vernk

so last night one of the room mates comes home and says that the chairs that were up on the roof have blown off and broke, i was like i don't care. well today i'm at work, i walk out to go get some food, as i walk by my car i notice a nice new dent in the top of my passenger fender. it's about 12in from the front and is about 3/4 in long. so now i'm all like .

so the list of things i need to get get fixed just got longer and goes like this: small spot of rust on drivers rear wheel well
very small spots of surface rust behind rear tires
a small area in the rear wheel wells where the tire rubbed the paint off when i had every thing i own loaded in the car and drove from PA to NM
scratch on hood
small dent on hood
and of course new paint (don't know what color, thinking flat white)
and i'm thinking a VQ swap

vernk

maximase86

iTrader: (24)

I'm going to play devil's advocate. When it comes to modding your car, be as realistic as possible. Back in the day I wanted to do all sorts of things to my 2nd gen. As it turns out, things didn't work out that way, either financially or circumstanually (sp?). Take my advice, I've been modding cars for quite sometime now. Be sure that thte mods you do are realistic. For example, the VQ swap. As cool and unique that would be for a 2nd gen, you're talking about completely redoing your car. The harness in your car will not work, you'll probably have to rewire the entire car to get everything to work with this motor as the ECU controls almost all of it for this motor. The fabrication to even get the motor to mount in the car is work. How long can you be without your car? I don't want to discourage, but lets not kid ourselves either.

Honestly, I think you start off with the simple grassroots mods and work your way up. Just my 2 cents. Take Big E for example. He started simple, now he's boosting, and I think it's absolutely awesome even if I have different opinions in his tastes. He was pretty realistic about what he's doing, now he has something to brag about. And not to be full of myself, but I eventually ended up like that with my old car...it became Maxima of the Month. I also put in a lot of labor in my current car now...and now I own it. Either way, I'm just saying be careful...you can disappoint yourself if you're not careful.

S

vernk

Yes I am aware of what your saying, but heres the thing I was going to stay with a VG, but due to a spell of being unemployed and having to move across the country for work, I have had to sell my parts car with a good tranny and extra motor, ecu that could have nistune installed. Now the extra motor and ecu is not that big of deal since I still have a pathfinder that I was going to use the intake off, but that is in MN. I am aware of the wiring issues (been spending time in the VQ3.5 swap forums) the part that I luck out on that is that most of my interior stuff in the 2nd gen is not wired into the ecu so if I get the harness from a donor car (including NATS and dash harness) it should work out. I do have to get some more info as to if not having some stuff hook to the ecu (like windows and alarm stuff is going to cause a issue. As far as price and down time, it's going to be awhile before I can do anything due to getting back on my feet from my resent east coast adventure (getting f77k over). When it comes to the price over all, with what it would cost me to get another tranny that is in good shape (like has been rebuilt) or rebuilding the one that is in right now (the one I would want to use due to gearing) and rebuilding the motor from the pathfinder (W block), it's almost cheaper to pick up a VQ3.5 front clip. I have weighed the cost and work that would have to be done, and since I had to wait 4 years even to find a 2nd gen again, if I have to drive a 1.6 sentra while the maxima is being stripped down, foam filled, and new motor mounts made along with some other bracing, and some weight reduction, and of course new paint, well I think I could live with that. Then in the long run I could mod the VQ like make a VQ3.2tt.

I will not be doing anything in the very near future other then pick up stuff that I will need if I find it at a price I can't pass up and have the extra cash, so for the most part it is in the planning stage and yes there is a big chance it will not work out the way I would like, but if I don't do planning and research it will never happen.

ray_289

iTrader: (8)

nicely said....i still llove my 2nd gen, i used to have big plans for her too untill i realized the car is just old and things WILL end up breaking. So i have her covered up untill i have the money and time to fix and mod her properly. Untill then im enjoying the 4th gen.