If I was not going to shows, I would not do this.  Its a lot of work, you have to take care of your trunk and the materials cost some money.  If I haven’t discouraged you… then read on.

This is for reference only, I am not liable if you screw your car up.  Use caution and common sense when working on your vehicle.  Read the directions (like you will) use the right tools and use the appropriate safety equipment.

Materials

• fiberglass resin & hardener
• fiberglass mat
• fleece (t-shirt material) I used a 60/40 blend but other have advantages
• many disposable brushes sizes 1″ to 3″
• high-build polyester primer
• sand paper (40, 80, 120 regular  180, 220 & 400 wet sand)
• spray gun and air compressor
• disposable gloves
• “3M” Tape 1″ and 2″
• paper or plastic coverings
• Vaseline (this is not for your friend who is helping)
• good ventilation area.  (will leave car undrivable while fiberglass cures)

Determine the purpose and shape

This is the hardest part.  You must decide how much space you are willing to lose and what you want it to accomplish.  This is why I normally recommend that you take it to someone with experience.  I already had a functioning system.  Amplifiers where originally installed in the spare tire well.  But I wanted something more flashy.  Also my friend Jeff (He works for Concept Audio) wanted to use my car in his booth at dB Dragracing World Finals in Nashville TN.  I said ok but I really wanted to show off his stuff.  The fiberglass panel was designed to hold two 2002 amplifiers (950 watts each) and to display the subwoofers (through the face) without adding lots of weight.  Fiberglas is great for low weight.

Build the support

There’s me hot gluing a temporary panel to my max for the face logo.  All the brackets made are just to hold parts of the fiberglass panel in place until it cures.  The finished install does not have these parts included.
NOTE:  See how the car is taped and protected.  This is a very important part if you do not want fiberglass resin on the outside of your vehicle.  Basically, it will ruin the paint.  So please take care, cover more area than you think you will need and wear clothes that if they get ruined, you wont cry.

Here is the area before the fleece is installed.  These brackets define the basic shape of the panel.  (For rookies, do not have your panel too far away from the edge of the rubber gasket.  If you do, it might not come out once it cures OOOOPPS)

Step 3 Install the fleece

Stretching the fleece is the hardest part.  Take care to make it as smooth as possible.  All wrinkles must be filled in with a reinforced body filler like “Kitty Hair” or “Duraglas”  The stretch fleece is tucked under your trunk gasket molding.  Coat the molding with Vaseline.  (nasty huh) this will prevent the resin from sticking to it.

Follow the direction for adding hardener to the resin.  Then double the amount of hardener.  Make sure to wear those plastic gloves.  Resin does not easily come off skin.  It kinda wears off.  Use the disposable brushes and apply the resin to the fleece.  start in areas that is the farthest away and most difficult to cover.  (I am starting around the face in the back) This will help you get more done faster as well as prevent resin from getting on your skin and otherwise creating a big mess in your trunk.  Once you have covered the entire area.  let dry overnight.  If you pull it out as soon as it kicks (non completely cured)  you have a good chance that the shape will change and no longer fit (that means starting over)  Don’t do that.

Preface

After the intake, the next best thing for power is the exhaust system.  I decided to change the whole exhaust system at once because I only wanted to get under the car once.  Boy am I glad I did.  Depending on the age and local of your vehicle.  This install could be very difficult.  Mine was!!!

This is for reference only, I am not liable if you screw your car up.  Use caution and common sense when working on your vehicle.  Read the directions (like you will) use the right tools and use the appropriate safety equipment.

Tools Needed

• Metric Wrenches 10-17mm
• Metric Sockets 10-17mm
• Swivel socket and extensions and ratchet
• Liquid Wrench (Two cans)
• Shop Light
• Jack Stands
• Floor Jack
• Drop Light
• Rubber Gloves disposable

Parts Check

Make sure you have all the parts. Especially the gaskets and o-rings.  Also check how much it cost to get the bracket that mounts near the cat.  This will save a lot of time and effort.

Removing old exhaust

What a pain.  My exhaust had some rust that made it difficult.  Take my advice.  See if you can purchase the bracket that attached to the cat and the car. If I did not have to remove this bracket from the existing exhaust this swap would have been a breeze.  You will need a swivel extension and lots of liquid wrench to get the Y-Pipe off.  But it is worth it.

