Bringing my AE back
08-07-2011, 06:20 PM
#1
Bringing my AE back
I picked up an AE about a month ago. It has been hit in the front and need work inside and out. The previous owner took great care of the car, it's in awesome shape except for the smashed front end. My goal it to fix the car and get it back on the road, it will be a lightly modified daily driver. I have picked up some OEM 5.5 headlights. I have the stock intake manifolds off my 98 fed spec maxima (my 4th gen has headers), so I plan on doing a fed spec conversion on the AE so I can run an aftermarket y pipe to get rid of the pre cats. I also plan on lowering the car in the near future. Other than these few mods, the car will remain mostly stock. I currently own a 3rd gen and 4th gen, I also used to have a 2nd gen, but this is my first 5th gen. I started this thread to document the car making it back onto the road.
Here is how it looked when I picked it up.
I have not gotten to do much work yet, but I started this weekend. Most of my time was spent cleaning out my garage
I took out the a/c condenser, and radiator since they were damaged in the wreck. I have already replace the radiator so I can safely drive the car short distances if I need to. I took out the cooling fans to glue some broken mounting points. I also took the hood off since it was bent. The car had been sitting in a dusty lot for a few weeks before I got it so the engine bay was pretty dirty....so I cleaned the engine bay
Here is how it looked when I picked it up.
I have not gotten to do much work yet, but I started this weekend. Most of my time was spent cleaning out my garage
I took out the a/c condenser, and radiator since they were damaged in the wreck. I have already replace the radiator so I can safely drive the car short distances if I need to. I took out the cooling fans to glue some broken mounting points. I also took the hood off since it was bent. The car had been sitting in a dusty lot for a few weeks before I got it so the engine bay was pretty dirty....so I cleaned the engine bay
next time i head to VA i need to hit you up
08-07-2011, 06:27 PM
#4
My fourth gen is not too happy being kicked out of the garage
I plan on taking off the front bumper this week to see what other damage the car has taken. I will be ordering raditor support peices this week as well. Then I will need to find some one to weld it in. Does anyone know if the headlight bracket part of the upper radiator support is able to be seperated from the upper radiator support? Nissan is very proud ($$) of some of these brackets.
I still need some parts so anyone reading this that can help me out let me know.
*passenger side black air bag
*black seat belts
*air bag module
08-07-2011, 06:30 PM
#5
I'm usually around, just let me know when you are coming though.
I know, I am very excited to have it. The previous owner really took good care of the car.
08-07-2011, 06:46 PM
#9
nope...I have already picked up a pair of 5.5 headlights and DAVEB is sending me the harnesses and mounting brackets.
I am really looking forward to it too. Once I get the radiator support welded back in it will come together quickly. I already have a bumper ready to go that is painted to match. I will post pics of of my parts as I go along, I just wanted to get this thread started so I snapped a few quick pics.
*oh, I also have a JWT pop charger laying around the garage that will fit this car (I bought it for my 4th gen in error)
*oh, I also have a JWT pop charger laying around the garage that will fit this car (I bought it for my 4th gen in error)
08-07-2011, 06:47 PM
#10
Nice pickup there man thats a clean car...not to mention the fully intact ae lipkit dayyum..Id just hate to see what the final price is gonna be for parts, but you probably got the car for a steal so it should still equal out to less than or equal to the value of the car hopefully. I kno tho that is the airbags deploy then your seatbelt mechanism will lock up also. The price on 2 airbags and 2 seatbelts is a pretty penny in itself. But anyway ima stop runnign my mouth. Congrats on getting such a clean car tho man good luck!
08-07-2011, 06:48 PM
#11
My fourth gen is not too happy being kicked out of the garage
I plan on taking off the front bumper this week to see what other damage the car has taken. I will be ordering raditor support peices this week as well. Then I will need to find some one to weld it in. Does anyone know if the headlight bracket part of the upper radiator support is able to be seperated from the upper radiator support? Nissan is very proud ($$) of some of these brackets.
I still need some parts so anyone reading this that can help me out let me know.
*passenger side black air bag
*black seat belts
*air bag module
nice to see a other org members bring wrecked maximas back to life........parts arent all that for these things........but i got the part numbers for all the structural parts up front....just pm me for em
Last edited by bds1304; 08-07-2011 at 06:52 PM.
