nasastar

Hi All -

I'm new to the my350z family. Late last year I purchased a 2004 350z Convertible for a reasonable price. It needed a lot of work and I enjoy tinkering.

I have a long history of customizing and building car, truck, and motorcycle projects.

The reason why I bought this car is because I miss track days with my Evo IX and wanted to get back out there for some HPDE's, Track Days, and AutoX.

Ideally, I would have preferred a coupe, but never saw one in my price range until this one came up.

I bought it, drove it home, put it up in the air and it's been in the shop since.

I ordered in some parts and began making repairs and I'm finally getting to the good stuff.

I'm ripping and replacing suspension components, the previous owner had it set up for drift racing and way too low for my liking.

I'm considering wheels and tires and could use some guidance.

After reading post after post here, I'm leaning towards the RPF1 18x10.5 +15 square setup and 285/35/18 RA1s on all four corners.

I may drive the car to and from track events and occasionally on the road.

In the coming week/two I'll install the Tein Coilovers and Kintetix UCA's, etc...and will add EDFC at some point.

All of the fenders are rolled and one of the fronts has a slight kink from being rolled and stretched.

I'm looking for some feedback on the wheel / tire options and also the suspension settings / setup.

I'm not expecting to be as competitive as I was with my Evo, I just miss the track since I sold my Evo 5 years ago.

If anyone else is running a convertible, I'd like to hear what you're doing in terms of cage or roll bar options.

I haven't seen a fiberglass top out there, but maybe I missed it.

Any thoughts there?

coletrickle74

iTrader: (1)

Excellent choice with the wheels. They will clear most big brake kits as well. Although, I did have to sand down the Akebono calipers for clearance in the front.

For tires, I'm not 100% sure 285s would fit up front. They might with the fenders rolled. Not sure. I run 255 front and 285 back. But sometimes I wish I went with a square set up.

Might be worth looking into swaybars. Everyone will say they are a big improvement.

nasastar

Thanks for the reply Coletrickle. I appreciate the feedback. I'm going to run a track day or two before making the decision to go with larger brakes / more caliper pistons. If you have any suggestions regarding calipers / pads / and rotors I'm open to ideas there.

I was thanking to go on the cheap for the time being, replace the brake lines with steel braided, flush with Motul, and drop in some Hawk HP+ pads.

It's hard to tell if this still has stock sways. The front sway bar has M3 painted on it followed by a PN. I found this confusing. I have a buddy who raced Pro 3 for a while an moved to an E46 M3, so I was going to ask him to snap a picture of his and send it to me.

Who knows, maybe a previous owner thought a rattle can M3 would make it go faster

Does that seem familiar or strike a cord with you? I don't have another 350z to compare with.

coletrickle74

iTrader: (1)

Hmm not sure on the swaybar. An easy way to tell is by looking at the endlinks. Stock bars will only have one hole where the endlinks can mount in. Aftermarket will have 3 to 4 options.

I only ran the stock brakes for 1 track day. I took it easy on them so I don't have much input there. Other than you won't be impressed with them. I think most people run Brembo brakes with better pads and Motul. I opted for the 370z Akebono brakes. Can't remember why haha but haven't had any issues.