As you see, f31club is slowly getting in to place. When Jacy gave me the website, I didn’t have an M30. So I felt inadequate. As I was finishing up my university studies, I thought about it and tried to get my black M30 back (explained in my previous post). I had a sense of duty to get it back… but it was to no avail.
The end of Sept 2016, I went to Hawaii and met the brothers there. We talked M30s.
Renny and Mark J.
A week later in October, I was in Japan. I visited Carshop Friend, a place many of us held high.
Satoru and Me
The next day I was at the annual Nissan Leopard meet, where I met the people and cars we idolized!
Hideya, Osamu and Junichi.
with Kazuho.
Hideya, Mie and Yukio
Kyouhyou and me
Once I got state side, I started to get f31club together. Part of the journey is connecting with a lot of the guys from before. So I reached out to many of the old school members and reconnected.
I also decided to meet other M30 members if I could.
SlappinM30 and me.
Met up with Jay Beckstead in Oregon
I came back with a renewed inspiration. I flew to Portland, Oregon and bought an M30. Then drove 9hrs back to San Francisco.
The next day, I started to put my Pico Racing sides skirts together. My parts from Carshop Friend also arrived. This is the Villanelle front lip and rear valances.
My set of chrome rain visors also arrived.
Test fitted the aero and installed the chrome rain visors.
Fiberglassed the Pico racing sides skirts (this was made for the leopard)
Then the OEM sun shades came in. Unfortunately, the rear sun shade was cracked.
My dealer Nissan Leopard licence plate was bent during my move 10yrs ago, I finally decided to try to get it straight as much as possible with a heat gun.
My zenki digital gauge cluster also came in.
Satoshi helped me get my fender emblems after I wasn’t willing to pay for the whole fenders to be shipped ($600 each).
New Dash mat from Mark! Thanks bro.
Started to make a wiring harness for the JDM headlights and corners. I want to add the fender marker lights as well.
I started to make a harness for the headlights, corner lights and fender marker lights.
Pulled out the JDM Leopard emblems and trunk lock. Also brought out the Fender marker lights.
3x in Japan in 2017
Wandering Leopard and cub – Philippines and Japan – August 2017
Met up with some OGs.
On the maint side for my M30:
Spedometer and ripped seat belt were changed out.
Head gasket – 11/2017
When I got my Black M30, I had to change a few things out. At the time (2004) the car was 14 years old, I had picked up the preventative maint mentality from my 240sx, RX7 and Cressida, the M30 was gonna be no different.
I made a list of things I needed to change so I can make it reliable. This typically is the while water pump/thermostat/time belt and head gasket deal. While it was down, I even did the wheel bearings. It took longer since I never worked with a V6 before. After that, my M30 took me from Canada to Southern California… multiple times!
When I picked up my current M30, I was fortunate enough that the previous owner and the original owner kept all the work done. I could come up with things I wanted to change based on that. Seeing that the water pump wasn’t touched and timing belt was due (my M30 has 152,000 miles) I figure when I get time, do the whole deal again.
I was gonna have a shop do it because I worked, but that shop closed up a few months ago. They then referred me to a shop in the area. I gave them a call and they quoted me $4000.
I then remember getting a card from one of the guys. So I contacted him and he said he could do it for $1500 and be done in 4 days.
It would be done at his garage, with his license and warranty on parts and labor. I decided to go this route.
Needless to say, I’ve been happy to get this done. He also looked at stuff while it was off and said the engine was well taken cared of (thank you Jeff – Previous owner).
All gaskets, timing components, cam seals, water pump, thermostat and heads were done. I ordered a few items, such as the upper radiator hose with the coolant bleeder valve and a few other
