My "VIP" style Altima

**Benny6.7** · #1 08-31-2010, 11:01 PM

This is my newish daily driver Altima - it's a 2003 2.5S with the touring series package. It's got a ton of miles (close to 230k!) but runs like a champ. I love VIP style and would like to do something like that in the future, though this isn't EXACTLY a VIP car, it still cleans up nice and looks unique IMO. Great driver as well. The car was rough with quite a few door dings, a shabby front bumper and hood, and lots of rock chips...overall though it's in great condition and needs just a bit of TLC - which is my favorite part of a build, the details! So, here is my car and how it has been transformed so far, and the plans I currently have for it.

Since I have bought the car I have done:
-Washed/cleaned thoroughly
-Fixed small rust hole in the floor
-Had 8+ dings PDR'd by Dennis Rorke of Dent Wizard (awesome job!)
-Debadged the rear trunk lid (gotta do it again...)
-New Brakes
-New fog lights
-Resurfaced headlights by Eric Deem of ClearVu headlight restoration

Future plans:
Pro-kit springs and new shocks/struts (farther in the future)
New window tint that isn't purple (LOL!)
Change the front grille - either another aftermarket or stocker
Repaint/replace hood/front bumper (farther in the future)
18's or 19's and some good all season tires (farther in the future)
Get professionally detailed by Clean Reflections (when I'm not so broke

)

Pics:

Day I bought it, washing off all the grime

Rust spot cleaned out and painted. I took this and filled it with expanding foam and sealed it up, plenty good for a DD.

Debadged

Passenger side - There were 5 dings on these two panels, you can't see any in this pic, and you can't see any in real life! There is a slight distortion on the rear door (not easily seen in picture) from where he had to blend a sharp line from a door ding. 9.5/10

IMO

Drivers rear door - can't really tell but there used to be a silver dollar sized ding that crossed above the seem into the 1/4 and on the door - but its all gone!

Drivers rear door - reverse angle

Drivers side - no dings anymore... save for the small one under the drivers mirror - this one needed paint work and simply couldn't be pushed out due to the layering of the metal.

Drivers side - up close of that one that couldn't quite get fixed and needed paint work; it was WAY before though!

Shot some eagle 1 tire shine on it I got one sale at vatozone lol...

THEN!!!! I got rear ended at a red light DOH! Luckily the guy was really cool and his insurance covered it all and gave me $2500! So I spent about 1/10th of that and took my time finding the right parts to get it back to where I wanted it.

Got the trunk lid, rear tail lights, added two new scrapes to the rear bumper (not that bad really) and pushed in the trunk subframe about 4 inches!!! Really close to being totalled, but ty valued my car at $7800 (YEAH RIGHT!) so it wasn't (sad face!).

While I was waiting to get stuff fixed, I also had the front head lights resurfaced since they were REALLY, REALLY bad and I could barely see at night

Before pics:

Awful passenger side!!! Friggin cloudy as all hell.

After pics:

NOW!!!

Anyway.... My altima is FIXED! I got the new trunk lid, new SE-R tails, and my Jeremy Jones helped me pull/push the frame out. ONLY damage left is two small dings on the bumper, but there were already a few there when I bought it so w/e

I have yet to clean off the duct tape residue off the bumper when the picture was taken, but did a test spot earlier and all of it comes off with minimal effort and some Bug & Tar remover. Also, this trunk lid will get debadged like the last one (which only lasted a DAY before getting his LOL).

I'll get better pics soon once I have time to clean and polish this thing up ... really happy to have my daily driver back and looking kickass (IMO). I may do a little lip spoiler still on there, but I haven't decided if I like the look on the Altima yet and can't find many pics of people with them on there haha...otherwise mods will include new wheels/tires next year when it needs new tires, and lower it. Thinking some tire stretch and 18's/19's will really make this thing look good, even some OEM 2010 Altima wheels would really make it pop for pretty cheap.

**Benny6.7** · #2 09-06-2010, 05:49 PM

Ordered some little nickel/dime parts that I needed/wanted. First off a new right side mirror because my dad dropped an electric scooter on it when trying to get it out of the attic LOL...cracked the mount in half - luckily found one for $33 shipped on ebay already painted KH3 black. Next is a hood prop bracket - on these cars the hood prop is attached two a pivot on the hood itself and to store it away clips up onto a bracket in the center of the hood, not on the core support or inner fender frame like normal. Finally, I grabbed a cheap ABS plastic mesh style grille to replace the billet grille that is on there now. This grille has a full surround, unlike the current grille, and I think it will make the car look a lot cleaner in general.

