zedevan

Both the lights are working again, i dont know why, i'm not complaining though, i called up wreckers to see if i could source some replacements of the electronic controller incase i'd blown one, but none of them had wrecked a 3 series with xenon lights, so went to bmw and the price of one of the controllers alone is 150% of the price i paid for both complete lights, so i think i got a pretty good deal! So now i dont turn them on till i have the car revving at over 2000rpm so they are getting 12volts at startup, thanks to the alternater which i'm hoping to upgrade soon speaking of which people at classiczcars have been talking about some braket to upgrade the 240z one to 280zx but they seem to say that the 260z one is about the same as the 280zx one so no point, is this true? and if so what upgrade would you recommend? my dad was saying something about the one in my car being a relay sort (i think) and should change it to blah blah blah Incase the problem was water getting near the connectors, i've now made an inner fender cover bit (along with other ways to prevent water getting near them) out of a broken a3 folder i had sitting at home, it only just clears the wheel when they are on full lock, so i'm hoping it doesn't become an issue i'll take some photos soon on a nice wide road to show the improvement, i reakon its nuts, i just wish i'd bought bi-xenons to a degree, as having such a sharp, low cut off can be kinda blinding/scary when going down a dip, but once i get my driving lights working again it shouldn't be as bad as i'll have them facing up nicely

does your family or anything have their house with GIO gav? just wondering, as the only reason the company i'm with will even insure me is because everything in my household is with them! Vertex, as far as i'm away most people here dont tell anyone they dont have the standard engine when they change to a 280zx engine but better to be safe than sorry i guess, but i know i'd just play dumb hehe

Just wondering what kinda "deals" people have on their insurance and if there's a particular company i should go to? Gav i remember you saying something about >30years old car insurance, and mine's now 30 are there any restrictions on the amount your allowed to drive it? I just called my current company and asked if there were any restrictions on what size wheels i put on and they said as long as it fits the legal requirements and wheel shops would know what they are, so sounds like a good way to push the blame off me if they did care! and they asked if it was going to be the only mod, and i said well i need to change the susspension as its rather old now, and they said, its 3rd party so it doesn't really matter what you do to it...i wonder how much they will stick by that, as they wont insure any turbo or v8 for someone under 25... I'm paying $400ish for only 3rd party fire and theft and their quote for full comp was over $1500 and they were going to value the car at like $3000, so seemed very VERY pointless, and just cars was the same sorta thing I was told buy the guy on the dandenong cruise with the r33 to go into shannons and show them my car and ask for insurace from them that way instead of over the phone, although i drive my car atleast 20km a day so i dont know if that rules me out?

for the exact rubber (yokahama somethings) thats on the sr240z car i was quoted 290 at one place and 380 at another, with the cheapest type or rubber being the 210 kinda mark, and a second hand place says they start from 70 a wheel depending on the brand and how much rubber is left which sounds like a better option ofcourse . i'd have to say while the watanabe look is nice, i wasn't really wanting to make my car a JDM copy kinda thing...i'd like to go for black centres and was thinking since the rs8 price would be about the same (mayb) as other three peice they might be a go'er but... are the type r wats 3 peice? coz they dont really look that much so...as i'm going to put the skyline lights in my car if i do flares i guess i'm going for a weird mix between old and new, but i guess the round lights are kinda classic, but hey they may not be done for a year at the rate i'm giong with them now roh wheels are nice but alot of their designs they dont make in sizes under 18", other wise i'd have those modena ones or adrenalin's, but i would like venturos with a black centre my only other concern is finding my car on bricks :shock:

yeah i'm suffering from the same delima as you though gav, do i want wats or a newer style? i've always just thought newer or the rs8's, although the type r's are a nice inbetween can you get type r's in 17"? as that would seem to be the perfect thing atm, i'd always thought 17"s looked a bit big but then after seeing sulios it doesn't, it must the the all that dish and flares my other prob is now i have the flares should i get wide rims or just another set of rubber and paint the parts of my wheels black (something i wanted to do these hols but didn't have time) have you ever tried to price those work wheels they like in japan? what size do they use, as the 17" ones always seem to be pictured in white!? but then they look bigger than 16"s or mayb my eyes are funny

i was going to scan my spare speedo these holes and trace in illustrator, but it now appears i'm going to back to uni tomoz, it only hit me this afternoon, so much i wanted to do these holidays that i didn't actully do... so are all 240'z speedo's mph huh? if an over lay of a 260z speedo would be accurate enough over a 240z speedo i'm happy to scan mine soonish, although i am worried of scratching my scanner badly hehe i was wondering how an overlay off americans was going to help us over here...

