Well it's starting to fall into place.



My other timing chain sprocket cover got broken coming off, so I'm waiting on that to come in from courtesy Nissan. Then I'll paint it like the other one.

Then my plan is to:
Add polished rare jdm cover
Get some brush on caliper paint, remove the bolts from the timing cover and paint as much of the timing cover as possible. Gloss black.

Repraint the batt/mc covers gloss black with red lettering.

Get a dipstick cover from zee toys

Get the ww, overflow, and ps caps from zee toys in red.

Polished intake tube from Z1.

Flush bolts with red washers

Then I'm going to take my striping brush and the caliper paint and paint the ridges and "Crawford performance" lettering on the plenum as well as some other areas to tone back the red a tad.






Then I should be done. Any other suggestions?

 

Maybe radiator cover if you don't already have one? Looks good so far!

 

Oh yeah forgot to list that. I have a carbon fiber one coming.

 

the best look of quality will come from a dress up bolt kit... they stick out big time on yours .. ditch the std hardware.
Youd think the opposite but a very simple engine color scheme ( close to orig) w the addition of quality Ti fasteners is a great idea. the engine , as w any part of the car.. comes together w a cohesive final product idea in mind.. colors that support good visual lines.. leaving the battery covers black or perhaps CF or dinoc wrapped leaves them still black for the most part.. the plenum can be a diff color for sure, and the hoses are apparently staying red.. but leave that as is.. no more red.

Im presonally not into painting things to highlight them.. less is by FAR more in my opinion for engines.. and thats saying something as less is not more anywhere else on my car lol.
So painting? meh. . but polishing things is another story. It keeps you out of ricer territory and is usually actually less work and really about the same expense for the most part. Most parts may cost you 50-100$ to have professionally polished.

as for hardware...hit up dressupbolts.com.. i think youre looking at 220 all in.

 

There's no way I'm gonna pay 220 bucks for a bunch of bolts.

I'll probably just piece together my own.

40 bucks for bolts makes my butt pucker a little. Lol



But polishing some stuff is a real good idea. There are a couple DIY plenum polishing threads out there. I may get around to doing it one day.

As for painting things. I enjoy doing it, which is why I do it so much.

 

I could polish the throttle body.....

 

In my honest opinion I think you might have too much red going on

I would add the Rare JDM cover and make the timing covers and strut bar polished as well. If you could afford a few of the dress up bolts they make a big difference.

 

My honest opinion,overall your engine compartment would have looked
better left stock.The Crawford plenum is an example of function over form.
Its not too pretty even in the polished state.The impression I get is
you are trying to spiff up your engine on a tight budget.
It shows...Consider doing your plenum in a red wrinkle finish.
This finish would dress up the rather dull Crawford unit.
If you must do red,I'd do wrinkle.
Maybe because I spent the bucks to give my car some super car touches with CF
and polished touches.Bottom line,you like it,thats what counts.
For curiousity,I'd like to see other things you've done to your Z.
Post a pic.

 

It's not that I'm on a budget, it's just I really like doing this kind of stuff myself. Buying and installing parts just doesn't appeal to me as much as making something.


Here's some pics. Keep in mind that I've done most of the work myself.











Ignore the splash guards. They are no more.

 

I think it looks pretty good overall, sound system just isn't for me.

 

Thanks!

Yeah I I had it to do over I would have put that cash for the sound system towards some go mods. But oh well.

I've debated on ripping it out and putting in the H2, but I worked so hard getting it to sound as great as it does, that I'd be ripping part of my heart with it. Lol.

 

So, I've been staring at the pic and taking all the good suggestions under advisement.

So what if I do the following:

Carbon fiber cooling plate (coming)
Carbon fiber batt/MC covers
Polished rare JDM cover (coming)
Repaint the Crawford gloss black with red lettering
Polish the timing covers
Polish the strut bar mounts
Polished flush bolts
Red zee toyz ww/PS/coolant caps
Zee toyz dipstick handle
Z1 polished intake tube with red couplers
Polish the throttle body

I think that will do it. What do you guys think of that plan?

 

you still want the Rare JDM cover i have? It is not polished and the surface has been modified with a paddle wheel. Polishing it will be tough since it is so thin and the surface is not level.

 

Yeah it'll work. Better than the wire harness showing.

Just let me know how much it was to mail it.

 

The exterior/interior looks pretty damn good.
Love the OEM wheels.
Maybe its just me,but what you are doing in your engine compartment
is just not on the same level as what you have done for the other areas
of your car.At least thats what I see from the pics.
Props on doing/making the stuff yourself!

 

Thanks for the kind words sir!

You know, your absolutely right. I think I am rushing this a tad and not thinking things through.

If I make good on my revised plan, it will look a ton better.

 

Hell with it.



Ripped it back apart and gonna do it over.

Polished UD pulleys and belts are coming.
Polished Z tube is coming
Re-painting the plenum gloss black.
Polished zee toyz caps are coming
Keeping the radiator and oil cap. (I think the red will make a nice contrast with the black plenum)
Polishing the timing covers
Polishing the strut bar mounts
Keeping the red hoses
New MC/batt covers coming
Gonna fill-paint the recessed lettering on the MC/batt covers red, then clear the whole thing.
Polishing the throttle body.
Rare jdm cover coming
Carbon fiber cooling plate coming
Dip stick cap coming
Since I can't remove the rear timing cover, I'm going to brush paint it gloss black.


Then I should be done.

 

now thats wtf im talking about.. good job.

ive been looking at engine stuff the last few days too.. i think im going to run w the weapon r coolant overflow and ps res tanks versus just these Z toys caps i have.. you might want to think about them too....

the yelow plastic just kills the engines look imo.
Especi when the rest is *****.

 

I've considered doing a chrome wrap on all the bottles....

 

Get polished tanks instead, they look better than polished caps imo...

I would go satin black on the plenum. I would also paint that pink nismo radiator cap black and replace the diamond plated floor mats with factory or nismo floor mats. A polished strutt tower bar would look nice. Instead of the Z tube, you could run an injen intake or some other kind of polished intake.

Check out the private classifieds, all the the parts I listed are always easy to find.

Here's a good place to start for ideas, sux that some pictures are no longer available

https://my350z.com/forum/media-share...gallery-6.html