Looking good as always!

That lip is perfect! Love it!

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote: ↑

Mon May 24, 2021 8:42 am

Looking good as always!

float_6969 wrote: ↑

Mon May 24, 2021 8:52 am

That lip is perfect! Love it!

thanks guys! trying to get some more done little by little

little update on things...

got the side skirts and rear valance fitted up and drilled any necessary mounting holes. still need to take everything for paint one of these days. i'm not sure about the wangan wing just yet lol. might need to see it painted and laid on there with everything else to decide if i like it or not.




after that, i wanted to redo all my accessory wiring under the knee panel that i threw together originally. it was all done correctly with relays and fuses but it was a little too messy for my liking.
at the same time i thought it would be a good idea to add some more things that i have been planning on doing. namely- front fogs, rear fog, power windows/mirrors, and keyless entry.

for the front fogs i was planning on just doing what most people did back in the day and use the canadian DRL's. i actually still have some new in the box but ultimately decided that wasn't a good idea functionality-wise since it would block the airflow to the oil cooler. i searched high and low and didn't find any off the shelf alternatives i liked. so i bought some cheap 2.25" projectors and a spare set of front bumper grilles to cut up and made my own.








threw some yellow led bulbs in and painted the lens yellow with some krylon stained glass spray paint. then painted both the projector bezels and the grilles satin black.






don't mind the bugs lol




the rear fog was super simple. unfortunately don't have any pics but all i did was pull the left reverse bulb out with the socket and used a new socket with a red led bulb in its place. then just hooked up the positive wire to its switch/relay & negative to ground. the reason for the new socket was i didn't want to cut up the kouki tail light harness to hook it up to the switch. so for a few bucks i used a new socket with pigtail.

next up was all the power window/mirrors & keyless entry stuff. i had collected all the oem parts from an SE model early on to do this swap and after looking at all the wiring diagrams in the service manual, it was actually a lot easier than i thought it was gonna be. swapped in the oem regulators w/ motors, lock actuators, and power door harnesses.

in a nutshell, to do it the way i did, you basically connect the two door harnesses together across the dash and add power and ground. i have a spare SE chassis wiring harness laying around so i cut off the connectors that i needed and cut out the correct color wires to make my extension harness.

here's the extension harness pretty much done. the red wires and white wire are for the power windows. the 2 green wires are for the door lock actuators. the white/black striped wire is tee'd into for +12v for the power windows, black wire is ground. the 2 green wires are tee'd into for the keyless entry module to control door lock/unlock.





the whole dash came out for all of this, was a lot easier to do everything with it out (this pic is after all the wiring was done).




here is the passenger's side door harness connectors. the white plug is the same on the base model except for the power mirror wires (3 wires). on my spare SE harness, i depinned those wires and cut a few inches off and repinned them to my base model plug with a molex connector on the other end (the small blue connector). this way nothing got cut on my original harness. i did this on both driver/passenger sides.




then i made the power mirror harness. again, super easy to do after looking at the wiring diagram in the service manual. cut the switch plug off my spare harness and extended the wires out to the door harness connectors i made.
harness done and sleeved up-




keyless entry up next. i bought this kit from amazon since the remotes look like older style nissan remotes. once again, very easy to hook up.
in the picture- the white wires go to the green wires on the car for lock/unlock signal, the red wire & yellow wires go to +12v, black wire & orange wires go to ground, and brown wires tap into the turn signal wires to flash for lock/unlock (optional).




i placed the module on the left side of the dash support and ran the wires. the brown wires for the turn signals tap into the green/black wire and green/yellow wire on the cluster subharness.





and finally long story short, after redoing everything under the knee panel and adding all this new stuff, here is what it looks like now. a bit more organized and aesthetically pleasing.




before-

to accomodate the new fuse panels taking up all the space in there, i moved the dakota box to mount on the side of the steering column out of the way.




also at the same time as all of this i added some footwell lighting. the base model doesn't come with any from the factory for some odd reason. i had a couple of red led strips laying around that i used.
tapped into the dome light wiring that goes up the passenger a-pillar. red/black wire for +12v, red/white wire for ground, and split this off to both driver/passenger sides.




new oem fog light switch in place-




for the rear fog, i made another switch from a blank, to sit next to the oil cooler fan switch. used a push latching style with a red led ring to match everything else. i found this site for the decals. adds a nice touch to them.




gotta love new oem parts! new door handle/switch bezels for the power windows. the passenger switch is new, drivers is used. i couldn't justify spending about $200 on a new one at the time.




installed with the power door panels i had sitting around for a good 12+ years. of course i had to rip the tweed off these also.

the next little side project to do was install the new acc carpet that's been collecting dust for the last year or so.
first order of business, pull the r32 seats and clean them. damn these were dirty! check out the dirty water tank...





