Daily 07 G35s 6MT

[95naSTA]

I've been looking at these off and on for 2 years and finially decided to pull the trigger. The main reason is the i30 is burning oil at the valve seals.. certinally not out of my wheelhouse but I promised myself if I ever had to pull the engine out again, its over.

For me the 07-08 G35s is the sweet spot. 07-08 got the HR engine, the s model got LSD and upgraded brakes, and G37 6MTs with low miles are out of what I would spend at 19-20k. Either way 6MTs are a few grand more on average and harder to find than the autotragics, which are everywhere.

This particular car is lightly modded with coilovers, exhaust, drop in filters, and a tune. That initially turned me off to the car but the PO had this stuff installed by a mechanic and didn't tinker with it much himself. It's got some virgin dents and scratches but overall its in decent shape.

I had some requirements for a daily and this car really fit the bill. 300+ hp, 6+ cyls, manual trans, 4 doors, rwd, under 80k miles (67k), under 15k (by large margin), black interior, and something that will handle decent.

[nos4blood70]

Nice! Now that's a fun all round car.

[Jfridge92]

What a find Mike! I wish I would've been able to pick up a 6MT G37 as well, but they're extremely overpriced here, and the wife wouldn't have it. That looks like a really clean example, and honestly already has the mods that I want to do to my G. Can't wait to see more pics of yours, it almost looks like our cars are semi-twins!

It also looks like the P.O. swapped on some 10-13 G37 wheels. Those are the same stockers that came on mine as well.

[95naSTA]

Thanks guys.

I'm pretty pumped about the car. To-date, the highest initial purchase price for a car I've made was $2k.. I think that's what I bought my first '95 Bonneville for back in '02. $500 for a '90 Regal in '06, $800 for my current Bonnie in '07, $1700 for my i30 at the end of '10, $500 for the wife's '02 x-type last year. lol..

Joseph, I was eyeballing this car hard for about 3 weeks and when I saw you got a silver one, I was thinking the same thing on the twins. I didn't even realize the wheels were the same. On the G37 6MT note. Other than being kind of cheap, I just couldn't bear to spend that much money on something that will be street parked in my tight city neighborhood. Every day it'll be a new little scrape or ding. This thing got a lot of that honeymoon period out of the way and the price reflected it.

[Jfridge92]

I agree with that logic. It's terrifying to drive my G in Florida where every driver literally doesn't know how to drive. Thankfully we don't have to deal with street parking, but I completely understand what you mean about it. My Buick got a few dings that way when I had to park on campus.

The silver is a beautiful color on this car. I wanted to go with graphite shadow, but couldn't find one clean enough to justify the cost, so I ended up with yet another silver. I love it, but it needs some of the chrome dipped black. I also looked at a few obsidian black G's, but they just screamed "limo" way too much for me. I never thought I would dislike a car because it was too shiny lol.

Plus, with you going with the 6MT you don't have to deal with the "apparently horrible 5AT" in the G35

[95naSTA]

Yeah, I would have been into the graphite shadow color a bit more. I do feel like the G35 sedan is the car who's favorite color is grey/silver though. Much like the 92-95 Bonnie is green.. 00+ is silver. Lol. Above all I wanted a black interior. The i30's tan interior drove me nuts trying to keep it clean.

The 6MT was the only way to go for me. I'm not too sure what's going to happen with bikes when I have kids (God willing) in a year or so.. And if I'm going to lock myself into a new daily, it has to have a fun pedal.. The wife learned to drive stick on the i30 and still wants to get better at it, so it's not like she can't drive it. I feel like that's the case a lot of the time - My wife can't drive it so 404 3rd pedal.. That whole practicality thing sucks sometimes. Fortunately for me that's not the case.

[Jfridge92]

I agree, there are a ton of silver's out there. It's a beautiful color though, and plentiful to find body panels should you need to. A lot of the specialty colors like the moonlight white and blue slate cost so much more to repair from what I've seen. Mine has black interior to. Easier to keep clean, but good god the florida sun burns you in it. I'm planning to get some tint done on mine soon.

And it's funny you mention that. One of the main reasons I upgraded besides my G20 being wrecked was a bigger backseat for a car seat....we're likely going to have a little one running around in April of next year. I hope the same works out for you as well! And at least your wife was willing to learn stick lol, Ashlee just shot it down and said hell no hahaha.

[00Beast]

Nice score Mike! So is the i30 down the road now?

My wife can't drive it so 404 3rd pedal.. That whole practicality thing sucks sometimes. Fortunately for me that's not the case.

That's why my GF's parent's 2015 5.0 Mustang is an auto...

[95naSTA]

Nice score Mike! So is the i30 down the road now?

Thanks Ed. Yeah.. It's time to let the i30 go. It's had a rough life.. A few accidents, stolen, raced.. I kept it off the chopping block for 6 years. When I got it, besides the fact it barely started and leaked everything, the unibody was tweaked and it was already rusting in a few spots. Had the body been in better shape from the start, I would probably be driving it for longer. At this point in it's life, spending the 3 weekends or so pulling and repairing the engine just doesn't make sense.

[95naSTA]

I got an oil change in today. It turns out my lower pan is seeping a bit.. not a big deal, I'll tackle that next oil change. I had to build a little ramp to make my low pro jack to a safe lift spot under the car.. lol. For how low it is, it's surprisingly not bad to drive.

I also slapped on some 20ish mm wheel spacers I had on hand. I'll need to bump it up to at least 25mm in the front. What kind of sucks is the car had acorn style lug nuts instead of the newer mag style required for the wheels.. It's a good thing I literally bought the car, drove to the airport, and drove home only so far.

What little I have driven the car I'm loving it so far. I'm learning more about the features etc. The biggest thing I wasn't really thinking about was the audio.. I'm no audio guy but I'm very happy with the factory system.

