It's a great adventure and you'll end up with basically the same car but with a bigger motor. Good for you. Enjoying the updates. If you can get it ready for weekend I'd be happy to come have a look.
Tony.
Tony.
g8jka - 2.8 Roadster Progress Journal
- Thread starter g8jka
- Start date
That's an impressive few days work
Davyhoogy
Zorg Guru (III)
Wow that's alot of work in a week. It took me 2 weeks to do all the oils haha but I'm Limited for spare time!
Are the front bumpers the same from the widebody and a standard?
Are the front bumpers the same from the widebody and a standard?
It's probably took me 2 weeks to do that lot and that's doing a few hours a day, but I reckon the panels could be done in 2 days. Both cars are facelift so the bumpers are the same. If I'm correct all front bumpers are the same apart from the deeper mouth between 4 and 6 cylinder cars.
All the bumpers can be swapped
Managed to get all the panels back on and ready for zedfest, there's a couple of panels that need a little adjusting as I'm not happy with the shut lines but they can wait for now. As usual, the front of the side skirts suffered the usual corrosion at the fronts as did the bottom of both front wings. They all weren't to bad and would be covered up with the mudflaps anyway so it was out with the drill and wire brush to get rid of the corrosion, treat and then repaint. Colour match was never going to be spot on and it wouldn't need blending in as its covered up so this will be good enough for now until I can do a proper job.
Didn't take too many photos as it was a bit of a rush but do have a few of when they were all back on. Clear rear lights were swapped over as were the fronts with the angel eyes fitted (not in these pics).
Mudflaps were cleaned up and had a light mist of satin black paint, then refitted.
Front number plate holder and sports mesh grill both had a coat of satin black paint, still need to do the fog light blanks.
You can see in the pictures above that the standard exhaust looks lost in the cut out of the aero bumper and as I had just had a new stainless backbox fitted to the 2.0 I looked on realoem to find the part numbers for the whole system were the same. This allowed for the whole section to be swapped over to save cutting and welding it onto the 2.8 and doing the same on the 2.0. Getting the one off the 2.0 was pretty straight forward, unlike the 2.8 where the bolts had rusted and corroded to all different sizes. They needed different sized sockets to be hammered onto them and a lot of force to get them off but we got there in the end. Side by side to show a comparison, the tips on the new one are larger and sit further out so they are flush with the aero bumper.
BBS LM 18" reps back on, look at that arch gap
The coilovers were swapped over from the 2.0 to get it sitting better, these came off fairly well we just needed a bit of heat on the bolts to get them loose on the 2.8.
Got my number plate transferred over and this allowed me to fit the US spec rear plate holder. As it sat all nice and shiny at Zedfest, first time I'd gave it a good drive and I'm very happy with how it drove and the performance over the 2.0 is a massive difference.
Brakes and interior update to follow.
Didn't take too many photos as it was a bit of a rush but do have a few of when they were all back on. Clear rear lights were swapped over as were the fronts with the angel eyes fitted (not in these pics).
Mudflaps were cleaned up and had a light mist of satin black paint, then refitted.
Front number plate holder and sports mesh grill both had a coat of satin black paint, still need to do the fog light blanks.
You can see in the pictures above that the standard exhaust looks lost in the cut out of the aero bumper and as I had just had a new stainless backbox fitted to the 2.0 I looked on realoem to find the part numbers for the whole system were the same. This allowed for the whole section to be swapped over to save cutting and welding it onto the 2.8 and doing the same on the 2.0. Getting the one off the 2.0 was pretty straight forward, unlike the 2.8 where the bolts had rusted and corroded to all different sizes. They needed different sized sockets to be hammered onto them and a lot of force to get them off but we got there in the end. Side by side to show a comparison, the tips on the new one are larger and sit further out so they are flush with the aero bumper.
BBS LM 18" reps back on, look at that arch gap
The coilovers were swapped over from the 2.0 to get it sitting better, these came off fairly well we just needed a bit of heat on the bolts to get them loose on the 2.8.
Got my number plate transferred over and this allowed me to fit the US spec rear plate holder. As it sat all nice and shiny at Zedfest, first time I'd gave it a good drive and I'm very happy with how it drove and the performance over the 2.0 is a massive difference.
Brakes and interior update to follow.
Last edited:
Top job, looks superb.
Tony.
Tony.
