Sirpent

Hi Gordon Welcome back, before I forget we are having a get together BBQ next Friday, would you like to drop by? Details we could never have imagined, I'm sure when I say this I speak for everyone when I say just love reading about your experiences and the technical aspects behind the history. Also, this was posted not long ago Could you enlighten us? Cheers John

Finally

and

Started looking around at what I could use and modify to produce the centre console fascia......... The wonderful thing is that so many items today are mode from plastic and if you look carefully enough you re bound to come across something that has the intricate well fitting forms you need, in my case I needed something to fabricate the fascia from and also something that would act as the bed in which it sits, low and behold, I came across an old Compaq PC case I was going to turf and the front fascia gave me some idea's, the following is what transpired. As soon as I get the gear shift bezel I will be able to lock up the front surface and fabricate a support panel to mold into the new fascia. Cheers John

Guys I'm going to be going with the Commodore set ups, and I promise that I will make up cut templates so if anyone else wants to attempt it they can just follow some simple templates. The problem with using the original Zed regulators is that the mechanics of the winder mechanisms are so old and in many cases worn that retro modifying them for motors or conversion kits is just fixing half the problem IMO. At least with the Commodore set up, they are cheap and plentiful, Ive found them for $69.00 new a piece and will probably buy a spare set for future spares. Once I finish the consoles, (Stay tuned I'm almost there and will post updates soon) then I will probably move onto these pretty quickly. Cheers John

Simon I'm not going EMO at you, I understood what you wrote and appreciate you want to make it a real event as do the rest of us who discussed this, what I'm EMO about is the $10,000 tag put on it without any justification, we want to build numbers and get a proper costing done based on those potential numbers not cut it down at the knees before it even has a chance to take sprout ! Typical tall poppy syndrome at its best. Great to hear, and would love some feedback from you on the roads and logistics Cheers John

OK, point taken, so lets do the fuel at $2.00 a Lt x 500 Lt's totals to $1000.00 Simon, I based it on 7 days, that was the original discussion, and these are only trip costs, what you spend prior to get the car ready that's each to his own, actually you and I will probably spend the better part of $20,000 each in the lead up as things are at the moment. What I'm getting at is I cant see another $6000.00 in this trip, and until I am shown otherwise by a display of costs that have eluded me, and if they do surface and are justified, I'm happy to eat humble pie, why the hell would you want to deter people by posting a figure of $10,000 ???????????? Best I just shut my F*CKING trap and leave this forum !

Mike lets get something clear here, First this isn't a rally, it a sealed road drive. Second, we ain't talking about a service vehicle per entry, if that was the case and your car is so far down the maintained standard then don't even consider this drive. Third if you head back to page 1 of this thread, you will see a prelim costing I did, yeah yeah I know it wont be 100% accurate, but it does detail a proposed rout ex Melbourne, better still here are the break downs. Fuel $750 Total run distance return = 4508 Km's, lets round that off to 4750 Km's for of the route travel also At 10 Km per litre that would be 475 litres, lets round that off at 500 Lt's At $1.50 P/Lt lets call that a fuel cost of $750.00 I wont even halve that per passanger. Accommodation $790.00 The PDF on page one details actual accommodation costs which I enquired about, please refer to that document. Incidentals and meals $2000.00 Per day over 7 days / nights I allowed for $800.00, that's light i admit, so lets increase that by 150% it for our more adventurous member conesours. So to recap Fuel $750.00 Accommodation $790.00 Incidentals $ 2000.00 Total $3540 OK, just in case, lets add another 10% onto that for what ever, lets call it a contingency $345.00 Total $3885.00 Now how do we make up the balance of $6115.00 ?

Can you quantify that figure ? I wouldn't be posting a flippant value unless you can back it up, sorry to be so blunt. Cheers John

That's why there is the Tassie run Niz, No I would say that in the next few days the numbers will grow, however may be an idea to get in contact with the satate moderators in WA NT and other Zed class forums to see if there is any interest. If you got to 40 initial confirmations, then we could go the next step and start looking at preliminary routes time schedules and accommodation etc, then I would say you would have another influx on interest. This is doable but its still very early days.

Geeeeeeeeeeez Looks like this died a quick death, what happened?

