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Well, after 6 years of wanting/debating/searching/going crazy...along with buying/fixing/flipping 3 bikes and a car (95 ZX6E, 02 CBR F4i, 07 ZX-6R, 01 Eclipse) I finally got my dream car.......in the form of a Pikes Peak White 2003 Nissan 350Z Enthusiast 6MT!!!!!!! My significant other has officially named her "Zoe"
The car was military owned, had been in storage for over 4 years, and then driven daily 20 miles round trip. Never tracked, and also pretty well taken care of as far as the little things...I got it with some semi faded BBS 18's that have a couple chips and scratches but NO curb rash The P.O. cut my muffler off.....to make it louder lol. It also had a fairly substantial oil drip from valve covers that would leave a quarter sized drop overnight! Oil pressure gauge didn't work unless held in (later found to have a short in the board in gauge), and the drivers exterior door handle didn't work (common problem) Along with a lower intake manifold leak. All things I could have talked the price even further down with but as it is i got the car for $3k....
First week of owning the car, I realized the challenges of driving a relatively low to the ground car (don't ask) But I was happy, had the car of my dreams, and was enjoying EVERY second of life I was in the driver seat! As a reference, I work at a small family shop, so I get the benefits of being able to use a lift after hours and on weekends (shout-out to the BEST boss in the world ) To date, I've:
Found a new triple gauge and installed (thank you hippie!)
Re-sprayed battery/fluid covers, stock strut bar from the ugly kermit the frog green that they had been sprayed before
Replaced Valve cover gaskets
Replaced Intake gasket set
Replaced spark plugs with NGK Laser Platinum
Drained/filled transmission fluid with Nissan OEM fluid
Drained filled differential case with Nissan OEM fluid
Installed Pioneer DEH-X8500BH stereo
Fixed the retractable cubby mechanism with some well placed epoxy and plastic welds in the 03 waterfall
Previous owner had taken windshield cowl off and jammed it up under windshield somehow on re-installment, pulled it off, replaced all the plastic clips and re-installed the correct way!
Replaced the clogged PCV valve
New OEM rotors/pads/right rear caliper
New drivers door handle!!!!! (so happy about this one! thank you hippie again )
Pulled/balanced/rotated BBS wheels/goodyear tires and realized how badly these wheels need to be re-sprayed
Put a temporary antennae on I had lying around while I wait for my short shaft S2000 one to come in!
Obtained a second whole plenum/intake and have started the very long and tedious but extremely rewarding polishing process!!!! (thank you again hippie)
Installed complete 06+ door panels (again.......hippie is da bomb!!!!)
Bought replacement OEM jack in case of an emergency tire blow out 0.0 (yup, hippie had this for me too )
Car underneath is spotless, no rust, no dents, dings, or hits of any kind, flex pipe on exhaust has slight fraying, sway bar links/tie rod ends/ball joints are solid. The exhaust is just cut off and spraying down under the trunk (fixing that this week with what might be a name branded true dual!!!!!)
I have several packages en route to me for some fun installs and getting some stiffening goodies this weekend from a local guy I forgot to mention...the trunk popped open on me on US-1/I440 late last Tuesday night wind blew it back down but it wouldn't stay latched, come to find out the hidden button had frozen in the winter storm we had and completely malfunctioned......leaving me with the only option of sitting on the side of the highway and tearing the trunk apart to unplug that damn switch. With the engine maintenance taken care of, tires and all stock stuff checked out and made sure to be alright. Plans for the next few weeks are to work on the 06 headlights I have to make the custom design I've drawn up, and get a LOT of stiffy goodies for the suspension! I've been wanting to make this thread for a while, just wanted to get all the little things sorted out first. You guys are all pretty awesome and I've learned a LOT from this forum already. I've just cleaned up the interior and exterior is going through a thorough scrubbing tonight (don't mind the picture with dirty car and new door handle) So without farther ado.....
Last edited by KJFire4Life; 05-04-2016 at 09:03 PM.
Reason: Wrecked
Glad to see your car found a great home in your hands. Always nice to see someone going through there car and fixing all the little minor and bigger items instead of letting them ride. Keep enjoying your car and the future mods to come. Welcome to the forum.
