Who wants to see my Pink Bits?????

Discussion in 'Member's Garage' started by Mrz Magic, Apr 5, 2010.

  1. Mrz Magic

    Mrz Magic New Member

    Okay so now that I have your attention, welcome to my official unveiling thread :D:zlove: This was going to be a massive post so I've split it up over a few posts just to make it easier, but before you get comfy I suggest getting a coffee/tea/beer/chardy etc

    As most of you know, we have been through so many drama's with Magic Mike's car over the last 18 months. I got a bit fed up and decided that we needed a zed that actually worked AND looked good! We needed something positive to inspire Mike's love of zeds and encourage us to keep going with his.

    The plan started to form in our heads in early 2009 and started with ideas being flung around and the purchase of my personalised plates PNK-300. I was determined to prove that a pink zed could look awesome. We decided to keep it under wraps and surprise everyone at Armidale Zedfest.

    Step 1: Buy a Zed
    In August we started doing some serious zed hunting!! I had three main criteria to fill - Turbo, 2 + 2 and manual - and of course a decent stock engine that Mike couldn't blow up :) We looked at a few but nothing really seemed to be quite right and we were starting to run behind schedule. So we widened the search to include automatics with the view to convert to Manual, but we still weren't having much luck. Then Mike remembered this one he had found on another forum which he wanted to buy after the second time his engine died. It was a totally stock zed apart from a pair of ARC side mount intercoolers and a 57mm alloy radiator with incredibly low ks. We got in contact with them and luckily it was still for sale and they were keen to find a new home for their zed. So we made a snap decision one Friday to drive all the way down to Old Bar (near Taree - approx 8 hours south of Brisbane) to check out this zed, we had a really good feeling about this one. 6am the next morning we jumped in the Madge (our reliable daily driver Mazda 6) and headed off on our road trip. We arrived around 3pm Fairy Land time (2pm QLD Time) and met the owner, he was a top guy who loved his zed and kept it in great condition, he was the first Aus owner and had only driven 10,000ks in the 3 years he had owned it, he had to put in a battery from one of his other cars because the battery had gone dead as the zed had sat in the garage for the past 6 months. It was an auto, but conveniently the owner had a manual conversion kit to sell also as he had never gotten around to converting it himself. We took it for a drive around beautiful Old Bar and decided this was the car! We put down a deposit and started the long drive home. Not driving the zed home was really sad, but we needed to organise some $$ and the owner needed to get a roadworthy etc.

    2 weeks later in early October we took the Madgerator back down to Old Bar to pick up the new addition. This time we decided to stay down with some relies in Foster on Sat night. So Sunday morning we went and picked up the car and headed home! Big thanks to Chrispy for letting us borrow his ECU Talk for the drive back to make sure everything was running 100% - which thankfully it was.. not a single hiccup on the way home - the only issue was the INCREDIBLY loud droning exhaust. After about 5 hours I was popping pain killers to kill the dull headache that was pounding through my head, but overall we were really happy with our purchase. Here are the pics we took when we went down the first time to check out the car - the rims in the photos didn't come with the car.

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    Last edited: Apr 5, 2010
    Cam, Chrispy and Nigel300 like this.
  2. hukie90

    hukie90 300TTorrr?

    nearly impossible to find tt manuals that are decent nick. i also went with an auto that will go manual soon. GL with the car :)
     
  3. Mrz Magic

    Mrz Magic New Member

    Step 2: Learn how to drive a Zed
    At the end of October our resident skid pan organiser - ztoy - had organised a skid pan day out at Mt Cotton driver training centre. Mike wanted me to get a feel for how the zed handles and how to get it back under control just in case! So the first lap pretty much just consisted of Mike and I yelling at each other and nothing happening other than me driving around in circles.... Massive thanks go to Nasty Girl Ash for coming out on the track with me and helping me to relax and chuck the car around a corner just for shits and giggles :D Have an awesome photo below of us cacking ourselves whilst the car is going out of control! With me relaxed and much more confident Mike was able to get in the car and help me learn why the car was doing what it was doing and how to control it. So overall an incredibly worthwhile exercise, can't wait to do it again!!

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    Well that's all I have the energy for tonight, will post up the next installments tomorrow after a good nights sleep :cool::D:zlove:
     
    Nigel300 likes this.
  4. URHYNS

    URHYNS Well-Known Member

    Mrz Magic
    Zed Fund-Approval Pending
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    Join Date: Jun 2009
    Location: Kitchen
    Thanks: 0
    Thanked 4 Times in 3 Posts


    OMG hahahahahaha


    I LOVE YOU!!!

    Hehe nice Z!!
     
