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I want to let everybody know that I'm 18 years old and my 350z is being financed by me and the down payment for it was done by me. My dad co-signed for me. Before I get to the build part, I want to briefly tell the story of me and my 350z. I spent 3/4 of my junior year in high school saving up money working as a produce clerk at a grocery store. I accumulated $5,000 in that time span. I was in the market for a DE 350z, but I still came up short for one. Luckily, a cheap but well known HR was up for sale. $12,000 was the price. The HR's owner still owed money for it. My dad noticed my hard work and dedication, so he stepped in. He cosigned for me and the loan was transfered to me. My down payment was $3,000 from my $5,000. $2,000 was used for insurance, license plate etc. I was ecstatic about my new car. It boosted my popularity my senior year especially with the females haha. I couldn't mod it in any way because of the money I was making. The car only had lowering springs and a Stillen exhaust setup. A year has passed, I'm now working a way better job that pays really good. I've been on the groups on Facebook and on here just seeing all the clean 350Zs made me dream and visualize. 1 month into working my job I'm now able to mod my 350z. I spent a year seeing 350Zs, learning about them, researching and the time has come to build my 350z to my taste. Here we go. My first purchase for my 350z was a clean NISMO V3 front bumper from ZSpeed Performance along with the extension and the undertray. The bumper is currently in the paint booth and will be installed next week. Initially, I planned on doing clear reflectors for my new bumper. Instead, I went a different route and purchased a neat set of LED reflectors from statusLEDS. I came across a rad set of wheels for a decent price. I purchased a set of TE37 TTA's. They're progressive model Tokyo Time Attacks. The setup is 19x10.5 all around and will be installed next weekend. That is all I have for now but I have more in mind. I plan on purchasing a Motordyne TDX2 exhaust with ART pipes and a nice set of coilovers after the wheels and bumper of course. I hope you guys enjoyed my little story and I hope you stay tuned for my build. Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics!
Congrats on your Z33 and story. You are very fortunate to have the approval and backing of your dad in obtaining your first car. My own story couldn't be more different; my father died in my junior year of HS. Back in those days, there was worry the family wouldn't be able to stay together since nobody else could drive, but I was eager to get my license. And while I never owned a car until after I finished college, I was fortunate enough to make friends with a gearhead who had a Mustang Boss 429 (punched out to a 494 ci monster with his father's help). My friend worked out a deal to allow me to buy him two race tires to co-drive the car at local autocross events during a few years in college. From that humble start in racing, my career has stretched out to over 30 years, two SCCA National Championships and multiple divisional race wins and titles with Nissan. This year saw my HR-powered Z win both the Touring 1 (T1) and T3 championships in Rocky Mountain Division SCCA.
While it looks like you have good taste in both bodywork and wheels, I'd advise you to spend some time and money learning how to properly drive your Z. Building fundamental skills about how to heel-toe downshift, rev match, threshold braking and other driving skills will serve you better then expensive mods. Whether you take a high performance driving class, do a SCCA solo (that's what autocross is called now) or take in a season of PDX or HPDE experience, there are affordable ways to learn how to drive. Those skills will serve you well in the future and make you worthy of driving your Z.
Great story and it sounds like you are a hard working, dedicated young man! That's cool that you are mapping out some good mods on that car (I'm partial to the hr myself hehe) and will have one nice car! Yeah, just pick a good mod at a time as you can afford it and go for it. I'd recommend going for the most common early on mods that most have done like focus on intakes, exhaust, suspension items, etc. and skip some of the cosmetic stuff until later on.
*When I was in High School (long, long ago), my football coach bought a brand new 1970 240Z and we all thought "what the hell is that", but what a cool car; I had never heard of a Datsun before. He took me for a ride in it around town right to the freeway, he got on it and that was awesome!
I want to let everybody know that I'm 18 years old and my 350z is being financed by me and the down payment for it was done by me. My dad co-signed for me. Before I get to the build part, I want to briefly tell the story of me and my 350z. I spent 3/4 of my junior year in high school saving up money working as a produce clerk at a grocery store. I accumulated $5,000 in that time span. I was in the market for a DE 350z, but I still came up short for one. Luckily, a cheap but well known HR was up for sale. $12,000 was the price. The HR's owner still owed money for it. My dad noticed my hard work and dedication, so he stepped in. He cosigned for me and the loan was transfered to me. My down payment was $3,000 from my $5,000. $2,000 was used for insurance, license plate etc. I was ecstatic about my new car. It boosted my popularity my senior year especially with the females haha. I couldn't mod it in any way because of the money I was making. The car only had lowering springs and a Stillen exhaust setup. A year has passed, I'm now working a way better job that pays really good. I've been on the groups on Facebook and on here just seeing all the clean 350Zs made me dream and visualize. 1 month into working my job I'm now able to mod my 350z. I spent a year seeing 350Zs, learning about them, researching and the time has come to build my 350z to my taste. Here we go. My first purchase for my 350z was a clean NISMO V3 front bumper from ZSpeed Performance along with the extension and the undertray. The bumper is currently in the paint booth and will be installed next week. Initially, I planned on doing clear reflectors for my new bumper. Instead, I went a different route and purchased a neat set of LED reflectors from statusLEDS. I came across a rad set of wheels for a decent price. I purchased a set of TE37 TTA's. They're progressive model Tokyo Time Attacks. The setup is 19x10.5 all around and will be installed next weekend. That is all I have for now but I have more in mind. I plan on purchasing a Motordyne TDX2 exhaust with ART pipes and a nice set of coilovers after the wheels and bumper of course. I hope you guys enjoyed my little story and I hope you stay tuned for my build. Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics!
