Ahhh.... I now see your reasoning not to just buy the sport package. Good plan, in for your next mod.

Boost_lee go for the 20mm up front, you will not regret it. I like mine. btw: I can hook you up with a set of H&R 20mm DRS that I am selling.

LOOK very good ..... i LIKE IT ALOT

keep it going man... i like what i see.

Definitely go for it, having 20mm pushes the front and rear out equally and looks perfect: not too aggressive but it definitely produces great fitment. I still have a pair of H&R 20mm spacers (stud replacement), I need to get rid of them at some point I think.

Thanks Matt, can't wait to see what you have in store for your Z now!

Gracias Andrew, I think tires will be next. What would you do next if this were your car?

Nice. Im thinking about rotating my 20mm's to the front, and going with a 25mm spacer in the rear. May be a bit flush, but I dont plan on going with a wider tire on the stock sport rims

BTW, i think I dig the look of sport wheels with no wing...

That would work, 25s in the back would be pretty aggressive but your car would pull it off very well with the body mods I think.

Sometimes I think the wingless hatch looks perfect, while some at some angles, it almost looks like something is missing. I bought a SP wing but have yet to install it.

I need to get my a$$ to cali. It's so nice there

And your Z looks awesome dude. Coming along great.

You should man, cross country road trip perhaps? ;)


Thanks for the nice comment, it is coming together slowly but surely. I'm trying to figure out what should come next, do you have any ideas?

depends on what your going for and how much $$$$ you wanna spend.

You will like the 25mm in the rear, I purchased a slew of different sizes to experiment and settled on my first sizes 20mm Fr & 25mm Rr. It really makes the rear look like sometning is going on back there with stock size tires.

So much for offering you my extra set of 20mm.

Nothing big, I was thinking I could either do:

Option 1:

-Stillen front splitter
-Rear diffuser (FRP)

Option 2:

-Save up for a BBK which may not happen for a good amount of time

Yea I agree, thanks.

I know what ur saying about the hatch...I think the exposed brake light makes it look funny sometimes. At least you have the option of doing the wing :tup:

Haha, I personally like the sport package wing a lot. I bought a PW wing for super cheap figuring that even if I didn't paint and install it, I could sell it since PW is a popular color. Sooo many choices, too little moneys....

damn i love the stance on your car! im picking up an 09 PG within a day or two and would love to have the same setup as you. but i promised myself i won't lower my next car :shakes head: so tempting :eekdance:

DO IT! It is not just about looks, the greatest improvement these springs gave is a more neutral handling feel, better control mid-corner, feeling more planted and stable, and the car rotates much better as well. It doesn't look half bad either. ;)

Christian. I sold you my 20mm's right ? Your car reminds me of mine. You have swift springs right ? It seems like some pics of the swifts looks more dropped than others. Yours is perfect. The car looks phenomenal.

On a side note I was out by malibu visiting friends last month And all I kept saying was how much I wish I had my Z. The Z is made for California. I would seriously consider moving out by my friends I'm Redondo beach if the wifey didnt Just Land a teaching position.

Yep, I still have them sitting in my room as I got a great deal on the SP Rays along with a full set of 20mm bolt on spacers. I do have a slight vibration coming from one of the front wheels at 70+mph so I'm not sure if it is the spacers or one of the wheels might need to be balanced. If it is the spacers, I will install the bolt ons I bought from you.

I wish I would have known you were out here, I would have offered to meet up. This is definitely car country out here though!

Let me know about your vibration.I decided to go with 20mm front and 25mm rear.....Keep going

Don't be deterred from spacers Matt, it could just be a case of wheel balance or re-torquing the front spacers. 25 would be nicely aggressive, definitely will make you flush in the rear!

Solution to teh "VQ hiss"
 

I have been thinking about potential solutions to lessen or get rid of the hiss that is a trademark of VQ engines for a little while and am thinking of trying an idea. Since the hiss comes from the X-pipe section of the exhaust, I was wondering if wrapping just the X-pipe in exhaust wrap could lessen the sound?

I researched it and it has helped on other cars with rasp or hiss tendencies and am wondering what y'all think about it?

