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Japspeed VH45 Nissan 370Z: Part 5!

With the foundations for the build now laid it was time to get our 370Z looking presentable with some paint. The car returned from the bodyshop a few days after we’d trailered it there looking absolutely fantastic – we’d chosen a subtle and classy shade of gun metal grey with which to form the backdrop for the vinyl that will soon adorn the car.

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We couldn’t waste too much time gawping at it though, so quickly cracked on with the rebuild to have it looking like a functioning car again.

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In went the lights along with the windscreen and the Seibon tailgate was re-fitted along with the polycarbonate rear windscreen.

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We took care as well to ensure the little OEM details remained, such as the fancy door handles and Z badges.

We were really starting to like the way the car was taking shape but felt that the sides were looking a little bare in comparison to the aggressive front and rear ends.

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Enter a pair of Amuse side skirts, a great addition to beef up the car’s side profile. However, we still felt that they were lacking somewhat so installed a pair of universal lips to be bolted underneath. These were left unpainted as the black finish gives a great contrast to the gun metal grey of the car.

Moving away from cosmetics and it was back to the mechanics. Dual caliper brake setups have become extremely popular in competition drifting in recent years, with some companies offering off-the-shelf dual caliper solutions for more common cars.

As we’ve touched on before, the 370Z is a far from popular car and we had no option but to design our own dual calliper setup. The beauty of a dual calliper setup is that it separates the footbrake from the hydraulic handbrake, allowing independent use of both without them affecting one another.

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Our in-house CAD engineer Matt set about designing a custom bracket to mount both calipers to the hub. The calipers in question were standard Z34 rear items, of which we purchased an additional pair to make up the full setup.

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With the bracket fitted to the hub carrier we got the disc back on and the calipers mounted up.

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With the need for the fuel tank to sit in the rear seat bench we contacted AH Fabrications to make us up a bespoke item to suit the car. We’ve used AH in the past for the fuel tank that we installed in the V8 S15 during last year’s rebuild and, having been mightily impressed with their work last time round, it was a no-brainer to get in touch with them once again.

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The downside of locating the tank where we had chosen was that it’d be incredibly difficult to top up in a hurry at an event. Enter an ATL Fast Fuel Coupling – a fitting that would allow us to fuel up the 370 from the outside without having to clamber inside to reach the tank.

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We decided to mount the Coupling in the space where the drivers side rear quarter glass once belonged – we’ll be making up a proper mounting panel for it in the near future.

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Another area of the exterior that we felt was lacking was at the rear end and, having weighed up a number of options, we ordered an Aerojacket Rear wing.

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Mounting it to the Seibon boot required some tentative drilling so as to not damage the stunning carbon but, after a few tense minutes, we were ready to bolt the wing down.

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With both the aesthetics and mechanicals starting to come together and the Autosport International deadline looming ever closer the end was in sight but we also had a number of other important areas to address before the 370’s unveiling – stay tuned for more build updates!