Been meaning to fire up one of these for ages, nothing major like an engine rebuild taking place (yet) but more of a chance to keep up to date with all the little things I'm finally ticking off. I'm in a bit of an exterior phase at the moment so seemed like a great chance to get this thing going! So anyway, after a solid 5+ years of enjoying her the zed looked like this I was super happy, no major plans to change. Then I lost my job during the gfc which resulted in a fair bit more free time which of course led to trawling for parts... So I bought some skirts & a veilside exhaust, you know, to treat myself veilside evolution exhaust, mufflers & centre section. No front pipes but was a good deal so I was happy. Came in a huge box several months later & looked like this. Then happy days work kicked off again, but nothing was fitted so it all just piled up in the garage. Ordered a twinz, you know to treat myself as I'm working again, then sat back & played the waiting game. Decided to upgrade my brakes, decided brembo's where more than I needed / could afford so settled on the R34 GTT option, 310 x 32mm so a nice upgrade from my stock NA hardware. Sourced calipers, pads, rotors from sau & bolted them up. Gave them a lick of red too while I was at it. For anyone interested, you drill the 2 holes in the hub out from 12mm to 14mm & it all bolts straight up. Easy. Fitted up. Then GSL had a sale so bought DBA 4000 series slotted rotors & QFM HPX pads to replace front & rear. Comparison, stock r34 vs DBA 4000 series. Fronts fitted up Got towards the end of the year & with a fast approaching wedding I found new wheels. Other half not as excited as me (especially when I explained they were essentially the same, but silver & bigger!) but pulled the trigger & these followed me home. Nismo LM-GT4's 19x9.5" +30 Nismo collection (bronze since sold) Ordered matching Rays flat caps & some new lock nuts Front wheel fitament Which got me to here So now we're all up to speed with how she looks currently. Am currently getting stuck into prepping the rear bar & skirts in the little bits of free time I'm getting at the moment but realisticly wont be painted for another month or two. Plus I keep getting tempted to just block back the whole car so we'll see what happens there. Also working through spoilers at the moment, stock ones come off & had bought a kaminari but now reconsidering. Watch this space. Also started having a clean up of the bay, fitted intake pipes this weekend but still need to grab some extra piping to set them up properly as stock pieces are too short. Hopefully tick that off sat morning. Also need to mount hid ballasts & ptu under the nose panel, just need to knock up a quick bracket for the ptu first. stay tuned! cheers, Tim
* Subscribed * Tim, I liked your previous bronze wheels, but I REALLY, REALLY like the chrome rims... Good stuff!
Cheers guys, like I said, well overdue! Anti current engine plans are to get everything clean. Been really impressed with what 1badg35 has been doing so hoping to do a bit of shaving & tucking. Picked up a plenum & water pipes & going to clean flashing, delete bits then wrinkle black powder coat. Nothing as extreme as him though. Long term though, I'd like to tt it. But bodywork first, finish some interior bits then I'll worry about dropping silly amounts of money in the engine bay. Cheers, Tim
Awesome job Tim.... Its been a while since I've seen your car in person. Hope to see it at the next Vic cruise whenever that will be
Yeah definately long overdue for a cruise Mark, unfortunately missed the last g.o.r. (first one since I joined I think!) due to my bachelour party. Hopefully have the zed up & going if Russ goes ahead with his catch up. Col refresh my memory mate, was your respray done at F1 smash repairs? Happy with the job & how its holding up? I'm seriously tempted to just paint the whole car as its looking tired in various spots, just a matter of affordability I think. (& convincing the wife...) Thanks again for the compliments guys, hopefully have it looking even better soon! cheers, Tim
Have always been a fan of your Z, Tim. I can appreciate the time & care that has been spend on keeping it looking so clean and tidy.
Really looking forward to where you take this. I really like how it looked with the bronze GT4s, even despite the lack of concavity! What were the specs of those wheels, by the way? 18x8.5 +30?
