Six months ago I didn’t know anything about cars…..

I had a 93 Maxima SE from about 2001 to 2005 but never was interested in learning about how it worked – I had too many other things going on to be worried about clicking CVs, engine knock or worn bushings. Other than changing the oil and the brake pads once, I never did anything to that car…….and it still drove soundly at 226,000 miles.

In early 2006 some major events happened in my life and I was forced to sell the car. The next 15 months I commuted via bus and walking; it ****ing sucked.
After that period was over, and I had finally saved up around $4000, I anxiously sought out a new car. I knew I wanted a Honda, Nissan or Toyota with as low miles as possible.
I got to say, in retrospect, I was pretty careless about my search considering how badly I needed a car. I checked the newspaper, went on craigslist a couple of times a week, glanced at Autotrader, etc, etc.
One day I was on Craigslist and came across an ad marked “97 Accord with under 100k”. The asking price was exactly 4 grand and once I saw the pics I immediately fell in love. It was a white 1997 Accord EX with just over 95k on it, power everything, sunroof, upgraded headunit and alloys.
I got the VIN and CARFAXed it that night – came back clean but with 5 owners; a little strange but nothing serious enough to squash the deal. Bluebook for a 97 Accord EX with 95k in “good” is like $6,500.
So my neighbor (an 18 year old who claims to have worked as a mechanic) and I drove about 40 minutes north that weekend to check it out.

We pulled up on the house where it was and I was already impressed before I got out of his car. Tints, alloys, fart can, plus the paint looked really crisp - and the front end almost looked new (???). It looked to be in great condition, a big step away from the two other beat-up, POS rides I had seen in the week previous.
I took it for a test-drive, ran the AC, pressed the brake, checked the CD player and other meaningless inspections. I opened the hood and pretended to be checking things out while the owner stood watching. I started pointing things out here and there in an attempt to setup a negotiated price, but before I was even done she said “ok, well do $3500” – just like that. She explained it was her ex-husbands car, and she was just selling it to get even with him for cheating on her.
From that point, realizing that she really wanted to get the car sold, I said, “ok I’ll give you $3200 right now”. She agreed almost instantly and went inside to release the title.








Now to give myself some credit, I did realize that there was something wrong. Namely, when the car was in idle, the whole thing shook. Not a misfire/coilpack shaking, but a motor mount shaking. It was so bad that at a red light you couldn’t see out of the rearview mirror because it was vibrating so much.
The car also jerked between 2nd and 3rd gear, but considering the price that I was paying, and the actual Bluebook value of the car, I could easily drop $1500 into a new tranny (if it was even needed) and STILL be under the Bluebook value in “good” condition. The A/C worked (a must in FL) and the CD player worked – that’s all that really mattered to me at that point.
Plus my fake mechanic neighbor also gave it the thumbs up – especially for the price versus the mileage.






The next day after work I took it to my local Midas. I went in and asked the owner to check out this car I just bought. He comes out the door, walks about three steps towards the car (he’s about 20 feet away) and says “this car has been in an accident”. He begins to point out all the things that anyone with any kind of car experience would notice: the panels don’t line up, the underside of the hood is missing the OEM stickers, the headlights are new and half the engine bay is new.

A) I’m wondering why none of this was on the CARFAX report and B) I’m wondering how this so-called “mechanic” neighbor of mine missed all this ****.

So he puts it up on the lift and it gets worse…..namely the whole front two feet of the car had been spot-welded onto the frame….meaning the car was in an accident, and random pieces of metal were welded onto the frame so it could be rebuilt. The front two 02 sensors had been bent sideways to make room for the exhaust, the front axle was somehow warped, putting the front passenger wheel 2 inches from the body, and the driver’s side 3 inches……the spare tire was missing……the CEL had been cut………...oh yea and the radiator wasn’t even from a Honda…..
So including mounts and the tranny and all this other stuff he calculates between 4 and 5 grand worth of repairs to make it “like new” – a far cry from my initial idea of $1500. He suggests I go get my money back immediately. I whip out my cell and call the seller back to ask if I could return the car. She says “Yea, no problem. Come up here tomorrow.”

