New Ride! 2013 G37 Journey

[Jfridge92]

So with the G20 being decommissioned and sold due to the accident, it needed a solid replacement. I test drove quite a few different cars before making my decision, and ultimately it was based on the way the car drove, the power, the steering feel and communication from the inputs, and the comfort and practicality of the car. Most of you may have seen what I was looking at in my Lounge post, but without further ado, let me introduce my new ride!

It's a 2013 G37 Journey sedan, so it does send the power to the PROPER wheels. The VQ motor is rated at about 328HP and 271 ft lbs of torque, and I have to say you feel every bit of it when you hammer the throttle. It steers so sharp compared to any other car I've had. My G20 bought me into the Infiniti bandwagon, and I can say honestly and unbiased that this is a phenomenal drivers car. Granted it isn't a 6MT, but the 7 speed auto does really well for what it is!

So far I don't have any mods planned, just some basic maintenance and wheel repair on one wheel that has some minor curb rash. I may get the windows tinted to help with the Florida heat, as it does have black leather interior. But overall it is a clean car! I also still need to do some minor paint correction in a few spots, but here is what she looks like after a nice wash and wax










I love how reflective the paint is!

[95naSTA]

Nice pick up. Looks brand new.

I've been fond of G35s once they lost the belt bucket rear trunk lid. And the v36 07-13 body styling is a notch up above that.

I've been toying with getting a v36 6MT G35s to eventually replace the i30 for years.. Even more so recently. Low mile 6MT G37s are a little too new and steep for city car duty.

I might now be too far behind..

[nos4blood70]

Nice! Looks super clean.

[Jfridge92]

Thanks Mike and Carl! It's got 60k on the clock, but according to the carfax was dealer maintained its whole life as a lease. The only noticible dings are 1 minorly curbed wheel, a few scrapes way under the front bumper, and a scratch on the interior door aluminum trim. All easy fixes, and the front end may wind up with a chin spoiler eventually. I'm also realizing really quickly that it's quiet....too quiet lol.

G35's can be had for really cheap now. I was looking at a few, but they were just too old for what my wife would let me get. At least with the 2013's the rear timing gasket issue was resolved, so that was my main focusing point when I decided to get this car. It looked a bit too involved to do that, and it seems just like the UIM gaskets on the S2 3800s are doomed to fail, so was that gasket on the pre 2012 VQ motors.

I just finished putting in some new Mobil 1 synthetic, so I just need to detail the interior and she'll be good to go.

[Jfridge92]

Finally had a few minutes yesterday to take the G out and stretch it's legs. I used Torque, and after warming the tires up a bit, I tracked a 0-60 time of 4.9 seconds, which is right on par with what motortrend tested the G37S sedan at. I haven't gotten it to an actual track yet, but based on that number, it should run mid to low 13s, which isn't bad for a stock car. I love this thing!

[Jfridge92]

Did my first "mod" to the G if you can call it that. Starting to get rid of some of the chrome and bland looks on the front end. I vinyl wrapped the inner grill with gloss black 3M vinyl, although the sun doesn't really show it very well, and it was almost a 112° heat index, so I didn't really stay out long to get a good pic lol. I also painted the bumper inserts around the fog lights gloss black. It definitely looks a bit more sporty in the front now.






I also just got my Diode Dynamic's Tail As Turn modules in the mail. They effectively take the ugly incandescent rear turn signals out of the picture, and use the beautiful LED tail light rings for the turn signals. That coupled with some BlueBat GTR style taillight overlays should really set the rear of the car off. I also have some more black vinyl on order to do the lower rear valence on the bumper, as well as all the chrome window trim and trunk lip. The vinyl definitely is worth the effort on this car, and doesn't look as cheap as plastidip does.

Also in the plans are to order an OEM front lip to go on the bumper. The previous owner must have nailed a curb or parking space stop because the paint on the front right of the bumper is peeling from a large chip underneath. The lip covers it completely, looks really nice, and will help me avoid having to do a full respray of the bumper cover. Loving this car!!

[95naSTA]

Looks good on the grill and inserts. If you can, post some before and after or a comparo pic of the tail light mods. I might mess with that eventually.

[Jfridge92]

Sure thing, I'll definitely post results. The tail as turn mod is plug and play, or you can go the diy route and save $40, but for ease of install I ordered a kit. That way i can always return it to stock should I want to.

I didn't video my car before i installed mine, literally took 30 seconds, but here is how the mod looks from the kit I used.

https://youtu.be/KEADUF22aZg


Also, check out http://www.bluebatmobile.net and browse the G35/G37 sedan section. Theres a lot of good ideas and possibilities on there.

[95naSTA]

That's pretty sweet on the tail as turns.

I'll have to scroll through to see what others have done.

[Jfridge92]

I agree, I love the mod! It certainly helps bring the car more into 2013 than the incandescent turns.

These were the pictures that I went off of when deciding to get either opaque overlays or 6/10 tint overlays. I went with opaque, and since they have cutouts for the tails, they don't block any light and thus won't get us pulled over.






