Kind of odd to make a build thread for a build that was started over a year ago, but here we are. I'm gonna start at the beginning to catch anyone who reads this up.

Hey all! I joined the G community last May when I picked up an 04 sport package with a 6 speed that was in fantastic shape. She was my first big girl car after I graduated college and I knew I needed something manual and with a bit of oomph after driving a crv for the past 3 years. I always loved sedans and the g35 has always been on the list of cars i wanted, so when slommy showed up on the dealer lot i knew i had to have her.

This car was way too nice for me honestly. It was a one owner car and had 11 pages of car fax and had been meticulously maintained. ( I feel so bad for what she's turned into because of this )




Naturally me being me, the car did not stay stock for long.
First thing I did was order coilovers to replace the blown struts, but thanks to covid I didn't get them until late August. I didn't get them on until after my first event.

Until those arrived I did some little things such as picking up a set of enkei NT03's for the car. I scored these for an insane deal because they had some mild curb rash. They came off a stanced subaru impreza but the tires were still good so **** it.


I found a factory Nismo Bumper for a decent price online, Funny thing about this. They literally bought it a bus ticket and i picked it up from the local greyhound station.





I had been wanting to get into motorsport as a hobby after college and track racing is a bit expensive so i turned to drifting. In July 2020 I ran my very first drift event at my local track and this is where it all goes downhill

 

Welcome! Sounds like you're having fun. I wish mine was a 6MT.

 

I immediately became addicted to drifting after my first time out on track and I knew I just wanted to run it more and more.

The first problem I ran into was the viscous diff, this was the original unit that had 145k on it so its no suprise why it wasnt locking anymore. It would only light up one wheel in the dry but in the wet it worked perfectly fine. I picked up a welded diff for a 350z off fb marketplace and slapped it in the car without cracking it open (More on this later)

Definitely locks both the rears now.


My coilovers also finally arrived!


No more bad fitment!



I also repainted the nismo bumper at this point as well. It was my first time attempting anything like this myself so im pretty proud of the results. Its not professional by any grade but i did it in my backyard so idc







In september 2020 I did my second drift event, still not very good but having a great time! I think this is the only shot I have from that event. I was really struggling at this point. I felt like i was constantly behind the car and i was spinning almost every single corner. Im sure the track marshals loved me.


Who needs a truck when you have a sedan

 

With all this hard driving i burned through the Conti's that came on my Enkei's pretty quickly. On a friends reccomendation I picked up some michilen pilot sports that were on closeout and I got quite possibly the meatiest fitment i've ever seen on a g35.


LOOK AT THIS!!!!

MEGA MEAT

IT BARELY FITS!!

After a quite a bit of fender rolling and beating them with a hammer they finally stopped rubbing.
I dailed the G at this point welded diff, fat tires and all.

My buddies were planning a trip to Tail of the Dragon for Classic Hondas and you just dont say no to a Dragon Trip
I had to fit in somehow
Even with the welded diff the G did really good on the dragon! I was even able to keep up with the hondas thorugh the twisties!

The dragon was unreal. If youre a car enthusiast this absolutely needs to be on your bucket list.

So the second problem with g35's and drifting is angle. These cars have such bad angle from the factory that they just want to whip themselves around. You almost have to drive it like an older Z. I ordered a set of the GK Tech knuckles and they showed after I got back from the dragon!



look at all that angle!


I had a chance to put the knuckles through their paces at my first 2 Day drift event. I stocked up on tires and camped out at the drag strip. I made a bunch of friends that weekend and I'd say thats where I felt like I found a community where I truly belonged.

Stack of tires waiting to get destroyed


I also finally got some photos of my car on track!!!



Also I feel like this is where i finally started to get the hang of drifting. I was gettng super close to linking the full course but i was struggling with the downhill section. The knuckles made a huge difference in controlability though. You have way faster steering response too! (though this probably came from replacing the tie rods with heim joints)

 

I was really unhappy with how the nismo bumper looked with the unpainted plastic skirts and rear lip. I thought about trying to get a nismo kit but people want stupid amounts of money for those now. Then another twilight blue 06 sedan showed up in the scrapyard and i said OK BET



Another example of the power of sedans. Rear bumper and a pair of skirts with room to spare.



After fitting it and cleaning her up I was suuuuuuper satisfied with the results. She looked so good!!!!




After deciding drifting was the thing for me, i had a friend I made fab me up a bash bar. I had watched too many cars run right into tractor tires and destroy their radiators or core supports.