i was trying to make sulio feel good hehe

i have a 240zg model and it has the stock 240z hubcap rims, it looks very funny hehe...makes me wonder y it has flares? but yeah contact details of the watanabe distributor would be good, for some reason i think i prefer rs8's but then the rims on sr240z's car look nice as, and the gold ones are nice too but i'd like a polished lip. anyone got an idea of how much rubber is? my cousin has a type r (nice seats hehe) and he said he had to get new rubber for the roadworthy and it was a rare profile in 16" so were $$$$ i dont have a day off till wednesday so can't go and ask places...

i just put both of the lgihts in the other night, and now one of them isn't turning on, it just keeps flashing, i sure hope i dont have to replace any of the bits as there goes more money, particually if u have to buy them new, or i guess i could wait for ages and hope to get some second hand, i swapped the globes so its not them, orginally i was hoping it was, but then after looking up the prices i'm hoping i'm glad its not, but then the other bits can prob only b worse :S but hey when they were both working, the overlap made the parts where only one light was shinning look dull!

i liked how the one in the mag was a frameless windscreen, made it look more old school still, nice photoshoping, u having lots of fun i can see if i ever felt like i had to have a convertable zed i'd do it to a two plus two, if ur going to take a roof off it may as well be an ugly one! hehe theres a green one around the east side huh...i'll have to keep my eyes open for it, but yeah they kinda just look like box's with a windscreen, just like an mgb...

have you got any pics of your wheels on your car?

is a little birdy the for sale thread? hehe did you use the beetle rubber stuff inbetween them and the body work? my other question is which way's the front! ohwell need rims first! but i am in need of some new rubber pretty soon! what do you mean by alot of stars? i'd remembered you said you could get another outter lip for $150ish and was thinking/hoping if getting a custom one done is like $200-250 or less ofcourse, and i just get the outter section done and then use a spacer, as you prob can't really tell the difference between like 2" and 2.5" of lip, but yeah even getting rs8 watanabes here second hand is like 1g so it doesn't really work out to well huh... i'm guessing since this is a price from the distributor its pretty much the same all the time and not some special we have to get in fast on anyway yeah? i wouldn't mind these rims, but as i said they no longer make them in 4stud...and they are $600 a wheel :roll:

yeah that does sound like a good price, do they bring in the rs8 style also? i was thinking of getting a set of them in the same sizes sulio got his, but as finding a set second hand would be near impossible i was thinking of getting some 17X7 +38 and 17X8+38 ones and trying to get them widened (i think the offsets still a bit to +, i think it would go to about +2 if i got them both widened 1.5") but so far places have just said if i can't get the halves for them there's nothing they can do...so do they just want to charge me to do up some bolts and undo them? of they've told me to bring them in which is hard to do since i dont have them...so was then thinking i could always sell them or buy some adaptors... the other rims i'm trying to get are simmons alta ones but they no longer make them in 4 stud...so i'm trying to track down a zed a saw forsale with them awhile ago...anyone know where it is? and if they wanna sell the rims? hehe do you have the number for the distributors so i could see if they can get the halves? but it might end up being the same price all up as new anyway...

yeah with these its basically as much as you dare to have it pointing up without blinding people to much, i have them pointed down so a car 2 lengths infront of me will be lucky if it hits their rear window, so hopefully they wont attract to my attention, bmw have some sensor mounted around the car so they level but i still dont know what they really do... the lights off ebay were around the $60 mark, the connectors which i got of a wrecked bmw from a wrecker were $18 for the pair (ones slightly stuff from the accident), and then the expensive bit being the actual lights and ballast which were $590, which isn't cheap (but alot cheaper than buying them new, and i think its worth the extra over the HID kits) hopefully i can sell all the bits i didn't need for something (As i'm sure bosch charges alot for a replacement of their bit of plastic alone) hmm the screws may add up to $10, used a rubber ball as a grommet thing which was $5 hehe, then a fair few hours of labor i think they are worth it, they add a nice modern touch to the car and improve visability HEAPS which is good for all the night driving i do on roads that dont have street lights, eventually i might look into making them bi-xenon lights, but i think it'd b a bit of work as you need a servo to lower/remove the peice of metal that blocks off half the light to make the ultimate high beams

well while people may be thinking this is has all been a waste of money, in my opinion its the best money i've spent on the car so far...which isn't much but still, the difference is amazing still not completely finished, as atm some of the reflections are blinding, but i had some time to mount the ballast and other bits today and get the wiring done, and as they are only 35w (but draw like 15amps at the start) i can just use the orginal wiring, which was a pain to work out thanks to the PO's install of driving lights and not having a wiring diagram for the car, but got it working and didn't blow it up so i was happy

