1/4atatime's build journey
 

So I've had my car for about 6 months now and I figured this quarantine would give me time to document everything about my car. So a backstory (you can skip if you want it's a long story) of my username, what got me into cars, and why I chose the Z. When I was really young I was staying at a hotel across from a movie theater on the night of the release of tokyo drift. All these cars showed up to the movie theater and for 30 solid minutes I just watched cars pile into the parking lot one after another after another. I had never seen so many cars in my life and being a young little kid I was amazed. I ask my dad why are all these cool cars at the movies so late at night. He told me they were showing a midnight release of tokyo drift which was a movie in series that was extremely popular with car enthusiast. From that night on I loved cars and years later when I got a little older I watched that movie and for some reason the 350z caught my eye it was some how this aggressive machine that could be so graceful sliding around turns and from then on I had to have a Z. Fast forward to my first job out of college I have an amazing job and financial stability so I decided it's time to buy me a sports car. So I started looking and test driving. I test drove lots of different cars but I knew I wanted the Z even if it is outdated and underpowered compared to stuff out now. The car had something I felt every other car lacked a soul. The first time I got in it and mashed the throttle I had a smile a mile wide. A few months go by and I find one a guy is getting rid of it to buy something else and it's in fantastic condition. Less than 10k miles, one owner, regular maintenance, 10 year 120k mile extended warranty, great condition, only issue was some curb rash on the wheel. I bought it and took it home on November 16th 2019

Current mods:
Dash cam
Weathertech FloorLiner
LED light swap
JDM Fairlady Z Reverse Fog Light
GTR start button
Ceramic Coating
Motordyne Exhaust
Raceseng Shift knob
Fast Intentions RHFC (Resonated High Flow Cat)
34 row Z1 oil cooler with thermostatic plate and Setrab core
Michelin Pilot Sport 4S 245 front 275 rear
Race Ramps

Parts I need to install:
SPL front sway bar end links
Z1 Subframe bushing collars

Parts I am waiting on:
Hotchkis front sway bar
DSG Special Limited Edition Fortune Auto Generation 7 500 Series Coilover (12k front/ 6k rear/ true rear type)

Parts I need to buy:
Rest of the SPL stuff
SOHO intake
Catch cans
Tune
Carbon fiber steering wheel
Workshop 12 tablet radio kit

Parts I want to buy:
Powertrix mine's spoiler add on replica (carbon fiber)
Craftsquare TCA-RF Lightweight Racing Mirrors
Carbon fiber stuff (kickplates, door handles, carbon fiber wrapped radio kit, interior trim pieces, hood, engine cover, splitter, side skirts, strut tower brace etc)
78Works headlights/tailights

Dash Cam install
 

The first mod (done at 9,700~ miles) I did to my car was install a dash cam. Got to film those crazy people on the road and if you live in VA you know how bad the drivers are around there.

Second mod LED lights
 

The next mod I did (done at 9,700~ miles) was swapped out the awful yellow looking interior and licence plate lights for LED's. One of my favorite cheap mods for this car! It really makes it look nice and the LED licence plate lights go great with the LED's on the rest of the car.

Tip: Buy a set of plastic pry tools it makes it so much easier and they are super cheap and well worth it.

Get the gtr clear interior light lenses, it really helps to brighten up the interior also.

GTR Start Button
 

The next mod was a GTR start button. Even though it's made for the GTR I think it looks nice inside the Z.

Yeah I should go and do that. I should have done it when I did the lights.

You can get the red outer ring and it looks even better.

Paint correction, Ceramic Coating, Interior coating
 

The next thing I did to my car was get it looking even better and protected. I know I am going to keep this car for a long time and wanted to keep it looking new. I had a buddy of mine do the works on the car paint correction, Gtechniq ceramic coated paint and glass, and I even had him coat the interior of the car with stain resistant stuff. He did a fantastic job and 4 months later it still smells and looks like a brand new car. Ceramic coating is awesome and I don't think I could live without it on a car now. It's easy to clean, beads water, and looks fantastic.

I thought about it but I like the silver better especially since it goes with my silver car.

Z looks great.

Exhaust
 

The next mod was the exhaust (done at about 11,300~ miles). I went with the Motordyne because I liked the sound (nice and deep and exotic), the quality of the exhaust, and the minimal almost non existent drone at highway speeds. I don't know what else to say except I love this exhaust and by far my favorite mod I have done to my car. I challenge anyone who says the Tomei is the best exhaust for the Z to listen to a Motordyne it sounds incredible and really compliments the VQ tone. I wish I had more pics of the install but I didn't take that many. I did fix the crooked exhaust tip in the picture. Below is a video of my car after the install.

