Another Infiniti G20 Racecar on a Budget

For challenge purposes, you can only count 1009 recoup. 

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

Great Catch. I didn't make that clear in my budget. Im only able to recoup $900 for the purchase of both cars. I have to pay for the shipping on the parts car. 

Is the shipping on the parts car recoupable?  Meaning could you recoup over the $650 purchase price by considering the total as bought price as $1300?  I'd be asking that before the Supreme Court. 

In reply to Stampie :

Hmm Idk that is a great question. I will have to look into that. My understanding was that I would have to cover the shipping cost. But at this point we are looking really good. Im very pleased with how this project is coming along. 

I'd ask for you but my record isn't good because loophole. 

In reply to Stampie :

Lol... Yes, Ill ask.. I dont want to be guilty by association with the loophole police! 

Spent Most of the Day Friday parting out the rest of the parts car I snagged out of NewYork. And all day today Doing HPDE Instruction at the Firm. It's been a busy weekend but productive none the less. I was actually surprised to see that the car didn't have as much rust as the owner had thought it had. It for sure isn't solid but its not terrible (even by this Florida boy's standards) , Its a bummer that the total to be recapped is only half of the total budget because I keep adding more stuff to the purchase list. 

This project continues to remind me that:

1) I enjoy driving far more than I enjoy wrenching. 

2) I got such a good deal on this stupid parts car. Im really stoked to finish this project. 

The more I have looked at the car and thought about Livery the more im leaning in this direction.

I finally got the trunk open and found some extra goodies I didn't know was coming with car. FACTORY OEM LSD "GREEN" Axles. So the I know have 3 sets. which is no joke a huge deal since they don't make them anymore.  

Here are some pics from friday. (HUGE thanks to my friend Ethan for allowing me to use his yard and shop. got me out of my condo parkinglot)

I found $23.39 In the car in change. 

Still in need of getting a tow rig...SO ATM my stripped out rally pig works well for hauling stuff around. Im always impressed at how stuff I can fit inside the little hatch. 

It'll be nice seeing this at the Challenge this year. I've always had a soft spot for Nissan's. 

PS. In other news, I've been keeping quiet about it but a couple of weeks ago I bought a car (from a current owner)  that Wes originally built.

5 spd manual trans. 

It's Challenge eligible (possible) 

In reply to John Welsh :

Can you share a picture? Did it at one point have nitrous? If its green. That was my dad's car!!! I tried to buy it from him a while back he said he had just sold it. That would be crazy if you had my dad's Q.

Here Is a pitcure of it back when Wes had it. 

It's rough. It's green. No good photo but I'll get you one come daylight. 1994.

Bottle and battery in the trunk. 

I'll be damned. It's your dad's 

In reply to John Welsh :

IM DYING..... That is my dad's car. I can't belive it. WOW. So many memories. 

It was cold a hell the day I picked it up.  It was a rush job to go pick it up as the current owner is working in China installing/repairing paint application equipment in a factory and was only back in Dayton, OH for 2 weeks over the holiday.  

The plans was to drive it home 3 hours.  I was aware that it had a flat tire and a dead battery.  Air and fix a flat took car of the tire.  I bought a new battery at the closest auto parts store.  This all took much longer than expected to get the car up, running and under way.  About a 3 hour buying/fixing process.  This meant that we would get home after dark.  About one hour from home, In the dark with the headlights on and the radio on, at hyw speeds the car got dim and lost all power.  Figured a bad alternator.  At this time we then put the jumper cables onto another battery I had brought with, just in case and drove it off the expressway.  

I had a buddy following me.  On this Saturday night we made the decision 60 miles and about 1 hour of rural roads away to pull into a Mex Restaurant for dinner and call AAA.  My AAA package will tow 100 miles for no extra change so I just had them bring it home the final leg of the 160 mile total trip.  I mean it was like 5 degrees that night.  I didn;t want to run down the second battery too on rural roads on a crappy cold night.

Since, I have recharged the battery and she fired right up.  Other than that, I have done nothing.  

Car is rough/rusty and has bad clear coat paint. 

