Mor61e's Topaz 2.8 Z3

[Brian H]

I love this Z, it just has something about it for me, the stance, colour, wheels etc are spot on

 

[Jack Ratt]

Really enjoyed reading this thread

 

[Mor61e]

Wow! Interesting read. Always good to see a zed getting it's second lease of life.

Thanks Grumpy

Top skills, looking forward to seeing the finished result.

Thanks Andy, still more pictures to come

All I can say is WOW .
What a great write up , this was a joy to read , and I can't wait to see the finished Z
What great work you have done to your Z
Well done to you

Thanks very much, I do try to make it picture heavy and not boring

I love this Z, it just has something about it for me, the stance, colour, wheels etc are spot on

Thanks Brian, I'm very particular about how I want it to look so I do spend some time planning what I do to it

Really enjoyed reading this thread

Thanks, more to come!

 

[Sean d]

Great work, I did exactly the same a year ago

 

[Mor61e]

For the paint job I again asked Craig to do the honours and he did a superb job

I had gone through many colour charts and looked at countless pictures with a possible view to doing a colour change but I think the Topaz is such a nice colour when its polished up and it suits the interior so well it would have been a shame to change it

So same colour it was

Base:

And lacquered:

Loosely fitted up for the drive home:

 

[Shelly]

I'm glad you kept your Z the same colour , it's lovely

 

[Mor61e]

Great work, I did exactly the same a year ago
View attachment 47844

Ah excellent! I'll have a read of your blog

 

[Mor61e]

I'm glad you kept your Z the same colour , it's lovely

It was very nearly the bronze/brown colour they come in, can't remember the name now

 

[Shelly]

The Topaz blue is lovely
I'm glad you kept it the same colour
Your Z must look showroom condition

 

[Brian H]

It was very nearly the bronze/brown colour they come in, can't remember the name now

Impala Brown IIRC

 

[Mor61e]

Cleaned up everything that couldn't be painted and bought a few new bits:

And then after much cleaning, hoovering, wax-oiling, fitting up and lining up later, it's back together :

I then picked up some black centred kidney grilles and split them to have the outers painted to match the wheels:

And went for some pictures:

 

[andyglym]

What can I say, absolute top draw, love it!


Thanks for sharing

 

[t-tony]

Looking very nice mate, a very enjoyable read and some great picture to boot. Thanks for sharing.

Tony.

 

[Shelly]

Great thread
Great Z

 

[Mor61e]

Thank you all for the comments

Just a couple more things to bring us up to date

I'm sure you all know the standard stereo system isn't great, so I decided to upgrade it as best I could without interfering with the rest of the car too much

First up was a new headunit which made a massive difference by itself!

Old:

New:

Next was some new front speakers and tweeters. I didn't want to cut into any of the original wiring so ran my own

The new set:

Standard speakers:

Removed those and mounted the new crossovers behind the panel:

The new speaker in place, no modifying to the grille necessary:

Then came the tweeters, they were too big to fit the standard mounts so I went through a few ideas of where to mount them, most involved cutting into a trim which I didn't want to do. I eventually settled on putting them in, rather than behind the original grilles which meant if I ever wanted to return to standard I could just buy the grilles again. They actually turned out great in my opinion and don't look too out of place

Feel free to tell me otherwise

Difference in size:

Holes cut and grilles painted as they were slightly rusty:

Ran the wires through the multi-plug:

Finished:

Only other things to note are new braided brake hoses and new hard lines for the whole rear of the car. I didn't fancy doing those while laying on the garage floor with the car on axle stands so I asked my friend Jay to do them for me one Saturday on a ramp while I was at work. He did a great job, even painting the new hard lines black, although I never took any pictures of the finished article

New front underguard that had always been missing:

And now with new slightly wider rear tyres. The ones that were on the wheels were on there when I bought them and still had some life in so I let them be for a while. They didn't need to be that small as the arches on these cars are huge so I went from a 205 to a 225

And that's it, up to date

Thanks for reading

 

[andyglym]

Thank you all for the comments

Just a couple more things to bring us up to date

I'm sure you all know the standard stereo system isn't great, so I decided to upgrade it as best I could without interfering with the rest of the car too much

First up was a new headunit which made a massive difference by itself!

