Na, thats not exactly what I said ...I just thought either we'd fit it after its been sprayed or let them do it, I felt pre-fitting it now without using any sikaflex/urethane to line up the top edge of the skirts nicely may result in an incorrect fit and may stuff up the fit when they get put on for good. We really need to talk to the shop first as they may want to spray the skirts off the car for all i know, so wasn't game to go any further till we find out how they want to tackle it. Same with the rear spoiler. But yeah the stock spoiler came off pretty easy. It only took half an hour to rip off and another hour was spent pulling the interior panels off, pulling the old spoiler clips out and cleaning up the hatch surface where the spoiler had been. Mind you, if your trying to preserve your stock spoiler, yes it will take far longer and be a right pain in the arse! I already knew this one was rusted through and as such didn't care about its post removal state The rest of the 1.5 hours was just mucking around with the side skirts and new rear spoiler. (note to photographers: couldnt be frakd getting a tripod out ) Cheers! Craig
Well the spoiler is on...good as anyway. Screwed some small bits of dowel into the spoiler holes and stuck the supports on. Fiddled around for a bit getting it to sit perfectly and inline with where the instructions said then waited till Renee got out of work to make sure she was happy with the alignment, she said "wtf are you waiting for me, drill it already" I still have to drill through the inner hatch skin and bolt it on but its good as installed, sits up on the tips of the supports in the pics but that will close up as soon as she's bolted down...finished up around 1:30am Cheers! Craig
The fitting is the same process as glass bodykit parts as I posted earlier..... Get the panel shop to prime them for starters then .... take back to the panel shop for any bog work and re-priming to be done. The main reason for getting the shop to pr-prime the parts off the car is for "ease of access", they'll do a better job on them as they can get to all the skirt easily on a bench... much harder process when on the car because its all low down work and they'll only prep the parts that are easilly seen. Even when it comes to the color stage your car will be at a height that the painter can reach the roof section without having to get onto a step ladder to reach it.... this leaves the skirts so low that they wont get much paint added to them. Try it yourself in the shed with an imaginary spraygun.... you'll have trouble reaching the roof centre and still have full access to the skirts at the same time..... one will suffer from a lack of paint ! By pre-priming them the shop will know that they'll have to color them during the painting stage, so they'll spend a bit more time in the booth setting your car up to a suitable height....... normally they dont bother ! You'd be amazed how many so called "show cars" have unpainted parts on them..... Unpainted areas are the first places that the paint will start to lift from. Welding up the holes in the hatch is a simple task and one that even a semi confident person with a mig can acheive in only a couple of hours..... it would take you longer to drive down to my place than it would take me to actually have the first load of bog over the holes I've just welded up !!!! I'd be supprised if it would take any longer than an hour and a half to have the holes welded and the basic bog work done..... Like Craigs experiance, it took me longer to get the phuckin wing off than it did to actually weld up and bog in the holes !!! Basicly: sand off the imediate area around the hole back to bare metal (TIP: the area sanded off needs to be roughly 5 times the diameter of the inital hole ) cut a strip of body panel so its the same width as the holes diameter ( the panel shop should have off cuts for you to take home and use.... just ask em ) The length of the bits should be 10mm longer then the holes diameter..... you should have a rectangle shaped bit of tin now ! Drill a hole in the middle of the tin bit so that a piece of mig wire just passes through it. cut about foot of mig wire from the migs nozzle thread it through the hole in the tin bit use some pliers to twist up one end of the mig wire You should now be able to "hang' the tin bit from the wire. slide the tin bit into the hatches hole ( may take some jiggling or a slight trim it fit it in) by manovering the wire you can place the tin bit exactly where you need it to be. tack it in place tug at the wire to remove it from the tin bit (depending on how much of a twist you gave the wire it may come easilly or be a bit of a fight) add 3 or 4 more tack welds to it DO NOT FULLY WELD IT..... it causes distortion to the hatch panel and WILL..... I repeart ... WILL.... require far more bog work to rectify !!! repeat process for the remaining holes grind back excess weld bog up sand back re bog as needed re sand Kingy
Hey Andrew, I can give ya a hand ...though if your wing is anything like this one it may take a lot more to get the supports to fit snugly as they are molded to fit the exact contours of the 2 seater hatch. Thanks for all the great advice Kingy! In regards to drilling & screwing the sections that are springing away, do you mean to actually drill through the top outside of the skirt into the side of the guards? Cheers! Craig
YEP You should be able to get them sitting 'ok' just by using bulldog clips or 'G' clamping them in the wheel arch area. Some sections will no-doubt end up sitting away from the body, leaving you a gap to fill somehow...... By useing a small self taping screw and pre-drilling a pilot hole through the skirt and into the sill or guards then screwing in a self tapper screw into the holes you've drilled you'll acheive 2 things..... 1/ the skirt will sit 'flush' in those areas and by tightening or loosening the screw you can actually "adjust" the amount of pressure you need on the section 2/ the screws will hold the skirt in place even if the bulldog clips or G clamps are removed. When you come to the actual glueing stage, simply place a large dollop of goop around the screw hole in the body panels you've drilled into...... this will also do 2 things in your favor.... 1/ the dollop of goop will hold the area thats not sitting correctly when it has dried 2/ the dollop of goop will act as a 'shield' and prevent rust Once the goop has set, simply un-screw the self tappers... Run a drill bit through the hole ( same size as the self tappers thread ) and add goop directly into the hole, use a small nozzle so you can 'force' the goop in under pressure..... this WILL seal up the sills / front guard & rear 1/4s where you may have drilled into. If you guys get stuck or are reluctant to have a go, let me know...... I'm only a couple of hours drive away and would be prepared to come up and do this with you. Kingy p/s I like Coronas or JimBeam :drool:
