This car belongs to the one and only William of William’s Autobody fame.  The 240 came into the shop with a noisy valvetrain so we (Josh) removed the front cover and discovered that the timing chain tensioner had dismantled itself over the last few hundred miles.  Uh oh.  Normally this would result in the chain jumping a tooth or more on one of the gears which would cause terminal engine damage, we happened to get lucky.  Part replaced, Long live the L-series engine!!

Turning our focus towards the rear of the car, we have a slight overhaul in order.  What you see here are a set of T3 (Techno Toy Tuning) fully adjustable rear control arms.  These new pieces are light years ahead of the stock stamped pieces in terms of stiffness and adjustablility.  The perfect alignment is now achievable.  To accompany the control arms and their new bushings are a set of 250lbs/in springs (up from 175lbs) to firm up the rear a bit.

The new rear suspension pieces and and replaced tensioner will help our faithful painter enjoy one of his Z cars to its fullest.  ZOOM ZOOM (He has a Miata as well)  Long Live the Z!!

This car has the perfect stance.  The intention is to set the final ride height here.  Wicked, what else is there to say?

Now all of the hidden work begins…

Nissan’s competitor, Big T, has just released a new supercar and it is all over the blogs and what not.  I’m not too keen on most of their products but when I saw how the A pillars were made I needed to share it with you guys and gals, I could watch this for a long time on a loop.  Supposedly this is one of two machines in the world that can create carbon fiber structures in this manner.  I want a Z car that is made entirely in this fashion.   hahaha, a $35mil 240z!!

Video from Autoblog.com CLICK HERE

I know that some of you are super eager to see some major progress on this huge project so here is another “carrot in front of the donkey” to keep you interested and coming back for more.  Here are the first photos of the newly powder coated and anodized suspension parts going on the car for mock-up.  We also threw one of the brakes on just to give you an idea of what they will look like, 12.9″ brakes on a Z are ridiculous, and amazing.

Two of the ZCG Big Brake Kit posts can be found HERE and HERE

I MIGHT have a couple more shots for you before the week is over of the car on the ground, that’s right, it will be a roller.  Holy Crap.  keep bringing it back here for your Z-car fix.

I’m tired.  Good night all.

Not everything we do at Z Car Garage is a ground-up restoration or a hardcore twin turbo build.  In fact most of our customers come to us just looking for just a little more of what they already love about their cars.  In this case we will be taking a daily-driven G35 and adding a little bit of sport to it’s luxury coupe status.  Nothing too crazy, just improving on an already astounding car.

One of the many great things about the VQ35 engine series is it distinct exhaust note.  I can be in my house, out of sight of the road, and be 100% certain when one goes by, be it in a G35, 350z, FX35… whatever.  After searching long and hard for an aftermarket cat-back exhaust system to compliment the factory sound without too much rasp we came to Bassani.  We have been using the Bassani systems for quite some time now and have been more than happy.  They improve upon the already sporty exhaust note and they seem to be one of the top performing kits on the market today.  This was a must for this car.

Not wanting to leave the intake side of the engine jealous, we opted for a simple but effective Jim Wolf Technologies (JWT) POP charger setup.  This air filter is much more free flowing than the factory panel filter set-up and it allows for your ears to enjoy just enough of that beautiful intake sounds that we all love.  JWT is a great operation and their parts are top notch which makes this part another must.

Now on to the handling side of the equation.  A simple and proven set of Eibach springs will do the trick here by giving us the stance we want and a higher spring rate for the cornering that we deserve.  The other part of the equation here is the set of red Hotchkis swaybars which are meant to keep body roll in check during any high G events.  Simplicity at is finest.

From the chart below you can see that there are certainly a few more horsepower in the mix after the intake and exhaust modifications, but with this being an automatic transmission car the gains tend to be a bit masked by the slush box.  Another upgraded daily driver in the hands of a satisfied customer, job well done.  Until next time…

There is a full gallery of photos after the “read more” below.  They are in order from when the car came in to the shop until the time it was delivered.  A few of the before/after shots are almost shocking.  New parts rule.  ENJOY

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