Hodaka

Thanks! And one word... laziness!

Keeping with my colour scheme, the next thing I wanted to do was darken the wing mirrors. I tried wrapping the wing mirrors in gloss black 4 times, and failed every time due to inexperience, heat gun and a helping hand (it's really awkward to try and do by yourself!!). Mainly due to my ineptitude though... Here's what my last attempt looked like (I had given up by this point, hence the left over vinyl): I was really liking the look. I got a quote from my garage, but as their estimate was £250, I decided to go for Tarmac's CF mirror / B-pillar covers instead. And here it is fitted: Pretty happy with the results! Now I'm just waiting for the B-pillars to arrive. Notes to anyone doing this, from Tarmac: I washed the wing mirrors, wiped it with IPA and used silicon to stick it on.

Short one with a few bits & bobs. I managed to find some replacement amber LED strips for the footwell lights, so I put those in. Not sure about this either, but it'll do for now And found some rays on eBay for £150! Bargain!! A little kerbing & some bubbling, but I can't complain: As my exhaust tips and strut brace are blue, I decided that the colour scheme of the car would be gun metal / black / blue. So I requested Chris@Tarmac for his best blue nuts: I want to try refurbing the alloys myself (failing that I'll get a pro to do it) before putting them on the car, but here's a little test fit of the nuts in the alloys. Liking the look: Annnd got some free eyebrows from Zeezeebaba, who lives nearby. Although I haven't fitted these yet either due to an issue with the headlight position (it's leaving too little room for the brows to fit nicely), here's a test fit: Lots to look forward to!

Engine dressing is quite low on my list of things to do tbh due to financial restraints, but I when I saw Bullet selling some left over front strut braces from a group buy, I couldn't resist. Apparently his wife was fed up with them sitting around the house, so he was selling them for £67.99. It was delivered a short while later. Was very well packaged too This was something I was unsure about, so I got my friend to install it for me Before After

This one's a quick one (and actually happened before my footwell light installation), but my car didn't come with floor mats. Something little, but it really bothered me! Luckily, I noticed Ian was selling his old ones so I nabbed them! So glad I now have mats! Notes for anyone buying mats - I didn't know this for ages but there's a little plastic peg under the drivers side seat that you can attach your mat onto.

Thanks! Yeah, I'm new to modding but am loving it

I'd been aware for a while that my clutch was worn. The biting point was super high and this was confirmed by West Way Nissan (where I bought it from. I dislike them now, but that's another story) as well as the garage I now use (TGM Sport in Fleet). TGM said that it'll need replacing in the near future, but for now it should be ok. I decided I'd start looking for when I needed to replace the clutch. Again, the impulses kicked in and I decided to just go for it. A quick PM to Ewan@CMS and a few days later, the Xtreme Organic Clutch & SMF arrived: What can I say... I'm super weak to pretty things. Speaking of pretty, I always wanted an Invidia Gemini. So I dropped Adrian@Torqen a PM, and less than a week later that had arrived as well. I got it delivered straight to the garage so I don't have a pic, and I'm sure you're all aware of what it looks like, but here it is again: This was then all fitted: First time I've seen the underside of my car. As soon as I started the car... wow... such a difference in exhaust note. And the clutch... All I can say is that I was over the moon Although I took this recently (so it shows other stuff), this is what the exhaust looks like fitted: And of course, the obligatory video: Revs showing the SMF Sound of the exhaust (should have taken it in landscape...)

Thanks Zeus!

