here are a couple of pics of where I am at with it. More to come soon...

paint is getting laid next week after I finish the kit taillight conversion. Check out the shaved trunk...

 

Looks good. Are you sticking with white?

 

lookin awsome!!! How much was getting the trunk shaved?????

 

Yes, but a much brighter white with a little fleck underneath and a triple clear coat on top. Thanks DuPont...

 

Not much at all really, I've done all of the work myself, including the nitrous. I am most proud of the body work and the paint job to come that I am giving it. If you're not afraid, go ahead and try it yourself! I have saved thousands...

 

awsome...i'm not afraid...just would rather not screw something up.

 

Well, to give you an idea I think most body shops would probably charge $200+ to do it. It's simple, though. I just spot welded a sheet of metal where the reflector was, and fiberglassed the whole rear. Then, it was a couple of days of sanding...

 

Kinda looks like you just bondo'd/fiberglassed that to me...

The place I plan on getting my car painted at tacked $500 onto the estimate for the custom filled in back panel.

 

... gee, thanks alot.
I spent two weeks on that trunk alone (working on it during what little spare time I have). Glad to know you think it looks cheap. I would hope you could appreciate the work that went into it (being an amature with fiberglass) if you saw it in person. There isn't any bondo on it, BTW, becuase as you probably know bondo does not adhere to fiberglass. You probably also know that fiberglass is a real PITA to work with. The picture isn't great because it is a cheap digital camera but when I paint it (also doing it myself, but not for the first time) I will take some good pics and post them. Oh, and also if you are getting your entire car painted at that shop and they wanted to charge you another $500 to fill that in you should shop around. I think you could get a much better price. How much is your paint going to set you back???

 

Wasnt saying that it looked crummy or anything like that. I just said that because I saw along the bottom of the trunk it looked like the stock trim piece (or at least contoured perfectly). And also because when the trunk gets filled they usually dont bend the sheet metal to follow the tail lights. It'd be more of a flat piece there instead, if that makes sense.

But if you did do the sheetmetal and all that then I gotta give you props on that. And yes fiberglass is a real PITA.

How'd you get it to contour?

I had my estimate for $2000 whole car for a full-fledged first rate job. That included a new back bumper and a new hood too. He said my hood was too dented to fill/fix. lol

$2500 with the middle reflector filled. Again that's just an estimate, he said it'd more than likely be less.

 

Your car is lookin good man representing the VG's well.
I hope your new paint job turns out good should be super bright white huh.
I have a question for you though, I know you are running Nitrous and I was wondering what upgrades do you think are necessary to run a 50-75 shot on the VG engine? I was thinking of looking into this mod after I finish doing my exhaust and suspension on my car. My car is a 93 gxe auto. The Nitrous would only be for occasional use at the track (and to suprise a mustang every once and a while .
You need to get some runs at a track

 

It should look great when you're done. Are you gonna paint it in your own garage? What all does it take to paint, air compressor, spray gun, paint?

 

painting in the garage is dangerous

 

It does still have the stock reflector piece, but only the bottom part of it. I wanted to leave that because I thought it looked good with it on there, kinda like the skyline rear end. To get it to contour I just did a lot of sanding. As far as bending the metal around the taillights, I used a dremel and a belt sander to grind it out and smooth it. I used 5 grit all the way down to 4000 grit. Sanding took up most of the time. The shop I took it to to get a quote gave me a quote of $2000 to do the trunk, mold the ground effects, shave everything, and prep for painting. I am broke and so I decided to do it myself. The whole car is primer gray now, looks ghetto, but that will change after this weekend...

 

Most basic mods needed to take full advantage of the nitrous are intake and exhaust. If you have an auto and want to race it I recommend reinforcing the tranny. I have a 5 spd and that was actually my first mod (becuase it died on me anyway). The Zex kit I have however is designed to work pretty well on a basically stock engine...

 

I have a buddy's garage set up. He has a hood in there and we have it all sheeted off so no dust or dirt can circulate. A clean and well ventilated environment is absolutely essential. I painted my car the last time and it turned out great. Should be even better this time!

 

Yes, you are VERY correct... you need adequite ventilation and a respirator. Breathing paint dust does permanant damage to you lung tissue, you never heal. Really bad stuff. Not to mention the flammability issues...

 

Not saying that there is any bondo in the work done, but Bondo does stick to fiberglass resin, as it does to anything clean, as long as there is hardener. I have used fiberglass and bondo in building my kicks and other projects, so I do know that it adheres. The job looks nice but like James, it looks like you bondoed/glassed in the reflector panel. Otherwise how would you be able to keep the bottom part of the reflector on since the bolts for the reflector are in the middle of the piece not near the edges? just a question?

