afreemason

For those of you offering free or cheap replacements ..... you're generosity and warm feels are very much appreciated BUT as we're going through someone elses insurance I'm sure you'll understand our wish to have ..... well..... new !!!!!!! ha ha ha ha I'd like to think the insurance company will fund a Trial rear bumper but the impression I'm getting is that a brand spanking new UK rear bumper will do the job so my hopes of an different yet financially more acceptable alternative for the insurance company is getting more unlikely !!!!!!! So ..... just to confirm ..... other than the different number plate space (which is a good thing) there is no reason why a UK spec bumper won't just bolt straight on to a Jap spec NA ???????

CHeers Michael ..... is the photo a standard UK then ..... sorry for being dense !!!!

Cheers chap ...... because I'm a lazy c0ck ..... anyone got a picture of said Trial bumper handy ?????? Well ...... that's impressive ...... it just popped up !!!!!!!! CHEERS !!!!!!!

Hiya Guys, A bit of advice from the more techie inclined please: Madam had a twat in a lorry nudge the back of her Jap Spec NA. Obviously we're claiming off their insurance but we've been asked by the insurance assessor if there is any difference between a Jap Spec bumber (costing several hundred pounds) and a UK rear bumper costing only a few hundred. Anybody know the answer????? Also ...... are there any nice aftermarket bumpers that might be a "better" option than one of those nasty expensive Jap spec ones :eyebrows: :eyebrows:

Thanks for all the kind words guys ..... it will be difficult to see my baby go but needs must it's been a lot of fun and I thoroughly recommend it. Hogmaw ...... simple answer is .... no ..... there's isn't as much potential. From what I understand the Supra engine was engineered to be the best that it could be ..... the zed engine has been engineered to leave space in the market for the skyline !!! Similarly don't forget that in it's day the Supra was a £40k car ..... the zed really is a £26k car new !!!!! Ultimately what people tend to forget is that the zed isn't the halo car for Nissan, it's more at the celeca or mr2 level to be honest where frankly it excels and blasts away all comers. It was engineered to be a good match for the porker boxster s at a fraction of the price. Which it does from a performance point of view but obviously not from a build quality point of view ..... understandably. I'd say for the money ...... it's a very good buy but there are better cars out there but lets face it you pay more for them.

Cheers guys ...... I really don't want to let my baby go, but needs must. I've thought about a tt for a while but I think we'll stay with madam's NA for a while ...... we need to cut monthly costs and also could do with the ability to carry bails of hay and saw dust etc. :( :(

I'm affraid the time has come when I'm going to have to get something much more sensible and as selling the Supra isn't really an option, I'm sorry to say the zed is going to have to go. I think the big bad world of twin cab pick ups is calling me and I've resisted far too long. So ..... if anyone is interested in coming and having a look, I'm based the Midlands (Worcester area). Registered in July 05 27,500 miles (just had it's third service) Veilside V1 wing Nismo side skirts Volks sf winning 19" wheels (10.5 & 9.5J) Plus original 18" wheels Invidia N1 exhaust (not fitted) Carbon fibre lip cover Carbon fibre rad panel Spills grounding kit StuartB tonnau cover Zed badges Clear white fog light Nokia phone kit Foot well & boot mats Cargo net £ : POA. If you're interested, drop me a "pm"or give me a buzz on 07966 428 067. Here are some old pickies, I'll get some current ones up shortly:

Thanks guys, I sense a busy few days worth of hunting on the titty net ....... note to self ...... you'll not buy tyres looking at porn all day :eyebrows:

Cheers guys, all comments much appreciated !!!!!

Nice one guys, thanks for the comments ...... Lockys96 have just been out in my boxers to check the tyres sizes : 235 / 35Z R19 (fronts) 265 / 30Z R19 (rears) We have hankooks on at the moment so shouldn't be hard to improve on those from a road noise point of view ...... and I have toyos on the zed ..... they'll be the next to be changed Costly business these cars

Come on guys ........ bit of advice for a poor muppet ....... Madam needs new tyres very soon on the NA Supra ....... what's the current fashion then ? What should I be costing up for her ?

I could do with a bit of help with a learning curve on this one please guys and girls ....... :blink: Madam has been having a few issues with her alarm lately and is looking at getting it replaced for one reason or another ...... she has decided that she is interested in Proximity Sensors & Remote Engine Start but has been given some bad feedback: Proximity Sensors ..... keeps getting activated and set off by cats ...... we've six of the four legged variety Remote Engine Start ...... simply more trouble than it's worth We could do with a little bit of feed back please, positive & negative from those who have experience :search: She has been told that the TOAD AI606 might be the one for her ...... any views please????