this carpet install was a pain in the a** btw. first order of business was to get the e-brake area trimmed out and work from there. for bolt holes, torch and socket melts through like butter and leaves a nice clean hole edge.







and done! fitment is ok on these carpets. it's not great but not terrible. does the job i guess.




everything reinstalled-

last part i did in the interior was the glovebox. i ordered this material from redlinegoods a while back to match the center console stuff. had to modify where the handle is since this stuff is not stretchy, and of course trim where i needed to. got some 3m headliner adhesive spray and glued it on! also painted the handle satin black to match.








reinstalled-





i'll eventually either get new seats to match, or reupholster the r32 seats to match. and new door panel inserts to match everything else. the 350z nismo floor mats fit pretty damn good in there. i left the kick panel plastics out for now. honestly it looks fine as is without them, the carpet covers that whole area anyways so i may just leave them out for good.

exterior...

ordered some custom historic plates, finally got them after 3 months of waiting. if you know, you know...




finally got the windows tinted. went with 20% ceramic all around. came out niiiiiiiiiiiice.





also threw in some smoked front turn signal housings, honestly not sure if i like them. i may switch them back to the amber ones.
while i was at it i swapped in led bulbs for front & rear turn signals and brake lights. and made sure to swap out the oem flasher unit for a led flasher (used this one) so i wouldn't get any hyper flashing.




front & rear fogs on-







anyways that's about all for now. the last thing i wanted to accomplish this year is get all the body pieces painted so i can install everything. just need to take them to a bodyshop and get them sprayed.

i'll leave you all with a couple cool pics.
thanks for looking!

Man I really like that glove box material that you put in throughout the interior. Makes me want to do mine, but then I remember mine is a beast of burden lol.

I bet that carpet was a PITA and smelled terrible with all the burning, but it does look good. I'm curious to see how your auto-splicers hold up on the wiring... I've historically had some issues with them on dynamic applications after heat and vibe gets to them.

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:25 pm

I bet that carpet was a PITA and smelled terrible with all the burning, but it does look good. I'm curious to see how your auto-splicers hold up on the wiring... I've historically had some issues with them on dynamic applications after heat and vibe gets to them.

Scotchloks are fine for interior use as long as you use the correct gauge/color for the wires. When people get in trouble is removing them. The trick is, don't remove them, ever. If you ever disconnect the circuit for any reason, pull out the spliced wire and leave the Scotchlok in place on the original wire. That way the displaced insulation and copper will never cause an issue.

It would be cool if someone made one with special shrink tubing around it to act as a stress reliever and remove some of the movement from the joint.

Hey, the best permanent hookup is still solder shrinks, and the best removable hookup is still insulated fastons pigtailed with solder shrinks. If you never want to mess with it again, the right stuff is available.

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:25 pm

Man I really like that glove box material that you put in throughout the interior. Makes me want to do mine, but then I remember mine is a beast of burden lol.

I bet that carpet was a PITA and smelled terrible with all the burning, but it does look good. I'm curious to see how your auto-splicers hold up on the wiring... I've historically had some issues with them on dynamic applications after heat and vibe gets to them.

not gonna lie, i was nervous as hell doing the glove box. the material was pretty expensive and i basically had one shot to do it right and carefully make my cuts. took a long time staring at it thinking about how to do it the best way lol.

yes, the carpet kinda sucked doing. the burning smell was pretty bad. and i thought i would have to use the plastic hanger things stapled to the edges to hold it to the rocker sill, but it actually stays in place just fine without them.

the splice things i've never really had any problems with in the past they are good enough for me.

Looks great as always. Love these updates, so thank you for the extra effort. This thread always gets my motivation up to work on mine.

float_6969 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 27, 2021 5:57 am

This thread always gets my motivation up to work on mine.

Lol same, although its completely different work.

thanks guys!

Just read through every single page of your thread.

This is probably one of the best build threads I have ever read through. The level of detail, patience and commitment of what you document., is truly amazing and inspiring.

You have yourself one hell of a car and it's beautiful to see you get it to the point of finally being able to drive it after all those years. You saw it through...

Supreme work man, that car is a treasure.

Will continue to follow along.

^Got a long time lurker to post for the first time!

leg1t wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 28, 2021 9:12 am

Just read through every single page of your thread.

This is probably one of the best build threads I have ever read through. The level of detail, patience and commitment of what you document., is truly amazing and inspiring.

You have yourself one hell of a car and it's beautiful to see you get it to the point of finally being able to drive it after all those years. You saw it through...

Supreme work man, that car is a treasure.

Will continue to follow along.

thanks for the kind words man! i am honored to have your first post be in this thread
there is certainly more on the way!

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 28, 2021 10:57 am

^Got a long time lurker to post for the first time!

m tr4nch wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 26, 2021 3:43 pm

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:25 pm

Man I really like that glove box material that you put in throughout the interior. Makes me want to do mine, but then I remember mine is a beast of burden lol.