Deleted....OT

Do the front spacers have hub centric rings? Wonder if that's an issue? I only have spacers in the rear and I couldn't run the rings with my type of wheels. They seemed to fit, but something wasn't right.

They did, I specifically remember all 4 spacers having hub centric rings. I plan to remove, re-install, and torque them down to spec to see if that makes a difference. If not, I will just install my replacement stud H&R 20 mm spacers.

This Saturday, I was set to attend an SCCA test and tune autocross event in El Toro Fields but due to 70-80 mile per hour Santa Ana winds blasting the crap out of everyone, the cars, and the course, they postponed it to the point where I couldn't participate so I bowed out and drove home. I would have had my butt handed to me though! There were only a handful of cars that did not have slicks and those that didn't were z06s, 911s, and Exiges but thankfully I wasn't there to be competitive, only to learn. I will sign up for the next event though.

I had my GoPro with me so I decided to take a video of the drive home to capture how the car sounds in all driving conditions. It is long so I apologize, but there were some fun little spurts here and there. :tup:

Don't know if it's the mic on the GoPro but the F.I. CBE sounds like a lot of drone at cruising speeds. Don't get me wrong I love the F.I. and it's on my wish list. I have heard a lot of folks swapping out their F.I. for another xyz brand because of the drone. What is your opinion of the drone (if any) and how do you feel after a loooong drive.....drained from the exhaust note or is this just a bunch of smoke? I was following the F.I. thread from the start but it's gotten too large of a thread to keep up with anymore.

Hopefully some good weather next time for AutoX. Those damn Santa Anna winds is why I moved out of Rubidoux/Riverside years ago plus the frekkin traffic on the weekends....haha

The mic on the GoPro leaves a lot to be desired, I had the open back cover but that can only do so much lol. In my honest opinion, the drone is not bad at all from my experience so far. There is a fair amount of drone concentrated around 2-2,200 rpm but above and below that, there is not much at all. I do a lot of highway driving between 40-80 mph and I never had any problems with the sound levels inside the cabin.

In the interest of complete disclosure, my previous exhaust had a massive amount of drone, the type that was headache inducing. I have had the FI exhaust for a while now so I might just not notice it as much anymore, but the drone is in such a small window and even there, it is not as bad as I was lead to believe by other reviews complaining about it. I actually enjoy it as you can feel the car a bit more. I guess I will end with the fact that there is a reason why so many people run the FI exhaust, a sizable percentage of which also run test pipes or high flow cats. All I can say is I love it!

SOLD....thanks for the honest unbiased opinion.

Glad to help! I always appreciate opinions and information from others so I do my best to reciprocate when I can.

Just dropping a little update, I haven't been up to much with the Z for the past few months but I have a few things on the way. First will be my new clutch pedal helper spring from Esfourteen, can't wait to install it in a few days:


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0564_2558.jpg


I will also be picking up my VIP type 3 carbon fiber spoiler from Rick in the next week or so but am unsure of when that will be installed. Thanks for looking, I hope a few more things on my to-do list might get done this year as well. :)

Man your car is nice! You have gave me some wonderful ideas for my 09 Z.

Wish I could cruise out to cali and ride. I live in Clemson, SC so pretty far :(

Good luck, Great Build journal, and keep the updates coming man!

I'm on the fence about getting a wing for mine, so I look forward to your review, Christian

Christian are your front spacers stud replacent ones ? They may be the only knees that completely eliminate any sort of vibration.

I will be sure to document it as always, I got the carbon fiber one so it will be interesting to see how it looks on PG and also if the darker CF color gives it a little less visual impact that the paint matched ones have.

I am still holding onto my 20mm H&R DRS spacers for that very reason, there is a slight but definite vibration in the steering wheel around 80mph. I just need to gather the motivation to install them haha, not quite as quick or easy as the bolt on Ichibas.

Just took a quick picture in the garage last night too since I loved the way the garage lighting really made the paint sparkle:


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0609_2601.jpg

Esfourteen Clutch Helper Spring Installed
 

I had been following the first group buy of Esfourteen's clutch helper spring but since I was in China, I hoped I could hold off ordering until I got back... Well, that didn't work as I has no patience. Temptation was too much after seeing all the rave reviews and thankfully, Nick still had a few left so I took him up and finally got it installed today.

