So being an elder egghead not wise in the ways of forum etiquette, I sort of skipped over the intro post and just started wandering around.

I had been driving little baby pick-'em up trucks (Nissan, of course) for about 15 years, three of them. One day the registration renewal arrived, the truck needed new tires, and it hit me that I was tired of them: didn't want to bounce around anymore. Didn't want to buy new tires. Didn't want to renew. So I cleaned it up and posted it on Craigslist. Priced too low, it sold in a day.

Great! Except I really hadn't thought this through. I knew what I didn't want; I had no idea what I did want. And I needed a car fast. To my surprise, I ended up with a fast car. Love at first drive, and then it was just finding one that was well cared for.

Bought my 2006 AWD sedan in March 2013. 74K miles, one owner trade-in, all service records from the dealer it was bought new from and where I picked it up. Also got the Infiniti Elite warranty. Good to March 2017 and 122K miles. Which is why all I have are cosmetic mods; until it expires nothing is going to happen that they might use to avoid a claim. Mechanically great; however the elderly prior owner with a bad leg did not take good care of the exterior and the paint was pretty scratched up and more than a few dings.

Started out with the JDM battery cover, 38% NC-legal tint, clear corners, and found a new old stock XM satellite tuner for ridiculous cheap and installed it.

Then one rainy Sunday morning last summer, I looked up from the sports section and saw a guy standing in the street admiring my car. No wait, he's crouching down next to the rear wheel. This is his handiwork he is admiring:



The white truck in the background with the black bumper is what he creased me with as he was pulling in to work on the house two doors down:



Off to the body shop. Great folks: Auto Arts in Raleigh. I had always hated the front plate mount (no front plate required in NC), which was screwed into bumper cover. You can see the nasty thing in the truck pic. So as long as we were mixing paint, I decided to have them fill in the screw holes and the tow hook port, which was missing its cover. I ended up with this OEM AWD look, which I think is pleasingly clean and just a little mean:



The trunk was dented and badly scratched so we did some work and a respray there too and gave it a partial de-badge. I like Mt. Fuji, so kept that and the lower case x, positioned to balance with the trunk button on the opposite side:



Added some paintless dent removal and a body polish detail to help it out, but a full repaint was out of my budget. Also had them polish and spray clear on the headlight lenses.

Latest addition was aluminum pedals. Rather than trying to epoxy the emergency brake cover, I carefully drilled out the center rubber dot and used a black-metal flathead hex key bolt with washer and nut to secure it to the hole that is in the center of the pedal plate. Flat head fits perfectly into the aluminum hole that the rubber nubbin protrudes from. Used a knife to taper the rubber behind the aluminum face plate so the flat head would properly seat. I cut a notch in the rubber lip on the back side of the cover to fit snugly around the metal emergency pedal arm above the pedal cover, and that keeps it from rotating (sorry about the dirty floor!).




So that's how she sits today. When the day comes the warranty is done, I'll do a plenum spacer. I have a USA Spec PAC15-INFI sitting in a box I need to get around to installing. Gotta say, I sure do enjoy the characters, the entertainment, and the learning I have gotten and continue to get on Driver.

 

Nice, what else is in store for your G.

 

That's my biggest fear about parking in the street.

 

When I do the spacer, I'll clean the plenum and do a catch can too because I do like to goose the hamsters every so often. When the tires are done, I'd like to put wider rubber on the road but likely stay with the 18s. Finish on rims was trashed by someone using some kind of aggressive cleaner prior to me, so powder coating too. Maybe a stiffer rear swaybar to get the AWD handling closer to neutral.

 

That sounds great. Have you thought about changing the exhaust and switching to high flow cats? Also, the brakes on our cars isn't the best (unless you have a G37S), I'm upgradiing the brakes to the G37S later this year (hopefully).

 

My wife would divorce me if I do an exhaust. She has tender ears. Plus, it's an AWD so there's all the issues with clearing the transfer case. The 2006 sedan got the bigger diameter disks and multi-pistons on the front that are adequate for my needs. BBK would probably require new rims for clearance, and I'm just not sure that I want to go up to 19s...then I would have to start thinking about suspension and drop, and well, you know how that rabbit hole works. Really, I'm pretty happy with a mostly stock daily driver that is subtly clean and shows a little bit of care and love beyond the way it comes from the factory.

 

Lol...I hear ya and, I definitely know about the rabbit hole. I'm traveling in it now. I've done quite a few mods to my 05 coupe. Nothing dramatic just your normal things like intake, exhaust system, lowering springs and, I have a few things yet to be installed. Well, enjoy your ride.