Installing the y-pipe

Bolt the Y-Pipe together before you install it in your car.  You will need the swivel socket to tighten.  Make sure to use all new gaskets (The Y-Pipe uses round metal ones)  Using a little anti-seize compound is probable not a bad idea here either.

Installing the Random Tech Cat

Install B-pipe

Install muffler

The performance mods I plan for my max are simple with the best bang for the buck.   The front strut tower brace is not a nice to have, but a must have. Luckily, it is easy to put on and does not cost that much.

This is for reference only, I am not liable if you screw your car up.  Use caution and common sense when working on your vehicle.  Read the directions (like you will) use the right tools and use the appropriate safety equipment.

Make sure the vehicle is on level ground.

This step is omportant because the strut bar ties the front of the vehicle together.  If the vehicle chassis is cocked, it will always be that way and that is bad.  Once you are comfortable, remove the 14 mm bolts (3 on each side) and set them to the side.

Install the top plates

Place the top plates over the strut tower mounts and put the bolts back on.  Make sure you disconnect the passenger side (this is the important part) so that you can properly adjust the bar.  Mount the top plates make sure that they seat properly against the towers.

Install the bar

Start on the drivers side and snug not tighten the bar.  Then go to the passenger side and adjust the little eyelet so that it fits right on the other side.  Set the nut on the strut bar.  Snug fit the passenger side then go back to the driver side and tighten.  Then tighten the passenger side.

Your installation is complete!

The performance mods I plan for my max are simple with the best bang for the buck.  Not the least expensive but what will give me the most return.  I have decided to put forth a lot of effort into the suspension. 

My goal is to build the best handling Maxima for the money.  I decided on Stillen Camber plates. to go with my Ground Control coil overs because I know that when you lower the car, the camber is affected and will cause poor tire wear.  This means more money spent on tires. And since tires costs lots of dough.  This is a great value mod.  Not to mention that this will help fine tune your handling.

Stillen’s (http://www.stillen.com)  camber plates are a must for proper alignment in lowered vehicles.  Its that or keep on replacing your rubber (I think that is more expensive)

This is for reference only, I am not liable if you screw your car up.  Use caution and common sense when working on your vehicle.  Read the directions (like you will) use the right tools and use the appropriate safety equipment.

Getting started

Installing camber plates is not too difficult with the right tools. Make sure you have a nice area to work in and that you don’t need your car for a couple of hours.  Use care in jacking your car up.  Refer to your owners manual on points to lift and support your vehicle.  I recommend that you slightly that’s VERY SLIGHTLY loosen your front lug nuts before jacking up for vehicle.

Tools needed:

• Floor Jack
• Jack Stands
• 14 mm socket
• 17 mm socket
• 19 mm socket
• Allen Keys
• impact gun (this is a real nice to have)
• spring compressors (if installing on stock or non-coil over set-up)
• torque wrench
• big screwdriver (used as a mini crow bar)
• those proctologists gloves.  Clean hand are a good thing.

Removing the unnecessary stuff

Yes sports fans I cheated.  I had already installed Ground Control Coil Overs so it makes life a lot easier. I was able to lift the car and remove the top perch without removing the strut from the vehicle.  That because I haven’t decided on which shock to use ( I am leaning towards the KYB AGX) so for now I have the crappy stock struts.   A word to the wise.  DO NOT LOWER YOUR VEHICLE TOO LOW WITH THE FACTORY SHOCKS.  With the GC’s if you lower the front more that 2.75″ or the rear more than 1.5″  you will bottom the factory struts.  This is an easy way to damage them.  The pictures you see are with the car lowered the above mentioned amounts.  The rear is probable a little lower because of the weight of the stereo. The reason is simple as you can see in the pic in the left the factory strut is too long once you lower the GC spring perch.  So your actual travel is quite a bit less than you would image.  The pic on the right shows what parts the Stillen camber plate replaces.  Good bye!

Set the plate

Before you install the plate you must the adjustment Allens.  Otherwise you will hit them in the shock tower and that would be bad.  Once you do that you are ready to mount them in the shock towers.

