RichRPM

Feel free to pop in for a chat anytime, We always make time for a brew and some car chat. Iain's a very good customer of ours so we always try to look after him, Top bloke. He's meticulous with his 350z so were happy knowing that he trusts us with it, Beautiful car. Also andy is a good friend of ours, He's been a big help to us since we set up RPM Garage. I'll try and get to some meets once this build is finished, but I struggle to find time to complete it at the moment. Maybe next year

Yes, I've done around 1500 miles on the rts clutch. Initially I thought I'd made a major mistake as it was awful. My dashboard was vibrating, the clutch was juddering massively and was very noisy. After about a hundred miles of bedding it in it was fine though. Not too snappy or noisy, Although as always there is a bit of flywheel chatter.

I then replaced my diff bushes with a set of whiteline bushes which were kindly bought for me by a customer. Whilst the diff was off I gave it a lick of paint, aswell as the driveshafts and subframe. The scavenge pump for the oil return was also fitted at the same time I then heat wrapped as much of the exhaust pipework as I could bare to do and fitted a proper sized air filter. This will be boxed in eventually with a stainless shield. I also added some gold reflective heat tape for maximum scene points. Awful attempt at a bumper tuck, But it was a quick job to see how much I could expose the turbo kit for rear aesthetics....Turns out not much as it's tucked quite high up

I then fitted the fuel return system and aem fuel pump to help with fine tuning the fuelling when mapping time comes Gave the turbo compressor housing a polish up and a bit of paint Then got the intercooler bolted up in place, And made a right mess with the paint on the crash bar. I then started on the intercooler pipework routing which wasn't an easy task. I still haven't got photos of the full route but will soon as this may help others, But basically i ran it around the side of the front subframe. I welded the tips from the k2 exhaust onto the exhaust once everything was in position, And coated the exhaust in an ultra high temp hardened paint.

Shortly after that I started mocking up the rest of the pipework. The nearside tailpipe is now the screamer pipe from the external wastegate. Ignore the wonky pipes, This was all just the working out stage. Oh and the filter is way yoo small but was popped on purely for a photo to illustrate it's position.

First thing I did was to fit the rts clutch and flywheel kit. It's a nice kit, But rts as a company were a nightmare to deal with, I had to wait a month for delivery, Multiple excuses, lies and a bad attitude means that I'll never deal with them again regardless of the popularity of their products. Next up was the high capacity winged sump. Unfortunately someone had previously fitted a sump pan to the car before my ownership and used silicone adhesive on the pan, Rather than manufacturers spec sealant or even RTV. This lead to three of the sump pan bolts snapping on removal A bit of drilling, tapping and a few thread inserts later, and it was as good as new. New sump painted and fitted Next up I fabbed up a pipe to mount the turbo and got it bolted in position. I chose a rear mount purely based on the fact that it's a first for me, I've done plenty of conventional turbo conversions, But never rear mount so thought it would be an interesting project. This position puts the turbo slightly off centre towards the offside of the car, Which lines the outlet of the turbo up well for the intercooler pipework.

It's vile, I've never liked it since the day i fitted it. It will be changed before the car is back on the road

I was enjoying the 350z, But something was missing. As the show season started, My customers started booking in their skylines, 200sx's, soarers, Evos etc and I just couldn't help but get turbo envy. So, The only thing to do was order more parts and start planning my next move.

Then came the worst decision I could have made....The spoiler, Which I hate. The plan since fitting it has always been to find a blitz spoiler to replace it but no luck as of yet. I also had the windows lighty tinted somewhere amongst all of the other bad decisions I then fitted some grams styling side steps/diffusers....or whatever the cool kids call them.

Next mod was the number plate. RPM Garage is my business based in Birmingham so the number plate was bought as a Christmas present from my wife I also blacked the door handles, Which looked so much better than the big silver blocks in my opinion Now the headaches started. I wanted to black out my headlights for some unknown reason, So stripped them apart sprayed them up, refitted them and a week later they stopped working. They were full of water So I then spent a week cleaning all of the factory gunk off them and making sure they never leaked again. I also added red leds to them which I've never switched on as tbh they aren't my cup of tea. I've never been 100% sure that black headlights were a good idea to be honest. For me it ruined the clean look of the car, But it's done now, No going back unfortunately.

So almost a year after buying the 350z the mx5 went off to it's new home looking very bare...Not sad The 350z then had japspeed decats and k2 cat back fitted, Which sounded nice until the baffles started rattling....I suppose you get what you pay for. Managed to get a few pics showing the quality of the front end respray, Although there were a few flys stuck to the bumper Sorry for the crappy instagram quality photos btw To be honest, This was the car in it's best form for me. I wish it still looked like this, Simple, clean and subtle

Yes, Birmingham based

As soon as it was back from the bodyshop the springs were fitted along with some spacers to perfect the wheel offset I had also ordered an android head unit at the same time as the springs, So got that fitted aswell

First thing to do was to have the car detailed by shadow sport detailing to see what condition the paintwork was in. Most of the car came up very nicely, but the front end looked like it had been shot blasted, So would need a front end respray. The bodyshop had to wait a few weeks though as I'd just bought a set of ultralite r5's along with a set of khumo tyres I didn't waste any time in getting them fitted, But that ride height just wasn't cutting it, So ordered a set of -30mm apex lowering springs as I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of coilover maintenance after the mx5, I wanted something that I could fit and forget. Whilst waiting for the springs to arrive I decided to get it over with and just drop it to the bodyshop for a front end respray, Along with an ings style splitter for spraying and fitting.