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 Post subject: My G20T
PostPosted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 10:54 am 
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Location: Palm Bay, FL
Year and Trim: 1999 Buick Lesabre Custom
Finally got some time after being pissed at the body shop to put the G back together. I didn't have time to keep everything torn apart to replace the lower core support, as I was planning on the car being driveable when I got back from Buffalo, but that story is for another day. I got the fenders, headlights, bumper, and bumper cover re-installed, and decided I might as well wash the car. It was super dirty and hadn't been cleaned since we drove it down from Chicago in May, and god did it need a bath. Unfortunately after giving it a good wash and wax, it made it that much more evident all the paint correction it needs. There are HUNDREDS of rock chips on the front bumper, a few chips right by the grill, tons of little scrapes and scratches (most of those should come out with a light rubbing compound or polish), and the passenger side mirror housing is pretty much trash. It looks like someone tried to touch it up at one point, and only succeeded in getting a giant run. Going to try and monitor the classifieds on the G20 forum and snag a new one when a KR4 G20 gets parted out. I ran out of time when I was washing it, but yes, the adhesive from the bumper stickers and the carmax vinyl WILL be coming off shortly.

Anyway, here are some pics! I plan to try and fix as many of the scratches and small dings as I can with polish/touch up paint. The bumper will need a total re-spray to make everything blend, there are just too many chips for a touch up to look good. Annnnnnd I'm probably going to wind up painting the wheels. I haven't decided what route I'm going to go, but I'll probably pull them off, give them a good cleaning, sand down a lot of the curb rash, and re-spray them in a glossy silver. Not too chrome, but just to get them back to a good factory look. I'm actually really fond of the stock wheels, but I'm sure eventually a set of 17s will find their way on the car.

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Here are some up close shots at some of the worst paint damage. The gashes on the rear bumper are pretty deep, they would definitely need filling.

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Overall though, I LOVE this car! I do miss the LeSabre, but god you can't beat the handling in this thing with many other front wheel drive 90s cars. And did I mention, it has great steering feel? Never knew that that really meant until I had this car! And it looks pretty dang good if I do say so myself, minus all the work the paint needs. Hey Ryan, want to take on this project for me? Hahaha!

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Joseph

Current: 2013 Infiniti G37 Journey
1999 Infiniti G20T - Sold
1999 Buick Lesabre - Race Couch - gone but not forgotten


Last edited by Jfridge92 on Mon Apr 17, 2017 11:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Cleaned up the G20
PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 8:17 pm 
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Looks great! And nice work on the retrofit too!

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Achievements: Guinevere - 264k mi | 16.27 @ 84.10mph | March '11 COTM :: Chloe - 223k mi | 13.85 @ 102mph | January '09 COTM :: Abigail - 192k mi | 12.85 @ 112mph


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 Post subject: Re: Cleaned up the G20
PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:30 am 
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Looking good.

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 Post subject: Re: Cleaned up the G20
PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 1:47 pm 
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Nice man! Love the retro. Car looks clean overall.

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 Post subject: Re: Cleaned up the G20
PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 1:19 pm 
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Thanks guys! Lots of work ahead of me on this guy, but I'll get it back into shape soon enough! :)

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Current: 2013 Infiniti G37 Journey
1999 Infiniti G20T - Sold
1999 Buick Lesabre - Race Couch - gone but not forgotten


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 Post subject: Re: Cleaned up the G20
PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 9:54 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:15 pm
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So of course tonight the G20 started to be "that car." I filled up the tank in anticipation of the gas shortage that might be hitting us soon, and of course the dang fuel door wouldn't shut. It's an electric release door with a sprung actuator to catch the door. I guess the rod is held in with a plastic nut, and it decided it wanted to break off, which caused the catch rod to fall into the fender well. I was hoping it would have been accessible through the trunk, but of course it's too tight to get a hand there, so i had to go in through the fender lining. I couldn't find a nut that would fit it, so i unfortunately had to rig it back in with JB Weld. At least that should hold it better than the plastic nut, and I dont have to be that car that everyone thinks is an idiot for not closing the fuel door hahaha.

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Joseph

Current: 2013 Infiniti G37 Journey
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1999 Buick Lesabre - Race Couch - gone but not forgotten


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 Post subject: Re: Cleaned up the G20
PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 4:23 pm 
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I added a blast furnace to the G20 today. Well, I guess it's not technically a blast furnace, just a hot air intake. Yes I know, it's not a true cold air intake, but I didn't feel like drilling a 3" hole through the fender to make one hahaha. That will come in the future, but considering the HAI kits for this car are only $35 shipped, there's not really any downside. It's in the same spot as the stock air box (Which sucked in hot engine bay air anyway because the snorkel was missing), and this one actually makes the car louder. Why WOULDN'T you want to be that obnoxious 4 banger that sounds like it's doing 200mph when accelerating to 12mph in 60 seconds.