Both locks from the boot and drivers door have been swapped over between cars now and the keys for each car all operate the correct locks. The boot was pretty simple, take out the bolts holding it in and the two rods then rotate it 180 degrees and remove. I was dreading the door lock as I thought it was going to be a nightmare and the plan was to just swap the handles over to save messing about getting the locks out of the handle. It actually went pretty well and the only fiddly part was getting the rod on and off the handle from the actuator, which I left to my dad. This did get him away from destroying a door from an E36 with the angle grinder trying to work out how to get the handle off that as he thought it would be the same as the zed, even though I said they were different 
Well I suppose it kept him entertained.
Handle off
Both handles, chrome cover has been taken off and I have a new one to put back on the handle for the 2.8 so they all match.
Peekaboo
I'll be changing the seals behind the handles at some point but in no rush as I know how easy they are to change now.
Well I suppose it kept him entertained.Handle off
Both handles, chrome cover has been taken off and I have a new one to put back on the handle for the 2.8 so they all match.
Peekaboo
I'll be changing the seals behind the handles at some point but in no rush as I know how easy they are to change now.
Last edited:
Just to keep this upto date, everything from the 2.0 has now been swapped over and the 2.0 been put back to standard and up for sale.
I had upgraded the brakes from the 3.0 (300mm discs) on the 2.0 which were a massive improvement on the originals. These were changed over along with carriers to allow for the bigger discs but were a bit of a nightmare as the carriers bolts on the 2.8 were seized solid. I managed to round a couple of them off, but eventually got them all out after a lot of heat, banging and swearing. The calipers still need to be cleaned up and painted so they match the blue carriers that have been swapped over, but the car now brakes a million times better.
Next up was the interior. The chrome hoops and wind deflector were swapped between the two as well as my ///M centre console, ///M seats, seat lift kit and the matching door cards. These door cards have extended leather across the top so to get it all to match I decided to swap over the dash as well, this also allowed my TFT monitor to be swapped without leaving a hole in the other dash where the wires pass through. I had read about the VIN number needing to be taken off the front part of the dash and believed it needed to be pulled off and re-glued in place but this part of the trim actually unscrews so it was a simple job. Some of the leather on the dash was lifting away so now was the time to try and fix it. The worst part was the speedo cover which was too far gone so I got a new cover and attached this in place. Luckily this pretty straight forward but I wouldn't want to do the rest of the leather cover trim!
Dash out
Leather shrunk and coming away
All stripped ready to repair and front trim ready to be swapped so the VIN numbers are correct
Speedo cover shrunk so much it couldn't be stretched and repaired
New leather cover added and the other part was stretched and re-glued as best as it could be
Heater vents also had some new foam fitted to them to make sure they seal as best as possible
Almost back together
All of the ICE was changed including VIBE Slick front components and tweeters, VIBE Slick rear speakers and slim subwoofer behind the drivers seat.
I had changed the wrap on the ///M console, steering wheel tabs and door trims back in the summer to a brushed aluminium style finish. I haven't really liked it since it went in as it looks plain and it's pretty thin so doesn't cover any defects as well as the carbon wrap did so I'll be changing it all again in the winter. I will probably just go back to silver carbon or may do something completely different.
The wiring for the ///M gauges still need to be connected up but apart from that the interior is all done.
Ever since I bought the car it would never get upto temp and all the symptoms pointed to the thermostat being stuck open. This is what we found when we took it out, the tabs on the housing were broken. The waterpump was also inspected which wasn't broken or that bad.
The thermostat, housing and waterpump were changed whilst the system was empty, we replaced the belt and changed the coolant, bled the system and it now works as it should with plenty of heat coming out the heaters just in time for the winter roof down cruising.
I changed the oil filter, oil and fuel filter a couple of weeks ago and new gearbox and diff fluid went in as I don't know when any of this was last done. All the main service items are upto date now and I'll probably overhaul the brakes again in the winter.
That's it for now.
I had upgraded the brakes from the 3.0 (300mm discs) on the 2.0 which were a massive improvement on the originals. These were changed over along with carriers to allow for the bigger discs but were a bit of a nightmare as the carriers bolts on the 2.8 were seized solid. I managed to round a couple of them off, but eventually got them all out after a lot of heat, banging and swearing. The calipers still need to be cleaned up and painted so they match the blue carriers that have been swapped over, but the car now brakes a million times better.
