Need advice on how to start working on this beaut.
 

Okay, I'll be honest here: this post is embarassing. Like. Really embarrassing. :o

But, anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I don't really know how to approach working on this car. It's unreal with the amount of things you are able to do to this monster. I'm completely overwhelmed.

I'm a broke college student and the end goal is to have a really nice DD that I can enter into some car shows and win a trophy or a dozen. I want it to look really, really nice. But I want it to perform well, also. Goals for the engine is a complete rebuild and twin turbos and pulling around 600-700hp, but that's for another day... For now, I want some intakes, new exhaust (I want it to sound mean), and maybe some little extras here and there. But that's beyond my pay-grade at the moment, I'm afraid.

I want coilovers (or air ride :D), new wheels, awesome interior, killer looks, the whole shabang. Quite frankly: that's just too much to take in right now. All I'm rocking right now is some Illest and Canibeat stickers. And a Slammed Society sticker. And people call me really dumb for doing that and not having anything done to my car, but you know what, I like the stickers and it's more of a reminder for me to get this thing rolling. But I will admit: it is embarassing...

All I'm really asking for from you guys is what can I do (specifically under a $500 budget) that would give me some noticable improvements on performance? New oil filters, etc? Or maybe a rear diffuser? Something? I'm at a loss here. I'll have to take into account installation prices from a shop, and I don't want to do anything that'll void any huge warranties (though not completely against it). If it's a simple install, I don't mind going out and doing it myself, either.

Thanks a lot, guys. I've been lurking around the forums for ages now, and finally got the courage to make a post. Your input really means a lot to me. :woot:

Just save ur $ pal, dreams will become a reality when u finish college and get that career goin.


PS I dont want to shatter ur dreams or soud like a @ss, but reality is, what it is.

I was afraid this was going to be the deal. Thanks a lot, man. I'll keep my eyes out for something but it looks like I'll be saving up.:tiphat:

Consider yourself lucky. Very few college students drive a new 370z.

For your budget. AAM short tails, and K&N drop ins. Remove the stickers as they have no meaning, and only make you look rice. Next, get your asss through college. Then you can really start planning on doing serous mods. Unless you get married in the mean time. Read through some of the journals and figure out how much some of us has spent. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Yeah, I know. I am pretty lucky! I really want to get into modifying and whatnot, but looks like I'll be waiting for a while. I have a lot saved up, but I don't want to dump it all on my car... Not while I'm in college, anyway. Haha.

Oh, trust me, I know its expensive. :rofl2: I keep telling myself to remove the stickers but man: when they're gone, I'll probably lose motivation to work on my car, but at least there won't be any rice. :rofl2: The stickers are black on my tinted windows, except I have on on my drivers side quarter window in oil-slick and a white one on the mirror. And gold ones on the front. :o

Congrats on the new 370z. Its a nice ride for sure. If I were you, I would save the cash until you are out of school. Once you find a decent job, you can go nuts. Congrats!

To add to some of the good advice already stated, just start by doing small things like checking and correcting your own fluids, do your own oil changes, etc. This will get you more familiar with the car and read the FSM if needed.

Thank you very much! I've had it since 10/01/14 and let me tell you: what an amazing little machine this thing is. I've wanted a Z since I was little (runs in the family I guess you could say... My stepdad's brother (step-uncle?) had a 280zx, my mom had a 300zx, and my uncle had a 350z; I suppose I was next in line :p :happydance:)

I was looking at oil filters (Puralator 14610, and some other stuff. AK's thread on his install was really helpful with that) and some air filters and stuff. I was also looking at the Fujimura rear diffuser. :p In the future, I want to try and do absolutely all that I can in my own garage instead of taking my car places and having them do stuff for me, you know?