HI guys, one of our Scottish 350z members is looking to sell his car and has asked me if I could get him a little extra coverage by posting it on here. If you're interested in a zed, please have a look at this one as advertised on Pistonheads. http://pistonheads.com/sales/103595.htm

Hi Rosie ..... I've sent you a pm ..... I think Nikki has some news for you !!!!!

A motorbike ......... the perfect family car ....... somehow when I'm on my bike with that helmet on, all the nagging goes away You can get a lot of bike for £5k

Total respray usually equals a higher insurance premium which equals less sellable. What you've got to remember is a modded car only really has a value for an enthusiast, ideally one who doesn't want to mod a car from scratch. The general public won't pay over the odds for a modded car. Now lets be honest, a trick paint job isn't a significant mod around her ...... doubling the bhp is getting there, but not just changing the colour. I'd be gob smacked if anyone claimed a colour change even broke even when it came to selling a car.

You'll be looking at circa £2000 for a full supra respray in the same colour. To change colour isn't a straightforward job and requires a lot more work and time clogging up the paintshop, hence the cost goes up. If you don't want fugly tide marks you will need to take out the rear quarter lights but the seals round the windscreen and rear windscreen are flexible enough to be taped back and give a good finish. Here's the problem though, the quarterlights are bonded units and can crack when you try to take them out. A decent paintshop will decline to do the job unless you waive their liability to replace any damaged glass. This sounds harsh but is because a typical body shop has a huge insurance excess ....... lets face it, if they dink you're car they'll just put it right and you'll never know! Anyway, huge excess ..... if they crack one of your quarter lights the replacement cost, which I seem to remember is something like £700 as it's a special part from Japan or something stupid, will more than wipe out their margin on the job ...... would you take on a job that had a realsitic possibility of costing you money ..... no, neither would I. Right ...... here's the way to get around it ..... we looked at the insurance policy for the supe which stated that we had cover for ANY acidentally broken glass, not just wind screens. So I phoned the insurance company and told them we were getting some rust treated in the area of the quarter lights and would the accidental damage clause cover the paint tech dropping them in the work shop by accident. The short answer is yes however it did take a little pushing to get there as the insurance company said well could you not claim off the garage, to which I insisted no, and anyway, I want to claim off you !!!!! Finally I made sure that the call had been logged on the contact computer and got the work done. It was a great job by he way and not broken glass but it's worth half an hour on the phone to give you peace of mind. Hope this helps, you're welcome to pm me for my mobile number if you want to talk it through.

Great photo's guys ....... keeping me smiling on a dull tuesday morning :) :) Yep ..... I have said golf item safe and sound bignum, we'll get it to you somehow mate.

Voo51, was it you that ended up looking at the mkiii spinning on the island ?????

A few more photies, cus I want to:

Well, everything started to get a little hazy from then on to be honest ........ Mike was helping judge the competitions so I really don't know how another sunset managed to win the zed class ....... well I do ..... he didn't recognise Vals car which incidentally is looking and sounding very very tasty these days ..... a credit to you mate! I'm a little worried that the mkiii with the gimp mask caught his attention in that class And surprise surprise and NA won the mkiv class The bbq was actually a great success despite the weather which actually cleared up about 7pm and gave us a very mild night which we enjoyed until about 1.30 am. Try as we might we couldn't convince Burna (mkiv) that horses didn't have claws that then got cut down into hooves ...... in fairness the more pi55ed he got, the closer he got to the horse until he stroked it then fell over ...... Dougal the horse was obviously very disappointed at this !!!!!! As the night progressed lots of people decided that it would be a good idea to go on a pussy hunt ...... and when they found one they were agast at how it looked ........ to much time spent pawing over cars rather than pussies ...... those cute little flat faces !!!!!! the cats have never had so much fuss !!!!! ...... well what were you guys thinking !!!!????? God only knows what would have happened if the chickens had got out ..... I think Deano would have needed restraining !!!!! At this stage I should also thank S7eve for providing the sound system for the night ........ although it did need jump starting the next morning !!!!!!! The surprise arrival of the night was Lovat on his new R6 ....... complete with full one piece leathers ....... it was really nice to see him without asking him to sort out a car problem ...... although he never did sort out that .......... Nikki and I we're thrilled to have all of you guys over, it really was no trouble at all, we couldn't have hosted a better bunch of petrol heads to be honest ...... oh and Burna !!!!!! It was fantastic to see so many cars in the bottom paddock but there was PLENTY of room for more ...... so look out for MIDLANDS GUMBALL 2007