Numbers so far Victoria - 9 QLD - 3 SA - 2 ACT - 2 NSW - 1 Tas - 1 WA - 0 NT - 0 NZ - 0

Cheers Johnny, Love your work also Picked up some Lexus switches today out of a ES300 (I think) problem was both RH doors were gone so had to settle for the front and rear passanger door garnishes and switches. A bit of calculation as to positioning, some chopping and welding and now have a unified switch panel (needs a bit more surface prep but ran out of daylight) which will be welded into the final center console gear shift garnish. These incorporate LED's for night time location. Cheers John

I was speaking to Simon on the phone this evening and we both agreed that it would be great to see Zed's from all the generations lined up for a photo, so passing the word across to other forums would be a great initiative and yes we could lay down the logistics and they could jump on board. I also said to Simon that we need to contact Nissan Australia down the track and see if they want to be involved as far as maybe supplying us with a chase 4X4 for breakdowns, spares carrying and so on so that they can get some promotional milage out of this which I think wouldn't be a big ask and am pretty sure they would react positively to. Anyhow, I see the numbers are starting to crank up, but "HEY NSW WAKE UP !" Cheers John

Ahhhhhhhhhhh the madness continues. Had to give some thought as to how to mount the new fascia and also how the console fascia and shifter garnish would be treated as far as trimming, then came to the realisation that it wouldn't work as I had it, so got the cutting disc and chopped the previously mounted and welded lower 2DIN surround out and mounted and welded it to the fascia, this will now help with the mounting and mean that I will now have a 1 piece fascia which curves down into the console where it will meet the shifter garnish, the idea now is to have the console and dash dressed in stitched suede and the new combined fascia and shifter garnish finished in a low bake gloss black, I'm thinking Holdens Panther Mica black. Cheers John

Id say if it left Japan with a "Z" badge it's in LOL And if its a purist run as far as motors then Craig and I are out Would be nice to get all the generations in.

New state by state poll now listed at the start of this thread, please review.

Craig That was the whole idea of raising this and setting a date 2 years from now, so as members could get their heads around where they and their cars will be, and to initially get some feedback as to routes destinations territorial info etc. If on the 6th we can firm up some commitment from the members attending that this is a viable run then the next step would be to cement the run in as an event and start getting some commitment from all members in all states. I agree also that this would need to be at least a 6 car per departing location event, not to mention the cars joining in during the route like Linton for instance who has already put his hand up. So do we close the poll and change it to a State poll now to see how many participants we may have in the mix from different locations so as to gauge how viable this may be?

+1 here

I think that would be a great idea also, and this is something we have the opportunity to discuss at the next meeting, could we make it a bit more concrete as far as making it a topic of discussion during the night rather than just passing chat? No problems with that either and true, a rising sun in the background with the Zeds parked in front of the rock may make for a great postcard shot to send back to Nissan Japan. It may be an idea that we use our cars and some of the money raised to send back to the Japan devastation fund via Nissan?

Hi Gav Nice to hear from you, I have no quams sharing some of the reasons with you and the rest of the forum at all, and once again these are my personal feelings and not a mandate because I came up with the idea of this run, this forum decides how when and who participates should it go ahead not me. The reasons are many and varied, but in the main they can be broken down as follows. Marque: As Rev suggested, this could be a great vehicle to raise funds for a great cause as a result of a bunch of enthusiasts getting together, for that reason the spectacle of an all Z event would draw more attention than an open event, this may sound rather vain but from a marketing perspective it has merit, the other reason supporting this is that behind the scenes I have already started to gauge interest in if the media would be interested in doing a documentary of the event and route and mixing non Z vehicles would diminish the appeal. Logistics A number of forum members have indicated that support vehicles would be needed, the reason being that we would need to anticipate generic breakdown possibilities, I'm sure that each member could stock up on a number of emergency parts for their own vehicles, i.e. water pumps, brake hoses, etc however having a cross section of other vehicles and not knowing the preparedness by the drivers could put a strain on the events time schedule should multiple breakdowns arise. Uniqueness. This forum is unique as it caters for the Z community, if you wanted to open this up to all models the Nissan family then why not just make this a Datsun / Nissan forum? the idea of running this was to get the Z community together, if the S13-15 boys wanted to do this run would they invite us? This is an opportunity for Z enthusiasts across the nation to get to know one and other and their cars as opposed to just the nett, and I don't see why we would need other marques their as a distraction. I apologise if these views may seem narrow minded to you, and in the end if we are serious about moving ahead with this as opposed to just postulating on this forum then it can be put to a poll, either way I'm fine with the outcome and will still participate, its not my decision. I get the impression that perhaps you think that this is a pie in the sky thread, all I can say is that everything I decide on doing Gav I do, and this is no exception, maybe if it does go ahead we may get the time to spend some quality time together in real life as opposed to just traded posts via the forum and gain a deeper appreciation for one and other and our cars. Cheers John

Yes Fu, had a tap, still have the rad sitting in the shed

Was it what you posted last in my build thread?

"Please explain ?"

Welcome Myles........ VERY nice car ! Cheers John