About the Zed Shed (or the #ZedShed for short)
The Zed Shed was born back in late September 2014 after a mechanical workshop day was organised in Winchester. Members of the ZRoadster.org community forum assembled on a driveway in Winchester, to chat, learn and carry out some simple fixes on their BMW Zeds. It was an informal day, and a chance to meet and chat about the cars. This is exactly what the forum is about, and why I launched it back in 2011.
New friendships were made that on that workshop day, including a few of those who formed the group known as the Zed Shed. From a bit of research we can see that other car communities have their own Zed Shed (a Nissan 350Z forum also uses the term). Looks to be the same concept and also values we hold close to us. Help each other out!
The Zed Shed has grown from those 4 owners, in to a group of around 10 regulars who meet up and give their time to maintaining, restoring and modifying BMW Z3 & BMW Z4 roadsters and coupes. Mainly based out of a single garage in Hampshire, stocked with enough tools to pull apart and reassemble a fleet of Zeds.
We’ve completed a huge number of projects, supplying knowledge and experience to other forum members who are struggling to find local garages to carry out the work. Anywhere from suspension overhauls through to complete sub-frame strip downs. Manifold conversions are becoming a speciality along with problematic crank case vents which plague certain engines.
Following on from the great work we started, other groups in the UK started offering their time, expertise and driveway/garage space to help others out. As well as the original Zed Shed HQ, we have a Zed Shed Midlands organised by Tony. He’s helped many other owners get their Zeds sorted! There is no lack of people from zroadster.org who embrace the Zed Shed mentality in wanting to help other owners out.
We’re about the community and not for profit!
Our rules are simple, pay for the parts and we’ll all muck in together and do the difficult stuff (cake always appreciated). It’s a purely community, we all freely give up our time to help others get the most out of their cars. It’s why it’s such a big part of the Z Series community!
We’ve carried out projects on a wide range of cars from the BMW Z Series. There’s a comprehensive list of some of the projects we’ve undertaken over the last 3 1/2 years over on the zroadster.org community forum. You name it, we’ll have had one in to fix it up! From the humble 1.9 M44 engined Z3, through to the brutal Z3M Roadster & Coupes, and more recently a succession of BMW Z4 & Z4M Roadster & Coupes.
