I'll take a look at the suede, pulling the dash sounds like hell but if my dash does get worse I may just do it.

When you do the cluster, make sure you don't push the needles back on too far or they'll slip while your driving and you end up with.... this....



In the end, I have a 07-09 cluster with a 10+ screen and 10+ needles. But I also soldered the blue LEDs in place of red. The 07-09 needles are ugly, but the 07-09 faces look better




I posted a whole thread on my cluster surgery though, dunno if you saw it.

 

I tackled my old V35 cluster and re-soldered the contacts of the fuel gauge which surprisingly worked. Had to pull the needles(Nerve wrecking) then use Torque to put them all where they go.
While I was there I took a look at the LEDs and said F that. Too small for me and I just dont have the proper soldering equipment for something so small.
Hats off to you Icrap.

 

Love the work you did on your cluster, and your thread is what inspired me to purchase a donor 2011 cluster to migrate the LCD screen. I'm hoping it's plug and play between Manual/Automatic (can't imagine they are different outside of manual does use the gear indication); and agreed that the 07-09 has the nice gauge faces but inferior needles. While I'm in there, I'll probably also pull the LED for the AFS just in case I'm not able to migrate that system over when I do the 2010+ front conversion

 

The LCD should be identical, as far as I can tell the clusters are all identical as well. It's just software changes. (I even saw an indicator for the convertible top on my donor cluster from the sedan).
if you try and get rid of the AFS light, just cover the LED with electrical tape. Don't try to unsolder it.

 

Looking good man! Given you did the suede on the dash and roof (the hard parts) you may as well go all out like I did and do the doors and small misc pieces. Doors aren’t that bad and really make the interior pop. You could bang out all 4 over the weekend. The center console isn’t too bad either.

 

Oh wow, that's gorgeous. And you say that's an OEM finish option on the late year Sport Coupe wheels? I didn't know that.

 

@sobeIPL Thanks bro, just trying to get on your level! I plan on doing the top of the doors, but I actually don't want everything to be suede. Trying to a bit of contrast of materials (a la GT-R Nismo package). I'm thinking I'll leave the glovebox, bottom half of doors, and the center console in the "leather" looking material. Perhaps one day I might find the motivation to upholster those in actual leather like your coupe.

@Rochester Thanks! It is indeed an OEM option as you can see below. I read somewhere that it was an $1.8K package upgrade for the coupes- not surprisingly not many sprung for them. The finish is absolutely beautiful in person, and I'm quite please especially considering the price I paid for them.

 

Slowly but surely during the week I've continued to work on the dash project. I wrapped the area of the shifter surround that's on the center console (total PITA btw) as well as the kneepads. I migrated the wiring (donor dash had some frayed wires) and airbag from my original dash. Here's a mockup with the center trim in place:




Pretty gratifying to see it all together to see how it'll look in the car. I decided to not used the wrapped piece below the gauge cluster, as it was too difficult to get it perfect due to all the curves. And that said, I rather enjoy the contrast of the different materials working together.

That said, seeing everything together highlighted what a sore spot the OEM cheap vinyl boot is:



So last night I was inspired to order a few more parts to complete the interior:

• RedlineGoods Black Leather/Black Stitching Shift Boot, E-Brake Boot, and Armrest Handle: Going with plain black as I have enough textures going on as is and while I love perforated leather this ain't no Caddy. RLG makes quality products that I've had on my old Tiburon, just the wait time for shipping will be annoying
• Raceseng "Cylix" Shift **** & Adapter (Black Leather, Ring Engraving): I've been eying this **** for quite some time as it's like an upscale version of the NISMO **** I have in my 370z. Nice and minimalist how I like it.

• ShiftSolutionsCO E-Brake Handle and Polished Button: The current e-brake on my G is worn from age, and frankly the design has always left something to be desired. I was inspired to pick up this project by a the370z.com member who actually sells modified handles using these parts for 370z/G37s as you can see below. EDIT: The proper size handle for the G/370z application can only be purchased through redondoveb on IG.

