Hey guys, I'm Chris.

I recently bought an '05 350z with 61k miles on it. It's yellow with some parts painted black. The roof was painted black, has black rims, yellow painted calipers, and the interior is all darkened/painted black.

It's a bit of a project for me because the previous owner messed up a lot of the interior and a couple spots on the outside (luckily both of the main issues are on the bumpers, but the hole is in the back bumper, driver side, way low so it's hard to see if you don't know to look for it, and the other is a spot on the front bumper which looks like they tried to cover it up with yellow nail polish.....). They jerry-rigged a few mods. There are some things that are Gorilla-Glued (aftermarket gas pedal is one of them).... Which is incredibly annoying (if you're going to do something, do it proper and clean). They broke some parts of the plastic trim inside. They ripped off the A-pillar plastic moldings and broke the clips in them, so I have to replace those. Broke some of the clips on plastic trim around the shifter. They broke the cup holder that pops out in front of the passenger seat. The interior/dome lights aren't working for some reason. I haven't had the chance to investigate. I'm hoping it's just a fuse and not cut wires....

The clutch had to be replaced the second day I owned the car. It wasn't covered by the auction's warranty because it's considered a ware-part. Bye bye $600! I had to do it because I live 3 hours south of where I bought it. I still have to flush the coolant and change the oil so that I know those are current.

I just finished re-wiring the back speakers (the lines leading to the amp were cut, but not re-wired). On the plastic piece behind the seats, in the area in between the two seats where the accessory/cigarette lighter is, they drilled 3 holes through the trim AND the metal to mount something there (I think that's where they had the amp). That's ugly and I'll probably be buying new plastic trim to cover those up.

One of the main things that's annoying to me is that they put a single-din head unit in there and threw away the metal mounting brackets that support the stock double-din stereo (As seen here: http://208.109.166.78/avicd3/DVD019.jpg and http://208.109.166.78/avicd3/DVD021.jpg). So now I am having trouble installing my Pioneer AVIC-X910BT I need to see if I can find the mounting brackets at a salvage yard or something...

I'll likely be replacing the back bumper because of the hole and the front bumper because of the dings on the front and their attempt to cover it with yellow nail polish. They also did something strange to the small fin on the back, but I might remove what they did and try to smooth it out with some Bondo and re-paint it when I replace the bumpers and need them to be replaced. There's nothing wrong with the hood, but I'm thinking of getting a new one and painting it black to match with the roof and the dark tint on the windows.

There's a lot more that I haven't listed because I don't want to sound like I'm complaining.

Anyway, despite all of that, I'm still happy with my purchase. I kept my old car for "economy" driving, so I'm not stressing or under any pressure to fix all this stuff right away. I will post a couple pictures when I get the chance. It will be nice to chronicle the progress.

-Chris

 

Damn, sounds like a bit of work you've got ahead of you. Previous owners FTL. Keep us updated!

 

I hope you bought this for a steal. How much did it run you?

 

We got it for about 15k.
The outside looks ok, and for the untrained eye, the inside does too.
At the auction (Dealer auction. Longtime family friend is a dealer), I noticed some of the stuff, but not all of it. I didn't get to drive it, so I didn't notice the clutch problem. If I would have known about the clutch, I wouldn't have bought it. Also, when I found out about it, I thought the warranty I payed for at the auction would cover it, but I got screwed on that. That pissed me off for quite a while since they would not honor it (it takes a lot to make me mad).
Once I get the head unit installed and the A-Pillar trim pieces replaced, the rest won't be easily noticed. Those are the things that are top on my list.
I also found out today that the AVIC-X910BT doesn't like my iPod... (iPod Touch 3rd Gen, 64gig). It will recognize my roommate's iPod Nano and my girlfriend's iPod Classic, but not my touch.... And I tried two different cables with the same results. My desktop computer and laptop both recognize my iPod when I use the same cables (but obviously I don't plug the RCA cables into my computers), so I know the cables work....

I just keep running into roadblocks heh. I wonder if I'm meant to have the car... But, it will be worth it when I get it all done up the way I want it, though.

 

i have those metal brackets laying around

 

Would you be willing to sell them to me?

 

welcome and congrats

 

Welcome to the forum . Try post some pics. Yeah those head unit won't recognize your ipod touch. You can always plug in usb dongle for mp3 music source.

 

Hey Davidv, I did mention that I was working on it. Would you please remove the ridiculously large photo from your post?

As mentioned in my first post (if you read it), here are the pictures of the car.
https://my350z.com/forum/members/darkager-albums.html

 

Check in the classified section for some of those parts. There have been a few guys that completely part out the interior when they do a race build. There are occasional sales on things like the bumper too.

 

Thanks bud, I'll take a gander over there.

 

 

So, I got the head unit installed finally and got it to work with the iPod. SWEET!

Also, I'm fairly certain I found out who the previous owner was... AND he was on here!
shvd64cdy (click the name to see his profile).

I looked at all of his posts and it seems consistent.... Location, Z description, blue LED mod that he posted (which mine has the blue LED), description of the amp rack/mount, mods he listed in his profile (some are still on the car), OEM alluminum pedals, etc.. This is the *** that gorilla glued the **** in the car and drilled the holes. What a *****...