  5. Mrz Magic

    Mrz Magic New Member

    Step 3: Plenum Pull
    In late November we decided to pull the plenum and do all the usual plenum pull stuff as well as replace some old cracked PCV gear and all the power steering hoses which were leaking fluid out almost as fast as we put it in. Plenum pull was done in one day because of invaluable help from Chrispy, Bonezx, Pexzed and my morale support Ash! :zlove:

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    The time came to put the key in and start her up and listen to the engine fire up first go, so everyone stood around the car, the key went in, the key was turned but instead of a nice healthy roar we got a big loud 'TWANG'. Mike jumps straight on the phone to Eric (who is on our speed dial) who kindly offered to drive to us on Sunday morning to have a look. We started to pull the plenum off again in anticipation of Eric's arrival in the morning.
    The next morning after drowning our sorrows we stumbled over to the car and waiting for Eric to get there and magically fix it. Eric arrived and the news was not good. The locator pin for the cam gear had broken which caused the timing belt to jump teeth and bend valves :eek:. We figured the best option from here would be to just re-build the whole motor and do the manual conversion while the motor was out. So step 3 went from Plenum Pull to Engine Re-build /Manual conversion in 24 hours.

    2 or so weeks later Mike, Eric and I went back to my parents place where the car was sitting with a broken heart and pulled the motor.
    So the parts ordering begins, massive thanks to JP and Cos for getting the parts to us before the Christmas holidays! Even bigger thanks go to Eric and Chrispy, with Mike and Chrispy helping Eric the motor was stripped and put back together in 3 days. At the end of January we set about putting the motor back in, all was going well and we had the motor in, connected and ready to go in one day, engine started up perfectly!!! My apologies for the hideous plenum pictured below!! :eek:

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    Then we decided to have a look under the car and lo and behold oil was running out of the Oil Filter Tree. Seemed like we had another zed that was going to prove Murphy's Law, we walked away and let Eric's mind tick over and form a plan of attack. His first plan was to take the cross member off and drop the engine and take off the drivers side turbo to get to the tree. Luckily he had a light bulb moment a week later and decided to check the oil filter bolts and found one of them was actually 2mm longer which was enough to prevent the oil filter from sealing properly :bash:. Thankfully it was an easy fix! So nearly 2 1/2 months after the plenum pull was started it was finally ready to drive home and start the next step!
     
    Nigel300 likes this.
  6. SIM300

    SIM300 FAKE MODERAT0R

    Not sure about the pink bits, but a good story so far :)
     
  7. MagicMike

    MagicMike Moderator Staff Member

    Haven't got to the paint job yet jono :)

    speaking of which, if anyone has any good pics from zedfest that show the color, please pm one of us... It's really hard to get the pink to come out in a photo...
     
  8. Brissie Beauty

    Brissie Beauty Silver and Gold

    I'll send a few through to you/Cara when I get home from work tonight! :)

    I have over 200 pics from the weekend... I'm sure there are a few of her in there! :)
     
  9. Mrz Magic

    Mrz Magic New Member

    Step 4: The Exterior
    While the engine fiasco was happening, we started stocking up on bits and pieces for the rest of the car. We started by looking for some new rims to replace the stock ones which came with the car, I found it sooo difficult to visualize wheels I was looking at as being on my car. Michael would find ones that he thought I would like and I would say if I liked them or not. The one design that I would pick out time and time again was Work VSKF so we found a good set on Yahoo Japan, won the bid and patiently waited the 3 or so months for their arrival. Unfortunately they still had not arrived by Zedfest!!
    Next I started looking at bodykits and eventually went with Bomex side skirts and a Kaminari rear bar as well as a Stillen nose panel because Benny C is so cool I wanted to be like him :cool: :p We took a chance and ordered the kit from CarMate, we knew they had a bad reputation but Al is always up for a challenge! Amazingly I ordered the kit on a Monday, paid on Tuesday and it arrived bright and early on Wednesday, although we all got a good laugh after noticing that some noob had meshed up the exhaust holes!! :rofl:
    As I mentioned earlier it was always the plan to paint my zed pink. Everyone who knew about the pink plans were very much in doubt of how pink could ever look good. I always had a particular colour in my head but could never describe it or find an example of it to try and restore some faith in my pink vision. So now that the engine was finally running again it was time to seriously start thinking of how I could find a sample to match the colour in my head so that ztoy could start getting some paint mixed together for the big re-spray. The colour was initially inspired by a nail polish so that's where we ended up. Michael was not too impressed about standing amongst a whole heap of makeup and girly stuff looking for a pink nail polish. We eventually found 2 samples and took them down to Al for him to take to his paint supplier. He got a small sample pot of colour - which ended up being a combination of maroon, magenta, red and bright red pearls - and painted a spare panel of his which often ends up the test canvas for a new paint. The panel looked absolutely amazing and suddenly Al, Mia, Ash, Chrispy and even Mike were starting to see my vision come to life, everyone agreed that it wasn't what they expected and were looking forward to seeing the finished product.

    So one night we took the car and all the bodykit bits down to Al and Mia's place and left it in their capable hands. Mike and I had sanded it all back just to give Al a helping hand! Al did an absolutely amazing job with help from Mia and Fate and the car was painted and ready to be picked up a week later. Al even took a week off work so he could take his time and get it done in time for Zedfest.. thank you sooo much Al - we love you long time!

