Z's are cheap now, so I bought one.

Nissan 350z / Nissan 370z general community discussion forum
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DeXteR
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One week ago I purchased a 2003 350Z Touring edition (guessing based on options). I bought it from a guy I know who buys a lot of auction cars and this one was a repo. The price was right, but it needs some work.

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Mechanically it is in good shape. It has some bolt-on's. K&N intake kit, Kinetix velocity intake manifold, aluminum accessory pullies (whoopty-doo), shorty headers, and a Borla cat-back. It sounds nice and it's quick. It's a 6-speed as I wouldn't have bought an auto.

The interior is a little dirty and the paint and bumpers are rough. It has Maxima wheels from the same era. The headlights are terrible and the HID's don't work. I've got new aftermarket lights and some used ballasts and igniters to swap in. Neither the seat nor window work on the passenger side. I've got a new motor on the way and I'm picking up some manual cloth seats after the holiday. The cruise and air work which are welcome luxuries after driving my stripped down, SR-swapped S14.

I'll be trying to make this thing look good again so I can have something fun and nice to drive when the S14 goes under the knife shortly.

If you're really interested, you can follow my Instagram @Dexters_Autolab

I'll be frequenting the Z classifieds until I get this thing whipped back in to shape.


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BusyBadger
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I always figured the 350Z would become the new 240SX, I just never figured it would take as long as it has. Acquisition price is low but maintenance and the consumables aren't cheap, notable tires.

Sometimes a project car is exactly what the doctor ordered! Post updates here when you can, some of us older folks aren't Instagram users (hell, I'm not even on FB!).

Congrats on the new pickup! :badger

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DeXteR
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BusyBadger wrote:I always figured the 350Z would become the new 240SX, I just never figured it would take as long as it has. Acquisition price is low but maintenance and the consumables aren't cheap, notable tires.
Well, when you consider that this was the flagship Nissan back then in the US and that it was competing for consumer dollars against the Evo and STi, I don't think it's a surprise. Most good condition Z's are about 10k still. Heck, you can't find a decent Evo or STi for under 15k unless you're lucky.
Sometimes a project car is exactly what the doctor ordered! Post updates here when you can, some of us older folks aren't Instagram users (hell, I'm not even on FB!).
I'm a project car addict. I've always got at least two things I'm working on at a time.


Since my first post, I've made some progress.

Apparently some people don't think a Bose sound system is sufficient. The previous owner was one of those people. I can only suspect that shortly before his bank came and took their car back that he hastily yanked the stereo from the car. I deduced this from the gaping hole in the dash and cables strewn about the car. One of the first things I did was to eliminate the remnants of the "better" system.
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Then I reinstalled an "inferior" head unit. I need to find a set of brackets as it's just tucked into the dash for now. Image

Next on the docket was to address the wheels. As previously mentioned, the Z came to me on Maxima wheels (late 5th gen I believe). I'm going to hazard a guess that there's a 5th gen Maxima rolling around somewhere on some sweet XXRs or something. What I can't figure out though, is the lug nut situation. There were several "Rays" aluminum lug nuts scattered amongst the wheel studs. Of course, I had to spend a few minutes forcefully removing aluminum threads from one of the rear wheel studs; but the big headache was when I got to the front wheels and each one had a 7-sided lug nut. That guy... Well, I ended up persuading 12-point 3/4" sockets onto those 7-sided nuts with a BFH and then zipped them off. Finally, I took the base model Z33 wheels I had on my S14 and moved them over to the Z. I won't be needing them anymore on my S14 anyway pretty soon.
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Most recently, I swapped out the cloudy greenhouses that were posing as headlights. I purchased a set of Taiwanese headlights off ebay. They exceeded expectations in everyway. We'll see how they hold up long term, but I'm very happy with them so far. With the amount of time and effort I would've needed to put into the original headlights, I couldn't think of a good reason, not to spend $180 on them. As a bonus, all the lights came preinstalled with the exception of the HID bulbs.
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The guy I bought the car from told me that he couldn't get the HID's to work despite swapping bulbs. A quick search found that the ballasts are sensitive to water on the Z especially when people remove/lose the fender lines. Since mine was missing the fender lines, I just assumed the ballasts were bad. I picked up a used set on ebay with igniters for $40. So $220 and a couple hours later, the Z looks about 25x better and I can drive it in the dark now.

There's more in store. Stay tuned.

