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Interesting that the AWD front bar is the thickest of the bunch. Are we to assume that is the stiffest of the OEM bars??
Hard to say because the inner wall thickness plays into the equation as well, but my guess is yes and that the AWD model has more understeer built in to compensate for inclement driving conditions. The AWD can also counter under and oversteer to some degree based on power delivery to each wheel and detection of slip.
Nobody wants to be kicking the tail end of the car out when driving in snow or heavy rain.
Even with that, the AWD front bar is still 4mm down from the Hotchkis front bar, which is said to be over 200% stiffer than stock.
I spoke to Miza at Stillen this morning and he gave me the skinny on the sweet spot for their bars. Concept Z price matched Redline360, including my military discount, so all is good on the wallet front.
“Final project” pieces started arriving from Amayama…
22 pieces to completely replace all of the thick door weatherstripping (4), all of the chrome trim that will be painted black (10), the rear window weatherstrips (2) and the black vertical pieces between the front and rear doors (6).
Clearly one side of my car was predominantly exposed to sun by the previous owner because the rubber window trim was practically disintegrating and needed to be replaced. That led to just painting the chrome the proper way which led to replacing the verticals pieces between the doors because they have a bit of a seal at the bottom and you know, you might as well just do it all. And finally the thick door seals to complete the package.
Wait, one more - new fog chrome so this can get painted black at the same time as the chrome trim for efficiency.
Happy to send out all of the part numbers if anyone else is interested.
This truly is it for the big projects. My son and I are actually really happy with the way the car has turned out. It looks great and this trim replace will take it to that next level. Now, pray for me that she gives us a good 6 years to get him through two years of high school and college and then he’s on his own (and if he hasn’t crashed her, I’ll claim her back!).
Hard to say because the inner wall thickness plays into the equation as well, but my guess is yes and that the AWD model has more understeer built in to compensate for inclement driving conditions. The AWD can also counter under and oversteer to some degree based on power delivery to each wheel and detection of slip.
Nobody wants to be kicking the tail end of the car out when driving in snow or heavy rain.
Even with that, the AWD front bar is still 4mm down from the Hotchkis front bar, which is said to be over 200% stiffer than stock.
I spoke to Miza at Stillen this morning and he gave me the skinny on the sweet spot for their bars. Concept Z price matched Redline360, including my military discount, so all is good on the wallet front.
On my RWD Sport Sedan Im rocking Hotchkis front with OEM Rear with 10k/9k Coilovers (Hipermax S). Perfect setup for me, neutral to a touch tail happy.
So in other news I had my car not want to accelerate the other day, past 3k RPM it was like the TB was only opening 10. Found my brake pedal stopper on the floor hah $4 part from amazon later.. I can just imagine bringing the car to the dealer for a $4 fix would be north of $200
Last edited by thescreensavers; Jun 15, 2025 at 10:30 AM.
I would probably avoid using the ones on the engine itself (i.e., cam covers) and as fasteners for ground wires, but the ones around the periphery look tasteful if your engine bay is clean.
Grounding through bolts is typically frowned upon. Not knocking the OP there but pretty much any major OEM is smart enough not to do this. I wonder what else could have cause his issues. Just my $.02
Today I ordered OEM black outer door handles, gaskets and escutcheons to replace my blue handles. Good old Amayama to the rescue - $35 for each rear handle, $65 for each front. On InfinitiPartsDeal a single front handle is $330. Amayama may be the single best thing that I've learned in the last two decades. Oh, how much money I could have saved over the years... Plus, I looked up how to swap these on YouTube and it was MUCH easier than I expected, so I took the plunge. While I have these off I plan to buff out the scratches in the door handle cup. I'll never understand how these get scratched up on every car. I have literally never put a single scratch in this area on any of my cars.
I also found that PartSouq is no joke. I was trying to replace my adjustable shocks on my FX50 and I literally couldn't find them anywhere save for one front shock on Ebay going for $750. PartSouq had all of them for between $150 - $175 each! The FX is back in business!
And lastly, my new window chrome is supposed to be painted satin black by tomorrow. Excited to get this done and the stainless lines and that will round out the G for awhile.
Chrome trim and fog light housings replaced with satin black. Also replaced the shiny “tape”that runs vertically between the front and rear doors (will get better pics later, but this was actually quite faded on the drivers side which clearly was where the sun hit this car with its previous owner) and all of the door weatherstripping, Everything is so fresh now and no disintegrating window rubber anymore,
Boring as that sounds, should do it at least once a year.
