What have you done to your zed today? Part 3............

This week I got some Specialty Z down pipes (US $675 plus postage). They were twice the price of some competitor products but I have seen some bodgy photos and reviews of the cheaper alternative (at 300zxclub) and decided to play it safe and pay for quality. I was not disappointed, photos are below:

I will be getting my mechanic (Andrew ASR) to fit them for me.

 

Very nice. I have the same ones.

 

I also got some Z1 high flow 3" cats. I toyed with the idea of getting test pipes or pretend straight through cats but ended up going with the legal option (mainly because I want to see if they improve the sound any i.e. drone - couldn't make it much worse).



These are supposedly OBDII compliant...sure look restrictive - probably cancel out all my downpipe gains (suspect my current 3" rusty cats are straight through). Will have to put it on the dyno and see.



On the way this week is a Z1 3" H pipe along with a pair of Vibrant 12" long resonators which I will get cut into the H pipe.

 

Did you keep the divider in?

I have heard they can lead to over boosting (because gases can't escape the wastegate fast enough) and that the solution is to remove the divider.

Though I have stock turbos so I don't think that will be a problem for me.

 

I get the impression Andrew (despite his history) isn't a big fan of going to far away from factory with a lot of things. I half expected him to refuse to put my down pipes on but he's agreed to do it (reluctantly I think) which is the main thing.

If shininess counts for anything horsepower wise they should be good though

I'm betting on it being an improvement but the dyno will reveal the truth.

 

You have be careful with the cheap copies of the Greedy Cover... the alloy casting can be very porous and leak your diff oil all over the back of your car
Above comment is based on bitter experience.

 

Finally got all the odds and ends tidied up and ready for tuning after the tuner finalizes the setup of my Crank Triggering system.

Have been driving the car almost daily since fitting the GT3071r Turbos... I have to say although I have obviously been limited to part throttle only, I am impressed with the responsiveness of them eg: no trouble to get 3-4psi boost pressure by 2500 rpm (remember, this is part throttle so very little load) - So can't wait to be able use full throttle... a little apprehensive as well stocking up on spare undies, just incase :br:

 

More paint work. I back taped areas so I can layer on the extra layers of clear I want.










Some outside shots. Started removing the tape and plastic/paper. Been waiting for this time to comes







Side view with the shirts. Thanks Chrispy. Like these, look great in this colour










Ran out of the thinners I use with the clear. So the only bits left to do now are the front and rear bars and the front guards. After that. Is all done! Finally. Do a final light cut, medium/light compound cut, polish and wax. Then install all the new goodies I got from czp.

 

Love the front bar crease delete

 

So I just bought some Desmond Regamasters. 18x10.5 +45



The process will be to have the area where the cap is machined away to match the Evos I have so they can hold the Regamaster Centre caps.

These are the 18x9.5 + 35s I have. The 10.5s will then be powder coated to match.





Then to finish them off, I have these wheel nuts.





There goes a couple of weeks savings. Another item is on the cards but will reveal later if I'm successful in getting them.

 

Great find on those rears!

 

I have Tim (Lidz) to thank for that. Has come through a few times with spotting awesome items.

 

So I had a bit of time to waste.

Decided to go outside and measure up the chassis rail on the patrol so I can make a bracket for the underbody air tank.

Didn't quiet happen... ended up shining my flaps instead....

 

All the zeds I have seen with colour matched mud flaps have looked great (Jono's for example). Haven't seen them done in blue so will be interesting to see how it looks.

Do you plan to coat them in anything extra to better resist all the crap that will flick up and hit them? May have already been mentioned but what blue did you use? Off any car in particular?

 

That blue looks great.

 

I've seen a few colour coded flaps and it finishes off the overall look without going the full aftermarket rear bar route. Like yourself I've not seen too many in blue. I've done a dummy fit of the whole kit and I think it looks pretty cool. The profile of the skirts and the profile of the flaps work well together.

I've got a stillen lip to go on up front, but I have to make a mold of it and modify a glass copy of it to fit up smoothly on the na bar. Again it was an after thought, and I spent way too much time modifying the front bar to just scrap it for a tt bar. So I'm going to make magic and that will finish the overall scheme off. Would be sacrilege to cut up a genuine stillen urethane lip. Haha.

I've coated the flaps in a high tack product to allow the paint to stick super well and I've also cleared the absolute shit out of them for thickness. I fully expect to have them cop damage. But see how it goes. I live in a rural area and expect the car to get chipped day one of being back on the road. It's sad and annoying but its being realistic.

The colour is a custom colour. Tbh it looks way similar to yours in your sig pic haha. But essentially we had our original colour spectro'd and it was a 95 odd percent match to a euro spec land rover from the 2000's. But with a heap of red, blue, purple metallics. So the new paint was matched and modified best it could be to what was on there. But overall its heaps different. The metallics are allot finer in the new paint vs the old.

Crappy iPhone camera really doesn't show the colour in its full effect. Will get the SLR out once its done and get some better shots.

 

Yeah, I like the blue you have chosen, very strong. My blue is a little "dull" in shade and I'm wanting to change it to something stronger when the time comes. I'm thinking either the WRX Blue or one of the stunning colours Maserati offer.

Blu Meditteraneo





Blu Sofisticato

 

Ah wow. They're sexy colours. Haven't seen those cars before.

Wrx blue is quiet different. I personally don't think it would work nicely with the zeds lines. We actually own a 2000 gc8 wrx which is in the blue mica and its a great colour. But seeing both together the zed looks like it deserves a tougher deeper toned colour. Personal preference though.

Our new colour on the zed, at certain angles looks very similar to the wrx coloured, but the shadows that follow make it glow in that red/purple hue which the metallics give off. And it makes it something completely different. Then on the flip its very deep and moody.

Blu Meditteraneo would look sexy on the vert. Would play well with the layout.

 

I took the Z to the other side of town for a wheel alignment. Kept the front bumper off so it was easier for them to get the car on/off the machine. On the way there a police car merged onto the highway right in front of me. Was waiting for them to slow right down and let me pass so they could pull me over (no bumper of number plate). But surprisingly the officer didn't seem to care less & I drove behind him the entire length of the highway haha.

Also passed another 300ZX on the way home I have never seen before. Gave him thumbs up and got acknowledgement back which is what it is all about