fufu

I think an update is long overdue. First of, I'd like to give a big thanks to Dimitri for taking on the task in helping me complete my project. Without this genius, I would have been lost on many issues with this project. *Update* A few weeks ago, I had my car towed from Dimitri's to it's next place of temporary residence. A friends panel beater. Not the same panel beater, as it initially was at, for its rust repair and paint. This new panel beater is a friend who I've known for some time but didn't know what occupation he did until i asked him. Sad but true. But he was very willing to take on the task of the flare modification. He is also a mechanic so he'll be doing a few things which I'll list down the bottom. So let's get to the photos. Here are a few photos of my car on stands getting ready for it's liposuction. *House Keeping* A few months back I said I'd weigh my watanabe rims and get some photos of the results. However at the time, my mechanical scale was not very trustworthy. Since then I've bought a new digital scale and thought I'd post up the results. Here they are: Fronts 16x8.5 weighing in at 8.2kgs Rears 16x9.5 weighing in at 8.5kgs *Update Continue* So some goodies arrived for the zed. Unfortunately it was incomplete and there was a mixup with the second pair. In the process of rectifying the order. *drools* I thought It was a good time to finally purchase the tyres. If i had bought them back in 2007, I don't think they would have been useable at this stage. Good thing I held off. Moving along... My friends been pretty quick lately. Expects the car to be out of the shop within the next 1-2 weeks. I've had other cars there before and his pretty true to his estimates. He expects to finish the liposuction within the next day or two. The rest will be spent on a long overdue major service which includes the following: - Replace sump gasket - Replace water pump - Replace oil filter - Replace fuel filter - Replace air filter - Replace spark plugs - Replace fuel sender - Coolant flush - Oil Change - Degrease Diff - Diff Oil Change I might as well get a quick detail since it's at the panel beaters. There are a few scratches that have gone through the paint durring the process of fixing this poor gal. I'll see if it can be touched up as well. I know majority of the items listed is easy to do but for some reason he was insistant on touching this fairlady. I may have given him the Zed bug as his been messaging me lately wanting to get his hands on a Z. That pretty much completes the update. Should be receiving the girl back soon. Stay tuned.

Hi Gav, have you thought about setting up a paypal subscription service? I've seen it on my360, myps3, mywii. Where it automatically bills members, for donations, over a duration. This option would be useful for the diehard members.

When i first joined viczcar, there wasn't many threads in the members ride section, in terms of journals. Not even half a page of members ride. Currently there is 7 pages. Thus i started my project journal there. But since then quite a substantial amount of members have created journals. It's a good thing too. It is definitely worth documenting the project build. It is a great way to share ideas on certain fixes or remedies. I for one learnt a lot from the dearly missed warrenz. His journal provided a lot of ideas and provided inspiration for me at the time I started my project. It's a great way of collaborating ideas as well. By posting updates, other members can comment, give advise and help out. I know for a fact that if it wasn't for this community, my zed would have just been a dream. I also hinted above, it's also a great way to motivate other people in restoring their own diamond in the rough as well. With the idea that it's not worthy of posting. It's not really about it's current state. It's more about the process of getting to your ideal goal. That, I believe, is worth capturing. The end result is but an end result. Why take photos of only the destination when you can also take photos of the journey to the destination?

I agree, GTR being a $120 000AUD car vs a $2 500 000AUD Ferrari. You have to say Nissan did a good job. If you want a different perspective it's like the recent Eastern Creek Superlap contest. A backyard Civic did a 1:40.9, fastest NA FF - even kicked alot of turbos FRs, and the professionals CyberEvo only did 1:30.5. But lets look at the difference. The civic probably costed in total under $30 000. The professional CyberEvo maybe close to $400 000. Mind you the professional teams were going through Turbos every few sessions and were doing engine rebuilds everyday. It's two different worlds but a damn effort from the underdogs.

Hi, With the way things are going I will have an update within the next week or two. Stay tuned. Fu

Happy Birthday Dimitri! May the kids don't cause you chaos today.

