ThePistonDoctor

A little background on my Z:

Bought new in May of '08

Four stock wheels went out of balance by the time I got home to Rochester (~210 miles from where I purchased it in my hometown). (roughly 300 miles on the car) (WTF?)

Transmission clicks and is replaced under warranty at 7500 miles (WTF?)

Four warped/pitted rotors replaced under warranty at 18,000 miles (WTF?)

Now at 19,700 miles, and hit a fuxing deer today which cracked the bumper, hood, pass fender, splash guard, coolant resevoir, center cap on my aftermarket wheel and broke the pass side headlight bracket (estimate @ $3500 to fix)

I am at my wits end. I traded in a 2002 supercharged and cammed 550 HP mustang for this car, and I loved it initially, but in retrospect it seems like it's been nothing but problems. I do NOT drive this car hard. My mustang was driven hard, but this car I wanted for the reliability, fun to drive, and gas mileage for highway driving (which I do a lot). I did put in a very nice SQ sound system and carputer which I really enjoy.

Now, looking at parts online I am wondering if I can fall in love with this car again, despite all the problems. I basically have two options:

1. Pay the deductible for my insurance, have my shop fix the damage, and sell the car in the spring (probably at a loss because it now has an accident on the record thanks to a deer), OR

2. Take a check for $3500 from the insurance company, take the car off the road for the winter, and spend the winter working on it to bring it back to something I can be proud of (i.e. redo the carputer/system, slick body kit, new wheels, etc, not just bring it back to stock).

I'm torn because I want to give up on this car but I know I will just buy another project and wrench on that when I do (thought of going back to my roots with an oldschool mustang or possibly an all out drag-built WRX or EVO). I feel like I would be betraying my fellow car guys by just giving up because I had problems with the car, but I need some convincing that I haven't had too many problems and it's actually worth keeping.

I know that if I decide to keep the car and rebuild, it will be a winter-long project and I'm sure in the spring it will be something I love again, but these issues with the transmission/rotors/wheels are still eating away at me, thinking I'm going to dump all this money into making it look nice and be perfect inside, and then tranny will grenade on me or something.

What would you do?! Help a brotha out!!!

BTW - here's a pic of the car (obviously pre-deer, lol):

StevieZ

I hear ya! Personally, if you feel that "most of the bad" is out of the way, I would take the $3500 and repair yourself. First, you can get a cool kit (i.e. V2 Nismo, Shine, or Do-Luck - personal opinion) and CF hood. I'm sure that will cover it with some spare change. Then, if you want to spend more, I would get some 19"s aggressive fit, drop (at least) 1", and re-paint whole car (& wheels) flat black!!! Just a thought...

Mike@Blackline

iTrader: (37)

he has 3500. not 3500 twenty dollar bills. a good flat black paintjob will cost more than 3.5. but yes, you can go aftermarket now and save money in the process

bluelineshooter

You just have bad luck, dude.

SMP52889

You should invest in a Hummer or large vehicle so that the next time mister deer comes out to play you take his *** out.

Just my opinion

migz_0320

iTrader: (1)

just ask your self why you traded a 550 built mustang for a 350z... just save up, it will be worth it... fix up what you got and save up... go FI, it'll hit deers no problem.. jk.. goodluck and sorry for the misfortunes...

JEKL

iTrader: (24)

You will have to grow another mullet if you sell the Z and go back to a Mustang. Doesn't sound worth it to me.

Spike100

Think in a different direction (another scenario)…

You get rid of the Z and take the insurance $$, buy something else and fix-it-up way-cool, and then during the “maiden voyage/ test drive,” you hit yet another (maybe the same) deer.

Well crap… There is no good answer to your “puzzler.”

--Spike

jdubb82

The deer would have happened regardless of what or who was driving mate. Aside from that, you have not made out bad at all. Those issues are quite normal, under warranty, and I think you should stick with it. The loss you will take getting rid of it is not worth it......trust me.

luxuriouslexie

iTrader: (5)

I think you should keep it. Like you said, it's not worth it to sell because its got that accident on record. Secondly, you can buy a nice kit for the car, do somthing completely different and its the only time you'll have a valid excuse to do it. 3rd: Transmission and rotars are in perfect working order now.

No matter what car you buy/decide to keep, you'll always have deer problems up north. Every car has their own problems. Keep it. It's easier to mod than an STi or Evo anyways

I DTW I

Hey man that's a good winter project. It's not like you'd be daily driving the Z in the winter anyways. Then you'll have the Z good to go in the spring. Plus you said you're the type that likes to work on cars.

Keep it.