Fronts were 17x8.5 +30, rears 18x9.5" +38, tyres were 235/45/17 & 265/30/18 goodyear eagle f1 gs-d3. They were really nice & I loved them to death, I'd just always wanted silver ones & couldn't say no to the 19's, plus they were only 2 minutes from work, just too tempting... Since I'm here, started cleaning up the water pipes this arvo & hope to tackle the spoiler situation sat morning. cheers, Tim
so time for an update I think! & it's a biggish one Been doing some little bits & pieces, finished fitting my black intake hardpipes & hoses. Went some generic rubber heater hose for the pcv hoses that start just under the throttle bodies as stock stuff miles off fitting up. Currently transferred over the little wire brush things but not the restrictors as they wouldn't budge for me, might still cut them out & transfer them too but will probably wait till I can take it for a drive & see if they're needed. Cant really drive it for a while though because I've started a bigger project... its custom spoiler time. Had bought a kaminari but after seeing the new winfactory csl style spoiler I decided it aged the car a bit. Problem was I wasn't entirely happy with the winfactory offering, especially not $700 shipped happy! Bascially thought the subtle one needed a bit more & the aggressive one a bit less, plus no provision for the black out which I wanted to retain & you had to mount the third brake light in the rear window. So whats a guy to do? Well this guy has a degree in Industrial Design & specialised in automotive design, plus I now work as a clay modeller at Ford Design where basically I make full size concept cars out of clay. So I did some sketches using the winfactory wing as inspiration, got some supplies & started making a wing in my spare time This will take a little while as spare time is at a minimum for me at the moment but heres what I've achieved so far, probably about 10-12hrs in at the moment. Will keep updating this as I get time to work on it, getting one side where I want it then will balance it across. Eventually will take a mould & make it out of fibreglass. Current plan is to use a flushmount third brake light from an s14. Removed the stock wing & put a tape where it sat to use as a reference. Taped the hatch area & lights up for protection Applied foil to make it easier to release once done Starting to clay up. Clay goes very hard when cold so needs to be heated up to apply. Third brake light (tbl) area clay up & ready to start Tbl area modelled, this was fairly quick as just extending the light surface upwards. Another view of tbl area Taping up where I think the leading edge should go too, have trimmed foil back as was not needed on upper surface. Using a 12mm thick extrusion of clay to keep a uniform height for upper surface Taping up the graphics for the black out area, modelled area has been taped up to protect the surface. Using a radius guage to begin to model the edge of the wing, want it to flow nicely with the bodyside. Looking OEM is goal here. Claying up the top surface, changed mind on edge so has been re-clayed up. Modelling the 'flick' above the black out area. Another view of the 'flick' Beginning to model the top surface Taping out ideas for how to flow edges around the spoiler Changing lines & thats how it sits as of this arvo, will be pumping out the overtime the next few nights but hopefully get stuck into it again friday arvo & on the weekend. Watch this space! Heres some of the tools I use. Clear curves are radius guages & as the name suggests are curves of a set radius. Pieces of metal are called steel's or slicks, varying shapes of various thicknesses made from spring steel. Anything from 0.05 to 2.5mm generally, some with a serated edge. Knife is for marking lines. Little ladder like object is a clay plane, like using a plane for woodwork & last tool is a hogger. Used for removing clay, handle was turned out of cowrie pine, metal edged section made from a windscreen wiper arm. All the above tools except knife & radius guages were hand made. Also if anyone is interested in an oem wing (clearcoat flaking otherwise decent nick) or a kaminari wing (one that uses stock tbl out of flushmount oem spoiler, half way through preping it) hit me up. cheers, Tim
That's pretty epic dude, I like the looks of it so far too. Was going to ask if you were considering making molds, but I know how you'd want yours to be a one off
That is so cool, props for originality and for it looking awesome, defiantly something I would put on my Z! Unfortunately no "like" button for some reason, but I may be PM'ing you for some advice on modifying my Tommy K wing, you seem like that guy with the knowledge Awesome work again!
