01 5 Speed Build/Upgrade Log
 

Well I've been messing with it for about a year and a half. I've done a bunch of stuff already but I am going to log it here. I'll show some very basic walkthroughs as I go. I've already had a few different stereo systems in and out. You can find a build log here. I touch on some mechanical stuff throughout.

https://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...d-monitor.html

I plan on keeping this car forever. It's my favorite car. This is the second one I owned. The first one I had from new to 250k+ . I went to paint it and we found rust in the uni-body. Can't save it from that. Waited just a bit to long. My heart was broken. On my way back from the shop I called my friend that always asked me to sell it to him if he still wanted it. He said "hell yeah!". I told him to get it out of my driveway tonight or it was going to the junkyard. I gave it to him for free because I was so upset I didn't want to look at that car anymore. Visually it still looked good just the beginning of the rear wheel well rust, but I knew what was underneath. Fast forward 5 years. My wife knows I am checking out Maxima's online and I had showed her this one. She's like " hey is that one you showed me still available? Let's go get it for your birthday". That's why I love my wife.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...pseuuelhyj.jpg

It came from Florida. No rust. I don't drive it in the winter. Usually sits in the garage when other projects are not in there.

I have already done:
front strut tower brace
H&R springs(still available for free to whoever) + Illumina struts. Switched to Tien Street Advance with the EDFC. Way better. Lowered only 1"
Hawk pads and Stoptech rotors. Good but moving on to G35 fronts and Fastbrake rears.
LED swap in and out



Currently in the process of and/or researching :
Cattman Headers stainless cat back. (I should own today/tomorrow).
Short shifter.
HLSD tranny.
My own rear strut tower brace. Ends up intergrated with trunk rebuild for stereo.
Supercharger.
re-paint and ceramic coat.
UV block/clear tint windows

Already own:
HID lights
20th body kit
03 rims
Complete like new full interior
Most of front end Nissan parts. Control arms, hubs, tierods, etc.

Someone in another thread wanted to see the rearview camera add-on so I will start with that.

Grabbed a Nissan mirror with LCD from a 09 Rougue/Altima. It was as simple as running wires in a vehicle I already had gutted.
At first I tapped in to power up front from the mirror but that caused to much of a delay with the camera turn on. So I just grabbed it in the back.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...psoufcwvqi.jpg

Power for the lcd still came from original harness

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...pszaepldij.jpg

Ran the wires to the back. You can see the cut camera power wires

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...psotn8sfgm.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...psjvmamyfa.jpg

Down in to the trunk. Put some Ensolite around the wires to prevent rubbing.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...psycnzf2ow.jpg

Into the factory loom and through the trunk lid.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...psmw70dnfx.jpg

Drilled a hole in the plastic popped in a grommet

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...psdea1ni5e.jpg

Finished look.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...psey9ri7td.jpg

Screen showing old reliable!

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...pstqzs8xds.jpg

Seems like a whole lot of trouble just to keep from looking in the rear view mirror- oh wait you're doing that anyway :rolleyes:

When you have a mirror tinted back window the mirror doesn't help much at night. The camera does. Plus who doesn't appreciate the added safety. The whole install took less than an hour. If you didn't have a gutted car you could just run it under the carpet pretty easily.

I see so... you have window tinting so dark on the back window that renders the rear view mirror useless? That's illegal.
Also, I grew up driving on cars where I learned to use my own common sense-- actually turning and looking behind or to the side of me, keeping safe distance to the car in front of me, etc-- instead of relying on tech masquerading as "safety features" that really only serves to enable the laziness of today's drivers more.

You know what's useless? Your replies to this thread. It's not illegal. Your common sense should have told you to google the law before you just recited your opinion. As long as you have two side mirrors that give you a full view of the rear of the vehicle you don't even have to have a back window.

Most of us don't have the super powers you obviously do to see below the trunk lid and in between the tail lights with mirrors so we have to use technology to aide us with safety precautions.

When you say G35 fronts...do you mean an OEM swap, like you did with the 6th Gen rotors?

Yes

Word. What's the advantage of that swap?

I looked up the FastBrake kit you mentioned...they look awesome, but dang that $$$

I agree ,and a dog or a child can't be seen with a rear view mirror.

Bigger, thicker rotors equals better heat dissipation which equals less fade.

The money isn't that bad. You get a $200 set of rotors with it. Machining the rotors is going to cost you $50. So you're really only paying $100 bucks for the brackets.

That's why I have always, my entire life of driving, always turned around and looked, and why I have never ever backed into anything. I learned this when I was 10, practicing to drive on my dad's 69 VW bug, which also BTW has no passenger side mirror. That taught me to always look over my shoulder instead of trusting mirrors with blind spots.
But I forget how lazy the newer generation of drivers is.

The point i was trying to make . You can't see a dog or a child with just looking. You would have to either get out or have the camera.

My friend ran his 5 year old over like this.With something Standing behind the trunk ,you can't see anything.

Got all the parts in to stop a bit quicker :)
Some extra too. Ordered dual piston front calipers twice thinking I bought the rears already. I also forgot I ordered rear pads already and bought some more. That's what happens when you take to long to do stuff.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...psabunb1fp.jpg

I'll be updating this in a few weeks. But here is the Cartman's :p

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...pskanyqe1x.jpg

sheesh those welds.