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DeXteR
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I neglected to mention that I removed the gaudy grill cover when I had the bumper off to replace the headlights. It looks goofy with the lip painted black, but this bumper is getting replaced anyway. I prefer goofy floppy bumper to the blinged-out version it was before.
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The passenger seat in this car is in pretty bad shape. There's a large tear in the top and the powered slider doesn't work. My wife also noticed that there might be a spring sticking out... I didn't notice anything when I sat in it by, I don't fit inside the bolstering like she does. Anyway, replacement seats were one of the first priorities, but I really didn't want to spend $500 on used seats...

I found a local yard on car-part.com that had cloth seats for $57 each, so I went and checked them out. I had to remove the fuel tank to get to them and there were no doors on the car. Who knows how many times they've been rained on and how long they've baked in the sun. No matter, they were better than what I had.

Old and busted:
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"New" old and less busted:
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These are manual seats without the heaters. That's fine by me because I'm not a fan of heated seats anyway. That makes the heater switches obsolete, so I grabbed the switch cover from the center console from the junk car as well. While I was at it, I grabbed the coin catcher too since I didn't have one.

Before:
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After:
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There were a couple goopy spots on the cloth driver seat that were likely from the fuel tank or some other part of the car that was haphazardly tossed inside at the junkyard. Overall they were pretty dirty and the foam had some dents left in their memory. My wife and I spent some time cleaning them up before installing them.
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The car is scheduled to get an interior detail on Tomorrow. I also need to set up an appointment to get an alignment done as it seems to be pulling to the right. Still a lot of work left to do.

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AZhitman
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Looking good, brother! Hard to believe we're actually at the point where a 350Z would need a restoration, but they've been out for almost 15 years!

Hey, how about a rear wiper delete? Could you use one of those?

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DeXteR
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AZhitman wrote:Looking good, brother! Hard to believe we're actually at the point where a 350Z would need a restoration, but they've been out for almost 15 years!

Hey, how about a rear wiper delete? Could you use one of those?
Thanks. This was probably the worst looking Z33 I've seen in person, but the price was right.

I didn't know there was a wiper delete... The rear wiper does look out of place, and that would tidy up the back. Is it something more than just a plug?

In other news, I got the car detailed. It set me back a whole B-Frank, but the cleaned those junkyard seats and removed the old tint residue from the windows on top of the normal interior detail. They even washed the car. It doesn't smell like funk anymore either. Money well spent.

My wife took it in for an alignment on Friday. They didn't get very far. They mentioned something about the aluminum arms being seized in the rear? I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean. More importantly, there was a pretty significant caster deviation on the right front corner. I thought the wheel say in the fender a little too far back. That confirmed my suspicions. The "technicians" at the alignment shop couldn't find anything wrong, but I suspect there's at least one bent lower control arm (or whatever they call those goofy pieces).

I'll get around to doing a thorough inspection myself soon. I've got an Xterra that needs some of my attention for a while.

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It's a billet piece that a new vendor is looking to show off. PM me your address and whether you want black, satin AL, or polished, and I'll get it on the way.

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RallyB13
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Image

Well, I guess this is my thread now ;)

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DeXteR
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RallyB13 wrote:
Well, I guess this is my thread now ;)
I approve this message. :dblthumb:

HOT-SX
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Meet my cheap Z and welcome to the cheap Z club!

HOT-SX
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I've had $1900 in paintless dent removal done (it was so filthy when I got it I could not even see the hail damage), had a new front bumper cover painted and installed, I buffed and polished the paint and I'm getting the seats redone in leather. I think it will still be a bargain, even after all of that. I'm the 3rd owner, my cousin had it from the time it was 1 year old, it's never been wrecked, it had 79K on it when I got it. It just sat in his yard after his heart attack and it looked terrible! I'm happy with my purchase though. Restoring later model cars is much easier than restoring vintage cars but these are getting to the age where they're showing their age if they weren't pampered. Enjoy yours! I'm enjoying mine :)

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dasoupdude
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Z looks great...

More pics of the pathy though..can it still go backwards?!

