dna59

Here is my latest project I've aquired. Its a 2000 Infiniti I30t with 119,000mls. I'm a 25yr old recent college grad working as a temp insurance underwriter, so my budget is nothing grand. The car was bought from Copart auction yard in Miami and exported to Belize.



The good:
Its an I30t!
Leather seats are in good condition
Engine is clean runs great and tranny shifts smooth
Everything works


The bad:
Its damaged!
OEM HID was taken out and butchered 9006 bulbs put in place
Notorious Bose sub cut out and H/U volume ****
Crappy “Maaco” type paintjob on the driver side
2 dents on the roof near the passenger side front door
Needs tires soon
Interior parts need painting
Headlight lenses need refinishing
Doesn't have the sideskirts


The plan for now:
Get it fixed ofcourse
I can't go back to halogens so projector retrofit
Interior LED lighting
LED tails since they cost less than OEM or replicas
ScanGauge II
Fix all the minor stuff like burnt out bulbs and cleaning


What i drove before...never did get to lower it. It had a full infotainment system in it





The I30t

dna59

I35 styled LED replacement tails


Taking apart the headlights to remove orange lens, fix broken reflector bowl, retrofit and refinish headlight lens




Fixed...the bezel covers it



Sanded and polished the lens but still gonna have both sides of the lens clearcoated...only the one on the right has been sanded and polished in this pic


Sanded down the interior parts that needed painting


Using Lexus IS300 ballasts I modded for the retrofit...


Modified the D2R bulb holder to fit the Morimoto Mini H1 adapter


The setup consists of Morimoto Mini H1 Prrojectors, Gattling Gun Shrouds, Morimoto 3Five 5K bulbs. I didn't plan to do this as I thought the car had in the OEM HID system, but when I found out I didnt...well I had these laying around. The projectors have been modded but I still gotta mod the lens so it doesn't leak light out the sides of the lens...

Snypa

iTrader: (35)

So far so good.! Keep the pics coming.

ShippedOut

iTrader: (1)

Nice build man. I like the retrofit alot, you may already know but you'll need a I35 trunk to use those I35 tail lights

Oh yea I needs a drop lol

dna59

^^The tails are just styled like the I35 meaning the clear is on the bottom and not the top. I was worried that they sold me the I35 tails for the same reason. I don't think I will be lowering it, where I live has really crappy roads. I drove a '97 Probe GTS lowered on coilovers and it was HELL on our roads.

VisciousMo

iTrader: (4)

nice build! I have those same projectors, the cutoff is sick!

MaxiNone

iTrader: (1)

not bad, question. how come you didnt paint the housing black when you had the lights taken apart? that would of made the lights that much better...

dna59

actually the lights still are apart since the painter just cleared coated the lenses this morning. Honestly I've done the black thing on other retrofits and it does look nice, but for this one I don't want the projectors to stand out. I rather it blend in w/ the rest of the headlight. I'm thinking about getting some bigger shrouds though. probably some GTI-R or Ocular. If it was a Maxima i probably would have done the black, but not on the I30.

redcross631

Very nice progress so far, looking forward to the end product.
I think black/darker headlight housings like the 01 i30t would look pretty nice but your current one's don't look bad either.

Not sure if you've looked at n3985's i35 yet.

Check it out when you get a chance, it might actually give you some ideas.

http://forums.maxima.org/infiniti-i3...og-begins.html

MaxiNone

iTrader: (1)

^^^that looks cool all black, but I think if just the bezel covers were panted black and the headlights reflectors were left Chrome it'll look good...

dna59

Hey redcross thanks for the link.The lights still haven't been sealed back up yet cuz he didn't clear the lenses yesterday so I'm still toying with some ideas. The car is suppose to be done this weekend and I'm hoping it does. I'll throw up some progress pics later when I go check on it.

niceguy

Beautiful car redcross....

dna59

Just got back from the body works shop where I spent 10 hours mostly getting my hands dirty to speed things up. Everything is lined back up and just requires final tweaking. the lights are in, trunk can close and the bumper is on. All I can say is I am completely in love with this car!

The two areas that had to be fiberglassed on the bumper cover



Getting it all lined up and working...



The cleared lenses...


The lenses look 100% better than before but I'm still not pleased with the condition of the lenses so in the future I will buy new headlights. I couldn't take pics with everything together as it was already dark and my BB doesn't have a flash. Completed pics of the headlights tomorrow.

VisciousMo

iTrader: (4)

Yeah, I'm glad you kept it chrome. Black would have looked weird on your car .

dna59

I was cleaning the shrouds and of course the chrome began rubbing off. Ended up painting them aluminum silver..


Got one side done...




