2.0 - F31roger

[f31roger]

[f31roger]

Fixes:

First emissions crap... paid for a new cat, welded and retest.. solid.

2nd - was trying to get a speed sensor for the transmission, but it shifts fine. Luckily, I found a gauge cluster at the junkyard and just to see if it was speedo gauge.. it was!

So that worked.

3rd - I was going though the paper work and a couple years ago the previous owners had a new window switch put in. I took out the switch and make sure it was connected and boom. It is fine!!! wasn't connected properly.

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I've been a big proponent of preventative maint. After going through the records of the previous owners, I noticed that the water pump was never changed.

Since I feel that @ 150,000 miles, that is the time to start putting some heavy maint and replaces, I decided to have things changed out.
I drive my M30 almost daily and I really enjoy it.

One of the biggest things for me was head gasket. While I didn't have cooling issues, I just felt it was time to do this while changing the water pump and some hoses.

This also let me address a small exhaust manifold leak and the studs.

The heads redone as well and with a mild "head job" from what the guy told me.

Lastly, the annoying part. This plastic piece in the upper radiator hose. It broke while trying to remove it. So I tried to order a new one from Infiniti online. It was said to have one it stock, but a couple days later, they cancelled because they didn't have it.

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I've been on the hunt for Infiniti specific items, and one is the car phone. I regret passing one up years ago as I thought "we have cell phones, who needs a car phone".

I didn't realize that years later I would kill to have an OEM carphone.

Looking at the parts numbers from the dealership, it looks like the coupe and vert had different phones because of the different numbers.
I've also seen 2 different times of "long phones" on CL M30s (make another thread).

Anyways, I was at the junkyard when I came across a Q45. I looked in and it had a Motorola (which I had to research) flip phone with charging stand. While it isn't the one I was looking for, I grabbed it because it had "Infiniti" on it.

when I went to go pay, I was jokingly downplaying the significance since junkyards here have been inconsistent on prices. The lady who rang me up was nice and said there was nothing in her system on the car phone, so she made it a thrift shop item.

I was thinking it was going to be $10-20 and I was hesitant to pay anything about $20, but she rang me up for $2.36!!!!

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One thing I hated about the M30 was the cup holder.

I've had the daiso special in my original M30.

But then I saw that Kuze-san had a really nice cup holder that went in the center dash. This is from a Nissan Stagea. I now the M30 isn't the same as the leopard, but I was really intrigued and wanted to see if it would work in the M30.

Noguchi-san (S-T-S) picked one up for me and when we met up in person, he gave me the cupholder in person.

The M30 has 2 available dins. Typically one for radio and the factory open compartment din (which I find absolutely useless because things fly out of it).
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I wanted to put the cup holders in, but I also wanted to put the retractable tray from the G20t, which is a compartment and cupholder! LOL.
Anyways, I removed my radio and will try and mount it in the glove box and do the radio column buttons wire up.

Here is a picture of the cup holder options I posted. As you can see, the Stagea cup holders do clear shifter. Additionally, I put in the top open din, because it is a "drop down" type of cup holder.

I also did put in the retractable pocket din. I hate the open compartment so much I had to get rid of it. With it be a sliding compartment, it does obstruct the cigarette.

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Zenki tail lights have become a big deal lately.

Suddenly all these guys that see Mie's car (Slammed silver zenki) have been wanting to copy her car. Besides being really clean, the zenki tail lights have been something that people want.

Alec is a guy who hit me up in 2017 out of nowhere saying he picked up an M30 and wanted to copy Mie's car. He said he's been looking for the Zenki tail lights. I told him that they pop up every so often, but it's a hot item for everyone.

Suenaga-san had gotten me a set. Since I gave him some stuff he couldn't get in Japan, he went 50% with me on it.

So I was able to secure a set.

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additionally, I have been wanting to do the Zenki conversion, but as we are coming to find out, Zenki leopard front clips are pretty much non-existent.

Itabashi-san offered me the front end of a wrecked zenki leopard. I didn't want to ask him, but he translated, "I will cooperate in getting parts for Roger-san".

Itabashi-san was the one who converted his M30 to look like a Zenki leopard. He plans to do the same with M30 convertible in the future!
So I don't know what parts he wants to use off this car (he also has tons of parts as well).

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So I had a long lunch break and decided to check out the Junkyard near the clinic I was at.

I going through the imports and seeing the altimas/maximas/g20/200sx/j30s... just looking.

Last row came up to a Black U11 Maxima. So started to look at it and then I see that it had a sunroof visor with the Nissan Logo! I was able to get it and the brackets!

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Need to update! I've been concentrating on the blog as the forums are not as active.

I've been changing parts lately.

A while back, I had a friend that was in the upholstery class at CCSF (city college of SF). I was able to give her the 2 front seats. She redid them, but since she isn't in the class anymore, I didn't give her my back seats in time... which sucks.

So I started to swap the seats out.

I started with the passenger side seat as it is the easiest.

http://www.f31club.com/2018/05/23/m30-p ... at-change/

I then decided to the the driver side seat (which takes a bit more maneuvering because of the electric motor).

http://www.f31club.com/2018/06/04/m30-d ... at-change/

While they were out, I cleaned as much as possible as well. I also removed the arm rest and cleaned up a bit. I think I need those seat gap catchers. I saw this one:

Anyways, another project completed.