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    My brand new 2k spec lights had also just arrived and we took them down with us when we went to pick up the car. Credit goes to Rob260 for the 2k Spec Light group buy, we organized a second pair behind the scenes and no one cottoned onto the fact that the shipping costs were for 8 sets to QLD not 7. We arrived to pick up the car very eagerly and Al informs me that he had a surprise for me! Up goes the garage door and there is my beautiful pink zed with a set of 19 inch Starcorp rims fitted!! Fate had kindly donated them to me for the trip down to Armidale as he and Al didn't want me driving all that way on the tyres we had on the stock rims. We didn't bother to get new tyres because we had new rims on the way. Was a wonderful gesture that touched my heart and showed what wonderful friends I have made through the forum. Plus stock wheels with a brand new paint job?.. ewwww.....

    A couple of days later we took the car down to Xpress Tinting at Virginia and got some slightly darker than legal tint on the hatch and legal on the sides. I have had cars tinted with these guys before, they are really professional and I would recommend them to anyone!! The tint set off the paint beautifully, and the work was nearly done. :zlove:

    To combat the super loud exhaust, which consequently didn't have mufflers only resonators, we bought an exhaust system with new Magnaflow cats and square quad exhaust tips. Once again I have to give thanks to Chrispy for welding all the bits together and spending a good couple of hours with Mike getting them to line up and match so both sides were evenly spaced. The drive home from Chrispy's place was magically quiet, Mike and I could have a normal conversation and I could hear my music!!! I am totally in love with the new exhaust tips, I think they look fantastic!

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    So this is the finished product, Unfortunately we haven't been able to get a photo that really shows off the paint colour yet, but I'm sure there are a few people who were at Armidale who can vouch for the fact that in the sun the 4 pearls really come to life and the car changes shade depending on which angle you are looking at it from.

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    So the next step is interior which is currently a work in progress, I have started re-trimming but not sure if I'm happy with the colour I chose, may have to go back to the drawing board, although I'm not looking forward to doing the doors and glovebox again!!!!

    I'll finish off for now with another big thanks to the people who have helped out over the last 6 months, especially Chrispy, Al and Eric, don't know what we would do without you guys!! Thanks to Wooshka for letting us borrow Eric so much! :zlove::D
    I also have to say thanks to Mike for letting me gatecrash his hobby/passion and encouraging me to do everything that I wanted to! Love you lots xxoo

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  10. ZEDZY

    ZEDZY Active Member

    Looking good :D.
     
  11. wooshka

    wooshka New Member

    Congrats on having a fantastic looking Zed. Glad to see it's all coming together nicely.
    Also good to hear that both you and Mike made it to Zedfest and back without any dramas. Glad that Eric could be of assistance. :zlove:

    BTW, i like the new paint job, go the pink zed!!:D
    Well done ztoy and all those involved.
     
  12. Mrz Magic

    Mrz Magic New Member

    Wait until you see it in person Kylie! Eric was pretty impressed, and that's saying something :D
     
  13. loud'n'proud

    loud'n'proud Challenge Accepted

    looks great but how pink is it?

    from all the way over here still looks red.



    If your pink bits are still red its probably a rash. I have some left over cream that will help clear it if you need some.
     
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  14. MagicMike

    MagicMike Moderator Staff Member

    Pinker than anything you've ever seen Josh :p

    Nah it's very pink in the sun, but its very hard to get the pink to come out in pics... Under fluros at a servo it looks purple and in the dark or shade it looks red/burgandy...

    Next to a red car you can see the difference - it really looks pink...
     
  15. wooshka

    wooshka New Member

    If Eric is impressed with it and its a pink zed, then it must be damn good :D, can't wait to see it again, even when it was maroon/burgundy, i still thought it looked good
     
  16. Mrz Magic

    Mrz Magic New Member

    Gee thanks Josh.... but you had better hang onto it.... something tells me you might need the cream again :p
     
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  17. loud'n'proud

    loud'n'proud Challenge Accepted

    looks mint from here just very red rather then fluro barbie pinks lol
     
  18. loud'n'proud

    loud'n'proud Challenge Accepted

    what ever cindy told you is a lie!

    lol looks good, look forward to seeing it in person some time soon
     
  19. Chrispy

    Chrispy Pretentious Upstart

    Good to see the thread up Cara!

    The colour is absolutely gorgeous! Pity it's hard to capture in a photo :( Maybe Stu or someone else who is handy with the camera got some piccies that show it properly :)

    And Eric, Mike and me were really having a sleep here....
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  20. black baz

    black baz black 'n blue Bazemy

    it is not a whack you in the face "barbie" pink, josh ... but, rather a very tasteful dark pink ... looks tops ... the overall presentation is damn good ...!!!

    .. a very nice Zed, indeedy ...
     
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