[m tr4nch]

hey everyone, new to the g20 stuff but no stranger to nissans. i also have an s13 i've been restoring/building for quite some time now (my build thread is on nico), and my "nice" car is a g35 coupe. i've been dailying a turbo z31 for the last 3 years but it started developing rod knock. i would have considered throwing in another engine but that chassis had a ton of other problems with it so i decided against it. so i needed a new daily. i've always liked the g20 so i came across one for sale at the right time and scooped it up for a decent price.

details:
2002
majestic blue
5-speed sport
165k miles

mileage kind of a little higher than i would like, but the body is in pretty good shape. it doesn't have the usual rear wheel arch rust that these cars from NJ/NY typically have. lower rad support is not bad. there's a little rusting on the floor around where the drain holes are, but nothing i can't fix. all power options still work fine, it's mechanically sound. heat and ac work fine, just needed a bunch of little things that added up quick. a lot of the rubber hoses etc. were starting to deteriorate and it had a few leaking spots like the valve cover gasket (kid i got it from replaced it but didn't put any rtv where the fsm specifies

), power steering suction & return hose, front main seal, and exhaust flex pipe. also the driver's door was sagging and needed the hinges replaced. came with a double din bluetooth radio and amp/sub in the trunk, hid's installed, and has some old ROH "blade" 16x7" wheels.

anyways, on to the pics..

here are a few from the listing:

the day i drove it home:

immediately attacked the headlights with the brake cleaner method that took about 10 secs to do.

first f*ckboy find... all that water was in the fog housing. both sides were like that. dude said "yeah both bulbs went out, idk why" hmm maybe this has something to do with it.. lol

bought some fresh neogen's since the tires were done for

the steering wheel was worn away and coming off on my hands, so i got a genuine leather rewrap kit on amazon for $13 and stitched it on. looks and feels 100x better now.

next decided to tackle some engine bay items. rust stripped from radiator brackets & top of radiator support where they bolt to, hood rod, battery tie down, throttle cable bracket. also the wiper arms were corroded.

painted it all with some 2k satin black

step 1 complete. looking better already! replaced the rusty headlight bolts and radiator bracket nuts with stainless hardware. also got new upper radiator bushings, new hood bumpers to line the hood up with the fender again, and a new windshield washer cover.

 

[m tr4nch]

so after about a week, now i was really ready to dig in.
started removing everything in the engine bay so i could start cleaning all the oil and grime from the engine and surrounding areas. this was to a) make it look better, and b) i could better pinpoint any other leaks that start to develop.

replaced distributor o-ring

pulled the valve cover, looks pretty good in there for 165k. no heavy wear, no excessive buildup.

just a little snippet of what kind of cleaning i had to deal with. just imagine this around the entire engine and trans. ugh. but anyways, pulled the crank pulley, cleaned everything off, replaced the seal.

so now came painting prep.. the main parts i wanted to paint were the valve cover and door hinge but figured i would maximize my clear coat usage while i was at it and decided to wet sand and clear the headlights properly so it would be a more permanent fix and never have to worry about them yellowing again.

valve cover cleaned, prepped, and taped off

everything done up, came out amazing looking. decided to match the valve cover to the body color.

paint products i used. i highly recommend the spray max 2k clear coat. i've used it on tons of other things and have had nothing but great results with it.

went for the shifter bushings next. had a fun time getting the shifter bracket off, the studs/nuts underneath the car just started spinning so i had to get creative. ended up welding two bolts onto the studs so i could hold them in place while taking the nuts off underneath. i then replaced them by welding in two stainless bolts in their place. good as new and they'll never rust again under there. used the energy suspension sway bar bushing kit recommended from the bushing replacement thread. i sliced away one end on a bandsaw so it would fit better, and used some spacers on the bolt since i didn't like all the room around it when i put the bolt through. i wanted it to be nice and tight. i also did the bushings on the front of the bar where it bolts to the trans but didn't take pics. those were easy to do, about 5 mins total. shifter feels a lot more solid now and not sloppy.

