Did a few other things as well to get her to 100%:

1.Had to change the steering rack due to leaking and needing it to pass inspection. Couldn’t get a new oem one as they are discontinued for the AWD so did a remanufactured one on BuyAutoParts and it worked great. Was hard to ID correct part number bc it had been superseded many times, but the original part number worked thankfully! I have a feeling this is why the previous owner traded it in - I was able to pull up the full vehicle history from my friend at Nissan and it looks like the last time he brought it in they noted it had a “PS fluid issue” - my guess is they told him that part was discontinued and they couldn’t fix it and then he traded it in because of that…? Did the tie rods at the same time and everything aligned perfectly. This was a bit of a scare since if this didn’t work, I was going to be up a creek.

2.Swapped out interior and license plate bulbs to 6000k LED.

3. Grabbed up some weather tech front mats to have for winter before these decide to be discontinued.

4. Wheels are getting powder coated a dark gray today as well as painted new grille, spoiler and new external badges.

5. Just received window chrome blackout film pre cut from Slickmod.

6. Had windows tinted 35%

7. Replaced the front sub frame cross member (these rust on every Infiniti) and rear tunnel brace. Primed and painted both a cherry red to hopefully have them last a bit longer. Did this on my 2004 G coupe and the new one started to rust almost immediately, even never driving in snow, etc!

8. Replaced the rear stay assembly(primed and painted black) and installing a G37S coupe sway bar primed and painted red on Monday along with all new end links and hardware.

9. On Monday the coolant bleeder valve and other side valve will get replaced to be on the safe side.

10. Transmission tray took a hit by something, so this was replaced along with gasket and new bolts and oem fluid.

11. Changed both diffs and transfer case fluid.

12. Installed Valeo titanium wipers 😁

13. New Continentals going on with the new wheels.

Starting to come together…work in progress.

 

Next up I will do a full paint correction myself and use my leftover chemical guys ceramic to coat her. Need to get the fog lights blacked out as well - is there a way to remove the chrome surrounds from the outside of the vehicle?

i wanted to get the exhaust tips powder coated as well - might still try to do this since the shop will have to pull my exhaust one more time when they do the rear stay and sway bar.

Next up on the mods list will be the Z1 big brake kit with red calipers. I’ve read that installing new dust shields is quite the pain, so thinking to just go the trimming route. I see that these should fit under the stock 7.5 inch wheels, but won’t know for sure until I try I guess. These are on sale for 150$ off currently. Will do the brake fluid at this time obviously.

All in all it has been a fun project. Finding a 2013 XS with only 60k and a perfect interior was hard to come by. I figure if I can get another 80-90k off of it, that would more than make up for this mild investment. Bought the car as a project for my son who will be driving soon, but I have to admit I’ve always had a soft spot for the G sedans 😜.

More pics to come once she is finished up…

 

@JZ39 You've been busy :-)

Coming together nicely.

 

Thank you. It’s been a bit crazy ordering parts and going from place to place, but that’s definitely the fun of it! Glad to hopefully give another G a new lease on life.

Should have everything completed by next week.

 

Based on the latest news out of the white house, you should be able to recover your initial investment quickly as many will flock to the used car market to avoid higher priced new cars: https://apnews.com/article/autos-tar...d11eca90aaa638

 

The silver ring is clipped into the black piece, lower the underbody on that side and unclip the black plastic piece from the bumper then the silver surround can be unclipped.

This is a 5min task after getting the G up to access underneath

 

Get em blasted and powder coated like I’m doing right now 😁. J/k, but a good segway for me to show some in-process pics. I joked with my buddy doing the work if he had ever seen 18 inch wheels before haha.

