| I have been meaning to make a post about all the work I've done to my Z's since the beginning of the year, but I knew it would be very long and I was just waaaaaaay too lazy... I pretty much brought two good Z's back from the brink of death, so I figure it's a good story to share with everyone. It started back in December when I decided to by a silver '91 TT with 92,000 miles from member JeffB. I hadn't seen Jeff in over 10 years and it was a bit weird to be buying a car that I was familiar with from back in the day. But in my excitement about being able to get the car, I bought it without thoroughly checking it over much at all... Here's the first day I brought it home. 
The original plan was to sell my gold '90 NA-->TT Z as-is after I swapped over a few things to the new silver Z. So I started by completely swapping the interiors... I had previously had the gold Z's interior redone with all new Katzkin leather (seats and all trim) back in 2005. Plus at that time I got brand new door panels with armrests and all new hatch trim pieces. After all that was done in 2005, I put maybe 1000 miles on the car and it sat for a while. Therefore I had basically a brand new interior that I was not willing to part with! Here's a couple of pics of the silver Z getting it's new interior. 
While taking out the silver Z's interior I discovered that there were many many wiring disasters that were super fun to discover... The audio wiring was absolutely horrendous and I had to redo all the wiring and connections. I replaced the amp that was under the passenger seat (which was too big and did not actually fit under the seat) with a much smaller and newer Alpine unit that actually fit. I also replaced the head unit with a 7 year old Alpine unit that I had been holding on to and still works great. I found that the wiring for the turbo timer and boost controller were a mess too and had to be completely redone. Everything actually worked (by some miracle) but a few of the wiring connections were just twisted together with a little bit of electrical tape wrapped around them. I was a bit shocked to say the least. So I spent a ton of time properly soldering and cleaning up a bunch of connections. Then I decided to swap the wheels between the two cars as well as the CZP big brake kit that was on the gold Z (had less than 1,000 miles on it too). Plus the tires on the gold Z were Goodyear Eagle F1's with less than 500 miles and I wasn't going to give those up either. I also swapped over some of the pretty blue bits and pieces from the gold Z's engine bay. 
It was somewhere around this time that my parents started begging me not to sell the gold Z... They've loved that car ever since I got it in 1998 and really did not want to let it leave the family. So they offered to buy it and then take to some shop to get all the problems fixed. The car had never ran perfect even since I did the TT swap in 2003 plus it had a ton of minor issues that I had never had the time or money to address over the years. So I made them a deal. If they would buy all the parts it needed, I would do all of the labor and give them the car. After a little over $3k in parts and 2.5 months of me spending every spare minute of my time working on the car, it had all new: ES differential carrier bushings (wouldn't wish this job on my worst enemy)
Redline differential fluid
Power steering pump and new HP hose
POP charger filter element
Mishimoto radiator and silicone hoses
Zspeed under engine shield
TT fuel pump controller and repaired wiring
TT fuel pump
Used stock recirc valves
O2 sensors
New lug nut studs all around
Both PCVs
All kinds of various and asundry hoses and gaskets
Fresh brake fluid
All kinds of random tweaking/tuning
A number of things I'm probably forgetting by now
And new Sumitomo tires When I was done, the car ran 10 times better than it ever had in the nearly 15 years that I've owned it! It was a great transformation and I was super happy with the car. The motor, by the way, is out of a '95TT and only has about 27k miles on it. It got it's first wash and was in like 5 years... LOL 
(my wife's Juke and my Mazdaspeed6 that I recently sold are in the background)
And here is the last pic I got of the two cars together... 
So my parents soon took it home and are having a blast with it out in west Texas... My mom has already killed a new Camero with it while on some state highway in the middle of nowhere, and was so excited to call and tell me about it. I was thinking, "Oh my god, my mom is going to kill herself and it's going to be all my fault..." LOL I then got back to getting the silver Z back in shape. I found that the motor was no bueno... There were so many boost leaks in that thing that it sounded like a den of hissing snakes were living in there while doing a leak test. I was not a very happy camper. I spent ANOTHER two months of every spare minute of my time doing the following to the silver Z: Plunum pull --> water pipe delete/bypass
New gaskets on all the valve covers
BDE half moon plugs
Painted the valve covers
PCV re-reroute mod with new PCV's
All new silicone hoses for PCV's, IAA, etc...
Painted the plenum and throttle bodies
Painted some various brackets
Painted the timing belt covers
Replaced 5 bad Nismo 555cc injectors with 5 slightly used ones that all checked out
All new fuel line everywhere in the engine bay
Tons of new hose clamps, fuel hose clamps, spring clamps, etc
Cleaned... A LOT
New Koyo radiator
New silicone radiator hoses including bypass connectors
New water inlet/outlet pipes and painted them
New stock thermostat
New IAA gasket and throttle body gaskets
Switched injector power mod
Re-routed the PTU
MegaZ Wingz radiator shroud in bare aluminum
Zspeed under engine shield
New spark plugs
New Optima Redtop battery
DIY grounding kit using 4 gauge wiring which added six new grounding points
Repaired both positive and negative cabling going to battery using 0 gauge wire
Removed all the solenoids and vacuum hoses that should have been removed years ago (AIV's, carbon canister, PRVR)
Sprayed the grey strip between the headlights with black Plastidip
New fuel filter
New wiper arms/blades
CZP rear wiper delete (sprayed with black Plastidip)
Jspec taillights (all three)
New vinyl stripe under the spoiler and new Twin Turbo sticker
Completely buffed/polished/waxed the paint with my Griot's Garage random orbital buffer and brought the paint back to look like nearly brand new. There is still some fading on the hatch area and the T-tops that thankfully isn't noticeable unless you are up close.
New shift knob, shift boot, and e-brake boot in black leather w/ blue stitching from Interior Innovations
Added sound deadening material (B-Quiet brand from Canada) under the carpet and inside all interior panels
And replaced the ugly '91 nose panel with a freshly painted, badge-less, '90 nose panel Here's a few of the finished work: 
So after all that, and a ridiculous amount of time figuring out how to work/tune a Greddy Profec B Spec II boost controller, the car runs freaking awesome. And it looks awesome too if I may say so myself... Recently though, the story has taken a bit of a sad turn for the Z... I sold my Mazdaspeed6 and managed to get a crazy deal on a new 2013 Subaru WRX STI wagon about a month ago. That car is the most fun car I have even owned or driven, which means the Z has taken a serious backseat. My wife, believe it or not, has actually talked me into selling the Z and buying another Triumph motorcycle (sold my last one 3 years ago). So... I'll probably have an add in the classifieds sometime very soon. I hate to see it go after all the work and attention to detail I just put into it, but I'm in no hurry and will patiently wait to find it a really good home. But that's it! Thanks for reading this insanely long ass post!!! (longest one I've written in nearly 15 years on the forum... LOL) 
Later, B.U.C.K.Y.: Biomechanical Unit Calibrated for Killing and
Yardwork
1990 Pearl Gold NA->TT conversion ('95 TT motor)
1991 Platinum Silver TT
2013 Subaru WRX STI wagon (DD) |
Insanely way overdue update on my two Z's... (Long!!!) - 