The next day after work I hop in my raped Accord and start the trip back to her house. I’m about 10 minutes away and she calls me and says “I actually wired the money to my husband in India and now hes refusing to give it back”. BULL****. I threaten her with calling the cops and suing and everything else I could think, but I knew that there was nothing that could be done. I got screwed.

 

A week later I had the timing belt and water pump replaced (as it was about that time). I began to try to sell it. Asking $4500, then 4, then 3800, and so on. About a month later I ended up selling it for $2800 – a $1400 loss.

I vowed never to trust my car to someone else again. If mistakes were going to be made, I wanted to blame no one other than myself.

Two weeks later, after a couple of saved paychecks and a couple hundred dollars in borrowed money, I had $3700 to spend on another car. Considering my most recent experience with a Honda, and my positive experience with the indestructible 93 SE, I was leaning toward a Maxima again. I found this on Cars.com in about a week and went to check it out in Hollywood, FL.













A 1996 GLE with 142,000 miles on the engine. Leather, sunroof, the works……and the high miles didn’t scare me knowing that my 93 lasted well into the 200s.
It was a nice rich family that owned it. And unlike the gypsy I bought the Accord from, they weren’t selling it for any other reason than the wife got a new BMW. According to the CARFAX and their word, they had owned it for over 9 years. It drove smooth and was in very good cosmetic condition - everything worked as it was supposed to.
The only problems were knock sensor (I didn’t even know wtf this was back then) and balding/dry-rotted tires.
They were asking $4000 but I ended up driving out of there paying $3650.


I joined MAXIMA.ORG that night.

 

Still trying to recover from my financial hit from the Accord, and trying to pay back the $400 I had borrowed from friends to get the 96, I had no money to put anything on the car right away. My first scheduled addition was new plugs and a knock sensor, and from there wheels/tires and possibly a body kit. It’s a good thing I left it stock though….

On the morning of September 16th, at around 7:55 am, I was on my way to work when two dumbasses in a giant roofing flatbed ran a light to do a U-turn. My 96 was totaled three weeks after buying her.

This is a pic from my phone 5 minutes after the accident…..





These are the shots from the body shop while it was waiting to get inspected by Progressive.












The assbags that hit me fled the scene, but a driver behind me (who saw the accident) followed them and got the info off the truck. If he hadn’t followed them, and they had successfully left the scene of the accident, I would have been screwed again because the only insurance I had at that point was basic liability, which didn’t cover accidents, rental cars or comprehensive repair.

So he got the roofing company name and plates, and within 4 business days I had a $5200 check from Progressive to cover the cost of the car.
I also had neck pain, and later I found out through an MRI that I have three buldging discs in my neck from hitting the airbag at 50mph, but that story is for another day.

 

In the meantime I had no car again……I’m furious at this point. My neck hurts, I’m bumming rides or taking the bus to work. Plus I knew I was never going to find a Maxima in that good condition for that price – especially without having a car in which to travel.
I explained to my mom what happened and she offered to rent me a car for two weeks. Considering what I had put her through over the past decade, it was pretty remarkable that she was willing to help me out like that (awwww).
So I got an 07 Altima for 15 days and began the search. This time was far different though. I spent about 3 hours a day bouncing back and forth from Craigslist, Autotrader and Cars.com. I even had an Autotrader alert setup, where I would be texted on my cell when a new car posted that matched my criteria (95-02 maxima for under $5000).
I really wanted a 5th gen because I love the body style, but most were out of my price range.

In the next two weeks (14 days) I had driven over 800 miles on the Altima looking at used Maximas around Florida. I had gone as far north as Fort Pierce, and as far south as Homestead with nothing to show for it but 300 dollars in wasted gas money. Out of the 40-50 that I saw (yes, I saw 40-50 used Maximas), I found two that I was especially interested in, both of which I posted about excessively in the 4th gen forums.
The first was a 96 GLE White/Tan from Minnesota with pretty major rusting and paint chippage. The positive part was that the miles were low (110k) and the guy was only asking $3000. It had all the usual amenities (sunroof, leather, Bose, etc…) but there was minor damage all around. The guys in the 4th gen forum ended up talking me out of buying that – I thank you all.
The second was a 98 SE Black/Black with 130k on it and 01 SE alloys in great condition. It looked fcking sick. But I guess the guy saw my enthusiasm for it and decided to jack up the price. He was asking 6k……and wouldn’t budge at all. I bothered him for about 4 days but ended up just forgetting about it.