So the number one thing for me was I wanted this to fit under the nismo bumper so it wouldnt stand out and look too much like a drift missile. With a bit of trimming she fit perfectly!


Also replaced the knock sensor at this time. Infiniti quoted me 1400 just to get the part and there was no way I was going to pay that. I picked up a replacment harness from z1, did my plugs and cleaned my injectors as well.



the culprit of my missing 20hp


With slommy back on the road and looking fresh as ****, it was time to take her back out on track.
November was here and i was at my fourth drift event ready to thrash my car!


SHE LOOKS SO GOOD!!!



I was noticing improvements each time i went out. I was still struggling with figuring out line and managing speed, but I was having a blast out there!!!

I also picked up a bride for $200!!!!

Check your cabin air filters kids!!




Painted the grill black on a whim and was thrilled with the results


And here's how she sat on December 2nd 2020. I was already thrilled with how the car was coming along!!!

 

Drift on playa!

 

So a lot of things happened in December. A looooooot of things. It started when I noticed a strange noise coming from the rear of the car. It almost sounded like a ratchet. So I decided since I had never changed the fluid on that welded I bought I light as well….


wellllllll fug

well the diff is still locked so I can still drive it right? Of course! Just use a magnet and clean all that out!

Piedmont drift threw a girls day and I was so hype for it. I even ordered seat rails for my bride so I could get it in! I made my Roomate take off so I could finally take him drifting. And…


fug

Guy had a blowout in front of me on the way back from the tire shop the day before and I guess it hit the crank position sensor on the bottom of the engine
So these cars will run with them but not start.


Wish I had caught this before the tow truck came. I could’ve avoided a tow fee.

But it’s all good.
I made stickers and stickers make everything better




Stickers make everything better.

Until tragedy strikes
( insert video of the nismo bumper )

All that hard work…
and then a week later the diff gave up.
Welds broke and I was back to that open diff life.
no one wants to be there

 

Next time you get a diff welded make sure they cut a plate to put in it instead of just welding the 4 corners. Weld that plate in on all sides to COMPLETELY stiffen up those gears, that will be good for anything you throw at it N/A. I can pretty much guarantee if it broke they only did just 4 corner spot welds and called it good.

 

After the diff blew up i decided to take a bit of a break and fix everything proper. Went to my fabricators house and we had the diff out and rewelded in an afternoon. I got super lucky in that teeth broke off and sat in the bottom of the diff. The guys **** weld job wound up saving me from having to buy another diff.


The culprits

Ahhh much better

After putting a few miles on it, got a chance to give it a good test. and man. THIS **** GOOD

My christmas present to myself also showed up.


I wanted to get these in before the next drift event but I wound up running out of time. I wound up popping the arm with a blown bushing out and putting in a junkyard unit to hold me over so i had time to take my time setting up the front end.
Huh, maybe thats why the car handled like ****.


Also did you know these just thread out? I sure didnt


I signed up for a novice drift clinic run by the guys who hosted piedmont drift. It was huge for me! Being able to sit down and talk to people while i work on the fundamentals felt awesome!! The progress i made here was massive, I even got some footage from the event as well! I really reccomend anyone whos just starting out drifting to go to one. Its great for learning how the car drives and how other people who are more experienced tackle the track.





All good days must come to an end unfortunately


Here's the footage I snapped of the event as well.
(INSERT FOOTY HERE)

So with the event under my belt and my confidence going up i figured it was time to tackle the next upgrade I had planned out. The control arms!
Looking back on it I probably shouldve kept running the same setup for longer, i feel like installing a full angle kit when you only have 6 months of drifting experience under your belt is a bit overkill. But hindsight is 50/50.



Painted the puppies yellow to match the bash bar.


Turns out these ****ers were a pain in the *** to get on

Pre alignment. Think she will drive straight?


LOOK AT ALL THAT ANGLE



In the words of my friend stef "damn she's got the footwork fitment now"

Problem with owning a drift car in an apartment is that when its raining you gotta find somewhere to work on it.

So the big reason I went with the GK Tech Kit over any of the other kits was the fact it changes the control arm to a single piece design eliminating the crazy caster change these cars get with lots of steering angle


A week later I got to try them out at piedmont and i mark this event as one of the big turning points for me drifting.
It rained the whole event and I had never run the track in the wet before. The surface taught me about car control and was really where i felt like i got it and I had full control of the car.

Also, can i talk about just how much the arms do for these cars? its unreal. the car handles so much better now. The car is so planted and put together.

