Well, I have had this 1997 Maxima SE for a while now, and I have been a bystander to these forums for a while also. But the time has come to refresh the Maxima and join in on all the fun around here.

I recently purchased a VQ35DE swap (full harness, ECU, Egas, Electroluminescent Cluster) from a wrecked 2004 I35 with 9800 miles on it. The guy I bought this stuff from threw in the leather interior also. So, I have swapped in the I35 power heated front seats AND the heated rear seats too. Took me about 10 hours to get everything mounted properly. The rear seats actually fit the car perfectly, it was the front seats I had issues with.

Soon I will be doing the FULL VQ35DE swap with the ECU, harness and electroluminescent gauge cluster. Can't wait to show those pics when I am done.

 

The seats look excellent! Are you going to do a 5-speed swap the same time as the 3.5 or are you keeping the auto?

 

I will keep it AT. I have a bad daily commute (100 miles a day in stop and go). I will likely get the AT from that 04 I35 because this AT has 203K miles.

 

Seats look awesome! Great job.

 

looks awesome man.

 

looks very nice

 

WOW NICE SEATS!!! Might be something I will look for. Any installation tips? I cant believe the rear seats fit. did you do anything special?

 

I took pics so I can do a write up if there is interest in it.

With our cars getting older and older, swapping in a much newer interior is the best way to breathe in new life to the car.

I was very shocked to see that the back seat fit so well. I expected it to be totally different, but the seat bottom fit the car perfectly and the seat backs, even though a different design, still used most of the same bolt in locations. The only difficult thing was the rear mounts of the front seats and the fact that the front drivers seat has a memory module in it that needed to be wired up. The front passenger seat plugged right into the stock power seat wire in my SE that had manual seats. So, all in all not too bad.

Thanks for all the props!

 

very cool man, nice work and good luck on the swap!

 

Dude that looks really good. How much was the engine and the parts along with the leather interior? Makes me want to keep my max and update it.

 

Dude...I hate you. . I wasn't planning on swapping leather into my car...but now I might just have to down the road. lol.

Looks GREAT.

 

Cool man. That is a nice mod.

 

Only $1000 for the full seats, engine, ECU w/harness and electroluminescent gauge cluster all parts from a I35 that only had 9800 miles on it.

 

Another jealous 4thgener... Amazing how it all fit with almost no hassle...
Keep it up... and good luck on that 3.5swap..

 

Seats look great.

 

write up on those front seats??? My leather driver seat has a rip!!

 

damnnnnn youuuuu haahah. That's a damn good deal!!! Especially with only 9800 miles. you've got a brand new car now.

 

send me pics of teh gauge clusters. I definately want to see it.

 

I don't have any pics of the gauge cluster lit up. Go to ebay and look at the I35's for sale and you can see in the interior shots what they look like. They are black when off, then light up bright white and blue with "floating" needles when the car is on.

I will do a write up soon on the seats. In a nutshell: As other seat swappers have noted, they needed to modify the seat rails. Some people welded on the Gen 4 parts, I was able to hack, drill, hog out and bolt my way thru it. No welder needed. The front seat front rail mounts line up with the Gen 4, but they need to be bent a little. Easy. The rear rails need the Gen 4 foot from near the B pillar, and the mount near the trans tunnel needs a hole drilled in a different location.
The rear seats are 5 pieces. Seat bottom, left side piece, left seat back, right seat back and right side piece. To my amazement and relief, the seat bottom lined up and snapped into the factory Gen 4 places perfectly. Also to my amazement, the left and right side pieces bolted into the Gen 4 locations perfectly. Only the seat backs require any work, you need to mount some latches and hinges from the 5.5 donor car because the 5.5 has folding rear seats, my 97 SE did not. Also amazing was the fact that all the contours matched. Nissan engineers must have been too lazy to change the rear body of the car when they were designing the Gen 5 in CAM. They must have just "cut and pasted" it into the new car.

Anyway, write up soon!

 

this makes me really want new seats.

 

Quickie write up here: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....=1#post5859892

 

i love my leather...but it sucks in Summer and sucks in Winter haha...still love it. And i love yours <3

 

what modification is needed for the i35 guages?

 

Great Leathers man.!!!!!i wanna do that someday.

 

Nice job on the seats.I swapped my original leather seats for a set out of an infinity i30.Leathers out of the infiniti are def better quality.

 

the seats look great man... let us see that engine swap when u get it done...

 

yummy.

 

NICE.....i love those seats, now i would put two t.v.'s in the back of the rear seats headrest....LOL

 

cant u just swap the leather ??

i swapped the 4th gen tan with 4th gen black...im wondering if u can just swap the leather without even doing the modifications

 

No... the seats are completely different. Especially from the 4th gen to the
I35 which is the 5.5 gen.

 

nice leather

 

man your in seattle?!! ive never seen you around. what part you in?

 

Hmm... 6th gen to 5.5 gen maybe????

 

Sweet.. at least now I knwo I don't need same generation i30 for rear seats! good job!

 

awesome! the interior freshen up the car a good bit!

 

does anyone have the i35 swap write up, the link is dead. Yes i google it and sorry for bringing back a dead thread. So before anyone makes any smart comments i did my research already. I have a 98 and wanted to upgrade the interior to an i35 2001-2004(especially the rear seat) any help or pics would be greatly apprecaited