Xanatos

Hey everyone. I was raised in a body shop and I'm 5 generations deep as far as family history goes in the car game so it's one of my foremost passions in life, but I do have other responsibilities so usually my automotive fun is had "on a budget" (historically this has meant Honda products, my favorite being the 4th gen Prelude which i still own now).

We towed in a totaled 350Z that was drunk-driven sideways into a tree at a high rate of speed, and the owner never came back for it. After attempts to contact the owner, filing the necessary paperwork, etc we ended up taking possession of the vehicle. a 2007 350Z, hardtop automatic.

I'm not completely new to Z's, as my mom has a 2004 Touring edition convertible with a custom paint job, rims, injen CAI, borja exhaust etc that we built for her years ago. But I'm still pretty green. I've daily driven a 2006 Titan for the last year or so as well so I'm getting more familiar with Nissan, and I do like them.

I bought the totaled Z for a little less than what the salvage yard was offering for it (i paid 500$) which seemed like a good deal for a running VQ35HR swap, with RPF1s, an intake and exhaust system, and tein coilovers. But, rather than part it out I'm hoping to find a shell in decent enough shape, and just transfer my drivetrain and mods over to a new chassis.

Which is where my main question begins. I've found a couple shells, one I like in particular is a dark gray shell for about 800$ with no diff/axle. It's an 03, and is an automatic, hardtop just like the scrap one I bought. But my research (mostly from this forum) has suggested that the HR swap into a DE chassis is kind of a nightmare that is not to be attempted. But I've also seen people suggest that if you have ALL the parts necesarry (say, if you had an entire car of parts to work off of), while it is kind of time consuming, it can be a worthy endeavor but just to know what you're getting yourself into.

I've been trying to find a HR into DE write-up, and I'm still holding out hope I'll just find a HR shell to make things easy. I didn't see anything in the stickys or the FAQ thread about the swap, and google results have been conflicted and inconclusive. Has anyone put together a definitive parts list, or swap guide for this? I've talked to some local Nissan guys and they all kind of the say the same thing "it's easy if you know what you're doing"... But, I do not yet know what I'm doing.

And just so everyone knows where my head is at, I just want a clean-ish fun car with some light modifications to make it a little more fun/interesting. I do love the look of the hardtop Zs.

Thanks in advance, I look forward to meeting everyone!

P.S I'll edit the thread once I get the picture uploaded to my computer so you can see the scrap Z