went and bypassed the clutch damper box and used a stainless braided line for a g35/350z since it was a few inches longer than the g20 one, or else it would have been too short and not reached the clutch hard line. the g35/350z one fit perfectly, no slack and not too tight. reused the damper box bracket and made another L bracket from some 3/16" aluminum angle with a tie-down loop to hold everything in place.

also noticed the rubber brake hoses were starting to crack and i don't like the idea of a brake hose failure (happened to me before on my dad's truck) so i decided to replace them all with some stainless braided technafit lines. of course i had to get them in blue to match the car. :smoke: also threw in some new bleeder screws and rubber caps (not pictured) on each caliper for good measure.

took care of the exhaust flex section next. previous owner had the exhaust replaced at one point and had a flex pipe welded in between the downpipe and rear section. the flex was leaking where the braiding goes into the pipe, so i cut it out and welded in a new one. i'd like to replace the entire exhaust system one day but for now this will do, at least it won't sound like sh*t anymore.

while i was under there i swapped out what was left of the crossmember bushings with the alumium/delrin bushings offered in the marketplace. those oem bushings were goneee.

ripped out all the rubber hoses and replaced all the vacuum lines with silicone lines, and all the evap/pcv lines with new rubbers.

also threw on the valve cover with new oem gaskets and rtv in the right places. did new plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor, oil/filter change at the same time. wiped down the engine bay with a microfiber cloth to get rid of the dirt and crap everywhere. starting to look like something now.

went and attempted to replace the upper door hinge, get new hinge on, door still hangs down, wtf?? oh hey look, the lower one is messed up too, damnit! had to order the lower hinge too. in the mean time, the fender was off, and there was damn near a cubic foot of dirt caked behind the fender liner and between the fender and rocker. this is why that part rusts so easily, the dirt gets trapped back there and holds moisture and rusts the metal out. good thing i cleared it all out before it got worse. i'll need to do the passenger side one of these days.

new lower door hinge before painting. and new door striker, since the old one got chewed up from the door hanging down.

i already had the plastic cowl cover off, and i was getting the infamous passenger footwell water leak, so i went ahead and sealed that area up with some seam sealer. the rectangular green plastic windshield clip is the culprit, it sits right above the fresh air opening, so water leaks right into it. figured it wouldn't hurt to do the lower part of the windshield and the other 2 oval grommets as well. sealed it up, fast forward to now, car sat outside in the rain overnight, zero water on the floor the next day. problem solved!

the throttle cable and cruise control cable were both kinda gross looking and starting to deteriorate, so i sleeved them both with some 3/8" black cable sleeving and adhesive heat shrink tubing. looks way better now.

made a grounding cable kit with both 4ga and 8ga wire, soldered on lugs, and heat shrink.

also made a new intake pipe from aluminum. the oem rubber one was starting to crack in a bunch of places and total cost of the aluminum pipe, fittings, and couplers was actually a little cheaper than a new oem one, so i figured why not. this was my first time tigging aluminum pipe and fittings so the welds aren't flawless but not bad at all for my first time. does the job either way.
started with a 45 degree 2.75" diameter elbow, chopped it down and drilled 2 holes for the fittings.

installed with a cone filter and the new grounding cables.

the engine bay was pretty much buttoned up after that, so i went to the interior. the cluster bulbs were so dim i almost couldn't see them at night, and 3 of the 4 climate control bulbs were out. ordered up some leds and replaced them all. did the 194 bulb mod on the sport cluster (found here) and wow, what a huge difference.

changed out the cabin filters while i was in there. i don't think these were ever changed, they were literally black.

also speaking of bulbs, i got some new unf*cked fog lights and threw some yellow optilux bulbs in and put some yellow tint film on.