College student here as well
 

I'm finishing up college right now (Industrial Engineering Major) and have been modding my Z for the past 2 years. I didn't do much to it for the first year of owning the car though as it was still new to me and I didn't feel the need yet. I like to take the new mods slow because if you rush all of them at once you lose the excitement for the car faster, that and I don't have the money to do everything at once. For me a good mod makes the car feel new all over again. My advice would be to focus on performance before looks, but just my :twocents: Mine still looks mostly stock on the exterior. Do all the work on it yourself that you can, there are some great DIY's on this forum. You can do twice the mods if you are not paying for instillation. I definitely feel lucky to be driving such an awesome car at my age. Makes me enjoy my commute everyday, even in Atlanta traffic with the MT :eek:. As for the stickers maybe a little ricy, but who cares it's your car. :tup:

Haha, virtual high five for us engineering students! :hello: This is nice to think about, you know? I'm all for starting slow and stuff. That sounds good, actually. I think I'll make a little checklist about things that could use some...."updating", if you will. I make my commute back to college tomorrow actually, so a two hour drive will be perfect for that.

I definitely agree with the "twice as many mods" thing you said, too, which is definitely why I want to learn. I took a class on economics, so spending extra for something you can do yourself just simply wouldn't be very rational. :D

:happydance: gotta love engineering :ugh:. I've noticed we like to mod cars more than the average college students. There are a lot of nice z's, s2ks, rustangs, vettes etc. at my school. Only one other 370 though and I think its a professors haha. If your school has a formula SAE race team I would try to get involved in that. I haven't yet because it takes up a lot of time, but I'm planning to.

Need advice on how to start working on this beaut.
 

My school has an Auto Society, but there is absolutely no way I can fit that in my schedule. Another thing is that, if I'm honest, I don't really enjoy engineering anymore; it's no longer a passion of mine. I don't want to be a dropout though, so I'm in a real pickle. :confused: I kind of want to build guitars (be a luthier if you know what I'm talking about) because I have a wood shop readily available and already started on a template. plus, I have wood to use. :D I just don't know, man. I don't know why I just told you my life story atm, either. :koolaidwall:

EDIT: Typos :shakes head:


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[QUOTE=TheWolfe;3401541]My school has an Auto Society, but there is absolutely no way I can fit that in my schedule. Another thing is that, if I'm honest, I don't really enjoy engineering anymore; it's no longer a passion of mine. I don't want to be a dropout though, so I'm in a real pickle. :confused: I kind of want to build guitars (be a luthier if you know what I'm talking about) because I have a wood shop readily available and already started on a template. plus, I have wood to use. :D I just don't know, man. I don't know why I just told you my life story atm, either. :koolaidwall:

EDIT: Typos :shakes head:

Haha I'm not sure what I would do man. I didn't start out in engineering my first year, had to transfer to where I'm at now. Maybe take a semester off just work and think about what you really want to do. If you are already far into your degree I would say tough it out, you don't have to use the degree after you graduate, but it's a great backup to have. I play the guitar, Just picked up an American strat not too long ago, so the guitar building idea sounds pretty awesome!

:iagree:Taking a semester off might be nice.

I have 9 guitars, few amps, drums, keyboards, you name it. :rofl2: I converted my upstairs' bonus room into a fully-functional recording studio. ;) Guess that's why I initially chose an engineering school in the first place :rofl2: :rofl2:

For somewhere near your budget you could get into being dropped. Springs, rear camber arms and toe bolts. If you have access to a jack and a dremel tool for the toe bolts, and sockets you can get that done. Im sure you could do it with the factory flat tire jack but I wouldnt recommend it.

Need advice on how to start working on this beaut.
 

Sway bars. Drop in air filters and maf tubes. Used cat back. Leave the rest alone until you've got more money to work with.

And lose the stickers.

This is nothing to be embarrassed about. I was in the same path as you. Although I was broke *** college student, I devoted everything to own my very own Z. With the help of my parent's generous down payment, I was able to make my own payments and eventually pay off the Z by working my *** off. I wanted to mod my Z sooooo badly but that had to wait. Slowly but surely I saved up and got an intake and exhaust. I couldn't afford aftermarket wheels so I decided to plasti dip it (which turned out amazing). I even blacked out the headlight housing myself. Everything takes one step at a time.

