Before:



After (and $45 lighter in the pocket):



Gonna go back in a few days and grab the trunk lid/spoiler which are both in fantastic shape. My trunk and roof look about like the hood did. The picture doesn't do justice how bad the hood was - it's got about 1/2" of Bondo ALL over the hood and a bunch of hail damage too.

Too bad my roof looks like the old hood. I'm gonna have to reskin it it has so much Bondo in it.

 

Wow that looks bad. Good find on the parts, I would be a happy camper if I were you. I have nowhere as much damage as you and I hate it, can't imagine how you felt.

 

Is the front bumper cover in good shape, too?

 

It's in better shape than mine but not good enough that'd I'd bother with it. It's got a spot on the right side that's worn down to the yellow like mine. It's too bad cuz the rest of it is in great shape.

 

soooooo ... how'd you do that? whats your secret?

 

are you kidding or no? he bought a new hood...

 

I (surprisingly) found a very very nice TK3 (color of my blue Maxima) VE at the junkyard and bought the hood off it.

[I also got some coilpacks, the front hubs, and a fuzzy pillar ]

 

That is a nice find considering the rarity of that color, and the fact that it's the worst in regard to fading and oxidation. There was a 94 at the junkyard once that was in a front end collision, but everything else looked amazing even though it had 175k miles on it. Aside from that one, I don't think i've ever seen that color without sun damage.

 

Yeah, I haven't EVER seen this color on a 3rd gen at any junkyard here. And I go to the junkyards often, and have for years That's why I was so surprised to find this and happy that I'd gotten to it before it got all mangled by a bunch of idiots ruining stuff to get to what they want on the car.

This car was really in great shape. Only had something like 103k miles on it and even the paint on the roof was in great shape. It must've been garaged most of its life or something. The spoiler isn't even peeling up on the trunk, so I'm probably going to go back and get the trunk/spoiler. I want to ultimately go spoilerless on the blue VE but the nicer trunk will look good until I can get the car painted (could be a year or two).

It was an AirCheck Texas car (a program where people with "heavy polluter" cars can get something like a $3k voucher toward a new "clean" car). So I guess this car must've just failed an emissions test which prompted the owners to let it get junked through AirCheck Texas or something

 

ive never seen a VE at the local junkyard here, 90% of the time its either a GXE or Brougham, 5% VG 5spd SE, and 5% VG auto SE

its just sad to see the rustless low mileage ones get condemned to death, in most cars i go through the previous owners info is left on a insurance card or something, i just want to go to their door, backhand them and say good day sir

the Nissan-only junkyard here probably has a few VE's but its a 6 hour drive lol

i actually almost did try to contact someone though, a 3rd gen had some nice rims but the locks were on and i couldnt get them off with a breaker bar, and one lug was rusty so you needed the key. i searched everywhere for the key and couldnt find it, i found the guys info and was gonna call him to see where it would be but somehow someone else got the rims

 

Nice find, we had a MINT 3rd gen in that same color at our junk yard here not too long ago. I need a hood and rear bumper for my 4th gen in BM1 and thats a real hard color to find such as yours.

Come to think about it, I think the 3rd gen would've looked awesome with BM1 paint color. See my sig for color

 

It's always frustrating when you get to the junkyard and don't have the proper tool. Especially knowing somebody else will probably come along and get it.

It looks like somebody actually got to this blue VE before me attempting to get the driver side hub/knuckle off. They took off the strut, the tie rod end, the ball joint, everything - but it seems they couldn't get the axle nut off. There were a bunch of marks on the axle nut like they were trying to get it off somehow and they had some tires/wheels stacked up as what appears to be some sort of leverage contraption.

So I drove home (only live a couple miles away), grabbed my huge socket/ratchet from my axle set, went back, bolted the strut back up, put the caliper bracket and rotor back on, shoved my flathead screwdriver in the rotor and wedged it against the caliper bracket, took the nut off, and grabbed that **** (and the other side as well).

 

What's even more frustrating is when you get to the junkyard and other people don't have the proper tools, then they follow you around with bloody hands asking if you have what they need One guy once asked me for a screwdriver. Of course I let him use one, but I had to scold him first for being at U-Pull-It without so much as a Philips head

 

True. I don't let any of the fools here borrow any of my tools. It's always crackhead types asking to "borrow" my tools or dudes who start yammering away at me in Spanish gesturing at my tools as if this gringo knows what they're asking for

 

I loved working at the JY... I always hooked them all up with parts in exchange to pull all my spare Maxima parts now sitting in my garage since 2008

Prior to that, I often found myself walking the yard on my lunch break asking people to loan their tools until I said **** it and told one dude I'd hook him up if he just pulled the part I needed and on his way out come see me.