One day during my daily internet / forum crawl, I came across a thread where someone had installed some DIY footwell lights. It went on about pulling the dome light out, taking the cover off the A-pillar etc... These were all things I've never done before, but I was pretty intent on doing it so I carried on researching. I found a few articles I thought were useful so took note of those. These included: Info on the entire process A useful pic of how to solder the wires - I soldered it a bit differently, but this was what gave me the insight into how to do it Some useful Q&A BCM related info 1 BCM related info 2 First thing I did was to buy the LED light strips. As you have probably seen from my previous posts, I have the orange seats (I forget the name... wasn't it named after a breed of horse?). I therefore wanted to get some amber lights, but couldn't find any that were reasonably priced. I therefore settled for red as a starting point. I planned to set it up so that I can replace the strip easily if I liked them. FYI I bought it from a company called Lighting Ever. Good service and the product seemed to be of good quality. I did originally plan to use a relay as that seems to be the safer method, but decided against it in the end partly due to laziness and partly as I wasn't confident in wiring a relay in. It's worth noting that I have replaced all the interior lights with LEDs as well. First things first, I disconnected the battery (wound down the windows first) and took out the dome light housing: I then soldered 2 sets of wires to the housing. This is so that each footwell light can be operated independently from each other. As you can see, I did it to the connectors to the bulbs themselves, rather than where the guy in the 2nd thread (in the list above) did. It's exactly the same part of the circuit, just physically it's a different location. I liked the idea of soldering it onto here as there's convenient holes you can stick the wires through Each wire was several meters long as it had to go from the dome lights, across the head liner, down the A-pillar and into each footwell. I personally went down the driver's side, so the wires for the passenger side was a bit longer. I then taped it together using electrical tape every 10cm or so, just so it's tidy. Although I'm still bad at these things, I do like to try and keep things tidy to the best of my abilities. Feeding this wire through the head liner was an absolute PITA as I didn't have much in terms of tools as I was at the office. So what I ended up doing was feed some thicker wire (17A) with a loop at the end through the head liner. After a lot of struggling I managed to see the end of the wire near the top of the A-pillar. It was a bit too far for my fingers to reach, so I made this using a paper clip Carefully wiggling it around, I managed to hook it onto the 17A wire and pull it through: I then taped dome light wires to the 17A wire, and pulled it through from the dome light housing area to the A-pillar: I then ran it down the A-pillar and cable tied it to keep it tidy. I had no idea what the other wires were for (dome light power + side air bags?) so was very careful not to disturb anything. From the bottom of the A-pillar, I fed it straight down to the footwells. My plan for the night was to just sort out the driver's side, as feeding the wires through to the passenger side would require me to pull out the centre console. It was getting late and this definitely wasn't something I was up for, especially as the wife was getting a bit annoyed by this stage! I stripped the end of the driver's side wires and crimped some male bullet connectors. I then cut some of the LED strip, put on the connector thing (shown to the right of the LED strip above) and crimped the female connectors to that. After I connected it all up, the driver's side was lighting up as planned. Next I had to attach it somewhere to the top of the footwell. I peeled back the double-sided tape on the rear of the LED strip and tried to find a suitable place annnnnnd... somehow managed to short the circuit! Having read about blowing the BCM, this is where I sh*t myself. Luckily I replaced the fuse and all was well. Not wanting to do any further damage, I decided to call it a day. I taped up the remaining connectors to insulate them from one another, and stuck the LED strip to the side of the seat just to keep it out the way until I thought of a better solution. Mmmmm... try hard boy racer red. Anyhow the LED strip stayed there for quite a while. I felt a bit self-conscious each time I got out the car at night So it was time to research again! I found some housing specifically made for housing LED strips, but they seemed to be made of aluminium. Considering I wanted it purely for insulting the strip, it deemed it unsuitable. After a bit more brainstorming, I decided that I could try using some PVC (?) tubing they use to aerate aquariums. I checked the width of the LEDs (which turned out to be 8mm) and ordered some PVC tubing from eBay. I think I got the 8mm/10mm (inner/outer diameter). After the tubing arrived, I squashed them slightly to make them oval and inserted the LED strips. I then taped it up best I could to insulate any exposed parts: Pretty good solution for £3! Now that I could be confident it was properly insulated, I just cable tied them to what I could: I then fed the passenger side cable from the driver's side footwell, into the centre console and through to the passenger side. I then just repeated the rest of the process to finish it off: As I say, I wasn't a fan of red, but was super pleased with the results. Notes Female/male connectors - I'm sure this is something which is obvious to anyone who's done any DIY electronics, but after doing these projects I came to the conclusion that it's best to use the female connectors to the "live" side of the circuitry. This will help prevent unintentional shorts as the metal isn't sticking out. So in this project, stick the male connectors on the LED strips, and the female connectors to the wires from the dome light. BCM - Make sure you read the stuff about the BCM and understand the risks you take by doing this project.

Yeah definitely do enjoy the DIY process Yep, I'll upload those shortly. I plan to right a few more updates tonight!

No problem, happy to help! Just out of curiosity, which colour are you going for?

This close up enough for you? Ignore the bird poo that's etched into my bumper just below the number plate. Was the (lack of) work of the previous owner

Hey, So... other than the fact I used the fronts on the rears as well (made my life a bit easier), do these help visualise it? Let me know if you want the colours tweaked!

