jfisher

The estimate I received today was $1,009.22 from Geico. The headlight can be buffed out. The front fender has a small nick on the corner that will need repainted. I wonder what a sport front bumper conversion costs.....

VIVID

iTrader: (12)

Now right there is some smart thinking!!! You'll go far.

Sean

jfisher

I'm actually really liking the look of the aftermarket sport lip for the non-sport bumper. I need to do some more research on this.

jfisher

I don't feel like starting a "build" thread so I'll just post my updates here.

Here is the car stock after I had the windows tinted:



I added the TSW Cadwell's shortly after that as a local guy was wanting some OEM wheels for his G35 sedan RWD so I traded him my stockers and a little boot.

Then a few weeks ago I bought the D2 RS coilovers off of here that needed rebuilding. I bought two new front replacement struts, cleaned everything up and installed them on the car this weekend. I started on the right front as I knew the fronts were more time consuming. Everything went on smoothly and was pretty straight-forward. The only thing I was hung up on was how to orient the jank brackets for the brake lines and abs lines up front. I got them installed, but still not 100% to my liking. Here's a pic after I got the stock strut out and preparing the coilover to go in:



I set all four corners to 22 as anywhere from 32(softest) to 17 is recommended for the street. The car rides surprisingly well around town, but it definitely is bouncier than I'm liking on the highway. I may contact D2 and see if there are different springs I can throw on this thing to help alleviate that.

Here is the "rough draft" of the car as it sits now without the ride height finely tuned and without alignment. I suck at taking pics so bear with me. This is after a fresh wash today:





I've been debating on what exhaust I want to go with. Yea, the FI HFC's are nice, but I just can't justify $630 for a 3' piece of exhaust that's stainless. I opted for the Megan resonated test pipes on the cheap. The welds look really good and the transitions / collector butts are very cleanly done. These are going on tomorrow and I'm praying that these things aren't raspy with the resonators. I'm also hoping with the O2 bungs backed off as far as they are that I don't get any CEL's:



Lastly I scooped these up this past Friday locally for what I think is a fair price. They're not perfect by any means, but they're 19's and probably lighter than the TSW's in 18's:



These will be going on these week.

I also have the Z1 motorsports front upper control arms and SPC rear arms and toe bolts on order. Once I get those in I'm going to slap them on, get the new wheels put on, set the ride height and go take it to get final aligned and corner balanced.

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

Been busy, nice upgrades and those Z wheels will look great on your sedan, have you decided on your tire combo for that set yet? Probably better to run slight stretch as those rear Z wheels will be outside the fenders a bit. Something like a 235/40 F 265/35 R will work w/ your AWD.
Looks like you did a good job setting your coils, pretty even stance from what I can tell.

jfisher

The rear wheels have some Michelin 275/35/19's and I think I'm going to try and run those for now. I'll be ordering some 245/40/19's today. I can't stand stretched tires so I'm really hoping these wheels sit flush and don't poke. You know better than I, but it seems like from what I've seen these wheels should sit flush with the rear. The current wheels are 18x9.5 with I believe a +35mm offset. The rear 370z sport wheels are 19x10 with a +30 offset. Theoretically that's about .69" more of width. From what I measured that would be almost perfectly flush. I know there are a lot of factors, however, so I'm just going to test fit and see.

Once I get the wheels on I'll dial in the ride height and send it off for final alignment.

I also edited my previous post as I realized I pasted in the wrong pic for the test pipes. Should be fixed now.

jfisher

Ugh. Test pipes are on. I want to kill it with fire. When I get some time I'm going to get it jacked up and see if I can't find any leaks. It sounds HORRIBLE. The raspiness is overwhelming. It almost sounds like it's coming from the test pipes themselves however which makes me believe there is a leak or sealing issue somewhere.