Old:

View attachment 47922

New:

View attachment 47908

Next was some new front speakers and tweeters. I didn't want to cut into any of the original wiring so ran my own

The new set:

View attachment 47910

Standard speakers:

View attachment 47909
Removed those and mounted the new crossovers behind the panel:

View attachment 47914

The new speaker in place, no modifying to the grille necessary:

View attachment 47915

View attachment 47920

Then came the tweeters, they were too big to fit the standard mounts so I went through a few ideas of where to mount them, most involved cutting into a trim which I didn't want to do. I eventually settled on putting them in, rather than behind the original grilles which meant if I ever wanted to return to standard I could just buy the grilles again. They actually turned out great in my opinion and don't look too out of place

Feel free to tell me otherwise

Difference in size:

View attachment 47911

View attachment 47912

Holes cut and grilles painted as they were slightly rusty:

View attachment 47916

View attachment 47917

Ran the wires through the multi-plug:

View attachment 47913

Finished:

View attachment 47919

View attachment 47918

Only other things to note are new braided brake pipes and new hard lines for the whole rear of the car. I didn't fancy doing those while laying on the garage floor with the car on axle stands so I asked my friend Jay to do them for me one Saturday on a ramp while I was at work. He did a great job, even painting the new hard lines black, although I never took any pictures of the finished article

View attachment 47907

New front underguard that had always been missing:

View attachment 47921

And now with new slightly wider rear tyres. The ones that were on the wheels were on there when I bought them and still had some life in so I let them be for a while. They didn't need to be that small as the arches on these cars are huge so I went from a 205 to a 225

And that's it, up to date

Thanks for reading

Excellent, don't you ever sleep

 

[DavidM]

A great read - top work - stunning car - and she is loooow!

 

[t-tony]

Thank you all for the comments

Just a couple more things to bring us up to date

I'm sure you all know the standard stereo system isn't great, so I decided to upgrade it as best I could without interfering with the rest of the car too much

First up was a new headunit which made a massive difference by itself!

Old:

View attachment 47922

New:

View attachment 47908

Next was some new front speakers and tweeters. I didn't want to cut into any of the original wiring so ran my own

The new set:

View attachment 47910

Standard speakers:

View attachment 47909

Removed those and mounted the new crossovers behind the panel:

View attachment 47914

The new speaker in place, no modifying to the grille necessary:

View attachment 47915

View attachment 47920

Then came the tweeters, they were too big to fit the standard mounts so I went through a few ideas of where to mount them, most involved cutting into a trim which I didn't want to do. I eventually settled on putting them in, rather than behind the original grilles which meant if I ever wanted to return to standard I could just buy the grilles again. They actually turned out great in my opinion and don't look too out of place

Feel free to tell me otherwise

Difference in size:

View attachment 47911

View attachment 47912

Holes cut and grilles painted as they were slightly rusty:

View attachment 47916

View attachment 47917

Ran the wires through the multi-plug:

View attachment 47913

Finished:

View attachment 47919

View attachment 47918

Only other things to note are new braided brake hoses and new hard lines for the whole rear of the car. I didn't fancy doing those while laying on the garage floor with the car on axle stands so I asked my friend Jay to do them for me one Saturday on a ramp while I was at work. He did a great job, even painting the new hard lines black, although I never took any pictures of the finished article

View attachment 47907

New front underguard that had always been missing:

View attachment 47921

And now with new slightly wider rear tyres. The ones that were on the wheels were on there when I bought them and still had some life in so I let them be for a while. They didn't need to be that small as the arches on these cars are huge so I went from a 205 to a 225

And that's it, up to date

Thanks for reading

245 would've gone in there? Braided brake hoses are a good addition, recently fitted a set on my car!

Tony.

 

[Mor61e]

Excellent, don't you ever sleep

That was all the work from the past couple of years, around my other project

A great read - top work - stunning car - and she is loooow!

Thank you

245 would've gone in there? Braided brake hoses are a good addition, recently fitted a set on my car!

Tony.

245s might have fitted in the arches but they would have looked too different from the front wheels and tyres and I can't go any wider on the front

I'll get some pictures of the fitment how it is now at some point

The braided hoses if I remember rightly are very similar in price to new rubber hoses so it's a no brainer really

 

[t-tony]

That was all the work from the past couple of years, around my other project



Thank you



245s might have fitted in the arches but they would have looked too different from the front wheels and tyres and I can't go any wider on the front

I'll get some pictures of the fitment how it is now at some point

The braided hoses if I remember rightly are very similar in price to new rubber hoses so it's a no brainer really

You're not running a staggered set up?

Tony.