Tim_Patrick

Hi guys, I’m going to apologize in advance it seems like whenever I post to forums I seem to **** a bunch of people off.
So here’s my question/ situation, I have an 03 350z touring that was hit on the front driver wheel/fender and totaled. The front airbags went off and there was quite a bit of damage. The insurance let me keep the car for 200 which was a steal considering it had a bunch of parts and all new tires put on 400 miles before it was hit. I already bought another identical 350z a year newer same color and interior and all and have switched over most of the performance parts and put the stick parts back on the totaled one. Now my question is the car still has a clean title because the insurance considered it a repair when I bought the car back even though they said it was totaled and I’m assuming they just didn’t want to go through all the paperwork or something. So I am planning on rebuilding the car and was wondering what issues I will run into like if the computer goes into some sort of safety mode, does the fuel pump get cut off and do I need to reset or replace it or anything like that that’s relevant to the project because I’ve never done a salvage build before but have experience in intensive builds like this. The car electronics still come on when the key is turned but haven’t tried starting the car yet but the engine and transmission both look fine. Just to be safe though I am going to buy a rebuild kit for the engine and tear it down, it has 178,000 miles so it’s just about due anyway.

Now I already have another 350z same color and all and there’s no point in having two identical ones and a few of the body panels are messed up so this is my build plan. I’m going to strip the whole interior out and remove all of the exterior panels, I’m planning on keeping all the good body panels for spares for my other z because of matching color, even going to drill the welds and remove the rear quarters. I have a friend who welds heavy machinery and pipe for a living that wants to start doing it on the side for money and said he’d do all the labor for the next part for free as long as I use it to help advertise his business in all that. So once the car is down to just the unibody I’m going to cute it to basically the floor pan and firewall, windshield and roof are going. Then we are going to build a full cage around what’s left, kind of like a sand buggy we are going to brace down the sides the engine bay and interior. This is a good point to say the car will not be a daily driver or anything just a project/toy. I do plan on doing aftermarket racing seats with a harness setup and probably replace the gas tank with a fuel cell depending on budget.

All advice is appreciated and thank you for your time, please don’t bother telling me it’s a stupid idea or ruining a car because it’s eother this or scrap the car once I get the parts off and I’d like to have another project going and realize it’ll be a bit of a money pit but all my cars are and this is just a fun ide I’m gonna try. I put in a few pictures of the car from the accident and a couple of g35s that they started prepping for a body kit but are similar roof lines and rear structure to my plan.

tampa_joey

well- i gotta say- sounds like a fun time ahead. if i had the time, space, tools and a good buddy- that would be something i'd love to have as a project..
did i miss you mentioning what sort of body you are going to put on the rails or are you going to go full on mad max and make the car a rail buggy?
(and no matter what you do- hey-its not like you are taking a perfectly good Z and wack-a-doodling it

zakmartin

As long as you have to strip the body from the car, you might as well cut it in half, stretch it out, and make a 350Z limo. At a minimum, you'd have the most unique Z car in the State of New York. At worst, you could get your Class C license and drive a bunch of drunk bride's maids around for money.

Tim_Patrick

Thanks man! And yeah plan on doing a rail buggy, first car was a old vw rail buggy and it was a blast. I might do a couple small pieces of sheet metal in some spots or rub off the bottom half and some sort of mesh grille to protect the radiator. I’m shooting for as much weight reduction as possible and making ithe cage/frame as strong as possible because it’s been totaled already, plus it’s already missing half the interior because the kid I bought it off was in the process of building a roll cage inside and ran out of money, can’t see from the pictures but there’s no interior pieces behind the seats. basically just building a new car around the drive terrain. And i luckily have like six buddies that wanna help out

Tim_Patrick

The limo idea is pretty cool but I feel like mine isn’t a good candidate and it’s a lot more expensive haha. Plus I think a z drift buggy will be pretty unique

zakmartin

Yeah, actually, a drift buggy on a stripped Z would REEK with awesomeness. I'm keeping an eye on this thread to see where it goes.

Atreyu'z 350

Two words.. Bad a$$.

zakmartin

You could call it "Z-ombie Apocalypse."

tampa_joey

just need someone with mad graphic skills to mock up some design ideas-
massive rally lights on roof bar, mudder tires, big skid bars/plates front n rear- a winch somewhere- those big old header type exhaust pipes sticking up out of the bars - air filter scoop mounted up high n dry,
lol-told ya that if i had time,money,space and tools (and so on-) i would have a blast with a project car like this
and when project was done- a trip to the Wastelands weekend out there in Mojave for a mad max party time