In all reality, there's pretty much 0 performance gain from intakes on this car, but it did actually improve throttle response, and I found a few vacuum leaks when replacing the old lines with the red ones in the kit. So win win for me! (Not to mention it wasn't $200 like the Intense kits run us, and it'll probably be like $10 to get the extra tubing to run into the fender).

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Engine bay will be getting a clean up soon. I'm doing a full tune up, and I'll probably pull the cam cover to paint it.

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Current: 2013 Infiniti G37 Journey
1999 Infiniti G20T - Sold
1999 Buick Lesabre - Race Couch - gone but not forgotten


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 Post subject: Re: Cleaned up the G20
PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2016 1:05 pm 
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Jfridge92 wrote:
Engine bay will be getting a clean up soon. I'm doing a full tune up, and I'll probably pull the cam cover to paint it.

If you paint it ricer red, I might have to disown you...

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 Post subject: Re: Cleaned up the G20
PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2016 4:04 pm 
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You could always use water paper transfer too. Woodgrain, cf, all kinds of different patterns.

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 Post subject: Re: Cleaned up the G20
PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2016 4:29 pm 
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00Beast wrote:
Jfridge92 wrote:
Engine bay will be getting a clean up soon. I'm doing a full tune up, and I'll probably pull the cam cover to paint it.

If you paint it ricer red, I might have to disown you...


Oh definitely not painting it ricer red lol! If it gets painted red, it'll be more like a burgundy with some flake in it, and I'll probably polish the INFINITI letters and logo and keep those silver and shiny. I'm going to try and keep things clean and tasteful on this, if it was it's Sentra counterpart, maybe that could get riced out, but no giant fart cans and neons on this one hahaha. I want to keep it clean and classy :)

The intake I ordered is only ricey because 1, it was stupid cheap, and 2 I ordered the filter, couplers, and vacuum line in black, but as is with Ebay, they screwed up and sent me red. But again being so cheap, I'm not worried about it lol.



And that's a really good idea Mike! I'll have to look into how to do that. Are you referring to the type of transfer where you spray paint in a pattern on top of water, then dip the valve cover through that and swirl it to remove the excess? I've never done that before, but I've always loved watching what people can do with that!




I also just ordered a mid 90s Ford Taurus cassette style single din cupholder. The "cupholder" in the P11's doesn't even warrant being called a cupholder. It's more like a dirt catcher, or MIGHT be able to hold those tiny little food sample cups you get at grocery stores lol. I'll be modding that to add it in like other P11 owners have so I can actually have real cup holders. I don't usually eat or drink in my cars, but they're very useful to have when you need to pick up food on the way home. I nearly spilled cherry sprite all over my clean carpet with the terrible stock cupholder, so that's going to get fixed asap.

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Current: 2013 Infiniti G37 Journey
1999 Infiniti G20T - Sold
1999 Buick Lesabre - Race Couch - gone but not forgotten


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 Post subject: Re: Cleaned up the G20
PostPosted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:58 pm 
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Jfridge92 wrote:
And that's a really good idea Mike! I'll have to look into how to do that. Are you referring to the type of transfer where you spray paint in a pattern on top of water, then dip the valve cover through that and swirl it to remove the excess? I've never done that before, but I've always loved watching what people can do with that!


There's a film laid on water then a spray adhesion promoter or activator before the part is dipped through the film. Also called hydrodipping etc.

Yeah there are a ton of ways to go with it.

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95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.


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 Post subject: Re: My G20T
PostPosted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 11:24 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:15 pm
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Location: Palm Bay, FL
Year and Trim: 1999 Buick Lesabre Custom
Well crap. The last week hasn't been nice to the G20. Last Sunday, I was driving on the highway, heard a "helicopter" noise, and look at my passenger side mirror only to see smoke billowing from the back of the car. The side wall on the right rear tire blew out (didn't hit anything in the road, the tires had plenty of tread/air pressure and weren't dry rotted). And pardon the dirty wheel. I've been so busy with work I haven't had a chance to properly clean the car for spring yet.

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The spare of course was barely aired up enough to limp it to a shop, and of course Pep Boys was the only place open besides walmart on a Sunday. I wound up trying to get 17's put on, but they didn't have any wheels I really liked, and I couldn't wait to get any the next day (i was about 90 miles from home and had to work the next morning), so I just got some Falken Ziex ZE329's put on in a 205/65R15, which is a bit wider than the factory 195. They're also a hell of a lot grippier, although I really wanted bigger wheels.