I bet that carpet was a PITA and smelled terrible with all the burning, but it does look good. I'm curious to see how your auto-splicers hold up on the wiring... I've historically had some issues with them on dynamic applications after heat and vibe gets to them.

not gonna lie, i was nervous as hell doing the glove box. the material was pretty expensive and i basically had one shot to do it right and carefully make my cuts. took a long time staring at it thinking about how to do it the best way lol.

yes, the carpet kinda sucked doing. the burning smell was pretty bad. and i thought i would have to use the plastic hanger things stapled to the edges to hold it to the rocker sill, but it actually stays in place just fine without them.

the splice things i've never really had any problems with in the past they are good enough for me.

That came out great! Got me thinking about how I'm going to fix up the interior on mine. Great idea on the 350z floormats. It's getting hard to find dress-up/interior things for the S-chassis anymore that aren't suspension or drivetrain related. Way to think outside of the box on your car. I'd love to give a hand with the wiring stuff if KS were a little closer to NJ. No one is going to see up under there anyhow and the taps are loads better than Xacto knife stripping and 3M electrical tape. For the interior electrical stuff, if you've crimped them down well enough I don't see you having any issues with them down the line.

NukeKS14 wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 31, 2021 7:02 am

That came out great! Got me thinking about how I'm going to fix up the interior on mine. Great idea on the 350z floormats. It's getting hard to find dress-up/interior things for the S-chassis anymore that aren't suspension or drivetrain related. Way to think outside of the box on your car. I'd love to give a hand with the wiring stuff if KS were a little closer to NJ. No one is going to see up under there anyhow and the taps are loads better than Xacto knife stripping and 3M electrical tape. For the interior electrical stuff, if you've crimped them down well enough I don't see you having any issues with them down the line.

thanks! funny thing, those nismo mats used to be in my g35. i was curious one day and tossed them in the 240 and they actually fit almost perfectly.
and yes, all my wiring work under the dash is done correctly, whether it's crimps or soldering.

future interior work still on the list to do is possibly a nardi steering wheel, a rear seat delete panel that i will make and either powder coat or upholster with something, and redo the headliner black (in addition to the seats and door panel inserts previously mentioned). that should just about finish the interior off for me.

Great work on your restoration. I saved the link to the switch gear decals. That's a nice touch.

TerminalVelocity wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 07, 2021 5:29 pm

Great work on your restoration. I saved the link to the switch gear decals. That's a nice touch.

thanks! yes, took me a while to find some decals that i was satisfied with.

My god... would you please restore my 180? lol you kept this car beautiful in its natural glory, but its an absolute beast!!! wow.. if I could hug you I would haha

Mac-N_Cheese wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 11, 2021 9:49 am

My god... would you please restore my 180? lol you kept this car beautiful in its natural glory, but its an absolute beast!!! wow.. if I could hug you I would haha

haha thanks man!



finally scored one of these rare ukdm 150mph speedometers that i've had my eye on for a while. never knew these existed until last year




comparison pic-
top: jdm 180km/h cluster
middle: ukdm 150mph cluster
bottom: usdm 110mph cluster

subtle differences you'll see on the uk cluster- the fuel gauge and water temp gauge are a little different. and the info lights in the bottom corners have different options on all 3 clusters. pretty cool.




i just took the speedo and tach out and swapped them into my usdm cluster so everything else will work without any issues. drove it around today and all is good

NICE! I've been wanting to pull my speedo and re-solder some stuff. It gets a little wonky sometimes. Where'd you find the 150mph version?

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 14, 2021 10:55 pm

NICE! I've been wanting to pull my speedo and re-solder some stuff. It gets a little wonky sometimes. Where'd you find the 150mph version?

ebay actually, of all places. i had a wtb post on sxoc for a long time but no one came through. the only other place i saw one for sale was here but looks like they don't have anything anymore.

m tr4nch wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 14, 2021 5:37 pm

finally scored one of these rare ukdm 150mph speedometers that i've had my eye on for a while. never knew these existed until last year


i just took the speedo and tach out and swapped them into my usdm cluster so everything else will work without any issues. drove it around today and all is good

Dood! I had no idea these existed. I've been trying to decide what to do for my gauges in my restoration, and this changes everything! Nice find! Thanks for continuing to update this btw - it's awesome.

LSDrift wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 14, 2022 4:42 pm

Dood! I had no idea these existed. I've been trying to decide what to do for my gauges in my restoration, and this changes everything! Nice find! Thanks for continuing to update this btw - it's awesome.

yeah i feel a little embarrassed that i had no idea about them until about a year ago lol oh well. they don't pop up too often for sale anymore though so i hope you do find one!


no real updates at the moment, salt is on the roads now so that's all for now.
oh yeah, i did swap the front amber turn signal housings back in, looks much better to me with them instead of the smoked ones.