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:bigthumb: Thanks! The Pathy goes backwards quite well. It is a 5 speed though with just 109,000 miles. I'll post a pic, but I don't want to take over this threadImage

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Well, I've got about 50 miles on the car now. Dexter replaced the O2 sensors and that code seems to have gone away. But there's a solid P0327 knock sensor code. Research says it's almost always the harness, so I have one on the way from Z1. It is clearly affecting performance, as the throttle response is sluggish and power feels really low for a car that should have 280+hp (my DD is a 2016 WRX, with 268hp, and I used to have an Altima 3.5SE with the VQ35DE, and this is not how it's supposed to run). Apparently when the P0327 code is set, the ECU switches to the high detonation map and pulls around 10* of timing.
Apparently some people don't think a Bose sound system is sufficient. The previous owner was one of those people.
And so is the new owner ;) I find the factory system to be really thin sounding, loud, but no depth to it. I also really, really like to be able to stream audio to the stereo from my phone, I couldn't find a CD in my house if I had to, and radio sucks. I'll be putting in a Kenwood head unit that I had in a B15 SE-R Spec-V, single DIN, so I get to add a storage pocket to the dash (there is a pronounced lack of places to actually put anything in this car). Not going to go too crazy with the system, but since I need to pull the door card to adjust the power window anyhow, I'll door door speakers and put in some R-F R165S components and since it was dead cheap, I ordered some R-F R1675X2 for the rears. I'll try the factory amps, but I suspect I'll end up pulling wires and running off the head unit. I suspect I'll break down and pull the sub and put in something with a real amp too. R-F isn't my first choice for car audio, but I'm being cheap this time around and bang for the buck is good.

I'll also be dropping the torn leather seat off to a local upholstery shop and swapping the originals back in. I'm old, and I like my heated seats.

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dasoupdude
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HOT-SX wrote::bigthumb: Thanks! The Pathy goes backwards quite well. It is a 5 speed though with just 109,000 miles. I'll post a pic, but I don't want to take over this threadImage

:blush: That is minty. My dukes use to have a 93, it was the auto. We ended up getting rid it for a 4runner when one day we found out it couldn't go backwards anymore :chuckle:

WD Pathfinders are easily one of my all time favorite vehicles. :bigthumb:

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I love WD21s. I only wish they had been a little more powerful from the factory but I have the Z now if I feel the need for speed. (I still wish it were a bit more torquey!) I had a blue 95 auto with close to 160K when I found this black emerald 94. The auto in the 95 is still going strong. I sold it to my cousin then I bought the Z from him. I still drive it regularly, taking him to his doctor appointments. Image

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DeXteR
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RallyB13 wrote: Apparently when the P0327 code is set, the ECU switches to the high detonation map and pulls around 10* of timing.
That must have died about the same time I switched the wheels out. Maybe that's why the cruise quit working too... It got sluggish and the cruise quit right after I put the wheels with TPMS sensors on the car.

Since you're putting the leather seats back in, the passenger seat did not move through the switch. However I was able to get it to move by applying 12v directly to the terminals so I think the switches are bad on that seat as well. Heat worked in both and there were no issues with the driver seat. Sell the cloth seats and make a few hundred bucks - they're not cheap.

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RallyB13
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DeXteR's detail guy did a really good job on the interior, but this weekend I started pulling panels to reset the driver's window and install speakers. The dust! In every nook and cranny! Thing is as bad as most rally cars... Lost of mopping dust out of the back of trim panels and off the chassis underneath.

With the door card off, the window was a quick fix. Auto-up and Auto down work great now.

The speakers on the other hand... Crutchfield has led me astray again. The speaker mount adapters they recommended for the car were hopelessly wrong, as were the wiring adapters. One look at the pathetic stock speakers, though (not *quite* as bad as the ones that came in my '16 WRX...) and I had my solution. Ripped the cones out, cut the basket and mounted the new woofers right in the shell of the stock speakers. Tweeters, I could actually have mounted right in place of the stock using the stock bracket, but I wanted to flush-mount them to eliminate muffling by the stock grill. Did the driver's door without the trim ring, didn't care for it, did the passenger's side with, and I'll be going back and remounting the driver's side soon.

Oh, and the rears will be simple right? Heh. I had more interior panels outside of the car than in when I finally got to the speakers. The 6-3/4" replacements didn't match the mounting holes of the stockers (despite Crutchfield's notes, again), so out comes the drill. But hey the wiring adapters fit on these speakers! Batting .250

Went to install the head unit. Turns out the Scoshe mounting kit requires the mounting sleeve, which I'm not sure I ever had for this radio; also needs the trim ring which I probably had but could be anywhere now. But the factory brackets at least hold it in a decent place so I can test.