Aligning the plates

Put the plates in the right side of the vehicle.  See the little marks engraved on the tops.  Put the 14 mm mounting nuts and and lightly torque them in.  Using your big screwdriver, align the hole for the shock such that the post will easily slide up.  (sounds kinda pornographic) Now put the little top washer on the shock post and compress the shock and allow it so slide up into the hole. Finger tight install the top bolt.  (This part sucks) as best you can.  Since you do not have that nice d mount in the camber plate the shock post will want to turn.  This is where the impact gun comes in.  Hold the shock post while you tighten the top nut with the impact gun.  If you do not have one, This will really suck.  You will probably have do attach the camber plate to the shock outside the vehicle.  which means you will have to remove the strut from the vehicle.  (Add a couple of hours)

Torque all the stuff together

Once the hard part is done, go back and check all the bolts to make sure they are tightened.  This is very important.  Loose bolts in the suspension will negate all the performance improvements and may potentially damage parts or worse cause you to lose control and wreck.  Please check and double check.  Then mount your wheels back on and lower carfully.  Once on the ground, do a low speed low “G” test run.  If all is ok, take it to get aligned. If you want best tire wear use the factory camber specs.  For Johnny Baddass’, 1.5 to 2 degrees negative camber should be a good starting point.  The more camber the more tire wear.  You be the judge. ENJOY!

The performance mods I plan for my max are simple with the best bang for the buck.  Plus since my car is old (let’s be realistic) I am not sure I am willing to put BIG MONEY into it.  That will probably change.  Anyway, getting more power is simple physics: get more air and fuel into the engine and get it out as quickly as possible.  So I started with the intake.  Stillen’s (http://www.stillen.com)  intake is not least expensive but definitely on of the best.  Here are the steps I used to install.

This is for reference only, I am not liable if you screw your car up.  Use caution and common sense when working on your vehicle.  Read the directions (like you will) use the right tools and use the appropriate safety equipment.

Getting Started

The most important thing to do is to have a clean area, proper tools and of course read the directions.  Tools for this installation are pretty simple, I used the following

>9/16″ Nut Driver
>#2 Phillips Blade Screwdriver
>Flat Blade Screwdriver
>10mm socket with extensions

Removing the factory airbox

This is a pretty simple thing to do.  First, snap off the four clips that surround the air filter box, remove the single screw behind the airbox and loosen the clamp (with the 9/16″ nut driver or a flat blade screwdriver) connecting the airmass sensor to the rest of the intake.  Wiggle the intake back and forth.  It should come out.  If you have a problem, try a little WD40 around the rubber seal.

To remove the bottom, there is three bolts. You can use the Phillips or 10mm socket.

Removing the airmass sensor

Using a Phillips or 10mm socket, remove the airmass sensor from the factory airbox.  Be careful not to damage the mesh screen.  This will make your airmass sensor a cool paper weight.  Also make sure when you remove the airmass sensor from the factory airbox you also get the little o-ring.  This is necessary to properly seal the airmass sensor to the Stillen Air horn.

Next take the supplied 10mm bolts with the washers and mount the airmass sensor to the Stillen Air Horn.  Make sure that the control box is up and lines up the the name Stillen cast on the backside of the air horn.  Also, bolt the bracket on and make sure to put it on the right way.  (Not the way I have it in the pic.  No I am not perfect.)

You will also need to remove the temperature sensor from the factory airbox.  Use the Phillips to remove.  You will need to take apart the sensor mounting (see pic) so that it will fit the K & N Air filter without air leaks.  The piece with the wired goes on the outside the as does the black rubber gasket.  The silver spacer goes on the inside before the treaded metal plate.  Use the supplied screws and washers from stillen to mount. Also you will need to take of the bracket that is connected to the other end of the sensor.

We are almost finished.  No install intake to your factory plumbing.  It is a lot easier to take the rubber gasket and stick it in the factory plumbing before installing the intake.  This way it is already lined up.  Slide the intake in and mount it with the single supplied bolt using your 10mm socket with extensions.  (The extensions make it a lot easier)

Reconnect both the airmass sensor plug and the temperature sensor plug.  (Don’t screw this up otherwise you will have to make a trip to the dealer to get rid of that damn “Check Engine” light.)

Now install the K & N Air filter.  use a 9/16″ nut driver or a flat blade screw driver to tighten the clamp.  Double check your connections then fire her up.  Hear that growl of power, no bad light?  Great.  Done.  Enjoy.

This is the first power mod done and I might feel a slight difference.  Not really sure though.  It does get a lot louder than stock.  But the sound is cool. I guess if I really want it to make more power I need to install the “Stillen” stickers.  (Just kidding)