the rescued Z
 

hi guys this my first thread in this forum, I'm new in the Z world i have been a Honda guy all my life but suddenly a car that was begging to be rescued came along so i took it, it's a 2009 370z base, i'm going to post all the pics of the transformation, right now is at the final stages of paint and restoration.

this was the Z when i bought it for a good price, that includes no rear mirror, no jack, no spare tire, no battery cover, cracked and discolored dash, orange trim inserts??, ghetto headlights, ricer bumper, ricer decals all over, fake carbon cracked voltex wannabe spoiler wing and special edition ghetto checkered paint job...

looks terrible isn't it?

Attachment 144169

Attachment 144170

Attachment 144171

Attachment 144172

Attachment 144173

after buying it immediately took off the ugly stickers from the doors, the ricer tail and took it directly to the paint shop...

Attachment 144174

Attachment 144175

Attachment 144269

at the shop they started to dismantle it and started sanding down all that paint crap...

Attachment 144176

Attachment 144177

Attachment 144178

Attachment 144179

the first thing i bought was the nismo spoiler, here's a test fit

Attachment 144181

the ricer tail that it had previously was installed using a nail and a hammer pure ghetto style, so we solder, grinded those ugly holes to restore the oem look

Attachment 144182

Attachment 144183

Attachment 144184

Attachment 144185

the hood and the roof sanded down until we got rid of all the ugly black paint and extra bondo that was holding the hood web can you imagine the aluminum hood and inner web structure glued with bondo...gross, we had to take the hood with the solder to fix it.

Attachment 144186

Attachment 144187

the rear bumper was removed for sanding to get rid of that black square on the license plate area, also we found out that it was cracked around the left tailpipe because the left tailpipe was a little distorted

Attachment 144188

Attachment 144189

Looking good. I'm sure she's gonna clean up real nice! At least the interior wasn't messed up. Glad you got rid of the picnic table. Does it actually have a decent exhaust or just a muffler delete?

sanding, sanding, sanding all over to get rid of those ugly black patches what in hell the previous owner was thinking when he painted the car that way? the first layers of primer and sanding again several times to prepare the surfaces for paint

Attachment 144190

Attachment 144191

Attachment 144192

Attachment 144193

Welcome to the forum. :tup:

Good luck on the build.

Congrats, looks like you have a good starting point and you’re not wasting any time :tup:

the interior had to be removed completely i'm going to post pics of it soon, the interior was as bad as the exterior

the roof, quarter panels and the doors already sanded, is nice to find out that the car has some goodies already installed, like carbon fiber mirrors, fly1 fenders...

Attachment 144197

Attachment 144198

Attachment 144199

Attachment 144200

the front bumper had some really ugly fake vents that had no purpose and they were made cutting the bumper, using tons of bondo, really nasty stuff, had to be sanded and sanded and got rid of all the crap and sealed all...

Attachment 144201

Attachment 144202

Attachment 144203

Attachment 144204

the exhaust is aftermarket, but im not sure of the brand looks and sound nice, no rasp at all, sounds more like a V8, the bad thing was that the left tailpipe was a little distorted, we already fixed that but the test pipes (yes it has full exhaust, test pipes and catback) are scratched and bent because the car was sitting tooooo low.

started working on the front end, it doesn't had the front absorber foam so i had to buy it, didn't have the bottle neck to fill the wiper reservoir either and the coolant reservoir was cracked and leaking, also no radiator cover baffle...

the headlights are in terrible shape this guy painted black by hand and probably both had the clear lens cracked and replaced ghetto style, they look really bad so they will be replaced with OEM ones.

Attachment 144205

Attachment 144206

Attachment 144207

Attachment 144208

Attachment 144211

Attachment 144212

Attachment 144213

great job and welcome

regarding the interior, the dashboard was in really bad shape it was cracked and discolored (maybe this guy used to clean it using bleach i guess) so it was removed to install another dashboard. The seat belts were locked so we had to disassemble the whole interior to fix them.

Attachment 144209

Attachment 144210

Attachment 144214

the new dashboard installed also i decided that i will do a nismo conversion, so i started to collect all nismo stuff that i could, already the car starts to look nice, new steel shift knob and nismo red stitches all around. Also got a nismo cluster

Attachment 144215

Attachment 144216

Attachment 144217

Attachment 144218

Attachment 144219

Attachment 144220

Attachment 144221

Attachment 144222

the front bumper almost finished sanded, repaired and primed almost ready for primer and paint

Attachment 144223

Attachment 144224

i never liked the stock wheels so i got a good deal on rmk wheels i like them a lot they fit perfect on the Z. also got nismo center caps

When i was swapping the tires i found another surprise, NO TPMS!!!! none on any wheel so i had to buy 4.

when you put aftermarket wheels you have buy new lug nuts so i did, but found another issue....