Here is a pic of the type of grille I'm getting:

I still want wheels/tires but for now I may black out my wheels, and I'm thinking about blacking out the trim like some of you have mentioned already. I need a new hood but for now I am either going to try and touch up the peppering with brush paint, or sand it and spray it with color matched paint/clear (I've had pretty good success with painting in the past, such as the rockers on my jeep). Also I'm going to do the rear brakes soon and paint the front and rear calipers black.

OK so this isn't exactly a performance mod...and it was under $120...and I got $50 check from my doctors office back in the mail yesterday....so I don't feel too bad about buying this for my DD LOL....

Cheggit:

Basically, these cars had a recall for the precat which is welded into the stock manifold - Nissan improperly engineerred the screens for the CAT and the one most close to the motor will actually melt allowing catalytic material to be sucked into the engine during exhaust scavengine trashing your pistons and valves. My car, having 230k miles is a lucky one, usually these go bad at 120k miles! However, I have no paperwork of work history on this car so it might have been replaced under warranty (there is no fix) or even had the motor replaced (it runs DAMN strong still to this day!).

Also, I picked up this little urethane spoiloer for the trunk lid, as I had talked about putting one of these on for a while, should look pretty clean. Ideally I would just put an SER spoiler on there, but that's not gonna happen unless I sell my stock spoiler from my previous trunk lid!

Example Pics:

This car is getting close to where I want it visually and now it will have a bit more power as a byproduct of preventative maintence

I'll probably make my own catback when I do the header too, since it's only 3 pipes with about two bends - should sound good with a round magnaflow in the middle and an oval on the end tucked up under and hidden behind the stock loation.

Next big thing to do is replace the rear bumper, and either touch up paint the hood myself or sand/prime/paint it myself with color matched rattle can and clear. Only reason being I would do the hood myself is bcause its aluminum and it has a dent that isn't PDR'able (already tried) so it's all good to get fucked with muahahha

Decided I'm going to black out the chrome window trim! I mocked it up with some black electrical tape and really like the way it looks. I'm going to buy some nice quality vinyl and wrap it, that way if I ever sell the car or whatever I can just pull it off.

Stock chrome trim - doesn't look that bad really, but doesn't fit the rest of the car with the new black grille and wheels which are going to be blacked out.

Much more simple and subdued IMO! Should fit the theme perfectly.

More updates as I make progress

**eurobeaner** · #3 09-06-2010, 06:50 PM

needs moar

**Benny6.7** · #4 09-06-2010, 07:46 PM

You wanna buy me a bag kit?

**eurobeaner** · #5 09-06-2010, 07:49 PM

VIP= slammed on whatever (bags, springs, hydro), MaDjDmYo camber, and some sick wheels.... all i see is a daily...

**Benny6.7** · #6 09-06-2010, 07:53 PM

I said "VIP" in quotes, and also read the first paragraph of my initial post. ROFL

**eurobeaner** · #7 09-06-2010, 07:59 PM

who reads?! joo haz pixxorz.

**Benny6.7** · #8 09-06-2010, 10:27 PM

troof lmao

I'm trying to figure out what I wanna do with the rest of the exhaust...they have cheap ass ebay catbacks for like $100 or so, which would save me the trouble of buying bends and pipes and whatnot - but I'd prefer magnaflow to keep it quiet and stock sounding.

**Erebus** · #9 09-07-2010, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benny

troof lmao

I'm trying to figure out what I wanna do with the rest of the exhaust...they have cheap ass ebay catbacks for like $100 or so, which would save me the trouble of buying bends and pipes and whatnot - but I'd prefer magnaflow to keep it quiet and stock sounding.

Then get the Magnaflow b/c you'll never be happy with the ebay kit.

**Benny6.7** · #10 09-08-2010, 01:18 AM

I can buy a magnaflow mufflerfor $60 and an ebay catback for $100-$150 shipped and weld it in myself though - that isn't a problem at all!

I think that's gonna be my plan!