This weekend gave me so much confidence as a driver and I was so thrilled with what I had created.

Picked up some dual caliper brackets from another g35 owner on FB

Next item on the itinerary was seat! I ordred a seat bracket back in december and it finally showed up in February! Turns out the Bride I thought was a Cuga was actually a Cuga HL, a seat they stopped making brackets for in like 2010. But after a bit of "persuasion" and custom bracket extensions made out of a MR2 Seatbelt cross brace we got it to fit! I knew the stock g35 seats were going to be heavy, but I didnt realize just how heavy they were going to be. I can barely pick them up.

Honestly between the seat, coilovers, and control arms. I dont know what is a better mod.


Da homies



With the car feeling much better it was time to do some more creative things to it.

After becoming obsessed with the team charme JZX and Verossa as well as the garage33 g35 I knew I wanted to do a similar look. I had no idea what it was called at the time so i kinda just did my own thing.



getting more use out of that vinyl cutter i bought

It turned out sooooo much better than i was expecting. Slommy had developed such a pressence and personality.



Slommy finally looked as cool as she drove! This was the next Piedmont 2 day up in March. This was also my first event with the seat in the car. SUUUUUUUCHHH A HUGE DIFFERENCE OH MY GOD






Even convinced one of my buddies to bring his MR-S out! Im kinda jaded with him tho. His very first time drifting at piedmont, guy was able to link the course by the end of the day.

My event ended early unfortunately. Mid way through sunday i had a pretty bad off and the impact from it must have been the final straw for my driver side motor mount.
But i wasnt too bothered! It was a fantastic weekend full of drifting and hanging with my bros!

 

Nice pick-up on the 6 speed sedan. I also was lucky enough to find a 1 owner, clean CarFax, full service records 6 speed sedan 5 years ago. Very few issues in 5 years and 60,000 miles.

Good to see you're out having fun with it and doing a lot of the wrenching yourself.

 

Next things to look at installing, you NEED an oil pan spacer, the extra 3/4 qt of oil is practically mandatory when you're hanging sustained high rpm like track use. Also, it's time to buy the energy suspension polyurethane master kit for the car and start swapping out bushings every time you take a component off.

If you haven't already, poly diff bushing, rear subframe bushing, engine and tranny mounts will make throttle response feel like power goes to the tires 10x faster. You're going to outgrow the factory driveline soon and be looking to upgrade to a 1 piece aluminum so keep that in mind.

Check your power steering fluid, if it's never been flushed use a gear oil pump to suck out the reservoir and refill it, this will exchange all the old fluid out faster, there will be a lot more wear on the power steering system with the angle kit.

EDIT: solid bushings instead of poly if you don't mind that abrasive racecar feel.

 

never heard anyone mention the oil pan spacer before! I'll look into that for sure!
I'm already way ahead of you! Sway bar end links and bushings, poly engine mounts, and diff bushings are already on the car as she sits currently!

The suspension and tie rods are all heim joints now, i check those at the beginning and end of track days.

Doing the power steering when i pull the motor to do my clutch. Going to do poly steering rack at that time too.

I've thought about doing the driveshaft, but for now the stock one works fine. This isnt going to be a competition car by any means. Basically a "go out and have fun with my friends" kind of car. Motor is staying stock, may do a plenum spacer but thats kinda all i wanna do for now.

 

The plenum spacer will make a pretty major improvement to the mid-range, definitely want to get one soon. While you have the upper plenum off look at how much oil is making it's way into the plenum and decide if you want to do an atmospheric vented catch can.

Are you on the stock clutch? A lightweight single mass flywheel makes it feel like a completely different engine and it's not difficult to pull the tranny and swap the flywheel/clutch.

EDIT: Also, if you haven't already made a kill switch for the VDC controller look into doing that, even with the traction control turned off the system still pulls throttle. A kill switch will COMPLETELY turn off the traction control system, to turn it back on again flip the switch, turn the ignition off then on again.

 

Stock clutch yep! I'll get into how all that went later in the thread. I havent caught up to that part yet :P
I took a good look at the upper plenum when i did my knock sensor, didnt have much but changed the pcv valve anyways.

Whats a good catchcan setup to run?

 

100 bucks or so, Mishimoto makes a good baffled can, single in-out if you want to keep the PCV system sucking into the intake tract, dual in-vent out if you want to atmo vent. Just keep in mind atmospherically venting crankcase vapor makes a little bit of an oily mess under the hood. Not terrible but something that will need to be wiped up every few months because it's going to attract dust.