Z-owned's Z! (History, build, running journal) thread

[Z-owned]

Well boredom has struck and I decided to start a thread for my car to show it's progress since I got it.

Anyway I bought the car back in early summer of 2008 100% stock minus a radio deck. Car rolled to 119k as I drove it home, pics are from my first day with it.

My brother also got a Z that summer (2 months earlier than me, something he likes to remind me of.) Notice the huge burn mark in the clear coat on the rear hatch on the passenger side?


First thing I did to the car was painted the peeling trim, with some bumper paint. Something that has lasted well to this day. Anyone interested in this plasti-dip works well but I still prefer a real paint, just have to prep the parts properly.


Shortly after that I needed new tires and didn't like the stock wheels much I found a set of 17" 350z wheels with new tires (sized for the 350z ) for $300 bucks and bought them. Also gave the car it's first real detailing it had, had done in probably ever. That burn spot thankfully wet sanded out to where it's almost un-noticible.


After that I basically just enjoyed the car as it was getting to learn it better and making sure it would be up for going to california in the fall when I went back to school. The one thing I had done was upgrade the speakers from the crappy old bose system which made the trip much more pleasant.

Pic in front of my school


After getting settled i started to attend the inland empire monthly meets, and quickly felt like my car was horrible lol, first thing I did was clean the engine bay.

before

After


I wasnt able to find a job down there as no one wanted to hire part time out of state people so I had to live pretty poorly to afford insurance and gas on the Z on top of paying for school. I ended up selling most all my paintball gear as I couldn't afford to play or travel anymore for tournaments. I also kept the small amount of cash flow coming in from buying and selling anything I could find that I knew I could sell for more online and was how I made it through that year. Limited cash flow kept mod's down on the Z to easy cheap stuff.

painted the mustache



Painted the third brake light



pulled the dash apart and replaced a bad speedometer. (would be the first of many times pulling the cluster out for various things)


For christmas that year my brother got me the redline dust boots and lid cover, and I bought the red stitched shifter to replace my worn out stock one. I also took the opportunity to fix the broken center console lid and pad it.






I also found over $5 bucks between the center console and removing the seats to clean the inside.


Then i pulled the cluster again to install Z1's new gauge rings they had come out with


I then got lucky and found a local guy selling some real jspec tail lights all 3 pieces and talked him down from $300 to $190 bucks.


That spring well on the annual inland empire avocado cruise my shifter bushings gave out on me. Also found my grease boots cracked. Replaced those with bronze shifter bushings and fixed the boots.


Replaced everything from inside the car, it took some work to figure out how to get my hands in there. (I am 6'2" with good sized hands fyi)


Also here is a video from that cruise for those interested.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3yaswKf10[/youtube]

Couple random pics



Monster truck status


Towards the end of the school year I realized that the 350z wheels i had looked bad, I got lucky and found a set of the 35th anniv. wheels for sale in the area and after selling my 17's only ended up paying $75 for them.



Also picked up a free plenum from a local tt.net member down there and started to polish it.



That pretty much concluded anything major done to the car until I got home.

[Z-owned]

Once I got back to WA. and got a real job again is when things started to pick up as far as the Z went.

Well down in So. Cal i had a throw out bearing start going out on me and the noise was driving me insane so that was the first thing I took care of. Well I had the tran's out I replaced the flywheel with a jwt (fidanza) flywheel, added megan headers, and test pipes and deleted the EGR. (DONT DO THIS WITH JUST THE TRANS OUT), to say it sucked was an understatement. Clutch is a southbend from Joe at Zspeed and it's been amazing




Next came time for the 120k maint. I seem to have lost most my pics from this. Unfortunately I went with AMS light weight pulley's this was before I found out how much AMS sucks. Thankfully the timing mark on mine though is correct.

also had some custom floor mats made




That summer i found a local guy selling a specialtyZ exhaust for $400 which I had been saving for anyway so I was excited to say the least. I quickly was not so thrilled with how loud the xpipe was and swapped it out for a hks hpipe asap.


Then came time to get rid of the 4x4 status with full powertrix parts thanks to Charles


How she looked after



Z1 also came out with a new piece around that time to fix my driver door lock issue. Since owning the car I had always had to unlock the car from the passenger side. New metal piece from Z one is circled.


That fall of 09 i picked up some Sparco torrino II's from a local guy and made my own brackets to sit the seats lower by modifying the stock seat brackets. I like to sit close to the wheel which with my height made things a bit uncomfortable with the stock seats Rice or not these fixed that issue nicely.


