This evening's work: grille swap, headlight resto, wheel polish.

"Noah - Now with more boost." (antriebverliebt)
08/18/2015 at 19:41 • Filed to: Infinity, VIP, Q45, Q45t, Nissan, Cima, JDM, V8

The Q45 isn’t registered yet, so I can’t leave my driveway. But I can definitely JDM BRO out on some strange OEM parts. This grille is definitely the most exciting piece of shiny plastic I’ve ever purchased! Thanks Japan Parts Service (they are a big east coast JDM engine importer). I couldn’t be happier. It’s minty-fresh, slightly art-deco, and it was the only one available. The part became “sold out” after I ordered it, and these people are serious; they upload 10+ photos of each and every part they sell, so the HD pictures I viewed were of this actual grille. Very cool business practice. You would expect them to take good photos of the $2-3K supra motors, and skip the small stuff. I got the “out for delivery” notification this morning, so of course I polished the headlights too. The stock facelift HIDs are unique. I like them a lot.

The original “Infiniti” grille (black plastic) was a little difficult to look at IMHO. Sure, it could be way worse, but there is a second problem with it. Whichever committee member designed the front of the “Hyundai XG” did so while looking at a US-spec Y33. And those are a pretty common sight here, so ironically, I associate that black plastic grille shape with Hyundai. My friend’s girlfriend even drives one:

The 2000ish Hyundai XG. The grille and headlights are eerily similar to the Infiniti version of my Nissan barge (car pictured below is not mine). Nice try Hyundai.

My wheels were so dirty that I had no idea they were polished. So nineties! They are 17” alloys, an option that was part of the touring package. I’ll do a proper job before I take my first “real” (DSLR) photos. But look! There’s a distorted reflection of some JDM fanboi:

The tires on these wheels are still good, so I’m going to hold off on replacing them with 18s. They’re also way better than the 16” standard wheels, which as I’m sure you could have guessed, look exactly like the wheels on that Hyundai XG. I’m glad Hyundai finally does their own thing styling-wise, now that they’ve established themselves. I would totally drive a gensis sedan. Look how far they’ve come! Not bad IMHO. And I’m sure the V8 is fun.