 

I cut the reflector piece in half and bent clips to the back to hold it on there. The sheet metal overlaps the top of where I cut it and the fiberglass does the rest to hold it on.
Bondo adheres to fiberglass resin but not baked/cured fiberglass. It may stick for a while, but will fall off eventually for sure. I know this from all the work on older cars before I got into imports. It works as a temporary fix, but bondo is not permanent and won't stick well to ANYTHING but bare smooth metal...

I tried to keep the reflector piece at first but looking closely at the contour it wouldn't be flush with the metal part of the trunk. Trying to smooth it out to make a decent looking contour required too much resin and not enough fiberglass. I needed a pretty permanent job so that is why I spot welded the metal to replace the reflector and kept the bottom part where the trunk meets the bumper.

 

mabey its just the pic but it also looks like the top line of the reflector can be seen, also you said taillight conversion? which tailights??

 

I'm going to do R30 tails.

And yeah, I think it must just be the picture, it was taken on a $50 digital camera .

I'm going to post some better pics this weekend or at the beginning of next week once I've painted it...

I'm goig to try to fit the R30 tails in the OEM housing, or at least use the OEM outer lense. The R30 tails are like that, the round lenses are recessed and housed behind a lense similar to our stock but more square. It's going to be totally custom and original, so I hope it turns out okay. Even if it doesn't, I have another set of tails to fall back on.

 

R30?? I would've thought maybe R32's or even R33's as a stretch. But all in all, it looks like it's coming along pretty nice... just keep us informed on your progress, as I'm curious on how it will turn out.

Also, is that a complete WW kit, or are you using parts from different kits?? Or maybe it's your own custom jobbie?? I guess I'm asking because I don't remember seeing that particular tail end on a Max?

 

It's a Wings West kit, modified...

And the R33 tails are the easiest fit for the 3rd gens, R32 tails don't look very good on them. I've seen them on the Maxima and the early 90s Sentra, and they (R32s) look great on the Sentra when they're done right. R34s look great too on the Maxima, but really on the 4th gens. I've seen a couple with R34 tails and headlights, looks good.
I guess I'm just doing the R30s because I don't think it's been done and I don't want to pay the inflated eBay prices on R32s. Besides, the R30 looks the same except for the outer lense...

 

here is a pic of what they will look like, minus the square lense and housing...

 

i can't see the pic..

 

Ooops! ...try this link:
http://maxima.cardomain.com/member_p...=169593&page=7

 

Dont want to be a beyotch...

But actually Bondo is NOT to be used on smooth metal. To have it properly adhere the metal is to be roughed up pretty good. That's why you see dudes go at bare metal with the huge air sanders. Getting the metal as rough as can be so the Bondo will properly adhere. If done properly Bondo (or any filler for that matter) should last the life of the car. At LEAST a good 20 years. I know because we've got a 70' Le Mans that had some Bondo work back in te 70's and it's still holding up.

If you were just gonna Bondo over the the stock piece I'm sure it wouldnt be very hard to get the Bondo to stick. Go at it with like some 80 grit sandpaper and I'm sure the Bondo would stick pretty good.

 

hey where did you get your body kit if you dont mind me asking?

 

just a suggestion, but i think it would look real good if you also shaved the door moldings.

 

Why, you want one??

 

I think that's a good suggestion, and I almost did it (it would have been much easier than the trunk), but I photoshoped a pic of what it would look like and decided to go ahead and keep the door moldings. I still have this week to change my mind, though, I'm not painting until the weekend...

 

I've done some body work mods and painting and what you've done looks great. I've thought of doing the same thing BTW. Do you have some step by step photos? How did you do the "frenched in" license plate in the ABS plastic bumper? Do you have more photos of that process? Did you have to use an ABS plastic welder? Nice job... looks well thought out. I love seeing stuff like this.

 

after seeing nupe500's car, I decided Im not gonna get rid of my moldings either. I think it adds something to the car and kinda continues the front into the back

 

didnt you say you had an extra kit in yur basement or something like that? if so how much?

 

yeah i would deffinitely want a kit like that cuz so far its the best looking thing that i have seen on a third gen, email me at pmb1985@yahoo.com or i m, chances are i would get it quicker from an i m

 

It's actually fiberglass, so a plastic welder wouldn't work well. Truthfully, I have tried to use one of those things before on something and just made a sloppy mess. I don't know what I did wrong, but I was trying to cut into the taillight lense of a Sentra and it ended up melting into a glob of crap!! Oh well.

I didn't do any step by step photos, although now I wish I had. I went to a body shop to get a quote on how much it would cost and the guy explained the whole process they would go through to do it. I thought to myself, "that doesn't sound so hard..." and so I went to it. I could only work on it a couple hours a day so it took me a couple of weeks to do the grill, trunk, and pull the two dents I had and patch stuff up. The only bondo is on the grill, the rest is fiberglass, sheet metal, and resin. I'm painting in one week so I'm gonna spend the next week tweaking what I can. I can't wait!!