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Hey MyG37, I'm Frogman. After two years of owning and modifying, I figured it was time to post a build thread/blog. I've been a Nissan man all my life, started in 2006 with a green '97 D21 Hardbody (which I still have). That truck is the origin of my nickname Frogman. From the truck I moved on to 240sx's and I've had a few, luckily still have my '98 S14 (that's where "Kouki" comes from) It's been waiting years for the SR20 swap. I got an Altima to keep the miles off those 2 and drove the Altima to roughly 250,000 miles. Around that time is where the G came into the picture. In June 2020 I was fortunate enough to get this G37x sedan for a discount, as it had been in our family since 2014. It only took a week for the mods to begin.
Build Goals
This car is my daily driver and with other project vehicles the intention is to keep this build simple and "OEM+". Currently I have no plans for power adders just want it to refine what the car could have been from the factory. Having done one autocross event and loving it, we'll see where that leads us...
Here's the current build to date.
Wheels/Tires
OEM G35 Rays Forged Wheels (Squared Rears 19"x8.5" +33); powder coated Prismatic Speedway Gray and black "Rays" Center Caps
Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 255/40/R19
Z1 Extended Studs (20mm front and 10mm rear)
Z1 Hub centric spacers (10mm front and 5mm rear)
Muteki Black closed lug nuts
Suspension/Brakes
Swift Springs
KYB GR-2 Struts
Z1 Adjustable Toe and Traction Arms
Hotchkis Sway Bars (Front is set to softest setting/ Rear is set to middle setting)
Touch surfaces are highly underrated. I made it almost 4 weeks before I had to wrap the steering wheel in new leather. So I took a weekend to rewrap the wheel in Nappa Leather from Redline Goods, the wheel feels so much better now. FYI a steamer goes a long way in helping with this task.
I found the railing to be a great working height to clamp the wheel to and begin this project.
Beginning the wrap.
Started at the bottom as it seemed the most straight forward. I started each section at least twice. There is a learning curve to this but the end result will be worth it.
All sewn up. Ready to go back in the car.
Last edited by FrogmanKouki; Aug 2, 2022 at 12:37 PM.
So wheels, what a saga.... I have a problem with hoarding them, it helps most of my vehicles have been RWD 5 x 114.3 Nissans so they've always been interchangeable. That's where the story begins... I got a complete set of G35 Forged wheels that were in need of refinishing in October 2016. I've always been a fan of these and my intention was to refinish them and put them on my S14. As you can see they were straight but in need of some love. I also thought they were a little large for my S14, I would have needed very small sidewalls to keep the proper OD.
Trying to clean up the G35 wheels.
Testing out the fitment on the S14.
I don't mind the look, but they are a little large for an S14.
So when I got the G37 I knew where the G35 wheels would go, but I also wanted to get a full set of rears so the search began for 2 more rears. After a couple weeks of searching I was able to find a pair and send them to powder coat. I chose Prismatic Speedway Grey and was pumped to get them on. In my haste I failed to properly inspect the second set of wheels. One of those wheels had 2 destroyed lug holes BIG mistake (this wheel currently lives on the wall of the garage as a reminder). Also It was too expensive to throw out.
Good thing I paid to get that powder coated. I nearly threw up, not only was it wasted money, but I was back to searching for a single rear G35 wheel, which meant more money, yuck cars are an expensive hobby. At last I had all the pieces together and it was time to get the wheels on the car.
I guess I have a thing for G35 wheels not being on G35s
Fresh from coating. Look at that sparkle!
Those brakes have always been nasty, we'll get to those in a bit.
Car is a little high, lowering is on the schedule but parts were hard to get in Summer 2020.
This is how the wheels usually look when not in direct sunlight.
Last edited by FrogmanKouki; Aug 2, 2022 at 12:40 PM.
In further pursuit of OEM+. I'm always on the lookout for parts that I may want in the future. With this constant looking I was able to source some used Akebono's from a wrecked G37S. They will need some cleaning up but will need to wait so I can get another winter out of the OEM 17" wheels.
Bins to store the parts because this will be a long project.
Impact makes quick work of separating the calipers.
Rebuild kits, hardware kits, speed bleeders, extended studs, and less glamorous parking brake shoes.
Last edited by FrogmanKouki; Jul 27, 2022 at 05:53 PM.