I tell you what, it's bloody hard work making just five zeds look like a decent convoy but I think we filled the road nicely ......... and I think the ultra yellow is even more visible in the merk than the sunset !!!!!! We've learnt some very positive lessons for next year ....... the first is to actually tell Valerio in his zed that he doesn't need to go straight to lunch ........... if it hadn't be lashing it down I'd have been a little cheesed off to be trundling up the M54, but given the conditions, I was happy to be in one piece. With Stafford simply a name on a map and our hopes of actually being able to answer more than half of the questions on the Gumball Quiz fast disappearing we arrived in near perfect formation at the pub car park for lunch ........ I say near perfect as our bananna coloured point man just carried straight on past ...... obviously to recon the road for the afternoon session !!!! Lads, I've go to say though, that the display we gave of synchronised parking was absolutely pathetic, although the photo's gloss over the rather large gaps ....... lets just say that the Supra lads still don't see a need for parking sensors after what we managed Unfortunately there were more reports of casualties, a mkiv had a close encounter with a grass verge on the wrong side of a wet bend and a mkiii managed to hit a low flying bird (I assume it was low flying) and buggered up his oil cooler. There was also a story about big Deano from the mkiii club spinning ut we're still not convinced that it was accidental !!!!!! Well I for one thought the food at lunch was stunning but lets face it you don't get to be a fat bloke by being a fussy eater. Unfortunately, that was where I had to leave you all for a while as I had decided that it was only fair that I get my butty back to help Nikki get sorted for the afternoon session ....... although I did find this sight to great me in the car park ....... a friendly AA man ........ all I'm going to say is that he spent a lot longer looking at the Supras than the zeds ......... I think this touting for business bit is getting out of hand. I did say hi and was told that if he hadn't been working he'd have been driving his mkiv round with us !!!!!

uuuurrrrrggggghhhhhhh :surrender: Morning guys ....... the lack of broad band at home and a strange illness that seems to have come over me since very early on Sunday moring have resulted in me only just getting round to posting up on this one ...... Sorry Well guys, despite the weather ...... what a chuffing brilliant day ...... I hope those attending feel likewise and those that didn't get the urge to join us for MIDLANDS GUMBALL 2007 ...... which I have a vague recollection is now officially in the planning stages !!!!!!! All in all five clubs were represented to varying degrees, the 350z OC, the 350z dark side mkiv supra.net the mkiii supra club and the worcester Jap club. Guys, it was great to see you and without you all of the hard work and organisation on events like these really does amount to nothing. It’s an old Masonic saying but “Things like this don’t just happen” so …… special thanks to S7eve from the mkiv club for organising the route and planning this years event and Deano & Sean from the mkiii site who made sure we had their fantastic bbq to cook on ....... if anyone remembers the converted half a mkiii supe from JAE you'll know what I'm talking about. Well, it was an early start and although the weather was good to start with, the omens weren't great ....... what do they say about red sky in the morning ?????? Once at Quorn station, it wasn't long before the Z club’s Midlands hard core arrived but who let a ford in ....... where's Kev when you want him. I tell you what though ...... these mkiii Supra boys were on the ball, 9am prompt and the buggers were off .... I think we told them that the first cars to finish got an extra beer On leaving the station, I managed to get lost with a bloody sat nav ....... again …… I blame the cloud, I blame the cubby hole, I even phoned Nikki up and blamed her (well lets face it the other half's always to blame ! ). By this stage it had started to rain and by the time we got to the first "check point" the mood was just a touch subdued, a mkiii had done a spin coming round an island and narrowly missed a mkiv following it but other than severely soiled underpants nothing was damaged. We were joined by the last of the mkiv’s at the moring check point ………….. ....... apparently this has an extra AAA battery for extra boost !!!!!

For the sat nav boys, apparently there is a hotel opposite the station called the Manor House hotel at Quorn ..... it's post code is LE12 8AL !!!!

Hi Sheefa, You life saver mate ..... gazeebo and steroe will be more than welcome, power won't be an issue either. ...... and any booze you care to bring along will just add to the communal warmth !!!!!! Food I think we're sorted for, I've just got to pop out and get some bread rolls.