MUCH nicer IMO. Especially without a gaudy red button (I'm going polished to match my Carsmo *****) and with a black on black shift boot- it should be the final piece to tie together this interior overhaul.

That's it for now, the goal for this weekend is to modify the sunroof drains, get the dash back in, and finish the cluster project.

 

Weekend Update:

Unfortunately I had a work issue flare up over the weekend, so I didn't complete the project. However I did get quite a few items accomplished. First up, I needed to tackle my sunroof grommets, as the originals were clearly from 2007 and were toast. The page gasket was nonexistent, and the plastic grommet itself was rather brittle. Saturday morning I ran to the local dealership and purchased two brand new grommets, and grabbed some silicone and 1/4" tubing from Lowes. I cut out the silly baffles at the bottom of the drains (the portion most notorious for getting clogged, and cut a piece of tubing to run through the grommet and siliconed it into place:



Fresh "updated grommet" with tubing in place compared to '07 originals

The tubing should guide the water out of the car (I've since trimmed the excess tubing about an inch)

I also snaked a bottle brush up the sunroof drains to clear out any debris. The new drains were attached to the hoses, zip tied, and then reinserted into the drain locations. Fingers crossed this puts an end to any leaks from the sunroof.

When I purchased the car, I discovered a random homemade switch that the original owner had installed on the side of the center console. With the dash apart, I went into the wire harness to discover they had spliced into one of the audio harnesses using wire nuts and electrical tape

This had to go, I removed the switch, and properly soldered and heat shrinked the original OEM cable back together



Didn't have time to look at the wiring harness, I just need knew this needed to go!

Last up, I finalized work on customizing the cluster. Shoutout to @iCrap for pioneering the work here and the guidance- gave me much needed confidence to tear into my gauges!

One I removed the needles, and gauge faces from the '07 cluster, I swapped in the '11 LCD screen from my donor cluster. FYI to anyone attempting this, you simply just need to pull on the ribbon to release it (rather than trying to undo the brown clip- that's what I've done before when repairing TVs).



'07 LCD on the right, new '11 LCD screen ribbon can be seen on the PCB board

With that accomplished, I then covered up the AFS LED (easy to spot as the one left of it wasn't soldered as it's for the A/T Check Light) with some electrical tape. This will be crucial once I convert the front to 2010+, as AFS was not offered on those models.




Now it was time to re-assemble the cluster. I love the "Italic" faces of the '07s, but pretty much everything else is inferior to the later models. Especially the needles. While I wanted red needles (to complement my Monaco Red seats), the '07 needles are quite ugly. Swapping in the '11 needles was a much needed upgrade:



'11 vs '07 needles, no contest really no to mention the light on the '07s wasn't diffusing properly

Aligning the needles to "zero" positions was a little annoying, and took a few tries to get it right. Before I spent too much time with my OCD, I wanted to quickly test to ensure the swap was functional. I plugged in the cluster and re-attached the battery and was greeted with this glorious sight:




Success! Looks like a Christmas tree right now (especially the blinking airbag light), but the swap was a success and AFS was blocked. WIth the proof of concept complete, I redid the Temp/Speedo needles to zero them out perfectly, and finished putting the entire cluster assembly back together.

Finally, my dad stopped by and helped me get the dash back in the car. I still need to bolt everything back up and get the trim back in there- but the end of this project is definitely in sight.

 

If you need any NEW pins for the WHITE audio connectors let me know I have a bunch. The trick is you'll need to buy or have access to a good crimper.

 

Appreciate the offer good sir, I should be good! Thankfully the light blue/gray wires were still pinned into the connector, I just needed to remove the wire caps and solder them back to the remaining length in the OEM harness.

 

This is quality custom work compared to what I’ve don’t back there 👀.

 

Haha! It's not the worst job I've seen, but my dad drilled into me the importance of heat shrink + soldering when working on wiring.