Rev, you have PM. After some 260Z hood vent thingys. Fu

Very interesting. Prior to giving it to the previous guy (forum rules, can't flame) i filled it up with a good 30 litres of fuel. Must have been the Fuel is evaporating from somewhere, old fuel lid gasket not sealing properly maybe. I'm heading to the zshop on Friday to pick up a coil and a sump gasket. Did you need anything else? I'll be sure to bring a jerry can of some good stuff and the coil this weekend. I can help you this weekend on those bulb issues. My arms are thin so it should be easier for me to dip in and pull the bulb wires out.

Top job Dimitri. I'll try to source a 280zx coil this week. I have the distributor cap at home somewhere and will be finding that as well. Hopefully I'll have all your requested parts by the end of the week.

Unfortunately I don't remember off the top of my head. I'll check it next time I'm up there. But I'm guessing from memory its about the 1100~ mark. Definitely won't be an early one as I don't have hatch vents on mine and It's also a 9/71.

Thanks for adding the photo Dimitri. I had to blink a few times, I thought it was someone elses car. Could not recognise it. The interior has changed so much recently.

Black Fender mirrors. yahoo: http://page13.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/r64736393 ImportMonster: http://www.importmonster.com.au/view?url=http://page13.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/r64736393&thumb=http://f4.auctions.c.yimg.jp/img189.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/users/3/5/3/5/lucky31jp-thumb-127107062788910.jpg&title=Z

Hi Rev, Just a quick question for future thought and potential market for you to conquer. Any potential chance for you to have a service to fit your full interior kit for a labour fee? regards, Fu

+1 Initially I had a similar mindset as you, Matt. I bought my rust bucket for 5k. I've lost count on how much I've spent on the thing. But if I had to put a price maybe towards the 20k mark now. It's been 3 years since I started the project and its still not on the road. Mind you I did have some unhelpful people who promised the world but didn't deliver. Matt, I want you to get the right mindset before you make this decision. There are many enthusiasts out there who take on the project thinking it's simple and it won't cost a lot, then not realising end up selling it as it becomes out of scope, time and cost. You may down right just get sick of the damn thing after hours upon hours, days upon days of working on it with no end in sight. God knows I have and it's members like Lurch who smack some sense back into me to get the damn thing on the road. A little more about my project. I've spent a shiverload and that's just the body of the thing and basically getting it roadworthy and working properly. Not even mentioning modifying the zed, which is future plans. Even then I'm looking at about 3-4k full suspension overhaul. Another 1-1.5k for diff conversions, depending on diff. Maybe the same for front brake upgrade. It's a big commitment after all it is a "fairlady" Z. Just want you to know what your getting into. It's not honky dory and happy tales until the project is complete and that's a long way a way.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Restore-Your-Datsun-Z-Car/dp/1931128022/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269910611&sr=8-2 You need to track down one of those books. It will give you an overview on how to do things however, you should also go through some of members project journals. As a lot of members have unique ways of performing repairs/restorations to key areas which will lead you to formulate an even better concept on how to repair/restore your future zed. Also if you need further explanation on some repairs done in project journals just shoot the member a private message. They will most likely reply with answers to your questions. You may also wish to visit HybridZ.org in the unlikely event that your questions aren't answered here at AusZcar. P.S. WELCOME! Fu.

Hi guys, I'm looking for a pair of 260z bonnet/hood vents. Let me know what you want for them. Fu.