Since I wasn't home all week I didn't get any interior pics. Here's a couple.

[Jfridge92]

Wow that thing is CLEAN for an 07 inside! Pan should be a quick and easy fix, especially for you!

I'll also have to double check the lugs on my wheels now that you mention it..I haven't had them off yet, but I need to rotate my tires so that will happen soon.

Do you have the BOSE system in yours? Mine does, but for some reason in 2010 they eliminated an AUX port....and the Journey's didn't get bluetooth audio unless you opted for the NAV package, which mine doesn't have, so I'm stuck using a cheap bluetooth FM transmitter. I'm planning to add a GROM bluetooth audio/aux adapter that will take the place of the XM module, but it's frustrating that Infiniti chose to do that the way they did. Hopefully you got lucky and can at least stream from your phone easily haha.

[95naSTA]

Yeah the interior is definitely in decent shape. There's only really 2 spots that need attention. The driver's side door car is a little worn and there's a few cracks in the outer panel of the driver's right bolster. I've got 2 quotes on replacing that panel that are more than reasonable and I see a bunch of door cards on ebay in good shape. I just have to pull the trigger.

I'm ont 100% on Bose but whatever I have is all I'll ever need in terms of quality. I do have an AUX input in the armrest that I'm very happy about. I've always had to either hard wire something in or use those transmitter adapters. It also accepts compact flash cards.. lol 2007 tech represent!

I'm going back and fourth about off I want to put the BBSes I had on the i30 on this car. When I had them on the i30, the car was parked in front of my house. My wife has that spot now (garage is 100% mine though!) and I have to street park my car. My worry is the wheels might get stolen, might prompt someone to try and steal the car and/or might damage the car in the process of trying to steal.. I do have full coverage, so I guess everything would be taken care of.. just not sure if I want to add another thing to worry about.

[Jfridge92]

I may have to explore the door panel on the drivers side down the road as well. The aluminum trim had quite a bit of scuffing and deep scratches, but I havent looked hard enough to see if just that trim is replaceable, or if that whole panel is one piece. Not a huge deal either way.

I say go for it with the BBS' s. Full coverage does give peace of mind, but I understand not wanting to worry about that.

Out of curiosity since you have a lot more experience with polishing metal and such off your Bonne, do you think the wheels that you have on the G35 now could be polished to a chrome-like finish? My wheels have some rash, but I can't afford new wheels anytime soon. I think they would look really good if they were shiny, and would match a lot better with the exterior mods I'm about to do with the trim and tails. But I havent ever tried to polish metal, so I'm not sure if our wheels would work for that.

[95naSTA]

You could definitely polish the wheels up.. but after like 10-15 hours a piece minimum and they'll be impossible to keep perfect.. lol.

Polishing aluminum is a rough road. I wouldn't start with those wheels.

[Jfridge92]

You could definitely polish the wheels up.. but after like 10-15 hours a piece minimum and they'll be impossible to keep perfect.. lol.

Polishing aluminum is a rough road. I wouldn't start with those wheels.

Thanks for the insight! I've never done it so I didn't know just how much would be involved, but I'll trust your opinion enough not to worry about it haha. The new wheels fund will get started eventually.

[95naSTA]

well..

[Jfridge92]

*dang* I need new wheels! Those look great on the G!! Are you going to keep a square set up or try and throw some more meat on the rear end?

[95naSTA]

Sorry I never saw your reply. The wheels are staggered. 8/9" and 225/245 If I remember correctly.

I'm going to have to pick up some all seasons for the wheels that came with the car here shortly.. And make sure the alignment is good.

I think I've only put 1000 miles on the car so far. I've been traveling a ton and it was motorcycle weather most of the time I was home.

[95naSTA]

I mounted and balanced some decent all seasons to the stock (winter) wheels, threw those on and I finally tackled some cosmetic stuff I've been wanting to take care of for months.

Exterior wise, outside of some bumper scrapes and a few small dents, the car came with a large dent the passenger side front fender. I found a G37 sedan fender on ebay in good shape to replace it.




Interior wise, the only two things that were worse for wear were the driver's inner seat bolster and the driver's door card. On the card, it was the part where the elbow rests that was worn out and the PO's switch trim plastidip job was wearing off.. I found a card in good shape on ebay to replace it and I sanded and polished the switch trim. The trim ended up having a crack in it so I didn't put a ton of effort into it. I'll have to get another one of those and aa new mirror switch since that came busted. I've got quotes on the seat that are more than reasonable. I just have to make time for it.




Next up are SPC upper control arms up front and a toe links out back. After doing some reading and looking at the tires that came on the car, it seems like I'll need more than factory adjustment to dial in the alignment.

[95naSTA]

A few weeks ago I was noticing my steering wheel was shaking after about 10 mins or so on the highway. I pulled all the wheels, checked the wheel bearings, control arms, suspension linkages but couldn't find anything loose. I figured since my wheels weren't going to fall off, I would just drive it and figure it out when it got worse. Well, it did but I was able to notice that using the brakes made it worse.

It turns out that whatever genius mechanic that did the brakes last, ripped the piston boots, leaving them to corrode and semi-seize on both front calipers. This was a paid for job that showed up on the car's car-fax. It was also the tip of the iceberg. I knew they used the wrong sized rear rotors and the pads weren't making full contact but wasn't super worried since it had been working fine well before I noticed. I didn't realize they used the wrong size front and rear. And finally, they decided the one rear caliper slider pin didn't require a boot. The whole wrong size rotor thing was likely due to using regular trim brakes on a sport model.

So the car now has a Powerstop Z32 kit with rotors and pads all around, new front calipers and new fluid. I also did all 4 O2s while it was on the lift. Later that day I replaced the old worn lights with some DEPO replacements.