So the LAST NIGHT of my car rental Im freaking out. Here my mom has pissed away close to $900 to rent me a vehicle for the sole purpose of finding a used car and I have nothing to show for it. Its not that I hadn’t been trying, its just nothing that I wanted fit my budget, and the ones that fit my budget I didn’t want. The next day I would be car less………again……..
I check Craigslist one more time at around 10pm that last night and I see a new Maxima has come on the market. I click the ad and it says “97 GLE in great condition, under 50k”. Im thinking this is another bogus cut-the-CEL-light and roll-back-the-odometer special, but its worth checking, especially because the following day was my last with the Altima. I CARFAX the VIN the next morning at work and see that it has had only one owner and the mileage is a legitimate 42,000. I ask my boss for the rest of the day off and drive down to Pompano to check it out.

I get there and it’s filthy – parked on a lawn. It obviously hasn’t been washed in several months, maybe even a year. The interior is covered in dirt, food, stickers and papers. The four corners of the bumpers were scratched and then covered in White-Out and the airbag had some serious discoloration.............Cosmetically it was a mess.

But with that low mileage I had to check it out some more.
The 92 year old woman who owned it, who is now partially blind, comes out of the house to greet me. She hands me the keys so I can take it for a drive.
My month or so of time on Maxima.org, plus my burn with the Accord, had taught me to check certain things; and I did. There were no leaking fluids, the suspension was great, the exhaust had no rust on it whatsoever, it idled smooth, it drove smooth/shifted smooth. The A/T fluid was a nice pink, the crankcase had very little residue. Everything was mechanically perfect minus the CEL for a knock sensor and evap charcoal cannister.
She also said that everything that had ever been done to it was done at her local Nissan dealership, and that she had all receipts and documentation to prove it. Plus there were 4 brand spankin new Sumitomos on each wheel.

I was sold. She was asking 5k for it, I offered her $4400 and she accepted.

The car was on the market less than 12 hours.....

This is the weekend after I got it. All I’ve done at this point is remove all the AARP, RedCross, AAA, American flag and gold star stickers plus a quick once-over of the interior. The front bumper was stained with dirt. No amount of GooGone was getting it off…..










This is the leather after a quick clean - still pretty dirty as you can see...

 

At this point I still liked my 96 better in terms of style, but the super low mileage on the 97 was a big perk.

The first thing I did, after giving it a rough interior/exterior wash, is swap the plugs with 6 NGK Platinum PFR5G-11s. I had actually bought these and a 300ZX TT fuel filter for the 96, but never got them installed before it was wrecked.

The originals:







Three weeks later I was bored one Saturday and decided to replace the hood struts and clean the engine bay. I was going to just be lazy and pressure wash everything, but I got paranoid I would destroy something. I ended up spending 3 hours with a bottle of engine degreaser and a handful of rags.


BEFORE


AFTER

 

A couple of weeks after that I got an OEM knock sensor and 4 charcoal Maxima floormats from Dave Burnette at South Pointe Nissan.
I was hesitant to tackle the knock sensor by myself so I ended up asking my other hot little neighbor to help because of her small wrists. We had it swapped in about 30 minutes.


The original one still in there









The new one




And the finished product



The knock sensor made a huge difference in acceleration and gas mileage. I couldn’t believe that first drive after the new one was installed; it was like a new car.


That night I did my first “mod” which was the reversed polarity cornering lights (extra bright cornering lights [http://www.vqpower.com/v2/readarticl...article_id=54]). Though it was such a small stupid thing to do, I was really pretty proud of myself for having figured it all out and completed it successfully. The modding bug had bit me.