Thank you very much. I still have many more mods to do but I'm enjoying the journey. :icon17:

Beautiful car! I am a little partial to the brilliant silver myself.:p

Very nice, keep it going. :tup:

Thanks I appreciate it. Funny story I was originally looking for a blue one. I had dealers looking for me, I was looking on every car sales website within 500 miles of me, I looked everywhere. I couldn't find a blue one that wasn't beat to crap or had a million miles on it. In the almost 4+ months I was looking for one I only saw 1 decent blue one come up for sale but I passed because they wanted too much for it and I was just starting to look. I had no idea it would be so hard to find a blue one in a sport package or I would have bought it. Anyway I ended up with silver which was my second choice and I actually am glad I got silver over blue. Silver on this car looks so good! Not many cars can pull off silver but silver makes the lines on this car pop! Now I am a so glad I couldn't find a blue one.

Shift knob
 

The next mod I did was an aftermarket shiftknob. I wanted something with a little weight to it but nothing too heavy. I ended up going with a Raceseng Stratose shift knob with Alcantara on it. I am glad I grabbed one when I did. I ordered in December and didn't receive it till the end of February (installed at around 11,800~ miles) and they are still out of stock. I love the shift knob it feels great in the hand, shifts feel smoother and I feel more confident when shifting. The quality of it is absolutely amazing and it was well worth the $200+ I paid for it. That weekend I also got new Michilen Pilot sport 4S tires (Installed at 11,800~ miles) I went with the standard 245 front 275 rear (Those took almost a month before my tire guy could get any in stock)

Nice. Here's my Stratose

They make awesome shift knobs
Several of us have them.

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Several of us have too many of them :rofl2: okay, maybe one of us.

Both of us but I think you may have me beat!

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HFC Install
 

The next mod that was just done a few weeks ago is RHFC install (installed at 12,500~ miles). I bought mine from fast intentions at the same time I bought my Motordyne exhaust but it took a while to get them just because of the long turn around times. This mod IMHO has made the biggest difference power wise. I feel more so than my exhaust did. Maybe it's just because I have two breather mods now but the car pulls much harder and throttle response is better. I am for sure glad I went resonated because it does drone more. It's not bad at highway speeds but in some RPM ranges it can be a little annoying. I went HFC instead of test pipes just because I didn't want it too loud. I know everyone says get the ART pipes and even though I don't have to deal with emissions testing I just didn't want test pipes personal preference. I don't have pics of the RHFC but I did take a pic of my old cats (the weight saving alone on those is decent). I did take a video of it below:

That's really nice how did you do the black inlay on the top?

I had a pinstriper paint it.

JDM Fairlady Z Reverse Fog Light
 

Just finished this mod earlier today (done at 12,700~ miles). I had the light bolted in for a while now but just now got around to wiring it up. It was really easy thanks to this guide from Cbtech. I think the fog light looks sick on them and I wish Nissan just did it from the factory. They literally put everything in for it except the bulb and the switch or code for the BCM to turn it on.

Oil Cooler Install
 

Just got the oil changed and the oil cooler installed today (done at 12,738 miles). Going to test everything more tomorrow when it isn't raining but after leaving the car running for a bit I didn't see any leaks. So far so good. The cooler was a lot more annoying to install then I thought it would be. There isn't much room to tuck all the lines in all nice and neat. Especially when trying to fit an extended filter in the space. I think I did a good job with nice loose bends in the lines and no rubbing on other lines. The one thing I did different from Z1's instruction was I actually went over the power steering line bracket and under the top line (IMHO this is better than Z1's way anyway because if you do rub it's against the rubber part not the metal part of the lines less likely for metal on metal contact). No matter which way I tried to feed the lines under the spacer Z1 provides I couldn't get them to fit. There didn't seem to be any rubbing or pressure on the power steering line but I'll keep an eye on it . My Sway Bar is on back-order but hopefully I can tackle that next weekend.

More mods incoming the almost complete SPL catalog :happydance:

https://i.imgur.com/Gs3z6ek.jpg

Also got coilovers, undershroud, sway bar, and z1 subframe collars being installed

Will post more pics as I work on the car over the next few weeks.

Well it have been about time!!! LOL:rofl2:

Very true I put it off too long I was going to do it last year then the virus hit and things got crazy. Then I never got around to doing it since I stopped driving as much after work went online. Now that tracks are opening back up and I'm going to be going into work and driving a lot more I figured it was time to get it done.

Step 1 of the upgrade process done!

Sway bars installed, oil changed (done at 13,500~), and new under shroud

Going to add the SPL end links when I do the rest of the suspension. The main bolt was on really tight and couldn't get it off with a impact wrench or anything. Going to have to pull the whole piece it's attached to off and get some better leverage on it.

https://i.imgur.com/dpMax16.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vKXDXYz.jpg

I got another fun surprise coming soon. I'll give a hint it's titanium and their are only a handful of them (I think I've seen 3 pictures of them installed)

Surprise I got one of the rare Titanium Litespeed intakes for the 370z! I have not seen many around and when a form member offered it to me I had to jump on it. According to one post only 25 of them ever made :happydance:

https://i.imgur.com/D1A6Uo1.jpg

New carbon fiber steering wheel I'm loving how my interior setup is looking.

https://i.imgur.com/xRI2aKV.jpg

Morimoto tail lights installed looking fresh :happydance:

Oil change day today at 18,564 can't believe I've had the car for almost 10k miles now and I'm loving every mile!