Well, last tuesday night I drove 8 horus round trip starting at 5pm and getting home at 2am to get a Greddy Titanium Dual exhaust for a HELLUVA deal! All I had to do was source some gaskets (Used to work at advance auto, no sweat and pretty much free) Installation last night was slightly time consuming due to the old muffler having been cut off and the drivers muffler hanger taken out! So I've got the drivers side hanger on it's way, I used the bolt and rubber hanger to hold up passenger side exhaust, swapped the passenger muffler bracket to drivers side with two bolts holding it to the frame. And currently have that held with a twisted up longer rubber muffler hanger. (yes that made no sense I know) But long story short, I didn't take any pictures of the finished product, but I did take a couple mid install, just for reference of what my old pipes looked like lol Also..........I noticed these control arm bushing issues earlier this week Whitelines are currently sitting in my hand and will be installed very early tomorrow before the Superbowl starts!!!!! determined to make that a 2 hour job start to finish thank God for shops and lifts!
Last edited by KJFire4Life; 02-10-2016 at 06:50 AM.
Sunny day and decided to get some interior pics and those sexy Greddy blued tips! Don't mind the missing door switch panels. The 06 panels were painted really badly with some scratchy, error and bubble ridden spray paint. They are currently on their 4th round of wet-sanding and paint coats. Alllllllmost perfect!
Last edited by KJFire4Life; 02-10-2016 at 06:47 AM.
Well, I'll let my pictures show what I did this weekend! Anyone looking to do LCA bearings. They literally took me 5 minutes to pop each arm off (with an impact gun obviously), and all of 10 minutes per side to press old bearing out with a 29mm socket and press each new one in with the first socket i found that fit over the poly bushing but stopped at the outer metal jacket. 1 hour later I had the bushings done, and alignment finished up! Wiithout farther ado.......
Last edited by KJFire4Life; 02-10-2016 at 06:46 AM.
Alright, so the brackets I was missing finally came in and the other night I decided to put them in........that turned into the very quick realization that I needed to re-locate the evap box..........and all the wires..............and the 3 hoses.............and it was already 9PM...........Long story short, don't try to cheap things out and go with zip ties lol you'll get frustrated and say SCREW IT then go do it the right way. Since greddy does not sell their reloaction kit and I wasn't going to pay somebody $100 for one sitting around. I took a 2" x 2' piece of steel and drilled holes centered that were big enough to go over two of the studs that held the old heat shield up. The key being when I drilled the holes I drilled them so that I had to bend the beam slightly in the middle so that it followed the curvature of the trunks underside and then the holes would line up and the box didn't have any risk of falling down frrom weight or what not. It's on tensioned and this is where 3 really BIG zip ties came in handy. It's tied to the rear body support beam and my fabricated cross steel and it's solid! I'm making actual steel bands now to replace the zip ties but for now it's holding and hasn't had even 2mm of slippage based on the marks I made from where I set it the first time to track if it moved or not. Couple pics below!
Also, I'm building up to the install of my suspension setup. Any help with parts I've missed is greatly appreciated. List is below:
Tein ComfortSport Coilovers
Tein EDFC system
Rear SPC adjustable control arms
Front Megan adjustable upper control arms
Rear Lower Megan tie brace
GTSPEC 4 point chassis brace
Stillen Adjustable Sway bars
Whiteline front shock mount bushings
Whiteline front upper control arm bushings
Whiteline rear camber arm inner/outer bushings
this is the plan and I'm only a couple pieces away from taking a day at the shop to get everything in myself! If anyone has any input on what I should/shoudn't do please let me know!
Guess what I got yesterday.......... Slightly used, couple scratches, great deal! GTSpec 4 point chassis bar. All my underside suspension parts are going Camaro Synergy Green anyway so paint is coming!
Just got some more goodies today! Stoptech SS brake lines, also in process of designing a sub box for behind drivers seat compartment. Thinking about painting the outside silver stuff (handles, emblems) and mirrors black. What ya think?
Just a personal opinion but I prefer the SPL suspension parts to the SPC parts... little more expensive, but worth the better quality... nice looking car, keep at it and have fun.
Just got out from my local audio shop.....Very cool things in the works and I'll be dropping my car off on the 23rd to get some bump in my trunk And yes.....It's going to match the Synergy green theme I'm going for! Can't wait to show you guys this! One-of-a-kind sub and box for a hella good deal! (Doing some work on the owners BMW in trade)
Well, this past weekend I was supposed to put my coilovers on......but due to unforseen complications lol they won't be here till this week. Which is perfectly fine, gave me a chance to shorten the install time greatly by putting ALL of the other things on before hand.
Stoptech SS braided brake lines (Everyone said the system was hard to bleed, it took like 10 minutes tops with a buddy pumping the pedal inside)
(Turned the front rotors and painted the rotor caps black to prevent the rust buildup again, yes I used high heat paint! test fitted a wheel before it was dry and got that little ring around rear rotor but wheel covered it up at that point so wasn't worried lol)
Z1 Motorsports SS braided clutch line (For everyones reference, when you push clutch and hold it in, then bleed it, the pedal stays down lol. This one is a PITA cause we had to reach down and pull the pedal back up, then pump the pedal 4-5 times each bleed to get it to gain pressure back and push back up.)
