Hi everyone, I never introduced myself and my car when I originally joined this forum. I needed a new commuter car and bought this from auction for $1,650 to replace my 2008 lancer. It was a fun crash course in the G37 platform.

I also have a modified 6 speed manual BMW 335i coupe and a 2010 Ford F150.

This is how it looked when I received it. Luckily there was no frame damage at all. It looks awful but it was hit on the corner at the headlight and peeled the fender right off and left the bolts inside the frame arm without a scratch. The passenger headlight, washer fluid bin, radiator support (only the part that supports the headlight) and front bumper weren't so lucky.




The tire rod was completely snapped on one side and bent on the other. I replaced both inner and outer tie rods and replaced the passenger side lower control arm because caster was a little off.





The side skirt was fine but I needed to remove it to install the fender.




The passenger side wheel had some curb rash but it was straight with no damage. I was able to get the tire from tire rack and have them shave the tire down to match the others. I repaired the curb rash and painted the wheel. Pic is after 1 coat and sand marks are still visible. They look real good now. The color is a bit off, I may repaint all 4 of them bronze.

I also installed drilled and slotted rotors; I'm not a big fan of drilled but I got a great deal.





Installed OE Massive/Spyder headlights. Finished up the interior as well.


Lining up the new fender and sport bumper. The fender needs to be repainted.





The car has been very reliable for me the last few months with about 86k mile on it. I like the car so far but need to get a spare set of wheels and snow tires. Also the transmission shifts are really jerky but from what I've read it's normal. I will be putting shifter paddles on when I get a few other things squared away.

 

 

Welcome to the site, and since this truly is a build, I'm going to move it to the "build thread" folder, congrats on seeing this through, quite impressive! BTW, including your purchase price what's your total all-in $$ going to be?

 

slartibartfast, I've gone back and forth on whether to go to the dealership but I have a really long commute; I might have to break down and go. Decelerating passed 22 mph it downshifts and engine brakes pretty hard. Coming from manual cars and 1 CVT lancer maybe I'm just sensitive to automatic shifts or at least that's what I tell myself so I don't have to go to the dealership lol.

blnewt, thanks! I had a lot of fun building it; my garage was an absolute mess by the time I was done. I'll get some better pictures of the final product when it stops raining. The 350z and 370z are some of my favorite cars but already having a RWD coupe made it hard to buy another one with new england winters. I was very happy the G platform came out with AWD; I would have preferred if they made AWD cars in manual but I as long as my car is wired for paddle shifters that's fine with me too.

I had to replace a few more things that weren't on the list: driver's side airbag, both seat belts and some other small stuff and brackets in the front. The car has been on the road for a little over a month and all in I am at $5,000 and that includes purchase price, shipping it from NY, the copart and broker fee, tax, title and registration fees as well as selling the OEM driver's side headlight and a few other things the car came with that I didn't want. I just spent an additional $188 to do the brakes.

 

nice work, looks like a fun and rewarding project. I'm not sure if i missed it somewhere but what kind of mileage is on it?...looking forward to seeing updated pictures

 

Hi Hashim, it had 86k on it when I bought it and I've put another 1500 on it. With my commute, i can put 20-25k a year on a car so I wanted a comfortable ride to put the miles. Bringing a tuned twin turbo BMW that many miles per year was just asking for AAA to revoke my membership

 

Wow, nice $5k spent I'd say! Good thing you can't charge yourself for labor
Good morning chuckle there!

 

interesting didnt know they could shave down a tire

 

It was definitely a big help and saved some money on the build. The service cost $30 and I had to call/chat with them; I couldn't select the option myself online.

 

A lot has happened in the last 5 years, I've own 3 other cars which I recently sold but the Infiniti has always hung around so I decided to give it a refresh.

A few years ago the oil gallery gasket blew out and needed to be swapped. I found the gasket sitting in the oil.





Here is what was done in the last few months. The rear brakes were on deaths door and starting to have a judder. The caliper became frozen and tore through a pad in a few months as well as the tires being horribly out of balance.



Powerstop had the Akebono brakes for very cheap so I scooped those up and installed them. The wheels didn't fit anymore so I had to add 3mm spacers.





Now to deal with the wheels. They were getting to be 10 footers. A lot of stains, 1 of them had to be repainted and didn't really match the other 3.




So I got them painted a metallic gunmetal that Acura uses for some of their wheels as well as brought them new tires and tpms sensors. While the wheels were being painted I did a bunch of maintenance: Front and rear diff fluid change, transfer case and transmission drain and fill as well as changing the power steering fluid and swapping the leaking hoses.





The angle makes the hood look super long for some reason but here are the finished pictures. I have a Sport Coupe rear sway bar on the way and this weekend I'm going to check for paddle shifter wiring harness plugs. Other than fixing some paint and the things already mentioned, I'm going to leave it as factory as possibly. Out of all my cars this has always been my most reliable car.