Then yesterday, I was driving home from my band's practice space, and an 18 wheeler going the opposite way chucked a big rock right into the window. It's hard to tell in the pic, but this is about the size of a baseball.

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Waiting on Safelite to call me now, but I'm going to have to get a new window put in. Aka there goes money I was saving for new upper and lower control arms, motor mounts, sway bar and steering rack bushings, and a rear sway bar.

Maybe the "white curse" that Bonnevilles seem to have has translated into a "silver curse" for this car....

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Current: 2013 Infiniti G37 Journey
1999 Infiniti G20T - Sold
1999 Buick Lesabre - Race Couch - gone but not forgotten


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 Post subject: Re: My G20T
PostPosted: Sat Jul 01, 2017 7:30 pm 
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Fun stuff......I was driving home the other night (about 2am) and there was a blind hill that I came to. Little did I know that on the other side of the hill was a pothole the size of Florida lol. I did my best to avoid it, and wound up avoiding both wheels, but hit dead center on the front of the engine crossmember. Needless to say, the core support that was "repaired" wasn't strong enough, and it completely buckled. The crossmember is still in one piece, but the lower rad core support is now sagging about 3" lower than it was before. I have an appointment with a shop on Monday that fabricates tube frames for road race cars. It seems like they're extremely knowledgeable about how to build a frame that can actually hold up, and I had a spare crossmember that is rust free I've been waiting to install, so now is the time. No carnage pics as I had it towed to the shop, but I'm going in on Monday to talk about options with one of the fabricators there. It shouldn't be too hard to cut out the old lower rad support, clean up the metal on the sides, and fab up a new lower support that's probably going to be stronger than the OEM Infiniti core support was. It all just depends on how much money it's going to cost, because at this point, I have to pay nearly $500 to get the car registered in Florida (we moved by the way!), and if this sets me back more than that, it honestly may not be worth it to fix. Why spend $1000+ on it, or cut my losses, part the car out, and get something newer.

The car needs a few things now that I've been beating on it a bit. In the spare crossmember I was planning to do prothane motor mounts, tein SS coilovers, delrin/aluminum crossmember and subframe bushings, new lower and upper control arms, new third link bearings, and a passenger side axle that is now ripped at the outer boot. By the time that all adds up, and on top of this repair bill and registration cost, I may as well put that money towards a down payment on something. I will say, there are quite a few GTO's and G8's down here for decent money, but I'm not sure. Hopefully the shop is willing to work something out for an affordable amount. Shoot, if they'll let me, I'll pull the bumper, crossmember, radiator, and tranny lines in the parking lot to save the money for tear down. Then I can just get it towed back to my house and finish buttoning it up there. Fingers crossed, hopefully this isn't the end of what has otherwise been an awesome car!

And lesson learned, risk your wheels (especially OEM wheels). They're a lot cheaper to replace than frame damage lol.

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Current: 2013 Infiniti G37 Journey
1999 Infiniti G20T - Sold
1999 Buick Lesabre - Race Couch - gone but not forgotten


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 Post subject: Re: My G20T
PostPosted: Sat Jul 01, 2017 9:03 pm 
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If it makes you feel any better, I hit a pot hole with a trolley track in it and it ripped my lower oil pan off.. took the oil pickup tube and bottom of the cast oil pump casing with it. Another fun time with a pothole cracked one of my BBSes and bent a JIC coilover top mount.

For every 100 or so I miss, I make the ones I hit count.

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95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.


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 Post subject: Re: My G20T
PostPosted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:20 pm 
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Meh, insurance wants to total out the G. Too much damage to fix, parts aren't available, and it will cost way too much for a shop to fabricate a new lower tie bar. Working with my insurance company now to see what I can get, and then i'm planning to buy back the car and sell it as a parts car (lots of interest down in this area for the p11 platform). Thankfully right now Ashlee is out of work, so we'll have her car to run around in for quite some time until the right car comes along for me. I'll certainly miss this car, it's been good to me.

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Current: 2013 Infiniti G37 Journey
1999 Infiniti G20T - Sold
1999 Buick Lesabre - Race Couch - gone but not forgotten


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 Post subject: Re: My G20T
PostPosted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 12:05 am 
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Welp, the G20 is officially gone today. I'll miss that car, but the G37 will be a nice upgrade once I can locate one. Excited to finally get something driven by the proper wheels ;)

Not to mention I wont have to retrofit the G37 since it has projectors. One less thing for my wife to yell about from a mod standpoint.

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Current: 2013 Infiniti G37 Journey
1999 Infiniti G20T - Sold
1999 Buick Lesabre - Race Couch - gone but not forgotten


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