Kinetix Front Upper Adjustable Control Arms (Easy install, torque bolts right way, for stock suspension screw ball joints ALL THE WAY IN and it will correct the camber, at least it did on mine, grease them jokers too!)
GTSpec 4 Point Chassis Brace (Got it used for $50, made my own hardware, 10x1.25 30mm G8 rear bolts and lock washers, 12x1.5mm G8 nuts with cold rolled 5" steel tabs welded on to the nuts. Stuck them up inside frame and bolted in. As a cautionary note for ANYONE that gets a used one.......IT WILL BE BENT IN SOME WAY SHAPE OR FORM! A couple buddies help to put this one on)
SPC Rear Camber Arms (Simple install, rip old ones out, index the alignment on eccentric bolts if you don't do this in a shop like I did, pop new ones in. Done.)
SPC Rear Toe Bolts: The true hidden *****......use the PDF template posted on this forum, bevel out BOTH sides of the alignment pill hole, A dremel or right angle drill makes this SOOOOO much easier, clean it up with a round file, install bolts in any way shape or form if you have an alignment rack right next to you or index before you take old ones out and install new ones in same fashion.
Megan Racing Rear Tie Brace (again, simple, pull nuts off on alignment rack, or index before taking them off, put brace on, install nuts and torque down. Simple)
As a side note, I pulled both door panel switch boards and vinyl wrapped them matte white, not perfect but it looks pretty decent! The car is currently sitting at my buddies audio shop getting a custom box and amp mount built for my old school L7 setup I'll check in on it tomorrow and get some pics for y'all! Got my 25mm spacers in the mail today for rear wheels, and coils should be here Wednesday! Going back in too install the coils and EDFC this coming Saturday I didn't take many pictures this past weekend but I will this coming weekend to document everything as I do it!
Last edited by KJFire4Life; 04-11-2016 at 03:27 PM.
Reason: Forgot a part
Dropped her off Monday to Radioactive in Sanford, NC. Great guys there and have been texting/calling me as they go with a couple questions on how I want things. I would've gotten it back today, but Chris down there decided the front panel wasn't good enough quality and look wise. So he started it over to make sure it was right. It may take another day or two but all-in-all I appreciate guys who work on other peoples cars like their own. Pictures up from a few days ago, And I'm going in tomorrow to get a couple more! I'm building these guys a website and will put that link up here for anyone who wants to get some work done as well. So far these guys have been awesome, no complaints, at all. Period. Now without further ado:
He had to use A LOT of material to get the box stiff as there is ZERO support or structure back there. So Chris has had to build the box out of thin air from the inside! It will be cleaned up and cleaned out once all done to create max air space inside the box (1.6 cubic feet from the measurements and math). He's making the amp rack in the glove box with my OVN1-4000D (pictures of that to come). And everythings wired in with 4 gauge OFC power/ground and 10 gauge OFC speaker/remote wiring. Oh and before I forget....guess what came in the mail yesterday
02-01-2016, 01:15 PM
My Pikes Peak White Dream Car "Zoe" Build...
The P.O. cut my muffler off.....to make it louder lol. It also had a fairly substantial oil drip from valve covers that would leave a quarter sized drop overnight! Oil pressure gauge didn't work unless held in (later found to have a short in the board in gauge), and the drivers exterior door handle didn't work (common problem) Along with a lower intake manifold leak. All things I could have talked the price even further down with but as it is i got the car for $3k....
(don't ask) But I was happy, had the car of my dreams, and was enjoying EVERY second of life I was in the driver seat! As a reference, I work at a small family shop, so I get the benefits of being able to use a lift after hours and on weekends (shout-out to the BEST boss in the world 
)
Also..........I noticed these control arm bushing issues earlier this week
then go do it the right way. Since greddy does not sell their reloaction kit and I wasn't going to pay somebody $100 for one sitting around. I took a 2" x 2' piece of steel and drilled holes centered that were big enough to go over two of the studs that held the old heat shield up. The key being when I drilled the holes I drilled them so that I had to bend the beam slightly in the middle so that it followed the curvature of the trunks underside and then the holes would line up and the box didn't have any risk of falling down frrom weight or what not. It's on tensioned and this is where 3 really BIG zip ties came in handy. It's tied to the rear body support beam and my fabricated cross steel and it's solid! I'm making actual steel bands now to replace the zip ties but for now it's holding and hasn't had even 2mm of slippage based on the marks I made from where I set it the first time to track if it moved or not. Couple pics below!