My long range plan is to use the green car as a template to put all the "good stuff" onto my near mint '90.   I bought it like I was buying parts.  

The green has 300z brakes, lowered suspension and of course a 3rd peddle.  The  NOS bottle is there as are under hood fitments but the Jim Wolf ECU is not.  I was told it was "f-ing up and rather than repair/replace a stock ECU was installed.  I have a spare stock ECU and the '90 has a NICO ecu.  We'll see.  

Something like 260k miles on the odometer

In reply to John Welsh :

Very cool. Yeah when I had talked to wes he was selling it for 1500. It was maybe 2.5 years ago. He sold it to some guy who I guess sold it to you. Its sad that the winters had screwed it up bad. I wonder what happened to the automatic that was in there. It was a fully build tranny that was done by Level10. Rust is the worst Pretty cool to now know where it is. My dad bought that car brand new. My earliest memories of going fast and going to the dragstrip etc. where in that car. Glad its (even just the parts) are in good hands. 

Here are the only photos I took of it the day I went to get it.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Its really too bad to see it in that condition. Im glad you have it. I still would love to find a solid one for a daily. 

Looking forward to seeing yall at the challenge. 

Got a good bit of work done on the car today. This stage of the game always feels really slow. I may loads of progress today but it never looks like it or feels like it. Its amazing all the miles of harness that are in this stupid luxobarge. It took my forever to get the safety items out like air bags etc but we are getting close. 

Its amazing how much wight has been dropped so far. The car currently sits about 2in higher than when it arrived due to the few 100lbs she has lost.

Had a buddy do some welding for me to get the fender braces finished and the X-brace for the trunk is getting close to being finished. This car will be solid. The real goal is to build a track car. Being a $2000 competitor is just a secondary adventure. It will need to be bullet proof since i plan to track it nearly once a month. 

I have had loads of parts roll in from rockauto lately. (I freaking love that company) So, the closer we get to the finish line of tear down and prep the more excited I get to install all the goods. 

I have kind of been at a stand still with this build lately. To some extent I have hit my limit on ability and know how with a few things. Mostly electrical. My buddy is gonna help me next weekend so that is good. I took of a few days from work to just wrench and get the parts car gone. Hopefully there is a track day I can do soon to get some testing done. I really just want to drive this thing and be done with the build. 

Took some time off work this weekend. I haven't had much time lately nor have I felt like working on the car in driveway. Ill be honest, being a literal "shade tree mechanic" gets old really fast. So A kind friend of mine let me use his shop space for an entire weekend. 

My dad came up for two days and my buddy jay came up for one and we got a TON done. 

We finished parting out the G20 parts car I got from New York. Great news. The transmission in the car was PERFECT. The previous owner thought it may have been bad but it was simply a bad clutch that blown up. We took the transmission apart and its beautiful. All the suspension bits were removed as well as some of the other good stuff that G20 folks have been wanting. 

All in all I Hauled the car to the scrap yard and we got a whopping $98. I was more than fine with that. 

Next Up was removing all the old suspension from the white car and adding all the bits from the Parts car to my car. Everything came out nicely. I was bummed to find out that both calipers were pretty much shot, the passenger UCA is toast and there were no bushings in the front swaybar. So gotta track those suckers down. It was a lot of work taking apart this car that was sitting in a field for the past 3 years. All in all we got a lot done this weekend Im happy. Im gonna be finishing up "stage 1" of this build here soon. Looking forward to doing some track days. Yup, track days. 

This brings me to the final thought of this post. The original intent of the build was to build a car for the GRM challenge. But snagging this parts car was the game changer. The amount of parts that I have been able to sell of the car has made it possible for me to actually build a track rat. Like a legit track car. But, with the rule for the GRM challenge being the way they are it would keep me from building the car I want and now can because of the sale of all the parts. In other words:

I can build a better car for less money if I don't follow the rules needed to compete in the GRM challenge. That being said. This project will continue. But with a new Mission: BUILD A LEGIT TRACK BEATER FOR FREE. You have got that right. FREE. Right now in its current state I am up almost $400 even after buying wheels tires a new clutch and flywheels etc etc . And I still have a TON to sell. Stay tuned. Ill still be coming to the Challenge and I will probably still be competing in something. It just won't be the G20. Here are some pictures from the weekend. 