Installation:

A number of people have commented that you need to file/sand a few areas to get the pins on the top and bottom back in. My observation is that you should leave the bottom pin in as you do not need to remove it and will make re-installation that much easier. The part that prevented me from sliding the pin back in the top was that the top hole in the actual spring assembly was a close fit with the pin so I used a round file to take the internal edges off. After losing a circlip after it shot off into the footwell, I went to Autozone and bought a kit of them and had to file one of the kit circlips to get it to fit. Otherwise, it was a pretty straightforward if not physically awkward install haha.

Impressions:

First thing I noticed is that pedal effort was reduced slightly. It does not have that springy over-boosted feel that the stock spring had which is absolutely awesome. There is a noticeable amount of slack at the top of the pedal but I can live with that. The best way I can describe the new feel of the clutch is that it is much more natural. The pedal movement is more linear through the entire range of the clutch's actuation and instantly allowed me to shift more smoothly and consistently in stop and go traffic. It also makes me feel like I can modulate the clutch with much more smoothness than before as the clutch pedal isn't pushing against your foot as much since the stock spring over-boosted the rebound.


Bottom line is this is one of the best mods I have done to the Z to date and for the price and prompt delivery Nick commands, is one of the best bang for the buck drive-ability improvements out there at the moment.

Carbon Spoiler and GTR Button
 

I drove over to the Z store and made a few acquisitions today for the Z, a carbon fiber sport package rep spoiler and a GTR start button. My original plan was to add a VIP Status type 3 carbon wing but I feel like it is just too big for my purposes without aftermarket wheels and some additions to the lower valence/front bumper to balance it out.


After returning from the Z store, I unpacked the spoiler and while it looked good, have some heavy marring/swirls and a general haze on all areas of the wing. I got out my Makita, some Meguiar's 105 compound, Menzerna Power Finish, and an assortment of pads and went to work.


Some examples of the overall condition:


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0640_2619.jpg


Good from afar but far from good...


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0641_2620.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0642_2621.jpg


Time to tape up for some 50/50 shots: you can see the haze, but also some of the deep RIDs that were in the resin/clearcoat



http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0643_2622.jpg


After one pass with Power Finish and a white LC pad, it was clear a more aggressive pad/polish combo was needed:


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0647_2623.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0648_2624.jpg


One pass with a purple foamed wool pad and some 105 made significantly more progess:


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0649_2625.jpg


Before:


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0650_2626.jpg



50/50: left untouched, right after one pass of purple foamed wool and Megs 105


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0651_2627.jpg


Here, you can see the 50/50 line out of direct sunlight: the left side is milky and hazy while the right is clearer, deeper and more glossy.


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0653_2628.jpg


Some deeper marks remained unfortunately as they were underneath the clearcoat.


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0671_2641.jpg


After polishing the underside, here is how it turned out:


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0654_2629.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0657_2630.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0658_2631.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0659_2632.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0660_2633.jpg


I am going to a well respected auto detailer/body shop guy tomorrow or Saturday to have it installed.



On to the GTR Button:

Thanks to Triple's excellent guide, I was able to easily pop in the GTR button. I love it as it adds some contrast and color to an otherwise dark interior. The red is a really deep red that almost has a candy effect to it, I definitely am happy to finally install it.


Before:

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0673_2643.jpg


After:



http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0676_2644.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0678_2645.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0684_2646.jpg




As always, thanks for reading. I know this isn't the most exciting or extreme build but I appreciate any comments, suggestions or concerns you might have too. :tiphat:

Nice work on the spoiler.

i need to do the same to my spoiler.

nice progress. Sucks about the change in plans, only for my sake :p I think you made a sound decision.

Funny about losing the circlip during the spring install; mine flew into the opening that leads to the door molex and I lost it also.

Thanks SPOHN.

Do some 50/50s, those are always very satisfying. Pretty shocking how much marring there was though...

Haha, well you have the body mods to balance out the larger wing so I say go for it! The only other thing holding me back on the VIP wing other than the size is the fact that it rises to a point, I wish it had a flatter top. The workmanship is top notch, but I think that it would just be a bit much for my otherwise stock exterior.