My name is fhumphrey04 and this is my Nismo.
My name is fhumphrey04 and this is my Nismo.
Nismo #583
I had been looking for a 350Z during the first part of 2011 and I was having absolutely zero luck finding a 6 speed with low miles for any sort of fair price. I was committed to getting one in any color except for black, purple, orange or yellow. My old E46 M3 was black and the paint drove me absolutely crazy all the time, but every single car I was finding was black and that was it. One day while searching Craigslist I found a 2007 Nismo that happened to be black, but I finally just gave up and decided to go check it out. The car was totally stock and in fantastic shape with the exception of a small scrape on the front lip (in the first set of pictures) and the tires/brakes needed replacement. We worked out a deal and on April 14th, 2011 I drove her all the way back to Reno from Sacramento, which was about a 2 hour commute.
Pics from the first week:
By this time I had put on new Hankook Ventus V12 tires and a new set of Hawk HPS pads all around.
The car was great and I had made my mind up that it would stay stock… which didn’t last. A month later I picked up a BLOX 490g shifter.
It lasted a few weeks before getting ripped out because the thing nearly burnt the skin off my hand.
Did a full detail on it too and buffed out a lot of the swirl marks
RDX antenna came shortly after this:
Then it was time for tint:
I enjoyed the car for another few weeks before deciding that it was just too quiet for my liking, so I snagged a set of Nismo intakes to beef it up:
They definitely helped out a lot with the sound I was looking for, though I still want some more growl which is why the midpipe will be getting replaced with a straight pipe pretty soon. I didn’t really notice any power gains which isn’t surprising, but then again I’m of the mindset that bothering with anything except forced induction for these cars is a waste of time and money if you want a lot of power.
Anywho- I painted the front reflectors black and fixed the scrape on the front lip, looked 100% better after that.
Went for a small photoshoot with some friends of mine while we were out of town at a car show-
The stock stereo SUCKED in the car and the speakers were blown out, so I bought a pioneer with Bluetooth and put it in along with all new speakers.
The car stayed like this through most of last winter and I had pretty much decided to save for a GTM supercharger kit, but shortly after realized that it was too much of a waste and I’d rather put the $10k towards a house… so I chose to get some other little mods and just have fun with it without getting too serious. After a month of stalking the forums I finally snagged a full Stance GR+ OEM style coilover kit from a fellow Nismo owner.
I had always been a huge fan of RPF1 wheels but couldn’t ever find a color that I particularly liked for a black Nismo. I had decided to just get a black set when all of the sudden I discovered that Oaks Automotive got a special graphite color finish that nobody else had, so I pulled the trigger and got a set shipped over.
I figured it’d be fun to match with the gold Brembo brakes so I ordered McGard gold lugs along with some custom gold enkei stickers for the wheels. The combo might not be for everyone, but I love it.
I hadn’t considered getting another replacement for the factory shift **** until I stumbled upon a leather Nismo shifter, so I figured it was worth a try because the size of the OEM **** was just too big for my liking.
I LOVE this thing, it looks OEM too which is the best part. I’d recommend it for anyone here that doesn’t want something that looks out of place but likes a shorter shifter. This thing is at least a full inch shorter than the factory one.
Anyways, I’m a fan of beefy tires and I cannot stand anything stretched. This led me to pick up the following set of rubber:
275/35/18 for the front and 295/35/18 for out back. They’re Vredestein Ultrac’s and are very popular with the BMW community, the only real complaint I’ve heard from friends is that they’re just not as good as PS2 Michelin’s… which is true for most any tire out there lol. I know not a lot of people have them on here, but I figured it’d be worth a try.
Anyhow, here’s the final result.
I had been looking for a 350Z during the first part of 2011 and I was having absolutely zero luck finding a 6 speed with low miles for any sort of fair price. I was committed to getting one in any color except for black, purple, orange or yellow. My old E46 M3 was black and the paint drove me absolutely crazy all the time, but every single car I was finding was black and that was it. One day while searching Craigslist I found a 2007 Nismo that happened to be black, but I finally just gave up and decided to go check it out. The car was totally stock and in fantastic shape with the exception of a small scrape on the front lip (in the first set of pictures) and the tires/brakes needed replacement. We worked out a deal and on April 14th, 2011 I drove her all the way back to Reno from Sacramento, which was about a 2 hour commute.
Pics from the first week:
By this time I had put on new Hankook Ventus V12 tires and a new set of Hawk HPS pads all around.
The car was great and I had made my mind up that it would stay stock… which didn’t last. A month later I picked up a BLOX 490g shifter.
It lasted a few weeks before getting ripped out because the thing nearly burnt the skin off my hand.
Did a full detail on it too and buffed out a lot of the swirl marks
RDX antenna came shortly after this:
Then it was time for tint:
I enjoyed the car for another few weeks before deciding that it was just too quiet for my liking, so I snagged a set of Nismo intakes to beef it up:
They definitely helped out a lot with the sound I was looking for, though I still want some more growl which is why the midpipe will be getting replaced with a straight pipe pretty soon. I didn’t really notice any power gains which isn’t surprising, but then again I’m of the mindset that bothering with anything except forced induction for these cars is a waste of time and money if you want a lot of power.
Anywho- I painted the front reflectors black and fixed the scrape on the front lip, looked 100% better after that.
Went for a small photoshoot with some friends of mine while we were out of town at a car show-
The stock stereo SUCKED in the car and the speakers were blown out, so I bought a pioneer with Bluetooth and put it in along with all new speakers.
The car stayed like this through most of last winter and I had pretty much decided to save for a GTM supercharger kit, but shortly after realized that it was too much of a waste and I’d rather put the $10k towards a house… so I chose to get some other little mods and just have fun with it without getting too serious. After a month of stalking the forums I finally snagged a full Stance GR+ OEM style coilover kit from a fellow Nismo owner.
I had always been a huge fan of RPF1 wheels but couldn’t ever find a color that I particularly liked for a black Nismo. I had decided to just get a black set when all of the sudden I discovered that Oaks Automotive got a special graphite color finish that nobody else had, so I pulled the trigger and got a set shipped over.
I figured it’d be fun to match with the gold Brembo brakes so I ordered McGard gold lugs along with some custom gold enkei stickers for the wheels. The combo might not be for everyone, but I love it.
I hadn’t considered getting another replacement for the factory shift **** until I stumbled upon a leather Nismo shifter, so I figured it was worth a try because the size of the OEM **** was just too big for my liking.
I LOVE this thing, it looks OEM too which is the best part. I’d recommend it for anyone here that doesn’t want something that looks out of place but likes a shorter shifter. This thing is at least a full inch shorter than the factory one.
Anyways, I’m a fan of beefy tires and I cannot stand anything stretched. This led me to pick up the following set of rubber:
275/35/18 for the front and 295/35/18 for out back. They’re Vredestein Ultrac’s and are very popular with the BMW community, the only real complaint I’ve heard from friends is that they’re just not as good as PS2 Michelin’s… which is true for most any tire out there lol. I know not a lot of people have them on here, but I figured it’d be worth a try.
Anyhow, here’s the final result.
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