sydney mike

Hi John, sounds good. I tried the usual bug/tar remover and it did nothing. I'll be sure to clay and polish it after too. cheers, Mike

Hi all, record hot day in Sydney today, decided to take the wife and kids to the beach. Parked the family hack which is a 2007 Honda CRV under a tree. When returned to car , it was like somone splashed some milk on the bonnet. Could not go home and clean it off straight away as I had to take my father to doctor's appointment afterwards. It seems the heat has caused the tree to drop sap on the paint and now it's set like wood glue. Any suggestions for the safest way of removing it? cheers, Mike

great day, good to finally meet the canberra boys! cheers, Mike

+1 will there be a meet up point before we head in? cheers, mike

Ok I am 90% sure coming to this one. Do the Sydney Zeds want to meet up and cruise down together? cheers, Mike

+1 I have a L28 in mine. I once drove another members' L24 with mild cam and triple webers and I was grinning from ear to ear. It didn't feel as fast as my L28 but it was damn more fun to drive and probably in reality faster, and definetely more suited to track work too. So I would much prefer the L24. But going back to your original question, shoving a L26 or L28 is not a big deal, it's not like you're shoving a V8 in it. Not that there is anything wrong with that either. Just enjoy your zed now, and not worry about future value. In my opinion, these cars are not investments. If you are worried about future values, go buy a house. cheers, Mike

Thanks Gareth, I don't contribute much but I help when I can. Worst would be to fork out money for parts from overseas and find them to be the wrong ones when they arrive. In the pics you can see the difference in mounting points. Heres one more pic, of the JDM mesh grill: cheers, Mike

I had this problem when sourcing a new grill for my late 76 260z 2 seater. There seems to be many versions and maybe even the catalog descriptions may be wrong. For example the one that suited my Zed was listed as for a 1973 240z. This is the one I purchased new from jdm spares usa: So either someone has their descriptions wrong or my 76 2 seater has had a cut and shut from a 73 front end? this one is supposed to be from early model 69-72 this one listed as 74-76 and supposed to be correct for my zed but clearly not: Hope that helps cheers, Mike

all fun and games until......... most of those interior shots remind me of when I'm sitting in a sydney cab

We had a really good night at olympic park a few years back: http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,2968.0.html unfortunately the pic links don't work anymore. The photographer(George) no longer owns a zed but I am still in touch with him, I reckon he takes good snaps:

hmm, I've been meaning to try killa burgers so that sounds ok to me

Feel free to suggest

As Tj mentioned, how about harry's cafe liverpool. I'm good most monday nights with a weeks notice.

OMG, absolutely stunning car. The old Rx's aren't bad also. Which makes me think my Zed needs a wash. Thanks for sharing, Ledge!

Absolutely amazing effort and skill, can you imagine......."darling wife, do you mind if I build a L6 in the kitchen"? But are you sure it's running on diesel? Compressed air?

Welcome to the forum, didn't catch your name though. Freakin awesome find there and looking forward to the build. What part of Sydney are you from? Mike

Doesn't look like William and wildy55 can make it but I am ok to blow the cobwebs off my Zed tomorrow afternoon/evening. Suggestion of a location?

Hi Alan, these "workshops" I mentioned usually happen no more than 3 times a year when the RTA introduces changes to the licencing system or driver trainers association meetings where they invite some poor RTA chap who will get a grilling from us. They invite large transport companies such as Linfox and driving instructors. The higher level talks with state transport minister, we foot soldiers never get invited to, only the suits. Lately, I haven't been bothered voicing my opinions anymore because the majority of instructors take over the debate obssessed with trying to get mandatory lessons with instructors to make more money. While this is a step in the right direction, I would rather focus on reworking the driving test and an accompanying curriculum for instructors to teach, instead of instructors teaching monkeys to pass a drivng test. I tell anyone thinking about becoming a driving instructor to do it if they enjoy teaching. If they think they are going to make alot of money, think again-try something else, there are easier ways. Community forums unfortunately only really come about from knee-jerk reactions to graphic front page newspaper reporting of some poor kid who wraps a Skyline around a tree or like this January with that B-double on the menangle bridge. And back to the old v new car debate, if I am buying for myself I don't mind an older car. If it is for someone I care about, the newer the better because of better safety features, stronger chassis, better crash protection. That is also my advice to my student's parents. I am not in the panel beating game so I wouldn't be able to tell if the 10 year old car I am about to buy has had a major shunt in its past and would crumple like a can of coke if I gave it a love tap. One of my students was going to buy a 3 year old VW golf, lucky her dad was smart enough to get a pre purchase inspection-they found NO AIRBAG in the steering wheel and dodgy wiring to hide that fact.

Stealing jobs from the locals? the irony!

As a driving instructor for cars for the last 9 years, RTA accredited Aged driver assessor and and more recently now heavy vehicle instructor/assessor as well as I guess I'll throw in my 2 bobs worth. Firstly, we don't have 160km/h roads in this country and certainly won't have that high standard of infrastructure I don't think in my lifetime anyway. I may have vested interests but I don't think it's a good idea for family/friends to teach learners how to drive. The problem is that in this country, a drivers licence is seen as a right, not a privilege. In other countries as mentioned in the clip, all training must be done by a professional instructor and not family/friends (packing my bags atm ) Can you imagine if they did that here? They would burn the place down. I sometimes get government contracts to give lessons to people less fortunate who cannot afford lessons so they can be more employable. The driving test in NSW is approx 30mins long and of course it is not difficult enough to pass. After a spate of fatal crashes involving young people, victims families, police, RTA,NRMA and driver trainers got together and they decided to implement the increase from 50 to 120hrs of logged driving with minimum 20hrs nightime, but still no compulsory professional driving lessons. Plus restrictions on hi-po cars, peer passenger nightime restrictions etc. Now, after pressure from the public if you are over 25, you don't need to log any hours before attempting the test. We don't have a perfect system but these are just some of the suggestions I have been voicing to RTA for many years: Make the driving test longer and more difficult. Abolish testing at small suburban motor registries and only test at large registries where they can access motorways/freeways to include in the test course. Why make it convenient for the applicants? You want your licence, you make the effort to come to us. Remove the 80km/h limit for learners-they are under supervision from a "responsible" experienced driver so if the supervisor assesses that the learner is capable then they should be able to get experience of at least 90km/h. What I can't understand is this: in NSW learners are restricted to 80km/h, but once they get their red P's, they are allowed to drive at 90km/h UNSUPERVISED-something that they have never experienced before! Change licence class for vehicles over 2tonnes (eg Prado, landcruiser etc) to Light Rigid class (LR). It's ridiculous that you can pass your P's in a Yaris and then drive a 3 tonne landcruiser Subsidise Defensive driving course for new P platers. And in relation to new car prices, IMO I don't think new cars are expensive today. For example, my dad bought his pulsar Q brand new back in 1993 for $21,000, with air con but no power windows. Last month my sister bought a brand new corolla sport with spoilers, alloys, cruise, bluetooth, leather steering wheel etc for $22,000. But in saying that, I would not buy a brand new car unless for business/tax purposes. I'd be quite happy with a good used one. And happy with my Zed too. Just one last note, next time you are frustrated by a slow moving learner, please just take a deep breath, keep your distance and don't tailgate. Cheers.

yep I am coming from Kogarah.

sounds alright to me. May I suggest the evening of Mon 7th?

Cool, so who's going to get the ball rolling and organise something?

saw a 240z with the plates ZZ-240 today. I wanted to throw $4000 at the driver

the William who sold the Zed to keep a Golf? welcome back. Pics of the new Zed? I haven't taken my zed out for a while. I'm good most monday nights