Pay it off, buy a beater vehicle to dd to keep miles off... Then build. 2 cents
Good Job young man! Do it while you can because the wife and kids things will really slow things down. lol
side note! I sure wish I could get some TE37 wtf! I am a grown up.
Haha sometimes it sucks being a grown up... My wifey got me the 350z because she said im old and lame and needed a cooler car because she missed out on my cool youthful years. Its not all bad.
As for op starter nice ride man, when I was 18 I walked my happy *** to work till I saved up enouph for a beat up truck. I would imagine having a sports car back then would have really helped with the ladies. On a side note kinda wish I still had that truck, then again I kinda wish I still had all my old cars and trucks.
Thank you for the positive feedback. I bought the car in May 2014 and have had it since then. It wasn't easy obtaining a car like this. It was perhaps the hardest and most challenging thing I've ever done. As for the wheels, I don't want to get into detail, let's just say they costed a pretty penny haha.
Very nice. I am not a big fan of the v3's on non-Nismos but happy modding non the less.
As an advise, I would check to make sure the slave cylinder has been replaced. (well known warranty issue for HRs) If so looks into the Zpseed kit as a permanent fix.
Welcome to the forum. Love the wheels, 10.5 front are pretty aggressive. Hope to see some progress pics.
Very nice. I am not a big fan of the v3's on non-Nismos but happy modding non the less.
As an advise, I would check to make sure the slave cylinder has been replaced. (well known warranty issue for HRs) If so looks into the Zpseed kit as a permanent fix.
Welcome to the forum. Love the wheels, 10.5 front are pretty aggressive. Hope to see some progress pics.
The slave cylinder was the first issue I had. I have the Zspeed kit like you mentioned and it's awesome. What do you mean by aggresive?
The slave cylinder was the first issue I had. I have the Zspeed kit like you mentioned and it's awesome. What do you mean by aggresive?
Think he means those are some fat *** wheels to fit under the front of the car, considering they are 2 and 1/2 inches wider then your current wheels. But I could be wrong.
Very nice. I am not a big fan of the v3's on non-Nismos but happy modding non the less.
As an advise, I would check to make sure the slave cylinder has been replaced. (well known warranty issue for HRs) If so looks into the Zpseed kit as a permanent fix.
Welcome to the forum. Love the wheels, 10.5 front are pretty aggressive. Hope to see some progress pics.
Right, there was a recall for the slave cylinder for the '07 HR; I had to take mine in about a year after I bought it new. Good advice to just go with the Zspeed and call it good!
Think he means those are some fat *** wheels to fit under the front of the car, considering they are 2 and 1/2 inches wider then your current wheels. But I could be wrong.
I've got 19x10 , 275/30 myself in the front and on back road spirited driving Ive already accidentally done some *natural* fender rolling in the front lol
Also have a good bit of camber in comparison to stock.
I've got 19x10 , 275/30 myself in the front and on back road spirited driving Ive already accidentally done some *natural* fender rolling in the front lol
Also have a good bit of camber in comparison to stock.
Think he means those are some fat *** wheels to fit under the front of the car, considering they are 2 and 1/2 inches wider then your current wheels. But I could be wrong.
The 10.5s will be fine if the offset is right. I had 20x10.5 in the front of mine without rubbing issue and stock camber specs. No worries there. With a 19 though, you are probably limited to about a 275/35 tire in the front. Much bigger than that and you may need to start adding some camber to it with some adjustable upper front arms.
You mean upper? Yes, I have SPL everything, including compression bushings for the lower control arms, which is the compression arm, which isn't adjustable.
I've got the upper (camber and caster) arms adjusted pretty aggressively for the SPL adjustment. I do not hellagay though.
This was before I adjusted camber. This is at stock camber. As you can see, this is not applicable in real world driving situations. lol I actually tried to drive slowly down my neighborhood like this. It resulted in some imperfections in the front fender if you know what I mean.
Last edited by Nismo350z#0310; 09-10-2015 at 06:24 AM.
09-05-2015, 09:36 PM
Finally building my HR.