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The next project had to do with the headlight and tail lights. I've been sitting on the leopard headlights because I needed to figure out a few things. I wanted to follow my original blueprint and use H3C for the city light. I was missing a plug unfortunately.

While I was in Japan in Oct, I was able to pick up an LED emblem and clear bumper lights.

Noguchi-san came through and bought me a few. I then got some wires, connectors and ordered new relays that had a protective connector and a fuse attached.

I then ordered a bunch of LED bulbs.

I also decided to get some clear bra to protect my headlights and bumper lights. I never cared for these protectors until I realize that having glass headlights and rare stuff needs to be protected. These things 13yrs ago were not rare.

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While I was gathering all that stuff (being lazy).

I've been trying to get the Zenki tail lights. I have 2 sets in Japan. Yuuya-san got me a set and Suenaga got me a set as well.
Itabashi-san tried to send it, but was confused about all the questions, so it wasn't sent. Plus there is the payment issue.

I finally had a plan. I asked Shimizu-san to send to me and I will transfer money to him. He agreed and send the items and I sent money his way.

I knew the Zenki tail lights were coming, so I decided to get some paint.

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I stopped by here a while back to see if I could match something to my bottom color (for the aero kit), but I couldn't. They mentioned they do mix paint.

I'll be honest, I've been hesitant to get paint mixed. I know it won't be exact or perfect, but I figure I would end up painting my whole car anyway.

In true project status, I test fit my aero and some quick bondo and primer. I've left it on for months LOL. I've been meaning to go to Ned's, but the issue is my time always conflicts with their store hours. Saturdays I work, so when I get off, they are closed.

Anyways, I was definitely annoyed by the paint chipping on my bottom right corner above the front lip. I also knew that my Zenki tail lights were coming soon and they were different colors. I couldn't wait to put them on, but I had to get them some what the same color as my M30 (blue grey storm).

That Friday when I got off work, I was able to head to Ned's and get the paint mixed. The lady that mixed my paint also gave me a bottle of touch up for the blue grey storm. I had a couple of rock chip spots that I wanted to test out. The color was slightly darker, but I didn't mind. I was actually happy about it.

The true test of the blue grey storm was the tail lights. It is slightly darker, but it is better than being Beige and Black.

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the middle license plate piece was chipping, indicating a shitty paint job. So I think it has been replaced.

as you see in my previous post, I prepped it for paint.

As the frames were curing, I put those LED bulbs in and tested them.

I had issues with some of THEM NOT coming on, so I decided to go back to halogen bulbs (new bulbs).
Disappointed in the LED options, but okay with the halogens.

Installed everything

and tested it out.

Zenki tail lights accomplished!

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Front Bumper stuff http://www.f31club.com/2018/06/20/heads ... front-end/

I looked up my old write up and printed it out. It was 90% there, but some small details were missing. I also wanted to wire up my Leopard corner lamps.

Let me also be clear. My original blue print was based on relays. I used H3C pig tails and bulbs (original to the Leopard). These are not common in the US and there are other ways to get around without using H3C bulbs. I am nostalgic and I wanted to use my original write up and improve on it.

I never got a chance to wire up my old corner lamps. Originally, one of my corners was cracked and I also forgot that the JDM corner lamps use a 1157, which is bigger, but also hits the M30’s fender support in the front (leopard fenders are different).

Anyways, Let’s get to the break down.

Goals: Headlights and Front bumper.

• Take off front bumper
  Remove Licence plate frame (stripped nut from behind)
  Repair chipped paint on lower right side (paint).
  Clean up front lip (paint).
  Install license plate bracket.

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while the color is slightly darker, I loved how close it was compared to my primer job that has been on for months.

I like it so much, I'm going to do my whole kit!

But it really came out nice

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I spent that friday night taking off the bumper.

Saturdays I work, so when I got off work, I started working on the headlights and simultaneously on finishing up the bumper. I started connecting everything.

Finally when I decided to try it all, the left city light wasn't working.

So then came the process of elimination.

checked wires – seemed good
swapped bulbs – still didn’t light up
swapped relays – still didn’t light up
bypass relay harness – still didn’t light up
changed ground connection – VIOLA!

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In 2005/6 when I was installing my headlights, I decided not to put in my JDM corners. One of them had a cracked lens, but I also forgot that the Leopard corners are thicker since it uses an 1157 bulb.

The M30 corner lamp isn’t a turn signal, it is a running light, while the leopard is a turn signal and a running light.

The M30 is on top, Leopard on the bottom. The amber corner is different on the leopard and more pronounced (it sticks out).

The difference is also that the M30 uses 2 194 bulbs (on the left in this picture), while the Leopard uses an 1157 dual filament for turn signal and running light, and 1 194 bulb in the amber lens.

The Leopard corner lamp is a turn signal too.

But as you see in this picture, it is also thicker.

This thickness hits the M30 fender’s front support bracket. The leopard had a different bracket.

I am never one to grind stuff from the car, so I decided not to grind the support bracket. But I decided I at least wanted the lens.

I messaged Dave(Driftur) as he did this in 2008.

Dave gave me some tips on what to do to swap the Leopard corner lens and M30. Thanks Brother!