How crap is 'a large company who sell zed modifications' (can't be named for forum policies)? Debateable! They've decided to release a rear-handbrake caliper. I wonder what sparked them to do that. This angers me because I asked them about a few years ago whether or not the stock handbrake would be useable. They replied back saying that no one would use it in such a high end braking system. Instead they'd use the proportion vale. I advised them that I'd like the simplicity of using the stock handbrake but they denied the availability or even future prospects of having such an option. Which is why I loved it when woza released his plates. Woza I'm afraid they are stealing your product now with their new release of their e-brake caliper set. They will also be redesigning their products, accross their strut kit line, for this feature. I'm sure many others will also be angered by this new 'large company that sells zed modifications' strategy. Woza has put countless hours and effort into creating this fantastic product. It is sad to see that a large company like 'large company that sells zed modifications', who had the power for many years to design a stock e-brake solution, to wait until someone else did it and then quite literally just copied it just when the market demand had increased. It angers me further that I'm sure 'large company that sells zed modifications' had a lot of requests like mine for stock ebrake feature, however that didn't sway them to push it. The demand had already existed is my point. It's a complex tale of David vs Goliath but evidently we all know in this case it will be Goliath that would win because of its prestige, name and influence in the field. For shame 'large company that sells zed modifications'.

www.importmonster.com.au They are a 3rd party Australian company that deals with yahoo auction japan. In the past, they have on my behalf contacted sellers to find out additional information. They have a team of staff who do the correspondence. Give it a shot and see how it goes.

+1 for me too.

I swung by Dimitri's place to help him out with the Zed yesterday. Task at hand was to attach the dash and to check if everything worked. All thumbs up so far with the wiring loom. I no longer have the "common fuse" popping issue. All fuses have power running through them. We decided to turn the old gal over since she hasn't been started in a while. Took a bit but she did come to life. However it has produced a new problem. Looks like the sump gasket is rooted on one side. This also has the sump leaking a bit. Produced a bit of a puddle. Will need to get this fixed after it's zed care(pun from the terminology "child care") centre at Dimitri's. "Ohhhh Lurch" XD On another note. We did end up weighing the rims. We had the same weight reading for both front and rear. About 8.2kg on Dimitri's scale. I will use my mechanical antique scale tonight to see what it produces. Big shout out to Dimitri. Very big thanks for doing this. Forever in your debt.

This will be a great addition to the renowned 86 series. BTW its a joint venture between subaru and toyota. When it comes to Australia, i believe its going to be under Subaru.

Cheers Gav, it's all worth it for the fairlady Z. Australian dollar to the US is slightly better then when I made the transaction payment. I processed it when the AUD dipped down to 0.88USD. It's now back up to 0.92USD. Another pointer to push you towards the purchase, you live once but the zed lives a shorter life then you. So do it.

beautiful zed. Seen this thing come to life from my many transactions with Ash. Yes shame on me for not having mine on the road. Ash always puts alot of effort into his projects and whoever becomes the new owner will surely appreciate it.

way too off-topic lock it. Thread owner needs to remake. People wishing to discuss whether a zed with a fully modded rb26dett is worth a trade to a stock as a rock pretty looking R32 GTR, really should start a new thread in general. We should be welcoming zed enthusiasts not blowing them out of the water. It is a touchy topic never the less. I'm not going to put input into this, its just as bad as a dirty prostitute with 100+ STDs. But I do have to say one thing. What you posess you always seem to put the highest price possible but what you want you always wish to be the lowest price possible a.k.a. a bargain. Need to change your mindset to a more reasonable figure on both fronts.

The initial quote pre-GFC, when the AUD was buying 115yen per dollar, was $1400. It then went up to $1700 when the GFC slightly started to hit. Unfortunately the company that promised me the watanabes failed to pull their end. Ultimately giving me a refund for $1700. Did i mention at the time it would have costed me about $2200 pre-GFC to purchase it from Eiji. Unfortunately, me being Asian (no offense to any other Asians out there), I couldn't help myself with a bargain. Ultimately costing me more. So yes the final price for 2 sets was $5487.98AUD for 2 sets landed at my door. Eiji has been giving me updates quite frequently. The day he ordered them it took Watanabe 4 days to make and it was then posted. It was posted on the 18th of February via Japan Post International Airmail. I received 1 set yesterday, 22nd February, but was caught up at the post office due to being unavailable at home for the delivery. 1 set is arriving tomorrow, 24th February. It's quite fast to order if you know the correct channels.