Right now though, I'm getting my rear bumper replaced/painted by a friend who owns a body shop, then after that if it turns out well I'm going to look at getting the hood painted after I do my own patch work on it (aluminum hoods are expensive and this is just my daily driver anyway) and respray the front bumper (just really rough and oxidized). Finally sold my Trans Am so I have the money now to spend to fix EVERYTHING on this car IF I WANT TO...but I don't care about some things

**Benny6.7** · #11 09-08-2010, 01:26 PM

I decided to go ahead and order an eBay catback! If I don't like the tone, it will get a magnaflow welded in

**Benny6.7** · #12 09-09-2010, 08:50 PM

Thanks to balls2dawalls for the Magnaflow! Should fit great on the car

NOW unfortunately the seller I bought my cheap catback from has refunded me my money with no reason given as to why....so now I need to find another cheap catback to mod or make my own.

**BrandonSS** · #13 09-09-2010, 09:02 PM

someone beat you to this exact build... I spotted a black altima, blacked window trim, all black wheels, completely dumped, black tint, tinted headlights, black mesh grill (exactly like the one you pictured), HIDs, SER tails, etc on Allisonville round 9am

But good news is, it looked pretty sweet!

**Benny6.7** · #14 09-13-2010, 12:02 AM

I don't care if someone else has done it

I'm doing what I want with as little money as scientifically possible!

Got my new magnaflow on tonight! Had some time on my hands and set it up right to fit in with the OEM axle back peice. This muffler piping slipped right over so I was able to tack it. None of the upclose pics of the nice welds turned out, but I LOVE my little Lincoln MIG welder - can't wait to get a TIG this winter....

After much test fitting, and measuring, and whatnot, got it all welded up.

Only extents 1" at its farthest lower than stock, though it looks like more due to how damn shiny it is lol....

Straight up pimpin LOL... I dunno it was a fun project

My header comes tomorrow, and I'll put it in during the evening hours if I have time, if not sometime later this week it will get done. I'm getting a new rear bumper by the end of the week as well, thanks to Jim Mosher for painting that and getting great parts prices! He's the man if you need any paint work in the North Side/Castleton area.

**RichieRich** · #15 09-13-2010, 11:49 PM

needs moar:

**Ricersux** · #16 09-14-2010, 01:50 PM

FYI...for those interested I am the one who restored Benny's headlights.

**Benny6.7** · #17 09-14-2010, 02:19 PM

Hahhahaha I totally forgot about the Jesus guy! I haven't seen him in a while, used to see him quite a bit at 116th/Rangeline area.

Eric rocks!

Headlights are still looking great.

Got a little urethane lip spoiler for the trunk lid today in the mail, but they shipped it all coiled up so I have to wait for it to unravel a bit before I attempt installation lol... More cheap fun stuff should be arriving soon enough

**Benny6.7** · #18 09-14-2010, 02:55 PM

My header showed up a few minutes ago! Not bad for under $150 shipped, way better than the ebay headers that were on my Trans Am (from the previous owner, I would have put kooks on it).

Not bad for eBay! Better than I figured they would look.

**Benny6.7** · #19 09-14-2010, 04:06 PM

Day light pic of the new grille.

Makes me want to lower the car after seeing this...and I need to paint the wheels. I'm probably going to do something a little different than black, after all.

**Benny6.7** · #20 09-17-2010, 09:37 PM

I think I have decided on Eibach sportlines when I put new springs on it; looking for a used/cheap set now. The stock shocks/struts are just that, 100% stock, rusted to shit, and totally blown up lol...springs are rusted as well; so, anyway it will probably get some sensatrac shocks for $160 or so for all four. Shocks/struts/springs will be the next "major" thing to do on this car, aside from the paint work I'm having done this week, replacing the rear bumper and painting the mud flaps as well.

Here are some Altima's with sportlines - it's either that or a cheap set of ebay coilovers but I've never had much luck with those hrm...

Hideous car LOL...

---

I also sprayed the wheels satin black today, just really quickly without really cleaning them or anything, just to see if I like it. [

IMG]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs710.snc4/63009_670253020684_27304619_37304106_8214408_n.jpg[/IMG]

They aren't nearly done, I just quickly sprayed them - they will get done more properly later! OR I'll just buy some G35 wheels or 2010 altima wheels or whateva and leave these shitty for winter wheels

I'm going to apply flat black vinyl to the chrome trim tomorrow or Sunday, install a trunk lid lip spoiler, and install my new header as well - also I got some blacked out housing headlights in the mail today and will be installing them at the same time. This isn't my car but they look identical to these:

I really love this car for a daily driver, it's perfect for me; gets 30mpg on the highway, runs great, is cheap to own and maintain, and doesn't look all that bad lol...should look better when I am through with it

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