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Welcome to my build thread. First and foremost, the goal of this project is tasteful and high quality mods for the end result (hopefully) being a perfect blend of practicality, looks, and performance. That being said, this is the first car I've owned myself outright, and don't have a lot of wrench time under my belt so I'm expecting this to be a learning experience.
A little background / Bio: I have been crazy about cars since I played the first Need for Speed as a kid, and have been anxiously awaiting my chance to modify my car ever since. My previous car (2004 GMC Envoy) ran like clockwork right up until I drained the oil and found enough metal shavings to think you just cleaned out the bottom of a lathe. All in all, it was a wonderful vehicle for the ~60k miles I had it, until it totaled itself. It ended up being either a full engine swap, or to drive it until it sent one of the rods through my hood. I babied it for a while until I could line up the sale, and stumbled across the gem I am driving today. I had always liked G's, sedan and coupes alike. But I'm pretty tall (6'4") and wanted to at least be able to move a fairly significant amount of stuff, so I had my eyes set on sedans. I checked in fairly regularly while I was limping around in the wounded Envoy, and came across a killer deal on a 2012 G37S Sedan with around 27k miles. 1-owner (old guy from Florida), pristine condition, fresh rubber, it's about all you could ask for. A few weeks of haggling or so later I had a 1 way ticket up to Charlotte, NC, and the G waiting for me at the dealer. I drove it all the way home with an ear-to-ear grin on my face, plotting my eventual build for it in my head. Fast forward about a year of daily driving it and saving up, and I decided now was the time to get to work.
Here it is the day I got home with it:
With the rubber starting to run down, I wanted to focus on lining up wheels and tires as the first upgrade I purchased, seeing as it had an "expiration date" when I would need new tires anyway. I had been comparing, contrasting, and bouncing ideas back and forth to a few friends about size, offset, width, etc. until the cows came home. One day on Instagram I saw Natalie Jemini (for those of you who know of her) post a pic regarding her old set of Vossen CV7's being up for grabs. Having no idea what kind of price she was looking for, I sent a DM, and crossed my fingers. Well, one thing led to another and not even a week later (and 1 speeding ticket courtesy of the Dooly County, GA state troopers) I had an envelope of cash in my pocket, and I was roadtripping down to Cape Canaveral to meet up with her.
Hard not to smile every time I looked back and saw the precious cargo wrapped up and anxiously awaiting their turn to meet the tarmac again after a long stint of sitting in a garage.
The wheel specs are: F: 20x9/+32 R: 20x10.5/+45
Tires: Hankook V12 Ventus Evo 245/35/20 and 285/30/20
I love them perfectly how they sit now. I feel the small bumps and imperfections in the road a little more now due to the rubber bands it's rolling on, but it's not something anyone would point out if they hadn't been driving it on the OEM 18s with more sidewall before the change. I had to buy a fresh set of tires a month or so after getting them mounted, because what they came wrapped in had less tread on them than I first thought (lots of camber wear on inner tread). With the deal I got on them though, I was still happy even after dropping $850 almost right afterwards on fresh tires. The look I have in mind is meaty rear wheels (which I have), to get rid of most of the wheel gap, and to add another degree of camber or so to make the edge of the tire not lined up with the fender lip. I will probably end up taking about an inch out of the rear and an inch and a half up front. I've always been a sucker for the "VIP but practical" sedan look of less low, less camber, and more beef in the back. Since this is the first mod, there's obviously some wheel gap as you can see below.
Especially up front! I mean I'm pretty sure i'd win best 4x4 if I went to a show looking like this...
With that established, here's another look for size reference as far as the fit goes with all stock suspension. There's just a half inch or so of tire and rim poke in the rear, which I think will look great once it's lowered an inch or two and with another degree of camber.
As of April 26th, that is all that has been done to it thus far (other than K&N drop-ins). But fear not, fellow G owners, this is only the beginning. Below is the list of parts I plan on having put on (In order of personal importance at first, after the first few it's mostly random). The main purpose of me putting this thread up early on in the build process is to get everyone's opinion on what to do or not to do. The list is not set in stone, please let me know if you have advice or suggestions on alternatives for anything you see below. As I mentioned in the beginning, I don't have much experience under the hood, and have little knowledge when it comes to the both the nitty and gritty. I welcome all suggestions and advice completely.
How she sits currently:
Without further ado, the list:
-KW V1 Coilovers
-Full control arm upgrade (SPC vs SPL, can't decide on which, open to advice)
-Stillen Stage 3 intake
-Meisterschaft CBE
(Here's when order of parts becomes random based on sales or deals I can find)
-Infiniti OEM Sport Lip
-Berk HFC / Motordyne ART Pipes
-Stillen Grounding kit
-Hotchkis / Eibach Sways (Either or, welcome to advice)
-Z1 2 piece brakes
-Z1 / Stoptech steel brake lines
-Full Z1 engine hose replacement
-Z1 / Motordyne Intake manifold (open to advice on either)
-Cusco GT Spec engine strut
-Tint
-Exterior chrome trim wrapped (or painted, not sure which to do) in gloss -black (or body color match depending on the part)
-Autokits Diffuser
-Oneighty NYC Projector fogs / painted headlight housing
-(Bella?) Duckbill trunk, need to do something to it but cant decide
Will add more as time comes, for now that's what I can come up with off the top of my head.
Great looking sedan Sean and an exciting list of things to come. And FWIW definitely wrap that trim, simple, inexpensive and will match your factory wrapped door pillers perfectly.
Saved you a few future slots too.
Brad
Nice ride Sean. Welcome. I actually purchased my 2011 S the same way. Rode MegaBus to Tennessee and drove her back. Exciting, yet scary buying a car unseen except for a few pictures. You'll be very happy with the wider rear rubber, alot more traction. And we gotta know....manual or Auto?!
Great looking sedan Sean and an exciting list of things to come. And FWIW definitely wrap that trim, simple, inexpensive and will match your factory wrapped door pillers perfectly.
Saved you a few future slots too.
Brad
I was thinking of having the front grille wrapped to match a midnight OEM one (blacken the inner slats and leave the outer rim chrome), since they're overpriced from Infiniti. I suppose I could wait and see if a used one in mint condish comes up. That, or having the whole front grill wrapped/painted gloss black. Since it can be so easily removed, I would think having it painted wouldn't take much skill, time, or money (versus wrapping), right? I imagine generic gloss black paint is cheaper and much more common than KAD, at least as far as your average shop goes. For some reason the only Infiniti dealer in Birmingham is really against doing any aftermarket work.
Originally Posted by Knightjs
Nice ride Sean. Welcome. I actually purchased my 2011 S the same way. Rode MegaBus to Tennessee and drove her back. Exciting, yet scary buying a car unseen except for a few pictures. You'll be very happy with the wider rear rubber, alot more traction. And we gotta know....manual or Auto?!
Thank you! And yes, but it was honestly so much better looking in person, the pictures weren't bad but they didn't do it justice. As far as the tranny it's auto with paddles.
I highly recommend SPL or Voodoo 13 control arms, Hotchkis sway bars, and I'd do the Z1 manifold over Motordyne.
No sir, auto with paddles!
I haven't looked at Voodoo 13 yet, I'll do some more research. As far as sway bars go, I figured there wasn't much difference between the 3 or 4 brands I found, and they're all within like $50 of eachother. Hotchkis it is!
04-26-2017, 03:12 PM