 

Another week down, and major progress complete on the G! With the Cluster upgrade complete, it was time to reassemble everything and get this dash back together. First up though, with the glove box out I took advantage of the opportunity to easily swap out the in-cabin filter with a Spearman Carbon Filter from Amazon. OEM like fitment and for $12 I have no complaints:



Next up, my Raceseng Cylix Shift **** arrived. Absolutely premium product and packaging- they do a great job making it feel like an experience (akin to purchasing an Apple product):




Impeccable craftsmanship and materials. The etching is flawless, and the perforated leather is supple to the touch. The ***** got a good bit of weight (0.84 lbs) as well. Ok enough pontificating about the ****, let's see it in the car:


Just gorgeous, and a considerable upgrade over the 370z **** I was using as a placeholder. The quality of the Raceseng **** underscores how garbage and cheap the OEM shift boot is- cannot wait for my care package from Redline Goods to arrive and fix that. In addition the boot tends to sag a little, so I may end up ordering the matching retaining holder from Raceseng as well. Also my silver shift trim is quite beat up; so I'll need to purchase a new one at some point.

Only minor con is that I wish the **** was 1/4-1/2" shorter for aesthetics. This means a short throw shifter will move it's way up my modlist.... it's always something

With the long weekend finally here- it was time to put a bow on this project. I reassembled the dash/cluster and ported over the Custom Leather steering wheel and OEM trim from my old G37 build. Reinstallation was rather straight forward and was aided by a few beers.

At long last I finished this project yesterday. And just look at it :



I'm just absolutely in love with the transformation and pretty proud of the results. It's pretty rewarding to see the vision come to life- as this has been several months in the making. Really feels much more the luxury and premium and I love how everything ties together. I'll probably suede wrap the very top panels of the doors to tie everything together, but for the most part the interior is complete. Feels good to close out this phase of the project. For anyone that has a cracked/melted dash- hopefully this provides a little motivation to tackle it yourself.

Next up, I've got a few other projects to complete; but a major priority is to get the exterior to be on par. Here's what's in-flight:

• Front Exterior: The Front Bumper and hood/fenders are trashed;. I've got to install my CF Fenders, but I've had no luck sourcing a clean OEM hood for a reasonable price. I'm am considering just a Seibon OEM CF hood or a vented hood (for temps) if I can't repair my current one for a decent price. I've also sourced all of the necessary components to swap to the G37 front; just need to get my molded Front Bumper painted KH3
• Rear Exterior: I also have to get my rear Spats painted in KH3 and bring over the AutokitsX CF diffuser from my previous build. Also need to source lighter trunk struts for the CF trunk and a roof spoiler
• Side Profile: The rear passenger door has some major scratches, and the rear quarter panel has some dents that need to be addressed. I'm hoping to score a clean door from the 'yard- but if not I'll have to have a bodyshop fix it. I also have JDM winkers and CF mirror caps from my previous build that I'd like to finish and install.
• Electronics: Scored 2010+ Touchscreen/Radio unit for a song; and picked up @OWC 's conversion harness set to make everything Plug-N-Play.
• Performance: Need to install my upgraded AliBaba intakes. Once that's complete I'll be looking into a remote tune. I picked up an UpRev Cable /w License from the classifieds.
• Maintenance: Dealt with some overheating last summer, so new Thermostat and Radiator Fans will be installed to fix that.
• BBK Upgrade: I've got Powerstop Remans, but need to get them powder coated (thinking maroon or copper) with proper Infiniti decals. Also need to purchase SS Lines and Rotors for the upgraded brakes
• Wheels: I've got OEM Bright Finish Coupes, but need tires and TPMS sensors specific to the G35. I may wait to install this until after winter subsides.

Trying to get as much done as possible before my wife and I welcome our second kiddo in March (and the mods/projects go on hold). Stay tuned for more!

 

*1 for Raceseng. They provide quality products and top-notch customer service / experience. I have the PolyTi (titanium teardrop) and love it! (needs some fitment work as I have the auto slush box, but I can deal). I just wish Raceseng offered more products toward the G/Z/Q platforms, but...

Good luck w/ continued progress and many blessings for "kiddo #2!"