Really thankful for my dad's help. We have done alot of cool projects together over the years. And this one has been great thus far. 

These coilovers aren't ideal but they were free from the parts car as well as the adjustable links from TDMi in background. They will have to do for now. The plan is to sell the coilovers after the SR20 national convetion in april and get in a group buy for some fortune auto coilovers that are specifically built for the track. 

My group Buy Addco Sway bar. These things were discontinued a long time ago but after some begging a buddy of mine with all the connections got a group buy going and Addco said YES! 

Ride height before 

Ride height after

 Budget Update:

What we have so far: 

G20 (for the event) $300.00

G20 Parts Car $600 Plus $650 Shipping

Radiator  FREE Parts car

Tires Purchased   $280.00

Wheels  $160.00

Racing Seat and Bracket $45.00

Streeing wheel (Parts car)  Free

Harness  $65

Exhaust, header and random 2.5in piping $100 

RTSB (Parts Car )  Free

Coilovers and other aftermarket bits (parts car)  Free

Cusco Camber Arms $285

91 SER Intake Cam  Free (gifted from a friend)

Power steering cooler $23

Plug wires  (parts car) Free

Addco Rear Sway Bar $145

Stuff Sold: 

Switches  $55

Headlights  $20

ECU $250

Interior $450

WORK Wheels  $650

VVL Solenoids  $250

Scrapped Car  $98.89

Turbo Parts and Manifold $300

Yellow Top Battery $50

Flywheel  $Free parts car

To  Be Sold:

2 Extra Trannys  $600

VE Engine $650

Injectors $150

Dash  $125

Intake Manifold  $200

Trunk and Tail Lights  $125

Actual Spent: $2653

Actual Recouped: $2123.89

To be Recouped: $ 1850

Life has been crazy And just haven't had time for an update. We have gotten LOADs done lately. Brakes are all done Sway bar is installed as well as the adjustable TDMI control arms for the rear.  We are finishing up all the driveline final details as well. There is still about another 250lbs or so to strip out of the car. Minor engine tuning and solidifying the exhaust situation is next up on the docket. I got a slammin deal on G-loc race pads which is really great. 30% off is a big deal on the budget end of things.  

THE GAME CHANGER!!! A friend of mine Has a shop in there back yard and they are letting us use it as long as we would like. 

IT HAS A LIFT!

As a guy with a shop and a lift and friends who use it all - a lot - I would recommend making sure his expendibles cabinet is overflowing, the shop is clean, the tools are spotless and neatly arranged at the end of every day and that you find little projects to do for him on a regular basis - cleaning the lift, repainting the grinder, scrubbing the oil, building a rag holder, etc.    These are nice surprises that can make guys happy to let you use and wear out their stuff at their expense. :) 

Dude, how do I keep missing this thread?? For some reason I don't immediately recognize it when I'm scrolling.  Can I subscribe to a thread somehow?

Good work! Looks like you've got a lot of good parts sorted out, and are making serious progress with wrenching (and that shop!).

Keep going, we enjoy the read. 

PS: What are you doing with brakes? I must have missed that.  Let me know more about those G-loc's. Brake pads are one of the last things I need before signing up for a track day. 

In reply to jfryjfry :

Oh yeah trust me Im just as OCD as my friend. WE are keeping it spotless and only using the lift. Tools and all other consumables are separate. 

In reply to SuperTouring :

Right now im running the stock brake setup. New rotors, SRF fluid and running SS brake lines from a company called APEX. i can send you the info if you would like. 

MotoIQ has been running this setup on their g20 race car for a long time. Since mine is a 94 i have the abs system that doesn't suck BUT I still plan to get rid of the ABS and run lines to include a manual brake bias controller. P10s from the factory have TERRIBLE bias from the factory rumors are 80/20 so that is an issue. 

If I were to do it all over again I would start with upgrading to the p11 brakes up front. G-loc pads are awesome and have a proven track record. 

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