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

Sorry to hear about that, hopefully it's just a gasket issue. G/L hope it's an easy fix.
As far as the 265s on your Z rims, that's not really a stretch mount, a 255 would be considered a stretch on a 10, just in case you need to gain 5mm back there, hopefully you'll sneak those 275s right inside the fender.

jfisher

Went back to the shop that installed the resonated test pipes yesterday and they got it back on a lift and looked it over. No leaks are any vibrations. To me, inside the car, it sounded like the horrible raspiness was coming from an exhaust leak, but turns out it's just resonance inside the test pipe / resonator. I'm going to deal with it for now until I can get a quiet CBE and see if it gets any better. I'm really liking the Ark Grip with the 18" resonators.

I was able to get the 370z sport wheels installed yesterday. Much better than the 18's imo. I need to get at least 20mm spacers in the front.

My Z1 camber arms also showed up. These things are extremely beefy. Beefier than the stock arms for sure. I know some were comparing these to the Kinetix, and I can't comment on the Kinetix as I've never seen a set in person, but there were concerns of the Kinetix being cheap and thin. Not the case at all with these Z1's. The rear SPC camber kit should be here Monday so I'll attempt installing everything Monday night.

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

Nice job on the wheel fit, looking good
How's the clearance at the fender?
Bummer about the resonated TPs, I think we've all had mods along the way that didn't go quite as planned
Nice to hear about the front arms, they do look like an upgrade from the Kinetix, and being able to keep them lubed easily is surely a plus.

jfisher

Brad, can you move this to build threads as that's more or less what this has become

I sold the D2 coilovers and went with some Swift springs on the stock struts and shocks. It honestly doesn't ride as good as I was hoping and I'm thinking it's due more to the old struts / shocks rather than the springs (that's what I'm hoping at least). The Swifts did, however, get rid of the bounce I was having with the coilovers. It doesn't look as good, but I was tired of cringing every time I went over a bridge on the highway or a speed bump.

I also sold the TSW wheels that were on the car and picked up some Volk GT-F's in 19x9.5 +17 up front and 19x10.5 + 24 out back. The tires that came on them had decent tread, but had some inner camber wear so I replaced them with some Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position 245/45/19 and 275/40/19 s.





I am getting some rubbing in the rear when the wife and boy are in the car with me. SUCKS because these tires are exactly 27.7" tall which is perfect for the AWD. Needless to say we now take her Accord instead of my car when going anywhere together. It's a shame because it rides SO smooth and quiet with these taller tires. These would be perfect on a 350/370/G coupe. I listed them up for sale a few places, but if they don't sell I'm going to pull these tires off, have the wheels stripped and powder coated a different color and go with some 245/40's and 275/35's. The wheels originally had 275/35's out back and with the car much lower on the D2 coillvers didn't have any rubbing:



Got delivery confirmation a bit ago that my Hotchkis sways showed up I probably won't get around to installing them until next weekend.

Scored some beat M35 / M45 19" Sport wheels yesterday for $250 and dropped them off at a local wheel repair shop that does awesome work. These are going to be my winter setup and have some almost new Goodyear RSA All seasons on them. They do have TPMS sensors but unfortunately don't think they're compatible with my car. I can't wait to see the finished product





I loved this metalicky gunmetal color they had on a set of 20" BMW wheels at their shop, but I'm not sure how much they would work on the Blue Slate. Thoughts?

kennyz424

iTrader: (147)

Cars looking good man! Keep up the great work!

guy from norcal

iTrader: (2)

I really like those volks. Glad to see your G comming together nicely.

kennyz424

iTrader: (147)

Did you ever get a catback exhaust? I'm curious bc I have a greddy CBE and want test pipes but I'm just not sure how it'll sound lol... did the raspiness you erred hearing with your stick exhaust when you installed them go away? And also did you ever install those z wheels? I'm really liking what you're doing with this car man

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

Looking good, nice new shoes too! That 10.5 +24 is real aggressive as you're finding out. Is it rubbing just on the felt liner or are you hitting some metal on the inner fender?