Finished Picture

As promised you can see the body work complete here. I did change the Infiniti letters to Skyline since the car really is a Skyline in Japan. The new navigation works great too!

Got My Baby Back!!

7 Dec 2004 was "The Day That Will Live In Infamy" as I took the G off the dealer lot in Dayton OH (2005 model). 14 Aug 2009 is not nearly the same feeling as I had when she was new, but man is it good to have some wheels again and it's safe to say my the G is in good health! But not without first gutting the trunk, adding Alpine's latest Nav (NVE-M300) and applying sound deadening to the trunk (particularly the wheel wells). I'll get some pictures of the completed body work soon. As for Alpine's new Nav I love it so far. The Alpine Blackbird Nav system was a failure and disappointed many so I'm happy Alpine is stepping up to the plate once again.

Zinc coating applied to all welds, primed and ready for paint preperation. New tire also installed. Scheduled for paint on Wed 12 Aug 2009.

Reconstruction Mock up

Patrick checks trunk alignment and fits the quarter panel and rear trunk panel before welding. Soon these new panels will be part of the G for good. Can't wait to get my car back and when I do Alpine's newest Navigation will be added to the alpine head unit already in place. http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=NVE-M300

Rebuilding The G

Reconstruction continues at Monte's Autobody in Lompoc, CA. Hope to have my wheels back next week. You can see the Drivers quarter panel removed and the rear trunk as well.

Once welding is complete seams will be sealed and a galvanized coating applied to all welds for corrosion protection. Next paint, glass re installation, tailight, new bumper (mounts, reinforcement, energy absorber, and cover) installed. O yeah, and one each new tire.

The Impact

While parked in a residential area in Santa Maria on 11 July 2009 my car was hit in the rear driver's side. I was not in the vehicle at the time. The damage totatls comes to 13K in. Of course it was a hit and run.

I purchased the car new in 2005 with nothing more than a minor scratch or ding occurring over the years. The G had been parked in downtown, Los Angeles, Detroit, Cincinnati, St Luios, etc, with not so much as a door ding.

Ironically, for all the times I didn't pay close enough attention changing lanes or backing up I had not been in an accident. Although the car was parked at the time of impact, it was moved a full two car lengths (good thing there was nothing in front of the car).

Bluetooth Install

Who likes Alpine's bluetooth anyway? To date, Alpine has the best IPod integration and the worst bluetooth. Never mind the fact that it's sold separately as one more thing to plug in. Since I'm plugging things in I might as well go with Parrot who is known for being the best in Bluetooth. After all bluetooth was invented in Europe and this European company seems to be leading the way in bluetooth. Parrot supplies many major auto, GPS, and stereo manufacturers as well.

This is why it was worth taking the time to reverse engineer Alpines mediocre bluetoothe set up. Which is a lot simpler than it would seem. First I turned the "AI-Net" connection into a pair of RCAs and wired up the "mute" wire on the head unit. When the "mute" signal is received the head unit switches the input to "AI-Net" connection in addition to muting the music. Thus when the Parrot blutooth sends the mute signal, the head unit mutes the radio and receive the audio throughte RCAed "AI-Net".

NOTE about Satellite radio: the 2005 version of the Terk XM to Alpine adapter box did not work with the pass through feature. This feature is needed for bluetooth to work when the satellite radio is on since it occupies the "AI-Net" connection. The Parrot audio actually goes through the sat radio adapter box and if you are listening to sat radio that adapter box has to swich from sat radio to allowing the Parrot audio to "pass through". Of course I could not find compatible 2006 box anywhere and Audiovox (TERK) had not released their new adapter capable of being programmed over the Internet. I finally got the newly released box from Terk, downloaded the firmware update and guess what, pass through still didn't work. Audiovox, did not offer any promise to fix this at all and certainly no date.

So I decided to switch to Sirius radio since Alpine actually makes the adapter box, I knew it would work. The drawback was that I had to rip out the XM antenna in favor of the Sirius. But if all finally works well and I do like Sirius better.