andy james

Happy Birthday Steve! Enjoy your weekend mate.

Thanks Ian. Chris mentioned today that you had a rear quarter done after your hit and run which was repaired well.

As some of you already know I had a rather big crash at Gurston Down three weeks ago which I was rather lucky to walk away from considering we barrel rolled into the trees! Yesterday I went to Salisbury to drag the car back on a trailer,put her in my garage to access the damage so I could decide to either break,re build or buy something else. As the camber arm was broken it was real pig just to move! Once in my garage the first thing was to jack up and take the wheels off so I could have I good look around the car. Katrina who has never cleaned a car in her life decided that she looked really neglected and took it on herself to grab Henry the Hoover and the detail spray and started Valeting the injured car which was full of glass,grass and dirt! Think at this point she thought we could win the show and shine right off award! Joking apart I felt pretty crap last night as I've had this car from new and a serious amount of time and money has been spent on developing her over the last 3 years. Chris and Bob said they would pop over late morning today to give me some advice on how to strip the cars bent bits off in my own time over the few weeks to allow my body shop guru to to come and see if the car can be repaired and then I would take them out for a Carvery. Well in true Zed shed fashion that didn't happen! 3 hours later and copious Dougnuts,Coke,Burger King quadruple cheese turbo burgers later this is what the old girl looks like now! As you can see it's quite remarkable how well the chassis rails and the A and B pillars have come out unscathed! After pulling the broken rad and fan housing out of the way of the Suprercharger and ancillary pulleys we tried to start the motor which fired up and sounded as sweet as ever! The speed these guys work is bloody amazing as I would have taken me several evenings and weekends to get where I am today. Subject to my body shop expert confirming that the rear quarter can be sorted them we have a Steve Austin scenario. "We can rebuild the first £6 zed!!!! Thank you to my very good friends. watch this space and I could be looking for a few nice second hand,silver parts in the next few weeks!

See you in the morning boss!!!

Great progress today mate,god my backs killing me! Just booked a couple of once in a lifetime cheap Ryair flights 3am departure....Sorry

You ......er I spoke to you this afternoon and no mention! You are such a mate to flog your baby to fast track my rebuild! Xxx

Glad you had a great time mate,been following on Facebook. Will speak soon as I may need to re order one or two cosmetic parts!

Got back from holiday today and took a run out to take a more subjective and less emotional view of the car in its current state in a Barn! 1.Engine and all ancillaries seem intact along with all fluids. 2.drivers door,boot and bonnet open and close as they should. 3.passenger door seems to have taken the brunt of the impact along with the rear quarter,but they seem to have protected the chassis as both A and B pillars look ok. 4. Took the boot floor out and all looks good inside. 5.interior is full of glass/grass and dust but a new passenger seat,steering wheel,drivers side dash and the obvious passenger door she ain't too bad. 6.windscreen knackered. 7.suspension unknown but recon on new shocks/roll bars/arms etc. So basically I have three options as I can see. 1. Hope the chassis isn't twisted and buy the interior parts,2 wings,1 door,repair the rear quarter,new front bumper,repair chargespeed rear and one side,refurb the wheels,sort suspension and re spray the whole car. Cost? 2. Buy another mint silver Hr and use as a organ donor to transplant all my goodies onto it and then sell off all the unwanted but lucrative parts such as engine,box,brakes,ancillaries etc which would avoid the expense of the body and paint shop.Cost depends on how much the donor car is? 3.harvest all the best bits of my car which by pure luck have come out of this unscathed. gtm supercharger kit,Forged engine,art brakes,miltek exhaust,Racelogic traction control unit and many other parts including all the lights and put this money towards another car. What would you do?....

Sorry Matt been away so a belated Happy Birthday! Catch up soon bud.

Cracking progress from the night shift once again!!

The last time something that impressive was hidden under concrete the Kray brothers were behind it! We all did good today. Concrete mixer and pump on site in the morning.

I have to say I'm overwhelmed buy the kind words of you zedders. The situation is this. My stiff neck and back pain looks like its a temporary thing. The car is in a barn under a tarpaulin for a while until I can collect her and remove all the crinkly panels to see what internal damage has been done. As the roof didn't hit the ground and if the rear quarter damage hasn't twisted the chassis to much then there is a chance she can be saved. Once again thank you all for your support

Thanks everyone

Conditions were damp today at Gurston. Good launch and fine into hollow bend lifted off before carousel and she snapped left. Couldn't hold the slide and hit the tyre wall/ bales sideways which pitched me into a complete barrel roll and landed back on the wheels sliding backwards into the trees. Spent half an hour in the ambulance but only have a sore head and neck but as you can see from the photos my heart is pretty well broken..... This is the risk you take when racing.

Andy is there much difference in performance between the 18 and 19" wheels ? Do you notice the extra weight on the 19" also do to know what the weight difference is between the 2 ? Car looks spot on and gleaming by the way I'm afraid so. The bigger wheels look so much better but the lighter un sprung mass of the Rays does make the car feel more nimble. I recon they weigh around 10 kg each lighter than the 19s.

Got the rays on as racing at Gurston tomoz so looking forward to seeing the complete look with the bigger 5zigen wheels on.

Had this a while but not fitted due to work and race commitments. Thanks once to Chris for a top draw service as ever. Spoke to Buster re colour and decided to go for flood black rather than body colour.

Fair play to you Bob,you guys do the research and time after time you and Chris come up with new ideas! Looking good mate!

Sorry Graham I've only just seen this! Thanks for taking the video! I'm at Gurston Down tomorrow.

Some amazing photos and you guys have been so lucky with the weather! Enjoy the rest of the trip.

Welcome along to the forum!

I would consider selling my remaining two which I think are a bit worn but complete, however I think they might be slightly different to yours, mine look like this: They look the same as mine other than the logo in the center which is no bother to me as the outer alloy ring is all I need.

And there was silly me wondering why you and I have back ache!........... Lol

I like your thinking! Unfortunately my caps aren't really usable as two were melted by the previous owner. I did enquire last year about getting some new replacements from the manufacturer and the answer was $108 including shipping for a set of four which didn't sound too bad compared to those second hand prices! I can't help wondering though how long they would last as the quality of mine didn't look great and brake dust, wheel cleaning chemicals (yes I sometimes get someone else to wash my car ) and possibly heat build-up probably aren't going to be kind to new ones either. I did buy a set of used hexagonal ProRacer FN01R-C caps from eBay US which fit pretty well, I just couldn't decide if I liked the look of them or not. I've lost two of the alloy outer cups from mine so still happy to pay for the two you have left.

Will help handsomely towards your new caps if you sell me the original ones!