 

A month after that, around December, I bought a generic ebay strut bar from 305blackmax (Supermeng97). Doesn’t do much to stock suspension I know, but I did it just because it was cheap and was a “mod” – and I do plan on getting a drop down the road.



I also put in my charcoal mats. They looked great with the tan interior. It was well worth the $80.






One day changing my oil I noticed the serpentine belt was pretty badly cracked. I ended up paying a friend-of-a-friend $20 to use his shop and help me install the new OEM belt.

 

In late January (I think) I drove about 3 hours north to meet up with MOHFpro90 and SilMax00 to help me clean my throttle body and IACV. I reused the old gaskets.

I felt a small increase in throttle response and idle/rpms at certain speeds. It’s a good, free maintenance job.

Also around that time I got a set of clear corners from BlackonBlack98 and and a SWEET Maxima.org sticker for my rear window (from erty). I ended up using Fantastik on the bumper, because nothing else was getting the stains off – it worked great.

Here she is at the end of that day.










Later on that month, after weeks of planning, I finally got this:

 

All this time I had the idea of getting rid of my 15” sawblades. Finally one day on craigslist I saw a set of G35 coupe wheels with Falkien ZIEX tires for $400. The tires had rubbing marks on them, and were too big for my car (they came off of a solara) but I bought them anyway because it was such a good deal.
I put them on that weekend and hated them. I decided 17s would look better than 18s, especially because it would allow more room for a meatier tire.

I took some pics and put them back up for sale on Craigslist the next day…….






I think it was the weekend after that I decided to debadge my trunk and remove my pinstripe.
I can say with certainty this is one of the best things I’ve done to her in terms of cost vs. reward.
You really have no idea how much that stripe affects the look of the car till its gone….

 

Once the G wheels were sold I turned around and bought a set of 04 SL OEM Maxima wheels with tires. Two tires were good and two were a bit trashed, but I slapped em on anyway just to see how theyd look. I was semi-happy with the look, but it wasn’t quite what I wanted. After a week of debating, I finally took em off and put them back up for sale on Craigslist (minus two tires I sold to an org member)






The money I made from selling those I paid to KRZZ350 for a Pathfinder Headunit. The install was laborious but not hard, and to have access to over 2000 songs in my car now is awesome.

 

I also had a set of 350Z 17” inch wheels from my friends Z on my car but I never took pics. They are good lookin wheels, just not with white paint.


Around this time I also decided to tackle clearing my tails. What I thought was going to be the hard part was actually the easy part, and vice versa. Opening the tails was a breeze; 15 minutes at 240 degrees and theyre like butter. However dealing with the acrylic, because its so brittle, is a huge pain in the ***. I went through 25 square feet of that stuff before doing it correctly – which was done finally with a dremmel.
Im not 100% happy with my work, but it looks decent; way better than the orange.


BEFORE


AFTER (actually last night, at the poker club)




Three weeks ago I paid Maxmus_X $607 for 4 17” OEM 02 Maxima SE wheels with 4 brand new Nexen N3000 summer tires. I got them about a week later and put them on that night.

Here are some ****ty cellphone pics taken out of pure excitement.








Other than the fact that these wheels weigh something like 24lbs, I am really happy with this purchase. I will keep these at least until I kill the tires, if not longer. I am toying with the idea of lighter wheels, but I still cant find any that I like/have the right size/have the right offset.

And I sold my sawblades to a guy driving a 96 Honda Odyssey. Apparently it’s the same exact size and offset as the stock blades. wtf ?

 

Finally, this past weekend I got her tinted. Formula 1 Pinnacle 15% all around. I cant roll my windows down or use my defrost cuz theyre still wet, but it looks sick. A great contrast to the white body.


This is Saturday, after I washed her to get ready for the meet.













In the near future these things are coming

Budget Y
R34s with blacked housing
LCA energy suspension bushings
fix valve cover gasket
drop about 1.5"
lip/skirts/valence
possibly a paint job/some body work
new passenger side airbag (if u got one lemme know)





And that’s it. Hope this can help someone or give them ideas what or what not to do.

 

you really have a deep car history ROCKY.im happy your happy now mate.it was really nice meeting you and others as well.Great thread...nice writing man.The car looked wonderful yesterday.!!!!