Attachment 144225

Attachment 144226

Attachment 144227

Attachment 144228

Attachment 144229

Attachment 144230

Attachment 144231

Attachment 144232

Attachment 144233

Attachment 144234

changed the intakes for some titaniums

Attachment 144235

another issue was that when i removed the stock wheels the ones in the back had spacers to make the rear wheels sit flush, the problem was that the previous owner used 1.5 thread spacers instead of 1.25 so he ruined the rear studs. so i had to replace 10 studs

another issue was that the stance of the car was too low so i bought the stock springs and removed the aftermarket ones, our roads are really bad so is stupid to be that lowered.

Attachment 144236

Attachment 144237

Attachment 144238

got a set of OEM headlights and started to fit the front bumper...

Attachment 144239

Attachment 144240

more surprises!!! the previous owner decided that OEM xenon sucks and decided to delete it and put Chinese leds instead, in the process he mangled the headlight harness so i had to get another harness for the driver side, the passenger side was repairable, also the driver side ballast was toasted. My OEM headlights didn't come with sockets, bulbs, ballasts and covers so i had to buy all that stuff.

Attachment 144241

Attachment 144242

Attachment 144243

Attachment 144244

Attachment 144245

Attachment 144246

for the nismo conversion i got the front and rear dampers so i installed them. The rear nismo damper brace was a little rusty so i sprayed it black.

Attachment 144247

Attachment 144248

Attachment 144249

i got a nismo shifter trim, it came from an AT i didn't know that AT and manual trims are completely different so there's no way to attach the boot so temporary glued it but I'm thinking of changing the stitching to red so I'm going to remove it again and give it to the upholsterer soon

Attachment 144250

got a grimmspeed shift knob, looks insane i'm going to install it soon...

or leave the first steel knob? what do you guys think?

it was a really pain in the *** remove the stock shift knob, i had to use 2 vise grips and a plumbing tool, unbelievable

Attachment 144251

Attachment 144252

the car arrived to the shop on June 5th, 2 months later on august 10th everything is aligned and ready for paint

Attachment 144253

Attachment 144254

Attachment 144255

Lots of progress! Fun build thread!

started last coat of grey priming and wet sanding all over prior to apply the paint

Attachment 144256

Attachment 144257

Attachment 144258

Painting started!!!!

Attachment 144259

Attachment 144260

Attachment 144261

Attachment 144262

Attachment 144263

Attachment 144264

now there's only the front and rear bumpers left, if you notice at the pics the guy is still preparing the bumpers the rest of the car is painted, now they will let it sit a couple of days and after they sand it again with finest sandpaper and after they will buff it and polish it. The guy at shop applied 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint and 3 coats of clear.

Attachment 144265

Attachment 144266

Attachment 144268

preparing the bumpers and the spoiler for the paint...

Attachment 144270

Attachment 144271

Attachment 144272

really nice progress so far - can't wait to see what else you add to it and how it looks in its 'finished' state. But so far - WOW! :)

thanks, well lots of stuff are pending:

1. install the nismo red stitch door panels
2. install the nismo red ring start button
3. install the nismo steering wheel with flat bottom
4. install the nismo e-brake
5. install the new horns
6. install the new hood opener cable (mine was broken)
7. install the front shocks
8. install the fender liners
9. install the nismo headers
10. repaint the engine cover nismo red
11. i got a KPH cluster so i have to dissasemble the nismo cluster to swap the covers but scares me to remove the needles
12. also have the nismo 3 gunmetal rings but also scares me to remove the covers they are very hard

Yeah but...still - so far it's looking really nice man. I noticed you have a 2003 RSX in your signature - is that a Type-S and how do you like it?

Hey Bro the RSX is the 2003 Type S of course has been with me since 2009 I have build it very tastefully even i was going to do a Frankenstein K24 swap (already built the engine) but the Z appeared so I don't see the point of doing all the hassle of the swap having now a weekend warrior, the RSX is my daily driver here are some pics. it has the very rare ADVAN AVS Wheels that came from the R33 Skyline GTR.

The RSX is an amazing car, very reliable and fast but you know we never satisfied and we look for something bigger


Attachment 144274

Attachment 144275

Attachment 144276

the ironies of life:

RSX = dark car, clear wheels
370z = clear car, dark wheels

Damn Son, you’re KILLING IT !!
Good job