 

[m tr4nch]

so that's about it for now. everything is running great so far, although i just got the P0505 code for iacv

so currently figuring that out. my ecu is fine, driver chips are not visually burned up on the board, car runs and drives fine, just idles around 1200-1500 rpm. need to do some more diagnostics.

here are some completion pics. still need to give the car a proper wash and good cleaning. took the time to wet sand and buff the headlights to get rid of some slight orange peel from the clear coat. they look brand new now.

spare titanium nismo knob installed, all weather amazon floor mats in

some bonus pics with my g35 which happens to be the same color (well bw5 instead of bw9 but i can't see any difference)

and last but not least, did the fog light rewire mod and re-aimed them properly. :thumbsup:

thanks for looking!

 

[MFNchip]

Nice and Welcome.

 

[SarCaZm]

Good work man. Car looks great

 

[m tr4nch]

Nice and Welcome.

Good work man. Car looks great

thanks!

 

[Prime G]

car looks amazing.

 

[WhaThell]

thank you for sharing...and not letting this car go to the yard to waste..

 

[m tr4nch]

car looks amazing.

thanks!

thank you for sharing...and not letting this car go to the yard to waste..

would be a shame for this thing to get junked, hardly any rust on it and it's pretty damn clean for the age & mileage. just needed some love and proper maintenance

 

[Taylor_to_the]

Nice work, this P11 got a great owner

 

[Ajaxx1989]

WELCOME TO THE BEST FORUM FOR YOUR G20 NEEDS!!!

jk but anyways welcome, nice work so far

 

[m tr4nch]

Nice work, this P11 got a great owner

thank you sir!

WELCOME TO THE BEST FORUM FOR YOUR G20 NEEDS!!!

jk but anyways welcome, nice work so far

haha thanks. but it's true, this forum has a lot of great info on it! :thumbsup:

 

[hawaiiaNX]

Wow, that is a LOT of work! Glad to see you took a really nice example and put the work in to make it worth keeping around for another 15+ years!

And props on the color! BW9 is my absolute favorite P11 color.

Branden
aka hawaiiaNX

 

[WeazG20]

Very well done. Looks great!

 

[m tr4nch]

Wow, that is a LOT of work! Glad to see you took a really nice example and put the work in to make it worth keeping around for another 15+ years!

And props on the color! BW9 is my absolute favorite P11 color.

Branden
aka hawaiiaNX

thanks! i love this color on my g35 (rare, only available in 2004 on the coupe) and it looks really good on the g20 also, but ahh sometimes i wish it was maui blue.

Very well done. Looks great!

thank you!

 

[hawaiiaNX]

thanks! i love this color on my g35 (rare, only available in 2004 on the coupe) and it looks really good on the g20 also, but ahh sometimes i wish it was maui blue.

Bah, Maui Blue is over-rated. Hahaha!!!

My top 3 favorite colors for P11's are:

1. BW9 (Midnight Blue)
2. KH3 (Super Black)
3. TV3 (Maui Blue)

To each his/her own though...

Branden
aka hawaiiaNX

 

[m tr4nch]

not much to update lately, been way too cold to do anything. just been dailying.
snow, snow, and salty ass roads sick of it already.

 

[m tr4nch]

still pulling daily duty, almost through this cold winter crap here. a couple of things to note.. firstly, my check engine light finally turned itself off randomly after driving with the IACV code for the last almost 4 months. not really sure why, but it's off and no more code stored, and idle is back down to normal *shrugs* i'll take it!

also my rear right brake caliper was starting to stick here and there so i changed out the calipers and did pads and rotors. also forgot to mention before that i'm running 20mm spacers in the rear which pushes the rear wheels out flush with the quarter panels and looks so much better (see previous pics ^^).

sticking caliper.. both pads separated from their bases

got everything back together and realized the rotors were scraping on these useless abutment clips, so off they came. all good now.

and last but not least, approaching 170k!

 

[viprdude]

Lookin great! Awesome attention to detail, quick to act on dirty and rusty parts. I like what I see here. Also big thanks for posting pictures. Nowadays, that is how we consumer so much information it helps a bunch.

 

[JDM_Ej]

Amazing details and work. Thanks for sharing.