I'm not too fond of the shroud but I guess when I redo it I will get bigger shrouds to cover more

niceguy

You mean the color or they're too small for your liking? I have those same mini gatling shrouds on my old '93 Altima but they came w/the morimoto minih1 projector kit I retro'd. Then again, my headlights are barely taller than the minih1 projector so the shrouds look perfect lol...

dna59

I actually like the color since its adds a bit of contrast but not too much. Its the size. I would have liked bigger ones to cover the headlight reflector more, but I had these on hand and don't have time or money right now to get bigger ones.

Snypa

iTrader: (35)

I like the shrouds.! Great job so far a well.

dna59

Since the car didn't come with HIDs I didn't have the cover or whatever its called on the back that housed the connector for the bulb. Didn't like the big open hole for dirt to get in so i made a frosted panel out of some plexi I had laying around. I just need to get a grommet for where the wires come through. Now I gotta make some kind of bracket to mount the ballasts in the stock location on the headlight.

redcross631

Thank you sir .

Once you install the taillights, be sure to check the trunk for leaks. My right side taillight's both pieces were broken after a recent hit and run. Got 'em replaced and after giving it a wash discovered that my spare tire well was flooded. Used plenty of newspapers to trace the leak then I took it back to the shop and had them seal it properly, hasn't leaked again.

I'm liking the progress a lot, keep it up. The headlight work came out pretty decent. The amber delete/clear turn signal looks good too. Post pics once you put 'em on the car. Good luck.

dna59

^^^Thanks for the heads up. I will make sure they test it to make sure it isn't. The car should be done Wednesday so I'm really looking forward to that.

wirelessdude04

iTrader: (24)

Tails look bada$$.. Coming along nicely

dna59

^Thanks. Yet another set back has come up. The car was suppose to be done from the weekend passed, but the guy was sick for most of the week. Now it was suppose to be done for tomorrow, but yesterday he fired one of his workers and the other did not show up, so no work got done yesterday. I don't even know if by this weekend is looking likely now.

MaxiNone

iTrader: (1)

i wish i had the patiance to do my own bady work :/

dna59

Some pics of the progress. I'm glad that it doesn't need much filler on it. Besides what you see here the front bumper needs to be sanded down as well as the mirrors and a dent on the passenger side roof needs to be fixed where it seems someone was trying to pry the door open.

Lanaue

Nice job I wish I had your skills.

dna59

I wish I had those skills too...lol. I only did the work on the light and other minor stuff to help out. I always hang around to learn as much as I can though.

dna59

The car is finally done! I need to clean her up tomorrow and take some pics. I gotta take it back nextwekend to paint the mirrors and the top since he part he painted is obvious to see so he needs to fade and blend it in. The interior parts were painted but need to be redone as he forgot to paint the power mirror switch panel. I'm thinking about doing them to match the exterior color. What do you guys think?

Grand_hustle17

iTrader: (22)

daaaaamn!!! good stuff

redcross631

congrats...looking forward to seeing pics

Not sure how much i like the color matched interior idea. I can't picture it exactly, it might be a hit or miss thing.

dna59

Here are the pics as promised. If you look closely you ca see where it had to be faded and blended in. This car has about 2-3 different colors from the previous owner. The car was painted using the color code, but he had to darken it a bit to get it to look a lil better. The whole care needs to be painted because of that but I'm too broke for that **** right now.

redcross631

It came out pretty good, the mismatch that you mentioned is barely noticeable. Looking at before and after pics, it's hard to tell that this is the same car. Congrats once again.

Grand_hustle17

iTrader: (22)

too much win!!!

dna59

Thanks guys. I haven't had time to put in the ballasts and aim the lights as yet. I still don't know where to put them. Also when I went to change my plugs yesterday I realized I need to change my VC gasket asap and I need to find a location for my Scangauge II. Of course the CD player doesn't work so I'ma try wiring up an aux input so I can at least use my ZUNE HD for now.

dna59

Spent all day working on the I30t today...

Shots of inside all cleaned up...




Took my time cleaning up the trunk but still can't figure out how the net goes...




ScanGauge II installed...currently w/ velcro, but I will build a mount eventually


I finally got the car registered and have to run a front plate...didn't want to mount it in the middle because of the "V" it has and didn't want to drill holes in the bumper




First pic is a crappy cell phone pic...like I said the pitted lens affects the sharpness of the cutoff line...




ScanGauge II


LED tails, LED plate lights & LED courtesy lights...dome light next

F50Q45

nice project good mods so far

Rods03Max619

iTrader: (5)

Damn that **** looks Great, especially from how it was before...

dna59

Thanks guys. I really love this car and glad I bought it. It was between a 4th or 5th gen I30/Maxima or 2nd gen GS300.

ShippedOut

iTrader: (1)

Winning on so many levels

93altima

iTrader: (5)

nice recovery