I also added a ebay rear strut bar but hated how it would need the top of the plastic cut, also from knowing on a friends Z they were somewhat flimsy. So I modified it to my liking as well as tightening it up. (Notice my rubber grommets in the plastic as well for adjusting the coilovers with a allen wrench)


I hate being seen easily well I drive so next came tint with 20% all around


That christmas I bought myself a gift in the form of a jspec bumper. which I had painted that spring



Also got rid of my horrible red painted throttle cover and went with CF powertrix pieces.


I also found that spring a set of one of my favorite wheels for sale in my price point. The catch was they were in bad shape, I looked at it though as a way to get some custom wheels.

Work Meister S1 3pc wheels
18x9 +35
18x10+35





Test fitting them



After getting the wheels apart I took the barrels to a local wheel repair place which was able to fix all the curb rash and gouges better than I ever expected. I then hand sanded the faded and pitted clear coat off and polished the lips up.

Left side polished, right side still with clear coat



The faces I had powder coated in a color called ebony chrome which has a slight brownish/bronze tint in the right light.




I wrapped them in some hankook ventus v12's 255/35 front and 285/30 rear. Had to actually raise the rear a bit until I got the fenders rolled.




After fender rolling



I wasnt happy with the front so I added 10mm spacers for an effective +25

[Z-owned]

Shortly after finishing up my wheels I came across a great deal for a set of powertrix (kaminari style) side skirts with the door fillers, they were used and had a few cracks that needed repaired but nothing major.

Here it was just placed on the car to see how it would look (no screws holding it)


I didn't have money to paint them right away so i let them sit off the car for awhile. Part of the reason for no money was this purchase that I did pretty much all at once.


Selin setup before going in the car.


This pic looks bad, but having to work under a car on gravel I hardly trust jack stands. So i made something that had a much wider base with the core piece being a 4x4 that the car sits on.


Bumper was pulled to install the powertrix cf fog light ducts, also made installing the selin kit a lot easier.


The car all back together and on the ground.


Then shortly after all that the Japan quake happened and there was a local car show put together to raise money to help. I decided to mount the side skirts just because for it.

Another random shot before heading to the car show with my brother's Z and our friends celica all-trac


That summer I bought some faux suede and started to do the interior with it.


After all that the car stayed that way for awhile. Funds for the Z had transitioned to getting a new dd as my corrado wasn't something I trusted commuting 400+ miles a week in.

May 2011 I purchased a 01 toyota mr2 as it fit everything i had wanted in a new dd. Something small and fun with good gas mileage and reliability.

Back to the Z however, I also made a pretty big purchase for the car.


TT engine came out of a US car that got rear ended with only 80k on the clock supposedly. Timing belt sticker on the covers indicated it was changed at 68k. The Engine came with all the needed parts for the swap from the ic's and piping, ecu, tt fuel pump etc and even came with the tt transmission. all for $2500 shipped. Not being able to test the motor and wanting to do a pretty big build I started to tear the motor apart and unfortunately it's still stripped down to the long block currently.

Meanwhile I had made other purchases like a front splitter from driven authority.


Also had my stock steering wheel re-done as I was tired of the ugly steering wheel cover.



And to compliment the other various CF parts on the car I picked up a mission style cf spoiler from powertrix



After that I pulled the skirts off till I could paint them and also had my windshield replaced do to the previous owner being an idiot and putting a huge scratch in the windshield with the wipers and i was tired of tolerating it.

Pretty happy at that point with how the car was i took it for a drive to see my brother who lived about 125 miles away and while on the way there took a rock in my brand new windshield and cracked it. Nothing like paying for a new windshield twice in less than a month.......


On the way back home i went over Chinook pass by Mt. Rainier which had just re-opened after being closed for the winter.



The car again sat that way for awhile before I did some more to it. That summer I had some center caps made for my wheels by a member on tt.net and decided to try something out emblem wise on it.


I also made my own throttle cable cover strip


After those minor things I basically enjoyed the car as it was again up until this last spring.

That plenum that I had started polishing back in 09 i finally finished (I have a lot of respect for those that have done more than one.)

Pick of one runner finished


Once I had the whole plenum looking that way it was time to send it to get powder coated. My vision all along was to have it done the same color as my wheels. Unfortunately i had waited so long to finish the plenum that when I took it in i found out that they could no longer get that specific powder in anymore and had to settle for something else they had that was close.



