mr2rivers Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Hi all, I am a newb and owned my Zed for only a little over a month. I was checking the underneath of the car the other day because I want to get a custom built exhaust on there at some point soon (probably when my bank balance recovers after my holiday in September) and I wanted to check to see if they would have any problems removing the old one. Well it turns out they will there is quite a lot of rust on the under side of the car. The exhaust bolts are pretty bad, but I am sure they will be able to deal with it. Most parts other than the exhaust were not too bad and I was able to clean some of it up and treat it properly before giving it a coat of Waxoyl. A coupe of the smaller bolts sheared on me (not good), luckily they were only holding on a could of plastic guards and I will sort that out soon. The one bit that stood out from the rest was the rear chassis tie bar (pictured below hopefully). This was heavily rusted, so I took it off the car to photograph it and attempt to clean it up and finally under seal it. While trying to clean it up I found that the poor design had meant it was able to store wet mud for years and it was virtually useless and peices of metal were just falling off in my hands. Has any one else had any experience with this and does anyone know where I can pick up an after market version or even just an OEM replacement? I have searched eBay but I don't really know what its called and I haven't been able to find anything. Thanks in advance for the help. I will set up a photo bucket account shortly and get some pics up of the Zed for all those interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr2rivers Posted August 13, 2015 Author Share Posted August 13, 2015 Here is a picture of my Zed. Sorry it was the day before 'wash day' haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMballistic Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Most commonly called the "W brace" and it's a fairly expensive piece to buy new especially from Nissan. You could maybe find a fair condition used one from zmanalex on here but the option I usually recommend to people is the Ultra Racing aftermarket version as it's a lot cheaper than an OEM W brace and also looks better. Link: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultra-Racing-Rear-Lower-Brace-Nissan-350Z-3-5-2003-RL4-1259-/271339756751?hash=item3f2d1c1ccf Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebedy Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Its a common thing to replace. What I did was to jack the car up as much as possible and put blocks underneath each corner then I wire brushed and hammerite painted every thing appart from obvious bushes, exhaust etc. Its worth doing for piece of mind for the sake of say two nights work. painted with hammarite painted with hammarite then sprayed mat black 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr2rivers Posted August 13, 2015 Author Share Posted August 13, 2015 Cheers GMballistic. That is the ticket, exactly what I was looking for. ZZZebady, I thought someone on here would have already done what I was trying to do. Good work. I have treated all the bad bits (i.e. wire brushing... Hammerite rust care... wire brushing... black Hammerite under seal - containing wax oil). I was just concerned with the 'W brace' as it basically fell to bits while I had it off the car trying to clean it up. Yours is in far better nick than mine - If you look at the picture I posted of the 'W brace' you will see I have next to none of the strengthening bits left on the arms (see where the circles are on yours). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMballistic Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Cheers GMballistic. That is the ticket, exactly what I was looking for. No probs and glad it helped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebedy Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 Ye your ringht. I would buy a new one as a when. Just leave it off for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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