the other car lately (well somebody has lol) but with the cruise coming up Sunday I had some parts I wanted to fit. A little while ago I did some work on a car that had the Injen intake pipes on it. I don't mind a little bling and it's the sort of mod that can be easily reverted so I snagged a set. Couple of thoughts the hose clamps that come with them are garbage being way too long and also perforated type which I really don't like as they chew into the silicone and can stretch if over tightened. I keep some solid ones (Norma Toro clamps) handy and found 50-70mm to be a much better fit than the ones supplied. The fuel hose supplied to replace the PCV hoses really didn't fit the PCV outlets well either, so I spent a bit of time heating that up and stretching with a 1/2" mandrel to get it to git better. Anyway end result is good for me. I've also been wanting to do up a how to for the bonnet strut kits I sell for a while. Which of course meant fitting a set to a demo car... you can find the article HERE if you're interested. Waiting on some BMC cotton filter panels to turn up later in the week and then the nose can go back on and the whole thing can get a wash before the cruise.
Ended up putting an adapter and K & N pod filer on it. Nothing wrong with the panel filters but this opens up so much more room in the nose panel that I can use for... activities. This was before giving it a soap and a hose to try and clean ou tyet more red dust from ZedFest. The filter is pretty chunky, if I was doing it again I'd be tempted to look into a smaller filter, but at the end of the day (what a hackneyed expression...) the K&N was reasonably priced and you know what you're getting... Also took it for a drive today for the Sydney christmas cruise. The car ran without a fault there and back and no I wasn't at all concerned about water getting into the air filter.