More OEM+? Or just OEM? Either way I found a seller on eBay carpartscorner that resells brand new in box OEM Nissan parts. I was happy to see that they still had a Liquid Platinum OEM Spoiler and OEM Mud guards brand new in box! Even better they're located in middle TN and less than an hour from my work. No shipping and an excuse to clock out early, sign me up.
The OEM spoiler is such an improvement over the factory chrome trunk bezel. Even more so on Liquid Platinum where I feel they clash. To this day this is one of my favorite updates to the car.
Fresh out of the box. Gotta love brand new OEM parts.
Mud Guards and Spoiler in place.
Much needed improvement. I can't state how much I hate the factory chrome trunk bezel/trim.
Mud Guards in place as well.
Last edited by FrogmanKouki; Jul 27, 2022 at 05:55 PM.
First preventive maintenance. Belt, idler, and tensioner replacement.
A chance to wash the cars and clean out the garage. Can you tell I have a thing for Infiniti wheels: G35 Forged on the G37, G35 7 spokes on the S14, and Q56 wheels on the D21.
Cleaning out the garage.
What can I say? I'm a Nissan dude and that explains most of my problems.
Last edited by FrogmanKouki; Jul 27, 2022 at 05:57 PM.
Yes both of those would be fun options, it currently has the single cam KA but maybe somewhere down the road it will get an engine swap. I'd really love to have my own shop to have more room for these projects but that may have to wait, the real estate market is hard to judge at the moment.
Last edited by FrogmanKouki; Jun 17, 2022 at 10:51 AM.
It's been a long time between mods but winter has a way of cooling the mods down.
That and buying another vehicle... In April 2021 we bought a 2016 JKU Wrangler with only 23k miles, so of course we had to get black wheels and new headlights/fog lights and eventually bumpers. I know it's off topic but it is the reason the G was neglected.
The day we got the Jeep and the G was ignored for a few months.
New headlights, wheels/tires, and headlights and fogs.
New rear bumper.
The pup approves, it's her favorite vehicle of ours.
OKAY, once again sorry to be off topic but goes to show I can't leave anything alone. Now back to the G, it's been high for almost a year of my ownership time to lower the thing. So the first long weekend with decent weather it began...
All new KYB strut parts, including boots/isolators and upper mounts.
Swift Sport Springs and some Z1 goodies, arms, spacers, and extended studs.
Getting the job started. The rear was the easy until it wasn't...
The car spent the first half of it's life in NJ, so had a decent amount of surface rust. I spent almost 2 hours trying to remove the camber bolt. Had to pull out the Sawzall and cut the bolt out.
The next day I was able to put the rest of the rear together. Z1 Toe and Camber Arms. After cutting out the camber bolt I sure am glad I bought the eccentric lockout kit to go with the camber arms.
On to the front and it was simple but, the auto parts store spring compressor wasn't able to compress the short front spring enough. The biggest bummer was not getting this done all by my own, as I'm a fan of DIY.
Boxed up the parts for the front struts took them to my local performance shop. They made short work with their hydraulic press and within an hour of getting home the car was back on the ground.
Finally looking a bit more proper, has a bit of rake to it but guess that's what you get with a simple spring kit.
37 shades of gray? Didn't realize until later that this photo is mostly gray, but it's finally getting to where I'm happy. Handling was much improved as well the old suspension was around150k miles.
Last edited by FrogmanKouki; Jun 18, 2022 at 04:52 PM.
This year was one of the busiest of my life. Work kept me busy for months, in fact over a span of 60 days I only had 8 days off. With so little free time I spent it with friends and family. Still took a few pictures of the G though.
My favorite part of OEM+ is how subtle the differences are but parking beside a stock G shows those differences.
Picked up a new phone so the photo quality should be getting better. First photo of the G with the new phone.
Last edited by FrogmanKouki; Jun 20, 2022 at 05:41 PM.
BACK ON THE WAGON! It's been far too long since I've wrenched on the G, this spring was my chance to fix that.
Since being lowered I did a bit of damage to factory undertray. I parked in a friends yard and ripped the plastic while backing out. Perfect, what a great opportunity to upgrade. (I've always been of the mindset that broken things are the world's way my way of excusing an upgrade.) So I ordered a TBW metal AWD undertray.
TBW Undertray it was a real easy install.
Felling a little safer now.
Sorry for the reflections. Should have chosen a different spot for pictures.
Last edited by FrogmanKouki; Jun 17, 2022 at 06:46 PM.