Of course then I put everything back together before testing the speakers. Of course. Because the crossover on the rear speakers with the stock amp is something crazy high, the rear speakers do next to nothing below maybe 500Hz. Ugh. Time to wire to the head unit's internal amp. Well, I pulled wires from the head unit to the back, but peeling the panels apart again will have to wait for another day. Oh, that means the one thing that fit like Crutchfiled said will get bypassed too...

The speakers also really don't line up with the grills, but sit an inch or so lower than they would lead you to believe. So I removed the center section, and will mount the R-F grills instead.

I'm honestly not sure the stock subwoofer is actually working at all. But with the bass the front components put out now, combined with what I should get when I bypass the amplifier and its crossover in the rear, I think I'll just pull it.

No photos today, I'll grab some when I peel it back apart.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to get new hatch struts and should see the new knock sensor harness in the next couple of days.

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DeXteR
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Did I mention it was originally an Arizona car? That's where all the dusty came from.

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RallyB13
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DeXteR wrote:Did I mention it was originally an Arizona car?
Yes, but you didn't mention that it brought half the state with it ;)

Got the new knock sensor harness in. No more code, but haven't taken it for a drive yet...

Installed new hatch struts. One blew spectacularly on the first cycle. Thankfully the old struts are strong enough that one plus one brand new one do the trick.

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Those Bose systems are designed to run their amps with their speakers. You'll be happier with the sound once you bypass it all.

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RallyB13
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HOT-SX wrote:Those Bose systems are designed to run their amps with their speakers. You'll be happier with the sound once you bypass it all.
Yeah, they are. I'm just A) being lazy and B) experimenting.

The front speakers, which I can almost guarantee you Bose Corporation did nothing more than put their name on, are super generic and if I had to guess, I'd go with Foster as the manufacturer, they do a lot of the custom molded speaker basket/bracket/mount-in-one for OEMs. The integrated amp seems to be quite happy with normal 4Ohm speakers in that location. Although my Kenwood HU doesn't appear to put out enough voltage on the preamps to really drive the integrated amps to full volume.

The rears, which are packaged like generic 6.5" speakers, are at first glance, capable of better than the doors (the magnet is easily 2x the diameter), but the amp really, really does not like a 4 Ohm speaker there, and the crossovers are so limiting that I have to think they intended them for no more than to add a little depth of field to the system.

Anyhow, I decided that buying a new install sleeve + trim ring for the Kenwood off of some unknown eBay seller wasn't what I wanted to do, so I went ahead and ordered a basic 2-DIN. When that comes in, I'll wire the speakers to it.

With the new wiring harness on the knock sensor, the car has a *lot* more power, but still stumbles badly in the high RPMs, so looking at crank and cam sensors next. I'm a little worried that it looked like maybe some mice were moving in behind the block on top of the bell housing at some point. Found some nesting when I was working on the knock harness. So I want to inspect the harness closer before I start ordering sensors left and right.

My son and daughter think the car looks like a Pokeball. I'm tempted to pull out the roll of white vinyl I have and wrap the bottom half of the car. :rotfl

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RallyB13
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Well, I spent the day digging out all the spares for the rally car and getting them organized for Dexter to pick up. But I did get a chance to test out some of the work I've done on the Z.

After replacing the knock sensor harness, the code went away. But the engine would still buck and sputter above 5k. So I did the cam & crank sensors. Took it out and it no longer fell flat after 5k, but when I got on it, it just didn't seem to do much. A little testing and I started to realize that after 50% throttle, there was zero change, no additional power, but not even more noise. So I did a throttle relearn in the Homeless Despot parking lot, and then drove home, happily pulling hard at WOT all the way to redline.

Woohoo!

Also replaced the shift knob. I could take the gold color, and the weight really did make the shifts beautiful, but the location of the shifter in the Z just naturally causes my hand to curl around it, rahter than grab it from the top, and the "R-Type" style knob is too short and really uncomfortable for that. So I got a NRG "Adjustable Height" shift knob, which is much, much taller even at it's shortest setting. Then, to help with the weighting I filled the hollow inside with round shot. It's like the way you make a dead-blow hammer, but now it's a dead-throw shifter. It's still a little lighter than the crazy heavy gold knob, so I need to see if I can find some lead shot to replace the BBs I used, but it's close, and the grip is much more comfortable for me.

But the time we got all the stuff loaded in Dexter's trailer, it was way too dark for photos, but if tomorrow is anything like today (72F in Minnesota in November?), I'm going to go drive it somewhere fun and shoot some pictures.


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