'04 350Z - very modded, never clayed ;)

J

jrotaryb

New member
I've been an autopian member for about a year and have picked up a lot of great information on product and process. I've also had resident guru GSRStilez detail a couple of cars for our shop...



Well, being there was a massive Long Island meet/show this past weekend, I decided to give a much needed detail to our '04 silverstone 350Z. We've had the car for almost 2 years and it's a real joy to drive. The car is frequently washed and waxed with NXT about once a month but we've never gone the full detailing route for her.



Though I have no before pictures, the car had a bunch of washing swirls all over. The real problem however was the amount of dirt/contamination in the paint. We used half a claybar on the car! In the end, the process and product is as listed below...please note, this was all done by hand. It was tiring, but the swirling was very light and I managed to get most of it out.



-NXT wash

-Mother's claybar

-NXT wash

-Meguiars #9 swirl remover

-NXT

-Mother's pure caranuba



Silverstone is a great color for the car IMHO - NXT really makes the metallic pop and I topped with the Mothers for a bit of added protection and slickness as NXT tends to lose that after a week. The car got a lot of praise at the show so I was pleased :)



wODcxMjI3NnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE%3D.jpg




wODcxMjI4NnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE%3D.jpg




wODcxMjI5NnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE%3D.jpg




wODcxMjMwNnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE%3D.jpg
 
I gotta start taking these pics at higher resolution/sharpness - they look dull to me.



Anyway, Sean, the show/meet was a success - lots of fun! We took out both Z's and the 280 got a lot of attention ;)



As for the mod list, it's pretty extensive but here goes:



ENGINE

-Gruppe M dry carbon intake, ultimate racing cats & Y-Pipe, Fujitsubo titanium catback, Unorthodox racing crank pulley, ECU re-flash, Koyo aluminum radiator.



HANDLING

-Cusco Zero 2 coilovers, Cusco front strut brace, Cusco sway bars, Cusco adjustable A-arms, Cusco LSD, GT spec lower arm bars, 18 Work emotion CR Kai 18X8.5 front, 18X9.5 rear w/ bridgestone S03's, AP front brakes w/ 13 inch rotors and 6 pot calipers, stainless brake lines.



EXTERIOR

-Veilside front lip, Veilside rear valance, Seibon carbon vented hood (painted to match), C-west side skirts, Balsahrini rear spoiler.



Coming soon: Exedy lightweight clutch/flywheel combo, ported heads/plenum, Tomei cams, HKS FCON IV with controller. looking for 310 rwhp all naturally aspirated :)
 
I forgot about the 3.90 final drive hehe



We were shocked at how much the clay bar picked up - surprisingly, it was the vertical panels that had most of the contamination. The horizontal panels were noticeably cleaner...the hood I can understand, it was freshly painted, polished and waxed a year ago but I thought the roof would be much worse than it was.



The entire process took 5 hours, all by hand. Call me crazy, but I tried something that worked pretty well - rather than using my small foam applicators to hand polish the whole car, I picked up a couple of 6 inch foam polishing pads and used them by hand. I was able to cover much more area this way. It was far easier on my hands as well.



I also tried out NXT glass cleaner with a couple of microfibers and was really impressed with how easy it was to use...most auto glass cleaners gave me trouble with streaking but this was a breeze.



I can't say enough about the color of the car - it is dark enough to have nice depth but still manages to hide a LOT. We'll see what kind of durability I get from the NXT/Mother's combo.
 
wskybnt said:
Looks nice...and man that thing is low!
Click to expand...



Ahhh, the beauty of quality coilovers - even with that stance the car has loads of suspension travel. We even got 30K miles out of our last set of tires (Toyo T1s)
 
Nice car!!!



I have a suggestion for a cool mod if you're going around the show scene. On the doors there is a vent for the heating system. A guy here in Vancouver put guages into the vent and it looks AWESOME. I think they're Greddy gauges and they fit perfectly. You lose the vent but who needs heating when your car is HOT
 
eclipsegt05 said:
nice detail...



i think that hood might be a little different in shade, but it still looks sweet
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I never noticed it before in person but I guess it could be - the hood and front bumper will be re-sprayed anyway due to some rock chips. Perhaps when we sprayed the hood and front lip last time we didn't use enough flex in the paint.



Thanks for the kind words guys!
 
Awesome 350Z. !!!!



I notice that you are having a Z meet up in Long Island. Our local Nissan Z club had a meet this past weekend and we had over 60 Z's show for the event. Maybe you can make it down to some of our events.



Check out our club webpage at:





East Coast Z Association
 
wow sick car... im loving the work emotion wheels!!! how are they as a track wheel? the volks im getting are too soft.. i think they are made more towards show... but yeah, keep up the good work.. and was the show Tobay Fest? if it was, i hate you cause i was supposed to go with my car all done up, and i happen to get in an accident a couple days before...:(
 
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