hey guys, I have my fx for just a few months now, & I've done some mods to it. I'm really glad to see an fx section here,when I got my fx it was just plain stock silver with stock wheels, it was owned by a doctor & his daughter smashed it into a guardrail at her school parking lot, she did a good job, airbags & all, when the doc got to my shop first words outta his mouth were "oh, I hope they just total it, I'd love to get a new one...."

the fx had some damage, but it was really superficial, all bolt on, no frame or structure touched at all, it was loaded with everything I think for a fx35, tech package & sport package awd, radar cruise, nav, 20" wheels, the more I checked it out the more I fell in love with it, it wasn't totaled so the insurance company wrote a fat check & I decided to buy it off him.

once I bought this thing, the more I noticed fx's, & the more I noticed that silver was the most popular color I think, I mean it seemed all over I saw silver & dg fx's, & I started thinking about changing the color since I was doing the nose anyway. I decided on a black, but a custom black pearl, this color has a ton of pearls in it, & even though it sometimes looks black, when the light hit's it it really sparkles, the color shifts alot & it just really looks sweet, exactly what I wanted, custom but subtle. it kinda has the metalicy shimmer of the copper or the berilium, but really dark.. it goes from brownish to grey to purpley & blue at times depending on the lighting & angles, really nice color I think

I took the whole thing apart & painted it & it came out really sweet, the fx is such a beautiful body, I really didn't feel the need to do any body mods, but I did all the lower plastics in gloss black, which is the stock fx black.

I replaced everything damaged with new from infiniti parts & decided to upgrade to the later body trim. I used the 07 front bumper with 07 sport grille, I also matched the sides to this & replaced the rockers & door moulings with the newer fat chrome ones.

I upgraded to sport lights front & rear (gotta love ebay ), & swaped out for the aluminum rails. then I lowered it on H&R's & added a set of maya 3 pc wheels with toyo proxes as a nice finishing touch.




originally I straightened the hood & fenders, but decided to put all new sheetmetal anyway, belive it or not, even thru all this, now there's not even one ounce of putty or filler on this whole fx now

this is a shot of test fitting the new grille & bumper:





here's a few shots of what it takes to do a color change:

first, take it all apart & do all the jambs...























back togeather with all jambs done, ready for the body:





whole thing sealed with epoxy sealer:




then paint & clear:







and first day out of the booth, the wheels go on, couldn't wait still not lowered yet...







a few shots of it outside & back togeather:



























all of those shots are right after paint, before lowering, this is the only shot I have for now after lowered, this is still just painted, unpolished yet, this color is hard to discribe, but very pearly, looks real pretty in person as it moves & changes angles:

 

Love the paint!!! but the wheels... eh..

 

well, that's the outside, next is the inside

I love carpc's, have had them in all my rides for a long time now, & this fx is no different, before I even started fixing this fx I started planning the pc install. I love big screens & like to go at least 10.4", my other car has a 12.1" as it's main display, & I wanted big here too, I also wanted it to look really tasteful & factory.

the first thing I noticed with the fx dash 03-05's is the cassette door, I mean that's a waste, why would they put a cassette in a vehicle like this? the 06 up did away with this, & the dash layout changed because of this, so I came up with the idea of eliminating the cassette & using that space for the extra area I need for my bigger screen

I decided to do the 07 dash, I mean my dash needed to be replaced anyway as the pass airbag blew thru it, so I ordered the newer dash & a bezel from the new style radio for my fabrication.

I moved the radio down to make room for the pc & screen, the stock 6 disc changer now loads in a new slot dirrectly above the clock, the original cd slot will now load a pc drive

the bezel was all made from cutting & welding plastic, combining an old style bezel with a new style bezel with the frame of the 10.4" screen

the 10.4" screen is from a fujitsu tablet, actually this whole tablet is my carpc, I chose this particular tablet because of it's sunlight viewable reflective lcd, the more sun that hit's it the better it looks, it is installed with the wacom digitizer intact & I also added a fujitsu touchscreen for finger touch action, having dual mode digitizer & touchscreen is cool & they work well togeather

ok, some pictures, first, my photoshop proof of concept & initial measurements :




now that's what I was shooting for, minus the new woodgrain console....

heres how I did that:



moving the radio controls down






& first test fit, looks like it'll work...




new dash is swapped



here I already started chopping the new style bezel



more test fitting with new dash





heres where the changer now loads...




now this fx has the factor nav, & the display also does the climate control & a bunch of other vehicle functions, so I can't eliminate it, I relocated it to overhead...



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next is build the bezel for the big screen, I want this to look 100% factory & 100% perfect, otherwise it'd kill the whole thing...













test fit:







building in around the screen:




































and the finish, I tried to get it as close to factory as possible, I think it looks pretty factory.













assembled for testing:









the motherboard ready to recieve the screen:




and in the car for more testing...













and outside in the sun, this lcd is great in the sun






a few more...








the ac vents were elongated a lot & narrowed alot too, there not done yet, I'm making them still fully articulate up down & left & right, they should be done soon....















I want them to function like stock opening & closing too








single deflectors, all theres room for, but they work fine




well, I think that's it for now & where I'm at with this, I'm done enough to be driving her every day, but still have some things to finish up, & then have a few other pretty cool mods in mind too


last shot :

 

Damn that allot of work

Great job

 

I'm also doing a mod to the mirrors, I don't like those 2 piece ones that are available so I built my own, these are s550 signal lights...







I got some funky ideas for the headlights too ...

 

holy crap.. some amazing work there. love the interior. great job!

 

those mirrors aren't showing up hotlinked, here they are...

 

This is nuts! Looks awesome though.

 

Props on one awesome custom ride dude.

 

Very nice work.

 

wow! awesome job! definitely looks factory! what kind of materials do you need for the plastic welding?

 

hey guys, thanks for the compliments

accordfreak, I use a plastic welder made by usc (urethane supply company) look up there website for some good info on plastic welding, it's really pretty easy, basicly your melting it all togeather & forming it with a iron that's very similar to a soldering iron, but with a broader tip. the plastic welder goes up to 80 watts, but even a soldering iron can be used for smaller jobs..

heres a few shots, this is showing filling a low spot, but welding two pieces togeather is similar,... this bezel is all 100% plastic with no fillers or bondo to crack, the end result is very close to if infiniti actually made a bezel like this, it's still flexable & just plastic...

the donor piece is just an abs thing from staples...





















this is what the welder looks like:




this is what it looks like sanded after welding:



you do need to melt the underlying piece too, so the two can fuse togeather & become one, the end result is very strong, we fix plastic body parts the same way, even bumpers too, but there are all different types of plastics & some are harder than others to work with, & some require special welding "rods", abs is very easy to work with though, & most dash bezels are abs

bondo & fiberglass are not the right materials for a job like this, even though that's how many would try to do it, it'll crack & not be flexable & be heavy & not nearly as good

 

awesome! thanks for the info. now I can somewhat start over with my project and remove all the bondo crap haha.

damn I wish you owned a g35 instead... keep up the good work!

 

shoot... you and accordfreak should get together and do something really crazy.. very nice work