my passenger side sealed beam light died on me which was more motivation to get these lights in, they are getting there as you can see. i didn't notice all the blue reflections till i took the photo, so when i have it apart next i think i'll paint the blue standoffs black. also needa work out where and how to mount all the HID electronics, which i wont get to work on again till thursday. i just put these in so if cops pull me over i dont just have a hole there thanks rob, once i had the lights out it was more obvious what everything did, the only issue being the screw to adjust it left and right is really rusted :roll:

i'm not sure if i can make it, if i do i'll be coming straight from work and my cars very dirty so wont be nice and clean for photos but i'd like to still come so i'll see what happens

the other day i bought a pair of e46 bmw xenon hid headlights to retro fit into some 7" reflectors i bought off ebay a while back, and i'd have to say so far i'm very happy with how its going. i was also concidering honda euro accord lights but due to ricers with the non hid lights in theirs they are mega expensive as people are will to pay like 2g...as its half of what honda charge! i went to a bmw wrecker and got a pair of the connectors and turned on the lights while the sun was going down and i couldn't stop my eyes for hurting for 15minand i couldn't get the smile off my face for atleast half an hour, they are just so BRIGHT on and off today i was attempting to pull the lights apart, but due to their price i didn't really want to break any part of it, as i'm hoping to sell what i dont use (most of it except for the expensive part) so i've posted up on some bmw sites for info on which was ground and positive and how to pull them apart as i really didnt want to blow them up. after searching on the net for awhile i came across someones write up on how they pulled them apart and just did it then...at 2am i need my dads security screw bits to undo the projector but here is a pic of how the housing will look. i was thinking of cutting into some headlight buckets and mounting the bmw whole unit basically halfway down it so the highbeams would be just behind the grill, and using headlight covers and molding the light in nicely so its like the ones on mazeratis etc, but the hinge would be in the way...i'm hoping the body doesn't get in the way of the beam as they are so far back...and also that they are in for the photoshoot this saturday...but i dont see that happening due to work i'm going to use my driving lights for high beam...if i need them and i'm hoping the cops dont know enough as i'm not going to have light cleaners and the autolevels on my car which i believe you are ment to have. i never knew they had auto leveling, coz if they do, how come you still get blinded when they go over bumps? are the screws that are accessible at the front of the lights on our zeds for adjusting where they are pointing?

do you have any idea what mirrors they are that are on "your favorite"? looks like the ones off a lambo...they sit a bit to high in my opinion but are interesting...they dont really look semectrica...or is it just me? my fav one that i hadn't seen before is the light blue one with the black mirrors! is that how the jap grill is ment to sit? anyone know? gav? hehe

yeah the mirrors sure finish off the look but not having them sure gives the car more of a stretched look, have u seen how much the mirrors on ebay are going for? i think after postage which the guy estimated at around $75US its cheaper to get them from yahoo japan i think i read somewhere that the rear spoiler helps get rid of the fume smell when you have the windows down, is this true? i'm not that big a fan of the headlight covers but i might end up going for them when i put my headlights together (just bought some bmw xenon projectors, i'm not sure how they are going to fit, i'd b cool to get the covers and another set of buckets and mold them in like z8 style), either way i can't wait to pick them up! anyone done a headlight relay upgrade? just wondering if the connectors are availible in aus

yeah my car needs to be lowered in real life, still looking into it now...i'll write about it in my susspesion thread... more flashes or my dads serious flash would be good, not sure if my digital camera can have an external flash though...i've never looked into it...if anyone wants a good digital camera for the night DickSmith offers 14day money back for any reason i'd like to be able to make it but i'm not sure if there's something else i'm ment to be doing or not :? i was thinking i'd be cool to be a comm games volunteer, good experience, but prob an age limit? ohwell didnt look into it so to late now!

that looks very nice, i can't wait to see it in person did you end up cutting the panels under the flares? are you going to get the tail light panel sprayed in the same gloss black? have you found any of those carbonfibre mirrors?

nr240 has one thats made with bent plywood so it curves around nicely to miss the tyre well, i think i remember gav showing me it at the first cruise i went to and saying he would like to make one like that...so i'm thinking his car has the flat panel type of one. my 260 has the speakers right at the very back of the side panels and when i was only using them the sound was crap as due to the seats and strut towers you could only hear sound from the one diagonally opposite you...so is mounting the speakers along the back much of an improvement in terms of this issue? has anyone heard what mounting speakers on the sides of the centre console under the dash sounds like? i reakon it would sound weird...but there's not many other places to put them besides the doors...

what it would look like lowered...hopefully soon

yeah i might b there, but my car isn't red so wont fit in i thought i'd give some car park shots a go (same location as my avatar pic but with a tripod) but i got there and realised the tripod had the screw missing to hold the camera on...but once photoshoped they look okish - dont know if its just coz i'm tired but i like the blurs hehe