I'll see if I can get a close up once the weather clears up. Horrible weather down here right now! As for not wiring in the running/brake lights, it's actually easier if you don't want them as the rest of it (indicators & reverse light) is literally plug 'n play. Just disconnect your old lights, connect the new ones, and possibly tape up the running/brake light wires as you won't be splicing/soldering them Hopefully I explained that ok? *EDIT* Just found this - maybe it will help as you can see the wiring. Just use the connector, and ignore the green/blue wires as you won't need them if you don't want running/brake lights.

Oh you have 2 in stock? Are they already reserved for people or can I have one?

Gotcha! I still find this sort of request quite hard to do, but leave it with me and I'll see what I can do.

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to link!

Next up, footwell lights! Coming soon... I'm off to install my new DRL now

So one day while browsing around the forums, I noticed a post by AliveBoy in the swap shop sub forum. He had sold his car but still had a set of clear reflectors, which he was willing to swap for something "cool". As a bonus, he lived very close to me. I messaged him and met up with him shortly after. I gave him £10 for the reflectors (he didn't want it, but I thought it only fair) and some Japanese curry paste and the deal was done One reflector had a super minor issue, which was 2 cracks running along it. No biggie for my set up though as you'll see later. I'd seen a post by dErZ about DIY daylight running lights, so decided to give it a go. Before Drilled 5x 5mm holes Test fitting some LEDs And soldered some resistors to the LEDs Prepped some wires Soldered the components together and sealed with silicon Testing the circuit Got myself some Fly Eye Comparison to see if I actually like the look Which I did, so I wrapped both The adhesive wasn't great, so for the corners I just used some superglue to hold it down, as noone will see that bit anyway. Friend helping me out with installation as I'm inept Bumper removed, tapped into the sidelight and fed both DRLs off it After installation (DRL off) After installation (DRL on) At night (front) At night (side) My first bit of proper DIY. Was extremely happy with the results! Notes: The plastic used in the backing for the reflector was super soft, so careful when drilling if you do this These DRL actually failed after a couple of months - it's just a guess, but I'm assuming it's because of the fluctuations in voltage/current? I did use a different value for the resistors from the guide linked above so it could be down to that. I'm actually about to install version 2 today, so I'll post about that later. Be aware about the legality of it as I believe strictly speaking you can't have side facing lights.

It's been a while and I have a super bad memory, but of course! Let me know and I'll do my best to help.

Next up, emblems. My front/rear emblems were looking super worn, so I decided it was time to go ahead and replace them. I ordered myself some super black front/rear emblems as well as the 350z lettering, again, from Asad. I'd never done this before (in fact, I hadn't done anything to cars before my zed), so did some research. The tools people used seemed to vary. Some people used dental floss, others used fishing line and one even used a knife Obviously I passed on using a knife, but I found that dental floss is too weak to do the job and snapped. Luckily I had prepared some fishing line as well and succeeded using that. Using masking tape, mark up how the emblem currently sits Fully marked up rear Rear after replacement I was very glad to finally rid myself of the worn emblems Note to anyone doing this: If you have issues removing the emblems/lettering, some people seem to use a hairdryer / heat gun to gently heat up the adhesive first. I did have a little trouble, but just used a back and forth "sawing" section, which seemed to work. Once you take off the old emblems/lettering, you'll be left with residue from the adhesive. It goes without saying but do your best to clean it off, prior to sticking the new one on. I personally used some watered down IPA

Thanks! This is long overdue so got a bit of catching up to do in terms of updates!

I had now dabbled in wrapping, and had some vinyl left over. I'd seen some people paint/wrap the centre section of their front bumper, so I thought I'd give it a go. I repeated the same process again, i.e. IPA wipe down & 3M Primer 94 application prior to the wrap. This one took me 2-3 hours to do, as I'm a novice, but I was very pleased with the outcome. Always love a cheap mod Before After

Next up, the rear end of the car needed doing! I quite fancied myself a Strosek-Style Spoiler so I dropped Chris @ Tarmac Sportz a PM. A couple of days later ( thanks Chris for the super fast delivery as always ) my new spoiler had arrived: Nothing much to report here really - got it painted and fitted: Before After Love it

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I had bought aluminium vent trims from Asad. I finally got around to installing it! I first bent the aluminium into a slight curve to match the curvature of the plastic around the plastic. I then wiped the vent plastic with IPA to degrease it, then brushed on some 3M Primer 94 again to aid adhesion. The aluminium trim has some double-sided tape on the back, so I just peeled off the cover and stuck it on. Before After