350Shadow

iTrader: (7)

keep it. especially if its still under warranty haha. but yeah for some reason i think 350s are ridiculous when it comes to impacts, i slid into a hillside at like 25 and had to replace the whole front passenger side bumper hood fender and everything in between, my friend spun out into the mountain side going 50 in his integra and had to just wiggle his headlight to make it turn on again

WhiteNoiz

I don't see how hitting a deer makes it the Z's fault? You hit a deer, its gunna fk up your car (if its upright when you hit it). Modded Stang, 350, Vette, whatever, you would be sitting with a damaged car. Aside from that, brakes and rotors would make your car worth dumping? Lastly, this is the first time I have ever heard of someone having a problem with all the tires going out of balance in one trip. Did they use silly putty to glue the tire weights in lol.

Get a grip bud, keep the car! Mustangs are dime a dozen.

ThePistonDoctor

Hey all, with your help I think I've convinced myself to keep the car! I just spent about 4 hours looking at body kits, wheels, and custom interiors. I have some friends that do custom body work, so I think I'm going to get myself a nice lip kit and have someone mold it to a new OEM bumper. I also like the Stillen rear end and Nismo sideskirts. I am a big fan of custom engineering and mix n match design so this should be unique and clean. While I'm at it, I'll also have my buddy shave all the badges and maybe wetsand and repaint everything to get rid of chips and imperfections.

Also, if I'm taking the entire winter I will be able to save plenty. I have 4-5K right now for a nice winter car which I have been looking for recently, and that will leave me with enough in the bank to live on and pay bills. I can easily cover the body kit and painting through my buddy with the insurance check and I will have a little extra income from taking off collision insurance over the winter while I have the car in storage.

I can do a two tone leather interior color matched to the car for about $1500 (see leatherseats.com, there's a shop in this area that does similar custom upholstery and his work is fantastic), and I have all the equipment for the stereo and carputer, I just have to redesign the layout since one of my amps croaked and had to be replaced with a new 2010 version which is a different size. That redesign will only cost me probably $300-500. A VERY nice new set of wheels (thinking maybe Volk GTS w/ a silver pinstripe) will run me $2500-3K, and lowering I can do myself at my uncle's shop for a few hundred.

Looking at it like this and budgeting it all out, it looks like I can probably re-do the entire car into something amazing for about 5K out of pocket, I should be able to make that over the winter with minimal effort and bring her back full bore in the spring.

In the mean time, here's a few pics of my work on the stereo/carputer to give you a hint of what's to come:

Little custom bracket I made for mounting the 7" touchscreen for the computer:



Removed the stock cubby hole to be replaced with the screen:



Frame for the screen bezel (originally mapped w/ cardboard, this is 1/8" plywood):



Test fit before side bezels:



Side and top bezels done (lots of dremeling and a steady hand, lol) epoxied in place, and coated with fiberglass resin for strength:



Finished. Painted with adhesive paint and then flocked, the door just sits on top and comes down to sit on two tiny screws I set in to hold the top part in place:



Wiring:







Building the sub box and amp rack:











Flushmount background panel:



Tracing out the false floor:



False floor cut and in place:



False floor covered and in place (there's now grilles for the amp and sub openings):





Finally: up and running Ubuntu Linux on the carputer. The big box on the left is a power supply so I could run the 12V intelligent PSU for the computer inside on 120V. That didn't go in the car.



After stuffing all the wiring and computer components in a slick little case and plugging everything in, I have a 30 band equalizer connected to an Audison SRx2 running a set of Morel Tempo 6.5" components and a Diamond Audio D6 with an Image Dynamics IDQ10V3. The EQ is software based and controlled using the touchscreen, connected to a 320GB hard drive where I keep all my media. The carputer will also do movies, navigation, hands free phone, etc. It's a pretty cool system overall and it sounds phenomenal. Over the winter I need to pull some stuff out and re-work it, since the 2010 model Diamond amp which I now have is unfortunately quite a bit smaller so it no longer fits in my amp rack (lol). Hope you enjoyed the walk through and I look forward to documenting all my reworks over this winter season!!!

ThePistonDoctor

Oh, and for what it's worth, I killed the deer.

WhiteNoiz

Wow, impressive install, why did you even start this thread? lol

ThePistonDoctor

Because I have had so many other mechanical problems with the car, one after another, just don't know if it's worth it. But I guess if I drop some money and blood into it, I can always dump it with the story and get more for it

BTW did you miss the part about having to replace the entire tranny after 7500 miles? Lol

CardboardBox

Whats with fr500 mustang rims on a Z?

ThePistonDoctor

Paying homage to the car I had before this one which was 5 years of blood sweat and tears to take it to the 10s in the 1320...you gotta problem with that? :P

GT-Z

iTrader: (2)

He had a 550hp mustang man... Gotta remember it some how..lol