Also had the splitter pc'd to matte black


Then it came time to do the plenum pull to fix some issues like leaky valve cover's etc. and do some general cleaning/deletes


Classic green corrosion plague



All back together



This past summer i painted the side skirts and put them on. Not fully sold on them yet which is why i have held off on the door fillers. But this brings my car up to how it currently sits.





Hope you enjoyed my Z's journey; i have a lot of plans for it still, but they have been put on hold for awhile with getting a house and getting married coming up this July. I will have another little update soon though regarding the brakes.

[Z-owned]

I will keep this list updated as things change.

Mod's.

Engine/drive-train/exhaust
Selin dual intake
Robz's 54mm modified stock tb's
ud pulley
od water pump pulley
Howe radiator
Ashspec tuned ecu
Megan headers
Megan 2.5" test pipes
2.5" hks hpipe
2.5" SZ axle back
jwt light weight flyweel
Southbend rally clutch
bronze shifter bushings

Suspension
Powertrix Race Coilovers
Powertrix front upper control arms
Powertrix tension rods
Powertrix rear camber arms
Stillen sway bars
Powertrix adjustable endlinks
Z1 subframe spacers
Rear strut bar

Wheels
Work Meister S1's 3pc
front 18x9 +25 (with spacer) 255/35/18
Rear 18x10 +35 285/30/18

Cosmetic
Jspec front
Powertrix fog light ducts
Driven authority front splitter
Zspeed rear splash shield
Powertrix side skirts
Powertrix mission style spoiler
Jspec tail lights

Interior
Sparco torrino II seats
Pioneer deck
infinity speakers
red stitched dust boots/shifter/center console/steering wheel
Defi water temp and volt gauges in 300 degree center console din
20% window tint
LED cluster and pod lights

[itsa300zx]

Thats awesome, cant wait to hear all of it. I wish I was bored also. Every member should do this.

[300ZXttZMAN]

OH I love how this is going!!! LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!

Can't wait to see the rest of the story! When I saw that you had made this thread I started reading, then I was like I wonder when the work wheels come into play, then when I got to the part where the wheels were introduced - that is all.

Subscribed

Adding it to the build list thats stickied at the top.

[DCaff300ZX]

Thanks for sharing all of the stuff I didn't know, which was a lot...Keep it up Chris!

[gsrteg]

i love this thread! so much haha i got some good ideas, as in painting the mustache and the weather trimming with the plastic. Cant wait to see more!! great job! did you ever repaint your car? its so deep and looks great. mine doesnt have that same look and mines cherry red pearl aswell except with 60k always garaged and waxed

[Z-owned]

Thanks! as far as the paint goes only the jspec bumper, nose panel and side skirts are painted. The rest is original. I have a pretty involved detailing regime i do to my car's quite frequently though which makes the paint shine.

I also liked the black stache when i had it, especially when I had smoked corners with it. I painted the side trim and the stache with the same paint.


This was the paint I used for both. The A-piller trim got scuffed and shot with a self etching primer before using it just a fyi for you or anyone else thinking about doing it.

[cjdubs]

I know the whole story and I still enjoyed reading this thread! sad it didn't involve brakes yet.......

[ChaseOfSpadeZ]

B-E-A-UTIFUL!!!

[Ace2cool]

Jesus dude, there's a reason you have one of my favorite rides on here.

[Z-owned]

Thanks guys!

So I got my 13" royalty performance rear brakes done with the ss braided lines in no problem. Moved to the front with the 13" baer rotors and got them on to run into this.



The caliper hits the edge of the wheel face where it bolts to the barrel enough that I cant even turn the wheel. So looks like i get to pull it all back off to install longer studs for the 17mm spacers I just bought to replace the 10mm. So new front wheel dimensions will be 18x9 +18

Little teaser though


Also decided since my tt build wont be happening as I hoped anytime soon. That I am going to do a leak down test on the motor and if all is good, I will start getting it put back together and buying stuff to swap it hopefully after summer. Thinking gt525's with the msp mani's i already have with 2.5" ic's and piping will make me happy for awhile.

[BigTDogg (MA)]

Beautiful Z, looks amazing all around.

Go Sport 550s and don't look back

[addicted4life]

Awesome man I absolutely love it!! Your attention to detail and how rich your paint still is for being original is crazy!!