P.S. your neighbour looks hott.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. So touching. Your Max looks really good now! I love how clears look on white Maximas. So clean!

 

awwwwww its the granny mans story :P that was awesome and detailed. very nice car and im impressed by the amount of time you put into it yourself to mod it. But I personaly dont like the rims. But nice car

 

Good stuff, great pics, really enjoyed this

 

Wow, definitely looks like it was well worth it in the end. Super low mileage 4th gen ftw! Congrats, your car looks sick!

 

I'm glad everything worked out for you in the end. Thoroughly enjoyed reading your story. Your Max is looking clean and mean.

Any luck with the neighbor?

 

Drop that ***** LOL

Man its coming along nicely and those nexen n3000 are good year round for here in florida

Can you PM me information about the Pathfinder stereo, does it have a hard drive cause I like it and I may want to do it.

 

wow that was lomg... but at least my name was in it!

i think the sl rims looked better but its all good. definitely need to drop that sucker. dont do the r34.

 

thanks people - i appreciate everyones feedback and yea i know i need a drop.

about the pathfinder HU, no it does not have a harddrive. the "2000 song" line was in reference to its ability to play MP3 cds, meaning each cd can hold between 120 and 160 songs. and it holds 6 in the actual player, plus another 10 on my visor.


and blackonblack why shouldnt i get the R34s? i dont care about output. everywhere i drive around here is streetlit.
is there any other reason?

 

It's subjective but drop THEN wheels usually leads to best results.

 

Interesting story .......Forseeing a future with the associated press!

 

Great story man.No lacking dedication thats for sure.....Good luck with the future mods....

 

i always hide behind the "poor output" excuse, but honestly i just think they're ugly. and then this black on white thing... i don't like it either. but these are just my opinions, definitely do whatever makes you happy.

 

Great write up and she looks beautiful!

 

nice book!

 

u expect anyone to read all this? ... all i did was look at the pics and click "BACK"

 

What a story!!!!

 

^^ great story

 

congrats on getting a car you like!

 

Nice job friend.
Thats a very inspiring story.
The maxima looks very good.
Do you live in a retirement community?

 

That was a great story... makes me want to work on my car right now.

 

haha naw this is just what florida looks like - 95% of the housing are these massive complexes with stupid names like "foxwood river" and "the pinebluffs" and "the eastern shine"

 

great story man!

 

This is what has happened over the past two weekends:


1) Replaced Valve Cover Gaskets
2) Installed NWP Engineering Thermal Spacer Kit
3) Installed Budget Y-Pipe
4) Replaced all 4 Rotors "slotted" and sealed ATEs
5) Replaced Charcoal Cannister Valve (was throwing code 0903)
6) Transmission drain/fill
7) Brake system flush

and

8) Put on my Motegi SP 10 Racing wheels






I got the Budget Y in the mail on thursday - and the box was fcking destroyed. It didnt look like anything was bent or damaged, but it was still stress inducing.








This is the collection of everything on Friday night, getting ready for Saturday

 

And then Saturday.....

 

And then yesterday I washed her and did a little interior detailing.

I gotta say Im pretty unhappy with these wheels. They are LIGHT AS ****, and have great tires on them, but frankly the picture of them on the Tire Rack website, and what actually showed up in the mail are quite different. i was expecting a darker grey or almost black wheel, but its shiney goddamn chrome..........then again they are 17lbs, so, performance = +1 and looks = -1.

chrome and white just dont mix. if i had a blue or black car id sport these in a minute, but ive decided im going to try to get my money back from Tire Rack, or end up selling them for a 2-300$ loss.....






and how she looks as of right now:

 

Despite the color of the wheels, they aren't bad looking. They aren't exactly CHROME, like I see on these stupid SUV's, but it's a nice silver. I would rock those wheels too, that weight is ridiculously nice. But hey, if the color is bothering you that much, either have someone powdercoat them another color, or get a new set.

 

i actually have an opportunity to get a great deal on some SE-r wheels this upcoming weekend. immona drive up there and try them on, possibly buy them.