Progress: Wide body 300ZX turbo (late Z31)

[ratdat]

I don't have progress threads for most of my projects as I work a bit slowly quite often but I thought I'd post this as there is some interest in body kit fabrication on here . Also I don't see the later facelift Z31 model 300ZX used in many projects.

The inspration for this project was this car which I saw for sale on Yahoo! Japan auctions....







I liked the wide body look but felt the body kit could be a little more wild, especially the side skirts and front bumper. The whole thing needs to be lower to the ground too.
The only donor late Z31 kit I had was this Fujimi 300ZR, an ex-motorized kit with good interior and body detail but no underside detail unfortunately...




The first thing to do were the wheel arches. I started by glueing a strip of styrene around the circumference of each arch, extending out from the body by a few mm. The I worked out the width of the piece that would extend out from the body to the strip I'd just fitted. I then cut a large raduis piece of styre at this width. The diameter of the radius was a little trial and error to get right but once I got the correct radius I just cut pieces the same for the other arches. I found it easier to bond this bit in the top center with liquid polystyrene adhesive first and let it set before doing the front and rear of each arch. This makes it a bit easier to hold it together while the adhesive sets.... here's a pic...



I decided to make the front flare as wide as the rear rather ythan narrower as it is on the car from the auction. The completed wheel arches... (these wheels are temprorary BTW ..I'll be making copies of the ones on the car in the reference pics above)





I started the skirts by laminating three strips of sheet styrene together and shaping it. Then I carved a strip of box styrene to shape and glued that to the bottom....



I cut out what I could from the front bumper to fit a front mount intercooler and drilled a couple of holes for the pipes to go through. I'm limited on what I can cut out here as the little slots where the chassis attaches to the body are behind this area...



I had also decided to ditch the stock pop up headlights and go for normal fixed headlights under transparent covers. I actually started fabricating this but then discovered to my amazement that Fujimi have actually provided the parts to do this in the kit! So far so good...



Here's the start of my intercooler. It's made from an old oil cooler, some box styrene and bits of tree...



Here it is fitted (although not 100% finished). I've just started fabrication the bumper in this pic...



Here's the main part of the bumper done. The yellow bits are cut from an R32 front bumper then fitted upside down. The rest if styrene sheet and box section (or putty)..



Close up... still needs some putty, sanding and smoothing...



I'll post some more as I do it. For now I have to finish the side skirt on the other side and figure what to do on the rear end. This will probably be a bit slow over christmas and I want to get on with my Auster

I'm not sure what colour to go for yet.. maybe the white pearlescent of the refence car??

[SonyMobile]

Nice work, I have never seen a WBK on a 300ZX of any kind yet, so this should be interesting, I like the new fron bumper peices, it makes it look 10x better. keep up the good work,

[XspudX]

Wow, that is truely awesome looking

[pettercardoso]

I'm not sure what colour to go for yet.. maybe the white pearlescent of the refence car??

How about flat black/gray(ish)? Or maybe Telefonica Blue..)

I think you have a great project ahead of you. I love that car, much more than the 300Z..

[slk320]

WOW! You are the king of old school projects

This is going to be very cool! I will follow this thread closely! Love your fabrications

[Sebstar]

this looks MAD!
I love that front bumper + intercooler!
this is gonna be good :P

[ratdat]

Little addition.. I've also got the wheels worked out.

I started out with some R32 GTR rims. I drilled the center out (6.5mm) and sanded the face flat. I used some Fujimi RS Watanabes which I cut in half to give me the outer rim. I also cut out the center where the bolts are and glued than into the GTR rim. Here's what I used...



I need to reshape the outer ends of the spokes a bit but it's 95% there I think. I haven't cleaned it up or glue it yet. I'll make the other three first. Mine are four lug but that's not really worth worrying about ..

[flylwsi]

dayum.... i'm really impressed with that stuff... good work...

[RyanGiorgio]

Amazing customization. Looks perfect so far, and love the rims. Please update us soon!

[willimo]

Man your work rocks. I am very thankful for this progress thread, it's very good to see how body work and wheel work goes. I'm very impressed, awed, but also inspired. Thanks!!

[86_SR5]

Eddie. it's about dayum...time. That's looking clean. BTW, I think sleepy eyes would've looked better, but that's cool. Now, you know the lil scoop that's on my R31? You need one on there to represen the car as a turbo. In the basic same place mine is.

[Sebstar]

nah, i think the full lenses look a lot better than sleepy... looks more aggressive and new this way. never really liked those sleepers on the 300zx

[ratdat]

Originally Posted by 86_SR5

Eddie. it's about dayum...time. That's looking clean. BTW, I think sleepy eyes would've looked better, but that's cool. Now, you know the lil scoop that's on my R31? You need one on there to represen the car as a turbo. In the basic same place mine is.

I always like to make a bit of progress before posting a thread. I'd hate to post a thread before starting and then mess the whole thing up

I purposely ditched tyhe stock headlights as I wanted to go for a smoother more aerodynaic look, besides which as Sebstar says, I never liked those headlights in the Z31's anyway.
I'm undecided about the scoop. I know as a Z31 turbo it should have one but I might look at some alternative styles other than the stock one before going for one of those.

[rx7king]

damn, thats amazing, cant wait to see this finsihed

[86_SR5]

Or, you could go for something cooler than turbo, add two identical scoops, for that, 3.5 TT look. I think it'd might suit the car better. I'm still not liking the lights as is, probably because I've become addicted to the sleepy eyes look, but I call them 'loaded'. when the lights are like that they remind me of someone that's taken so many pills they barely keep their eyes open. BTW, I wouldn't recommend anyone with flip-up lamps that they wind theirs up half-way, I did it on my corolla, big mistake! Now when I turn the lights off the headlights don't go all the way down, just where I wound them up too. Sorry to get off topic. But, yeah look at some more scoops, IMHO, do 2. Be, different. Or, I just thought of this, Cut the top half of your headlights out to use as the scoops?