Project Kamicon

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Mrs HollowPoint

Well-Known Forum User
Well, for now, everyone calls it either "Kaminari" or "iconic", so being the geeks we are I decided to try out "Kamicon" for now. It works with kids who think it's the coolest car they ever saw, and the transformer 80's theme. Don't worry, I have no intention of putting a tacky transformer badge anywhere near it.


The ones who can truly tell the story of this gorgeous car are Mr. F and Steve Burns. I'll guess shes a girl?

I know shes had a few revamps through the years and although still a real head turner and very enviable, it's time to give her some serious TLC again, and Alex and I are really looking forward to probably the most rewarding project we will ever do.

Just a quick thread starter for our project here and LOTS more to come. She is going to be restored inside and out. The only main changes are the headlight covers and some modification to the front and rear bumpers. The colour and the rest is going to be the same. There is no booming sound system or anything silly going in it. If I want mod cons, I'll drive our 300ZX.

For it not really being driven for 2 years, its a pleasure. Plenty of power, nice and easy to drive. It initially had a sticky throttle for the first 50miles, where it just wanted to stay at 4,000rpm and kept driving away itself so much I nearly called it Christine! Between picking up yesterday from Essex, then to Santapod, then home, we have already done 255miles, mostly at the national speed limit :driving: (whistles).

I'll just start off with my own first photo taken this morning, still filthy, in the Hilton cark park in Nottingham just before our day at Santa Pod.

FirstMorningHilton.jpg
 
Mr HollowPoint

Mr HollowPoint

Well-Known Forum User
As Rose has hinted at, the first 'mod' was to remove the light covers. I know it pained Mike to see them go, but they just weren't to our taste and we prefer the more classic headlight look. The final clincher for this mod was that as Rose was following me up to Northampton yesterday, she flashed the lights and it looked like she had put the hazards on as the lights were just so dull with the covers on.

We spent most of the day at Japshow Finale cleaning the bodywork and polishing up those lovely huge dished wheels and I think the result is rather good so far. Sadly of course, there is lots of bad photos coming in a few months time, when we start to de-construct her, in order to rid her of the tin-worm and restore her for another 10 years of show-life.

I was pleasantly surprised with the car overall, whilst I adore it, I had no idea how much attention, of the positive kind, it would draw at the show. Every time we drove it through the show, people would literally stop and gawk at her, which felt great! On top of that, I expected the car to be quite a bit slower than our 300zx, I was preparing myself for Ford Capri 2.8 territory, but it's much faster than that :smash:

Watch this space for updates.

Sadly the pictures are too large to embed in the thread and the 'lightbox' effect doesn't work properly for me, so in case that's the case for anyone else as well, click these links to go direct to the pictures.
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EDIT:

Oh, I forgot to add, I've already ordered new NGK Iridium plugs and a new K&N 'Premium' Oil Filter for it, which should arrive Tuesday. Tomorrow I'll be taking her to work with me and on the way home, will pick up some very expensive oil, engine flush and injector cleaner, just to try and work out just how healthy the engine really is, before I pull it all apart.
 

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Rob Gaskin

Rob Gaskin

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Staff member
Site Administrator
I've never seen it so shiny!

IMO it needs the headlight covers but I can understand the issue with poor lighting.
 
M

Mrs HollowPoint

Well-Known Forum User
If they were not tinted so much I may have said ok. I have another idea of working the bodykit line into the headlight reservoir.
 
candy red

candy red

Club Member
Looking better already Looks like theres a 280zx revival happening this year ;) see you at shows next year or to parked next to mine :D best of luck with it;)

Derrick:driving:
 
S

status

Well-Known Forum User
Looks good,porky didn't use it enough so it might get used a bit more,wot did you use to clean up the wheels,never saw them so shiny
 
Mr HollowPoint

Mr HollowPoint

Well-Known Forum User
Autosol, Klears metal polish and some autoglym metal polish. In fairness they look as good as the pics from a distance, but once you get up close there is still much work to be done involving wet & dry paper, possibly a dremel and more polish.

We're still in the process of securing a unit and still in 'find problems' mode at the moment, but we're very much hoping she will be back out to play next show season, with a new coat of paint, wheels gleaming, no tin-worm and maybe even some refreshed interior.

Of course we may have to settle for some of that rather than all, as we don't know quite how big the tin-worm job is until we sand her down, but we like rolling projects anyway, as can be seen with our Z32, lol.
 
S

samuri-240

Well-Known Forum User
Spotted you on the M62 J31 on Monday morning heading west I was heading east , that car really does stand out from the crowd, I've always liked it & would have snatched Steve's arm off if the cash was available at the time.
 
Mr HollowPoint

Mr HollowPoint

Well-Known Forum User
samuri-240 said:
Spotted you on the M62 J31 on Monday morning heading west I was heading east , that car really does stand out from the crowd, I've always liked it & would have snatched Steve's arm off if the cash was available at the time.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much what we did when we realised. :cheers:

Glad to see it's getting spotted, even so far away from it's last home :D.

I'll take it to work a few more times before it comes off the road yet, it's a good 50 miles to work and back, with motorways, town driving and country lanes, so it really shows up any faults and issues on the way.

The idea is to get the car fully functional and no little niggles left before we take it off the road, so that in theory, we tidy up the bodywork, refurb the engine, put it all back together and spray it and she's done, ready for show season, lol.
 
M

Mrs HollowPoint

Well-Known Forum User
Just to link this up to other threads started...

I'll be continuing to take out all the interior to assess it. Since we have the 300 in bits and requiring quite a bit of money I'm just seeing what we need and doing lots of research.

Interior Assessment thread:
http://zclub.net/forum/general-discussion/23402-rear-interior-280-a.html
So far, Ive decided that the interior shall be greys and purples.

As for the bodywork. The kit vs car shell needs to be identified and has to be all separated.
I think to make this really worthwhile, the shell is going for a good bath in Acid. Hopefully, enough car will come back from that to put back together lol. Mikey Bean suggested this because a friend had his shell picked up, dipped and returned for £300. This will removed all the deadening and tin worm so I think it may be the best route to go.

Bodywork Assessment thread:
http://zclub.net/forum/general-discussion/23398-erk.html

Looking for trim materials!
http://zclub.net/forum/showthread.php?p=205113#post205113
 
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