I just recently graduated from my school (Dec. 2015) and locked in my career before graduating. Now I have access to income that I've never had before and I'm kinda overwhelmed by it. Everything that I wanted on my Z is accessible......but now that I think about it, I want to buy my very own house. Things change and you don't know what'll happen down the line. I will eventually do something to my Z but not as much as I hoped back when I was a student.

As for your budget part, I suggest maybe getting a HFC or TP. GL!

stickers can make you look like a tool (unless you are intending too) or if you're mocking something. like saying 'lifted' when you're really slammed etc. but that definitely makes you look like a ricer.

focus on paying off your car then look at doing other stuff. save your money to maintain the car and any unforeseen issues that come up. when you have spare cash that's when you should consider doing any mods

save your money now, dont rush into modifying it. enjoy the ride as stock for now. if you want power go for twin turbo in the future. adding these small mods will only get you to wanted more power.

I am also a college student. The only thing I have done right now is a muffler delete ($150) and K&N drop ins ($100 i think for the two). I also have Stillen Gen 3 intakes, but have not installed them yet because I think I might be having transmission problems :/

I would start with a can of WD40. It will take your stickers off without damaging the paint.

Good suggestion. I'm trying to decide whether I want to go with exhaust stuff or suspension now... :ugh:

Any recommended drop ins? Or are they all pretty much the same?

I paid for my car in full, upfront, in cash, a little over a year ago. :rofl2::driving:

Hope you get the transmission figured out :(

K&n. But make sure you don't over oil them. The maf tubes are all pretty much the same. I'll bet you can get almost all the parts I listed here in the classifieds used and come in pretty much on budget. Might have to swap out the car back for muffler deletes. But that will give you a quicker, better handling and sounding car without breaking the bank.

Awesome! I'll check the classifieds out right now ;)

And all of those are easy DIYs. After that, figure out if you really feel like spending a metric fuckton of money to turbo the car. If that's the route you're going to take, don't buy other power mods that you'll just have to take off when the turbos go on.

This might drop right into your budget with a little negotiation...

http://www.the370z.com/parts-sale-pr...haust-new.html

Makes sense :D I looked around a bit, but I didn't see anything I'm really needing at the moment. Maybe tomorrow ;)

I see that you"re in Dallas like I am! I'm only 18 in college and I've too many things done to my car that I would be able to help you out with. Long story short, take your time modding your Z. Meaning no cutting your exhaust, no name crap, eBay springs, etc. I can tell you in person on what you should do with your budget.

And you could've bought my car! I'm no more that 1 hour away at most from you :(

OP - Dig through the used section on this site. People tend to change their mind on their builds and let really nice parts go at fair prices to forum members. Something to think about.

Thanks a lot for the advice! For the past few days, I have been all over the classifieds. Haven't found much, but it's definitely a start!


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I hate stickers too...:icon18:
Which ones are you referring to...:confused:

Need advice on how to start working on this beaut.
 

I have some black ones on my rear window, but you can't really see them (unless my car is dirty...). I have a white Illest one on my driver's side rearview mirror, and it doesn't block my vision or anything so I keep it on because I like the whole white/chrome thing going on there. On my front windshield, I have a Japanese flag and a Slammed Society banner in gold but they're not really obnoxious or anything. I kinda like it. The only sticker I don't like is an oil slick Canibeat one that says "Breaking Boundaries". I put it on the little side window thing on the driver's side.

As soon as I put it on, I pretty much came to the conclusion that I riced up my baby :( I'm probably going to take it off this weekend.... It looks decent in person, but still... Doesn't belong on a Z. At all.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...5bdff8d2ee.jpg

I took the lei down, it was for my birthday :P But here is the Slammed Society banner:
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...194b737224.jpg

Here is the Illest sticker in the mirror I was talking about:
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...cc2a4abcfd.jpg

And the black ones on the rear window:
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...e8fbfb6c83.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...a80364a4e6.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8Sa9lX5.jpg


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uh.... can't say I'm too much of a fan of any of those sticker placements

for reference I had the pedo bear stickers on the small rear windows... was hilarious for all 1 month then took them off

They look a little better in person, I'll admit that, but yeah I don't blame you :inoutroflpuke:


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