These are the 6/10 tints.

[95naSTA]

Yeah I agree, opaque all the way. Looks more oem+ and cleaner.

[Jfridge92]

Yeah I agree, opaque all the way. Looks more oem+ and cleaner.

Yep! I got my overlays in the mail yesterday and they look to be really high quality. It will be a few weeks before I have the free time to install them, as I have to pick a time my wife isn't home so that uh...I don't die lol. Have to be very secretive with any mods to this car, because, to quote her, "You bought a new fancy fast car that was supposed to be perfect and not need anything, blah blah" aka she doesn't understand the mod bug or the need to personalize a new car. I can't fault her for that, but now that we have a little one on the way, i can't really devote a lot of time or funds to mod the car.

[Jfridge92]

This have been slow-going with my G37 over the last few weeks. I've been saving so that I can do some "scheduled" modifications each year, but now that we have a little guy coming early next year, most of my time and money has been focusing on that.

However, I just ordered these guys. They're Konig Oversteers, so a fairly affordable wheel that seems fairly strong for a rep. I'm not planning on tracking my car much, and thankfully there are fairly decent roads here, so I don't think that will be an issue (and if one cracks, they're cheap enough to replace).



Not the most prestigious and they're basically replica wheels, but I think they're going to look really good on the G. I ordered them in 18x9 and 18x9.5 front and rear. I'll be jumping from 225/55R17's at all 4 corners to 245/45R18's in the front and 265/40R18's in the rear.

Since these are a "scheduled mod" and im' on a budget, the wheels will probably be sitting in the garage for about 5 months before I can get tires on them, but I think I can live with that. Then it'll be saving for coilovers and camber kits. I'll probably do a 1.5" to 2" drop, and the camber kits will specifically be to keep things as close to factory alignment as possible. No crazy negative camber or "slammed" look, but low enough to get rid of that hideous wheel gap.

[J Wikoff]

I think those will look pretty nice!

2" seems like a lot. Me, I'd shoot for 1".

[95naSTA]

The 18s will look good on there.

2"+!!! Lol.

So far I've had 4 people (total) in my car on a 5 hour trip without issue. Nissan/Infiniti really did a good job of tucking everything up and out of harms way.

[Jfridge92]

The coilovers I'm looking at are listed to be able to provide anywhere from a 1" to 2.5" drop, so I will play around and see what I like. I definitely don't want it slammed, but I know the wheel gap will be hideous with the new wheels haha.


That's great to hear Mike! I love everything about this car so far, and it sounds like you're in the same boat. I've put almost 4,000 miles on mine without a single hiccup, other than having to plug and patch a tire. I'm coming up on time to do my next oil change, but even with 4,000 miles on the full-synthetic that's in there, it's still perfectly golden like new. My Buick and old Infiniti's oil would have been pitch black by this point, so that's really a testament for how clean these motors run.

I'm planning to do a few things this oil change as well. Drain/refill the transmission 3x (the proper method to avoid flushing), change the rear diff fluid, coolant flush, brake fluid flush, power steering fluid, and a few other preventative items that are on the 70k checklist in the FSM. Should be fun!

[CMNTMXR57]

Please don't drop it so much. Really just put the wheels on and enjoy. Maybe drop it just enough to get the proper wheel to body ratio. Otherwise dropping it like that, just ruins your ride quality and makes the car look retarded.

I was behind some melon farmer with an old Acura Integra that was slammed and of course had the requisite extreme camber with matchbox wheels on it, this morning. They guy couldn't go down the road more than 35 mph because the car would fall apart and with every crevice in the road, the thing was bouncing around like a ping-pong ball in a wind tunnel. But yet, he's "dope" with his buds.

[95naSTA]

Horrible ride quality and looking +1 on the chromosome count FTW.

No complaints from anyone from my BCs and as mentioned no issues with clearance.

[Jfridge92]

Oh yeah, I'm 100% just going for a tasteful drop to close up some of the wheel gap. While to each their own on the slammed look, I'm not a fan of that low, nor the horrible wear on tires with a ton of negative camber. Right now there is exactly 2" of gap between the top of the tread and the start of the fender in the front and rear, so that's where I was getting the 2" number from. Fender to ground is about 28 1/2", and most of the G37 guys have a really great look with about 26" to 26 1/2" after dropping without looking slammed.

For reference, this is about where I'm looking to be, which would be roughly about 1 1/2" based on my current wheel gap. They don't joke that these cars got 4x4 suspension for nothing lol.

[Jfridge92]

I finally got my new wheels and tires mounted! For simplicity, the specs on the wheels and tires are here:

Konig Oversteer 18x9 +35
BF Goodrich G-Force Comp 2 A/S 245/45R18

They replaced the garbage 17's with 225 tires. Eventually I'll switch to a staggered setup with 265's in the rear, but for now, the financial perspective of being able to rotate the tires is better.

I love the way the new wheels look. And yes, the car will be going lower eventually. That wheel gap is ugly.