 

2 weeks ago I received wheels/tires from Fitment Industries. I ceramic coated the wheels, denibbed the tires, and removed the anti-molding agent from the tires last Sunday. Friday night I put the rear wheels on, and when I went to put on the fronts, the wheel scraped my caliper. This is one of FI's in-house brand wheels. They told me that it would clear the akebonos if I order the specific one I did and used my existing 5mm spacers. It happens to be the same offset/width as my current wheels but the only difference is the 1" smaller diameter. Somehow FI has failed to understand the fitment of their own wheel on a common application. I ordered 1mm larger spacers, unsure if it would be enough. It wasn't enough.

I then added my old 5mm spacers and my new 6mm spacers together and couldn't get the hubcentric ring on, or the lug nuts. I decided to just hold the wheel against the surface and lower the car. I observed the fitment/clearance at this 11mm reduction in offset, resulting in effective +24. Judging by the fact it has more than enough room, it should allow for 1mm higher offset.

So now I ordered 10mm bolt-on spacers, which should be here by Thursday. My first ever order from CZP.

The front will end up being 18x8.5 +25 245/45/18. The scratches on the caliper are unfortunate (thanks FI). Also, their customer support was dodgy throughout the process -- with various issues along the way. I can get into more detail later. They also charge you an addon charge for them to take responsibility for their packaging practices. If you don't get it you have to deal with the shipping carrier but if you do they will supposedly do something about packages damaged in transit. Their entire business is shipping wheels and tires, so they should package things properly. To make matters worse, they claim that the carrier will contact you to arrange a delivery and that you'd have to sign. When I received a shipment email the tracking said Fedex Ground Home Delivery No Signature Required. I asked about this and they told me sometimes they ship it with signature required and sometimes they don't. Okay, well that's different from their FAQ on their website, their order email, and what the salesman tells you beforehand.

I of course contacted them and asked them for a refund for the so-called "shipping protection" because I wouldn't have been able to use it if I had wanted to as on their FAQ it states that the "shipping protection" ends when the package is delivered.... but I had no chance to inspect or refuse to accept the delivery. It was left at my door. They did give me the refund.

I'm expecting a partial refund for their incorrect claim that their own wheel would fit my common application. I don't know how it's possible that they don't know what their own wheels fit.. it's not like this vehicle is rare. Everyone knows it's a pain getting wheels to fit with the big brakes.

 

Dude. White Duck feet professionally powder coated? Subscribed. Need to keep us updated and post the the 18" wheel thread here when you are done: https://www.myg37.com/forums/18/2765...ic-thread.html
Is it a basic white, or are you using a metallic pearl?

 

Oh, this is just the bare metal after stripping them. They are getting powder coated tomorrow in Toyota 1G3 Magnetic Gray along with painting a Stillen rear spoiler and new badges for the trunk in the same color. Since my G is blue (not my first, second third or fourth choice, but couldn’t pass up the 60k miles and AWD S on this one), I didn’t want to go black, but instead a nice dark gray that I have used on several of my vehicles before.

Will have pics tomorrow. Really trying to have this project Phase 1 completed by the end of this week, but don’t think I am quite going to make that goal…

 

I’m a knucklehead. Had no idea the wheels are white once all the paint is stripped off.

I like the idea of painting the emblems something other than black.

What’s the connection to Toyota 1G3 Magnetic Gray?

The powder coating shop near me recommended a color called Sport Gray as I have a second set of the same wheels. I actually like the OEM hyper silver color, but it’s difficult to touch up because the OEM paint uses lead.

 

Sneak peak before clearcoat.

I picked that color randomly from a color palette at my guys shop - no knowledge that it was a Toyota color. This is officially 1G3, darker, finer as there are a lot of variants of 1G3, but that one caught my eye.

Looks insane!

 

That looks like some kind of satin gunmetal. Very nice.

 

Is it a matte finish? It almost appears as such in the picture. Metallic? Curious to see the wheels clear coated and installed.

 

With clearcoat drying.

We went with a gloss clearcoat. Contemplated satin, but was kind of splitting hairs at that point. I love that the whole wheel is powder coated - makes keeping them clean on the inside a lot easier.