Amelia: My '97 Nissan Maxima SE, 5spd, all options, not many mods yet but more soon to come!

JUST BOUGHT CATTMAN HEADERS AND CATTMAN HIGHFLOW CAT! My exhaust system will now be complete as soon as they arrive in a few days. Within a week or so I should have some links up here of soundclips as well as some pictures of the setup. I have high hopes that it's going to sound awesome :)

NEW MODS

A Kenwood DPX501 now replaces the Bose HU in my max with help of the PAC-OEM1 adapter. Sound is much clearer now with lower lows and crisper highs...and the display matches the rest of my red lights in my dash. Pics will hopefully be here soon!

Rotora slotted rotors per Steve's recommendation at SCO and Axxis Ultimate pads. Look great with the rims :)

Finally got some rims and new shoes! Konig Tuner IIs 18X7.5 with BFGoodrich G-force Sports 235/40/18. The max just really needs to be dropped now. Let me know what you think :)

ES bushings (Control Arms, front sway bar, and subframe).

I only have pics of the control arms. But if you attempt to do the subframe bushings keep in mind you'll likely have to drop your y-pipe to get to all your motor mount bolts (I did).

Here's a pic of one of the nasty looking original bushings...

After removing this POS you're left with the outer shell that it was enclosed in before...

The ES bushings are WAY too stiff to ever be pressed into there with the shells, even with a hydraulic press. You will need to use a die grinder and grind down the sleeve so you can press in the bushing. Don't grind too much though, you want them to be tight as possible!

After doing this I pressed in the ES bushing by pressing the new sleeve in then putting the pin back in and using the 2 large washers the ES bushing kit came with along with the original 27mm nut and my impact gun to tighten

Not really a mod here, but new headlight bulbs (Luminics). I like these much better than the Nokyas I was running before...

I had to be a little innovative with this one. For some reason my cigarette lighter is dead so I couldn't draw power from it, so I actually wound up drawing power from the wires that bring power to the bulb inside the glovebox. So after figuring that out I successfully wired red LEDs into my air vents and also wired in a switch so I can choose whether to have them on or off even when my headlights are on (the switch originally was used to cover up a small pea size crack I had in my dash but it's actually functional and I'm glad it's there). Sometimes the glow is a bit distracting when it's really late and I'm tired, so it's nice to turn it on when I want it on and just as easily be able to turn it off :) And yes these LEDS ARE RED!!! For some reason the digital camera I have just can't reproduce the color correctly but they're seriously as red as...well...a stop light. They look much better in person (my mom says when in my car she feels like she's in the batmobile, haha), but yeah I just wanted to share what I did (the vents near the a-pillars are also wired with the LEDs but I just couldn't get a clear picture of them just yet, so I'll work on that for next time

Also did my dome light...

I did this mod prob close to a month ago but finally got pics up...the AE light mod. I just have to do something about the corner lights now to make them match better. Any ideas? Not sure if smoking would be the answer since it's a white car and may not look right

After some blown LEDs and a few other mishaps I finally have working RED LEDs in my window switches, hazard/defrost buttons, auto climate control, and Bose headunit! The pics aren't great and make them look a little orange, but in person they're a nice deep red. I wanted to be different and not do blue or something like most other maximas I've seen :) I also did the white clock/climate control display mod as well. I did it on the Bose display but the Bose display, though the same stock green color as the clock and climate control, doesn't react to the colored cellophane paper the same way the clock and climate control do. It's the closest to white that I was able to get it now though, but it does pick up a little red from the cellophane paper and/or the LEDs. Still better than ugly green though! I still have a ton of LEDs left (I'm guessing around 80) so I'm going to use some more up. Next weekend's project will be the ignition switch light because we don't want that green when everything else is red now do we? I'm also going to make a LED light to replace the dome light in the rear of the max and also do the LED gauge needle mod, though I'm trying to decide if I want to keep the stock white numbers and just redo the needles with the red LEDs or if I want to change the numbers to red and pick up some white LEDs and do white needles. If anyone has any input on what they think would look classier definitely let me know! Now I'm gonna shutup so you can just look at the pics, enjoy :)

...And a random pic of the work on the climate control (as well as probably the biggest resistor you've ever seen!)

This isn't really a mod here, but I did go through some of the car with bicycle helmet padding to try to eliminate some rattles I was getting. It helped to an extent but I still have some more to locate. One of the major culprits seems to be the glovebox so I will be looking closely at that when I have time

I found this to be useless foam located inside the doors themselves (you will need to cut some of the plastic shielding or heat up the sealant to get to them, but they are located in the lower area of each of the 4 doors and are known as "impact foam." They come loose quite easily and will cause rattles when they do. Plus I find it hard to believe a tiny piece of foam is going to protect me more from any kind of impact, so I took them all out for a good 1 pound in weight reduction ;)

By the way behind my driver's side A-pillar I found this wire that appears to have been connected to something in the past. Anyone know what it may be? I'm the 3rd owner of the car so I have no clue. My guess is maybe it used to be hooked up to a mic or something for a car phone but maybe every max has that wire and I just don't know what it is