Next up was the interior. The chrome hoops and wind deflector were swapped between the two as well as my ///M centre console, ///M seats, seat lift kit and the matching door cards. These door cards have extended leather across the top so to get it all to match I decided to swap over the dash as well, this also allowed my TFT monitor to be swapped without leaving a hole in the other dash where the wires pass through. I had read about the VIN number needing to be taken off the front part of the dash and believed it needed to be pulled off and re-glued in place but this part of the trim actually unscrews so it was a simple job. Some of the leather on the dash was lifting away so now was the time to try and fix it. The worst part was the speedo cover which was too far gone so I got a new cover and attached this in place. Luckily this pretty straight forward but I wouldn't want to do the rest of the leather cover trim!
Dash out
Leather shrunk and coming away
All stripped ready to repair and front trim ready to be swapped so the VIN numbers are correct
Speedo cover shrunk so much it couldn't be stretched and repaired
New leather cover added and the other part was stretched and re-glued as best as it could be
Heater vents also had some new foam fitted to them to make sure they seal as best as possible
Almost back together
All of the ICE was changed including VIBE Slick front components and tweeters, VIBE Slick rear speakers and slim subwoofer behind the drivers seat.
I had changed the wrap on the ///M console, steering wheel tabs and door trims back in the summer to a brushed aluminium style finish. I haven't really liked it since it went in as it looks plain and it's pretty thin so doesn't cover any defects as well as the carbon wrap did so I'll be changing it all again in the winter. I will probably just go back to silver carbon or may do something completely different.
The wiring for the ///M gauges still need to be connected up but apart from that the interior is all done.
Ever since I bought the car it would never get upto temp and all the symptoms pointed to the thermostat being stuck open. This is what we found when we took it out, the tabs on the housing were broken. The waterpump was also inspected which wasn't broken or that bad.
The thermostat, housing and waterpump were changed whilst the system was empty, we replaced the belt and changed the coolant, bled the system and it now works as it should with plenty of heat coming out the heaters just in time for the winter roof down cruising.
I changed the oil filter, oil and fuel filter a couple of weeks ago and new gearbox and diff fluid went in as I don't know when any of this was last done. All the main service items are upto date now and I'll probably overhaul the brakes again in the winter.
That's it for now.
Last edited:
Great thread @g8jka,you're doing an awful lot of work and you'll end up with another top drawer zed .
Steve
.Steve
Great work ...alot of it but worth the effort and your on the winning end now
Thanks guys, it hasn't seemed like its been that much work probably because I have enjoyed doing it so much. It helps to get a good understanding of all parts of the car as well. Gookah has just finished installing an alarm tonight again with remote start, roof and window closure and power to the heated rear window as well on remote start so it defrosts it nicely if it ever gets left out on them cold nights. I need a new rear view mirror now though as I decided to smash the old one putting it back together when installing an LED for the alarm.
When the old one got to this stage I thought it was finished but I'm still looking for more things to do now, keeps me busy!
When the old one got to this stage I thought it was finished but I'm still looking for more things to do now, keeps me busy!
There's always something else to do Dave. My Z4 had to sit out in the frost last night, needs must!
Tony.
Standard or ///M, I have a standard one spare.
Just the standard one Brian. Don't know whether to go for a mini one yet though.
Got a new mirror from a mini convertible to replace the old one I smashed putting in back together. I didn't have to swap over the circuit boards inside as I don't use the remote locking on the keys, its all done via the alarm fob so it was a simple swap. This one isn't and auto dimming one but the hole is still there for the sensor, which meant a blue 5mm alarm LED fitted perfectly in its place. Hard to get a picture of it, but its very bright and looks OEM. Even though its still big I think it matches the ///M door mirrors nicely.
Winter wheels and hardtop are now on and its in full winter mode, it's even got a winter coat of mud on it to keep it protected.
Didn't please the local rozzers too much though, just got pulled and told to clean the rear plate. Never mentioned about it being miss spaced or shorter than normal which I expected a telling off about but he seemed a good one, even gave me some tissues to clean it.
I'll get it cleaned in the week
Winter wheels and hardtop are now on and its in full winter mode, it's even got a winter coat of mud on it to keep it protected.
Didn't please the local rozzers too much though, just got pulled and told to clean the rear plate. Never mentioned about it being miss spaced or shorter than normal which I expected a telling off about but he seemed a good one, even gave me some tissues to clean it.
I'll get it cleaned in the week
Last edited:
Great reading, thanks!! Glad everything is pretty much done now for the driving experience to kick in!! JIM
Ooh, you got away with that one....