[Z-owned]

Little update

Finally got all this installed (Before anyone asks the reason the rear's dont match the fronts is i bought them and originally planned to go with the stoptech 13" bbk)



Royalty Performance rear bracket installed. The kit calls for the use of the stock rear bolts to be used, I found them to short to be comfortable with the added thickness from the bracket otherwise the kit is a very easy straight forward install.


old and new


installed. Pad's do make full contact but you can see a bit of un-swept area on the rotor.


Onto the front (i didn't get as many pics of the install)


I had to cut the squealers off the pad for the front side to avoid contact with the center hat.


The Z1 kit does get full pad contact unlike the 350z brembo kit's


I did have to push the front wheels out 7mm to get clearance which caused a need for the front fenders to be rolled

Before


After


And everything back together



Even with going from a 10mm to a 17mm spacer up front the clearance is very close


Rear is close as well but didn't require a spacer

[DCaff300ZX]

Been waiting to see the final installed shots, AWESOME!
So, you haven't traded her for that sweet TT yet???

[Z-owned]

Was a little worried about the passenger side hitting the fender on a dip up front with the new spacers and after paying recently for a custom alignment I really didn't want to have to get another one. So i decided to check the clearance by driving just that side up on a 2x4

[catnipple]

By far my favorite z32 absolutely gorgeous!! Keep it up man.

[chaunceysj]

beautiful

[Z-owned]

Thanks guys!

[OneZ]

This is a very nice history of the work you have put into this vehicle. It is really nice to see how far you have brought the car from first obtaining it. Keep it up!

I was wondering if you got the wheel repairs done in WA? IF so could you PM me with the name of the shop that did the work for you. I am in WA and need to get similar work done on my wheels. Also what paint shop did the front fascia paint work. I am new to the area and would like to get a reputable shop to do some work for me as well.

[DCaff300ZX]

I can help with a couple of those Washington questions, welcome by the way!
Chris will surely tell you his choices, but a couple of other choices I would recommend are Darnell's in Tacoma for paint (a little spendy but high quality) and Doug with Fairlady Z in University Place, pretty reasonable and a knowledgeable guy and can dynotune with Nistune.

[OneZ]

Hi and Thanks Dcaff300ZX! I am not familiar with Darnell's but I will check them out next week. Thanks for the tip on Fairlady Z also. I said I was new to this area but in fact I actually lived out here for about 4 years. But that was way back in the late 90's. So I am effectively new after so many years away:)

I think I had some work done on my old 1984 300 at Fairlady Z because I remember that area. In any case, thanks again for the tips and I'll check both places out.

[Z-owned]

Hey OneZ welcome back to the area! Are you in the south sound or up North? I had my wheels repaired at Dependable Wheel Repair in Renton and can highly recommend them. But if your up North I have heard great things about Cascade wheel repair as well. As for the paint I had a place in Auburn do it but cant remember the name though well they did a good job on my bumper I cant say I would recommend them either as they told me one price and tried to charge me an additional $300 on top of it.

[OneZ]

Thanks for the warm welcome. It is really great to be back. Always really liked it out here:)

I am in the south sound area so Renton would be a good spot for the wheel repair. I will do a quick phone query of both places then make some decisions. Fortunately the wheels are not an urgent item.

I have one estimate for the painting I want done. I feel I should be able to get it for a better price (although everything costs more these days) I'll get an estimate on that from the spot that Decaf300ZX suggested then if they are close I'll just get that effort going as I don't want to spend the summer waiting to complete work on the car.


Thanks again. I'll post some pics once i get things where I want them.

[OneZ]

Decaf300ZX you were right about the Darnells. I met with Doug today and his description of what he would do as part of the process to get the results I wanted sold me. The price was about what I had in mind but will include a LOT more than I was originally hoping for. If it was a little different timing I would even get them to do the entire car Thanks again for the tips.

Z-owned - I will "UN-highjack" your thread now. Sorry for intruding.

[Z-owned]

Been awhile since I posted anything to this thread so figured I would give a small update. Sadly with getting married, buying a house, getting the corrado totaled by an un-observant driver that t-boned me and buying my wife a new car I haven't had a chance to do a whole lot with the Z this last year so I finally treated myself to something I have wanted to do for awhile. Bought some stock seats off someone and had them redone with all new foam and skins from interior-designs.

[DCaff300ZX]

Damn, they turned out NICE...can't wait to see them!

[Afi]

Nice!