08-07-2011, 06:52 PM
#12
I miss that car 
Sorry I never got to clean the engine bay up, the lot it was at was horrible.
I always kept it clean until I gave it to the wife to drive. I'm still beating myself up about selling it...and her for wrecking it.
Keep up the good work man and I'll definitely keep up on your progress with it. Keep me in mind when you get 300k on it and are ready to sell!
Chris
Sorry I never got to clean the engine bay up, the lot it was at was horrible.
I always kept it clean until I gave it to the wife to drive. I'm still beating myself up about selling it...and her for wrecking it.
Keep up the good work man and I'll definitely keep up on your progress with it. Keep me in mind when you get 300k on it and are ready to sell!
Chris
08-07-2011, 07:38 PM
#14
Keep an eye out for me around you since you are only about an hour away. I'll make that drive quickly for some parts.
08-07-2011, 08:08 PM
#17
08-07-2011, 09:28 PM
#19
08-07-2011, 09:43 PM
#20
Last edited by Waxima; 08-07-2011 at 10:03 PM.
08-08-2011, 06:11 AM
#25
08-08-2011, 07:57 AM
#28
Will do
Once I have the radiator support welded in, and get the rest of my parts I should be able to move right along.
Please PM eachother
08-09-2011, 07:13 PM
#31
I took the front bumper off this evening just to check to see how much was damaged in the accident.
The styrofoam was still good
The bumper beam/support does not look like it took a hit
So far so good. Someone from a local body shop it supposed to be coming to look at the car on Thursday to give me their opinion/estimate on the front end damage.
Here are the parts that I took out of the wrecked front bumper
The AE engine cover had a part broken off of it during the accident so I super glued it back together.
I am hoping before the week is over I can take the front seat belts out (tensioners are locked), and the air bag control module. It looks like I can get the pre tensioners rebuilt and the module re set for about the same or cheaper price than what I can buy the parts used, plus I know they fit my car.
The styrofoam was still good
The bumper beam/support does not look like it took a hit
So far so good. Someone from a local body shop it supposed to be coming to look at the car on Thursday to give me their opinion/estimate on the front end damage.
Here are the parts that I took out of the wrecked front bumper
The AE engine cover had a part broken off of it during the accident so I super glued it back together.
I am hoping before the week is over I can take the front seat belts out (tensioners are locked), and the air bag control module. It looks like I can get the pre tensioners rebuilt and the module re set for about the same or cheaper price than what I can buy the parts used, plus I know they fit my car.
08-09-2011, 11:47 PM
#34
Wow, seriously? You took it a little far with that. Implying theft from someone else on the forum, that's always good. Buy the replica and stop making stupid posts.
That's always a good sign that the styrofoam is still intact, definitely shows that the hit wasn't that bad. I hit a fire hydrant back in the winter and put a hole in the bumper. When I went to replace it, the styrofoam piece was destroyed, and that was only from a 20 mph hit.
That's always a good sign that the styrofoam is still intact, definitely shows that the hit wasn't that bad. I hit a fire hydrant back in the winter and put a hole in the bumper. When I went to replace it, the styrofoam piece was destroyed, and that was only from a 20 mph hit.
08-10-2011, 06:08 AM
#35
yeah, I excited to put it back on the road.
yeah, the lip is three peices. The center section has male ends (i.e. nubs), and the sides have a female portion where it mates with the center section. It is held on with a combination of mounting tape and studs/nuts. Each side part had two studs with nuts and one bolt holding them on. The center section had three studs with nuts screwed on from behind attaching it. It was very secure.
This car rear ended somone on the interstate, not sure of the speed but it looks like the hit was high enough that the lower radiator suppport and the bumper support were not hit.
That's always a good sign that the styrofoam is still intact, definitely shows that the hit wasn't that bad. I hit a fire hydrant back in the winter and put a hole in the bumper. When I went to replace it, the styrofoam piece was destroyed, and that was only from a 20 mph hit.
08-10-2011, 07:24 AM
#38
08-10-2011, 07:43 AM
#39
Now when cars get totaled is if the parts can not be acquired and painted for a certain cost, the insurance company just rather have the car totaled, and trust me, Nissan is mighty proud of thier parts, we're salvaging a Cube Krom here and they want 3k for the 5 piece grill AFTER our 30% discount