 

lol i always get asked to lend my tools but its always been nice people (who should invest in a basic $30 toolbox)

one time some guy randomly asked me for my toolbox, and after to help him take a window out of a Pontiac Trans Sport fun to say the least. ive gotten help too, when i was taking off some 3rd gen hood struts a guy randomly held up the hood for me when i was taking the 2nd one off

 

youre lucky to have worked there

at the one here, the workers always get dibs on good stuff, so that means when a 240sx or RX7 comes in with a nice exhaust and stuff they usually dibs it for themselves

 

hell with a good find . that was a great find. i lucked up and found a nice black hood for my 94 ve for $40. get the trunk asap before its gone

 

Hell of a find!!!!!!!!

 

IDK but people at the junkyard here cant be polite, when someone wants something and they have to take the back seat out, 99% of the time they mangle it to **** when its a perfectly good leather back seat. same thing when they want something behind the dash, a polite person would take off the dash from the screws and take what they want incase someone wants the actual dash but no lets take a crowbar and rip it off

the only exception i have seen is someone took apart a 280z's dash and left the gauges nicely out, gauges were stamped and everything. i bought them before they went to the crusher with the car and after a year of trying to sell them was surprised nobody needed them for a restoration project, it was a US Z the gauges came from as well. sure enough, a few days ago a kid with a US 280z needed a set of gauges lol.

 

Here in Houston you certain ppl that walk thru the JY breaking windshields, windows, headlight assembly, etc makes me want walk up to them and start kicking their a$$ myself.....and then you got those that destroy the doors, seats, dashboard, steering just too remove the floor mat......

 

i love that color, wish my 3rd gen was blue instead of burgandy

 

That's a rare color and if I was you I would be making a lot of visits 2 that JY for everything you need or might need in the future, that's if you have the dough of course. That color blue and the burgundy are the 2 colors you almost never see but when you do see them there usually in great shape as far as the shell. I found a burgundy Max in the pull/pick JY by my crib, I believe it's a 92.5' SE and it's shell was mint until they put another auto on top of it, what a shame. I will be visiting it often for little things I might need or want. Excellent find and your Max will look dope after you fix the rest of the bad paint spots.

 

Hey James is the TK3 grille still on that TK3 jy maxima? Or you have a us 3rd gen TK3 grille as i noticed you got a uk or aussie TK3 grille. I got a near mint TK3 hood in Washington state in Lakewood for like $30 and drivers side fender for $16.50 in 2008 or 2009. in major need of another TK3 grille as mine got broken

 

Oh and any of you guys looking for great price new oem parts not body parts though go to www.nismoparts.com. Bought myself two brand new non abs hubs for the front for $300.00+29.99 shipping where as Oklahoma Nissan dealership parts wanted $410.00 each. Sorry for the off topic rant. Oklahoma Nissan parts people = morons. Asked okc Nissan parts people how much nismo extended studs cost and they answered by asking what are nismo studs lmfao

 

i just picked some JDM clear corners from upull it for 5 bucks

 

Japanese models came with amber reflectors. What you got are aftermarket corners, most likely made in China, they're about $20 new on Ebay.

 

lol those Chinese clearcorners suck nuts, they look good but they bulge out a bit and my right one wasnt sealed properly and had lots of moisture. when i just went back to OEM corners and removed the clearcorners, the one with moisture had at least a cup of water in it, just gushed out. my sig is outdated, OEM corners are on with black Euro headlights

the real JDM anything is usually amber/yellow

 

This might be a little off topic but your e36headlight install looks pretty good mann. I've been contemplating getting a pair and just hooking them up but I have new factory headlights, still they look tight if done right. I've seen so many in pretty good condition in the pick/pull JY by me casa and figure for the first try I'll use the JY ones and if all goes well then change over to new ones.

 

few people have actually done the E36's 100% properly, i think its just him and a couple others

 

There the European euro e36 and i removed the middle lens to put in the ccfl angel eyes

 

You know I don't even remember if the grille is still on there.

But I have a spare TK3 grille. We can work out a trade or something if you've got some goodies to trade

 

nu game my yute

 

Im down i have the black ve auto parts car also in search for the block inline of the metal clutch lines from the clutch master cylinder to the clutch slave cylinder. Damn line at the master cylinder to the block stripped out so replacing line and the equalizer or stabilizer block. Ask away on parts needed from the parts car only thing im keeping on that one is the engine to convert to manual and build for boost.