My 2000 Infiniti I30t project...

dna59 · 01-17-2012, 05:25 AM

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 · 01-17-2012, 05:37 AM

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 · 01-17-2012, 08:41 AM

So far so good.! Keep the pics coming.

ShippedOut · 01-17-2012, 08:59 AM

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 · 01-17-2012, 10:47 AM

^^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 · 01-17-2012, 02:44 PM

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

MaxiNone · 01-18-2012, 08:13 AM

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 · 01-18-2012, 10:41 AM

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 · 01-18-2012, 08:03 PM

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.

n3985's Lighting Evolution Worklog Begins....

MaxiNone · 01-18-2012, 11:35 PM

^^^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 · 01-19-2012, 04:54 AM

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* · 01-20-2012, 07:45 AM

Beautiful car redcross....

dna59 · 01-21-2012, 04:55 PM

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 · 01-21-2012, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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

dna59 · 01-22-2012, 06:31 AM

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* · 01-22-2012, 09:41 AM

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 · 01-22-2012, 09:50 AM

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 · 01-22-2012, 11:23 AM

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

dna59 · 01-22-2012, 04:41 PM

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 · 01-22-2012, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by niceguy

Beautiful car redcross....

Thank you sir

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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!

Getting it all lined up and working...

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 · 01-23-2012, 03:19 AM

^^^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 · 01-23-2012, 04:50 PM

Tails look bada$$.. Coming along nicely

dna59 · 01-24-2012, 09:23 AM

^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 · 01-25-2012, 08:36 AM

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

dna59 · 01-25-2012, 05:33 PM

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 · 01-25-2012, 06:15 PM

Nice job I wish I had your skills.

dna59 · 01-25-2012, 06:29 PM

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 · 01-28-2012, 05:27 PM

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 · 01-28-2012, 07:29 PM

daaaaamn!!! good stuff

redcross631 · 01-28-2012, 11:14 PM

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 · 01-29-2012, 10:20 AM

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 · 01-29-2012, 03:58 PM

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 · 01-29-2012, 06:26 PM

too much win!!!

dna59 · 01-30-2012, 04:59 AM

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 · 02-04-2012, 04:53 PM

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