If you get stuck, remember Ztoy as well...........gavan and i would still be looking at my bodykit if Al hadn't been around.........he was a pro
Well a bit of an update..and Kingy, we'll keep that in mind..Craig thinks he should be right, but if we get stuck we'll give you a buzz .. The installation of the number plate ..Craig thought it would only take 10mins..but nothing's ever easy on a zed I managed to adjust the front bar a bit, after Craig drilled some holes bigger so it could slide around a bit.. The alignment is much better then our earlier try..still not 100% perfect, but I'm happy with it Craig has to still drill a couple of holes in the hatch then the spoiler is right to go.. Then all we gotta do is weld the holes shut on the boot, install the skirts and she's almost right for a quote from a panel shop.. This arrived the other day in the mail - Genuine rear center panel - Genuine Stillen nose - Genuine nose strip - and finally genuine fog light housings..so I can finally install my new foglights I got over a year ago ...I can't wait..but am not looking forward to the credit card bill next month As for the rather long delay..that was due to Craig and I visiting Kr4usy and Amy over last weekend..and well now Craig's gone on a hiking trip this weekend..so hopefully more progress next week..stay tuned...
looks very nice Renee. I know it'd be a massive drive, but you should use the same guy that recently did Chad's zed to paint yours, looked marvellous for a good price.
Hmm..I'll have to ask Chad how much it ended up costing him..as I didn't see a price mentioned in his thread..
coming along nicely, renee ..... .. and that front bar ... looks like ONE BIG SMILEY ...!!!! ... lol... re chad's job .. magic ... he ducked the price question but did give an indicative quote for a job obtained by a mate of his ..from the same painter guy ....
Update.. Side skirts are on, thanks to Craig and his younger bro Andrew Also installed the passengers side mirror which I got off Jack (zxtt), as mine got broken whilst shopping ..and unfortunately found some rust under there ...Craig is gonna try and shave the inside of the left side skirt as it doesn't sit flush just yet, but the right side is fine.. So the only thing left to do is weld the holes shut from the spoiler (which we might get done professionally as Craig is a bit worried about this I think), and drill the holes bigger for the new spoiler. Then she's right to get sprayed..Craig actually took the zed to work today and is gonna get a quote as one panel shop is across the road from his work..so really the quote should be for the outside respray, welding holes, fixing rust spots and dings..
Well my valentines day present was Craig working on my zed..and what a lovely present it was :zlove: Here's an update... 1) First we planned on drilling the holes for the new wing a bit bigger, but we had to get a bigger drill bit, however I didn't want to pay $65 for a drill bit we were only gonna ever use once, so we decided to use Craig's pa's drill bit but he wasn't home..so that will just have to be done later next week.. 2) Next up was shaving the side skirts so they fit flush against the body, but then we came to the conclusion we didn't have the proper tools to do that..so that's another thing on the shopping list.. 3) Next was to install the middle strip between the targas, and I recalled people saying this was a bugger of a job..looks simple enough..however you need a special tool to undo the bolts...*at this point I'm beginning to think, why is nothing ever easy on the zed *..tool added to shopping list again..(honestly, why would they make it this hard to undo) Anyways, here's a photo of the second hand mirror on.. 4) Back to stock windscreen squirters..yay 5) Decided to install the new genuine Stillen nose and nose strip, no issues here thank god..just gotta get some black mesh to put behind the holes, but I will be doing this once its sprayed and all, and the same to the front bar.. 6) Lastly, Craig installed the HIDs that I have had sitting around for ages..woohoo..yet to test them out at night but they look awesome HIDs: OLD: Anyways, will keep you guys updated with whats going on..but I will likely be getting the zed booked in on Monday at Moro and Dooleys across from Craig's work..hopefully I wont have to wait too long for them to paint it..and fingers crossed it's done before the GOR :zlove: P.S I also need new brake pads, does anyone recommend anything, cause I'm not gonna get the Bendix Ultimates again..bloody brake dust
no special tool req ren, to remove it you need to remove the trim from the inside of the car. once you do that just take out the nuts and replace from inside... so ye mirror, visors, light panel etc that roof trim needs to come out.... apart from that good progress with the car, its looking very very nice
UPDATE.. Zed is booked in at Moro's on Thursday the 26th of Feb, so they think they will need it for 2 weeks..fingers crossed it's completed just before the GOR cruise on the 15th of March..oh god I'm so excited now , however my purse is a bit worried .. Will keep ya's all updated..will need to get the wing sorted before then, so I should be having progress photos up again shortly..
Took the zed for a drive last night with the new HIDs..and I've got one thing to say..OMG!!! I can't believe the difference, they even saved the life of a poor rabbit that shot out onto the road, I saw it straight away and had enough time to brake..
