Just got my first Maxima last week, its great for being my first car. A maroon 96 GXE, and I'm loving it. I got it for $5800, not a bad deal I'd say, has some miles, 96k to be exact but I had a mechanic buddy of mine check it out and it had no problems.

Now my question to you guys is that I want to start customizing it, so what would be a good place to start?

The first thing I wanna do is tint the windows, is there any specific shade that looks better than others?

Next I'll probably look into getting the diamond blue headlights, just to change the actual color of the light though, then hopefully look into getting the white-outs. Another question, how much do the white-outs usually run?

After that I'll probably look into getting the interior wood trim, the kind that comes in the SE model. Now I saw people selling them on Ebay for about 100 bucks, would that be a wise choice?

Sorry about all the questions, I'm just excited about getting such a great car.

 

Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to the forum. I think if you lurk around for a little while that a lot of your questions will be addressed. I'm not one to do much modding for appearence, so I can't help there. If you use the search feature, I'm sure you'll find plenty of posts on those subjects.

 

Houston Max,

I'm also in Houston and looking to get into a Max
Where did you get that great of a deal??

Are anymore availabe?

 

Congrats on the Max. Well I can tell you that you can get the clear lights for the front from CourtesyNissan.com for about $48.00. The wood trim I am not sure about. Well good luck.

 

I got my maxima a month ago and didn't even bother with the cosmetic mods. The first thing was the lowering springs, then the FSTB. The RSB is on the way, which should arrive sometime next week. Then I will start thinking about cosmetic mods like window tint, clear corners, etc.

 

Hope you're enjoyin the ride It's gonna get a lot better. I suggest you start with the bumper lenses and work your way from there. 30% tint is the legal limit in most states. Use the search feature if you have any more questions dude. Have fun.

 

Getting tint all the way around smoothes out the appearance, I have 15% tint all around except for the front driver's side windows I took off (cops). I got my wood dash on ebay for 89.00.
Adam

 

I think it's 35% most of states for tint..

 

Actually I got pretty lucky when it came to getting this great car. The guy had originally listed it for 6900 but after some persuading I knocked em down 1100.

Thanks for the great tips guys, I appreciate it, but what do you mean you dont do cosmetic mods? Do you just work on fine tuning performance? I want to do that eventually as well but does that get expensive, if not where would be a good place to start there?

 

With a name like Houstonmax I,m assuming that you live in Texas. I live in San Antonio and 35% is a dark as you can go on the driver/passenger side and then as dark as you want on all others. But I only went a shade darker on the others so it would blend in better. And if you ever decide to install fog lights, get the SE version and install them cause it looks good and it makes the front bumper from looking to fat/big. Your car is already prewired for them and the kit comes with all the stuff to install them. The SE gauges also look really cool or you can buy the kits to convert them but if you have any doubt don,t do this yourself because you have to remove the needles and you may end up pulling the stalk out of the gauge.

 

The gauges are something I was thinking of getting, theyre only about 25 bucks on Ebay so its not that big of an investment, I just didnt think they would be that difficult to install. If I cant do it then where should I take it to get done? Also have you ever looked at getting a colored bulb for the gauge lights, or at least a hyper white bulb? I was just wondering how much it would cost to replace that.

 

screw what the cops say get what looks good and get 5% all the way around, I have 5% on the passenger windows, and 2 1/2% on the back window, and 50% on the front windshield to get rid of the glare but it looks normal in the front. I will get a picture up in about a week maybe Wednesday and you can check it out. it makes the car look soo much better

 

5%? Is it that the lower the percentage the darker the tint?

 

But if you ever get pulled over by a cop it will cost you some money cause there will not be ANY excuse that they are going to beleive (been their, done that and bought the T-shirt) and as for the gauges if it involves removing the faceplate and replacing it with a different one that involves removing the needles which could be a problem if the stalk comes with it because like on the speedometer you will NOT be able to put it back in (I know that one from experience also) and I ended up buying an instrument panel from a junkyard. As where to get them done I have no idea.

 

Wait for the Indeglo gauges, you don't have to remove the needles to install the white gauge faces and you can adjust it to five different colors. They just released the '97 to '99 kits. The '95-'96 kits should be out shortly.

 

i have limo tint on all windows from the back doors to the back window. no problems and i also have a friend who is an inspector so no worries there. If you need some help with an install of anything, i can see if i can help or i have many people that i can hook you up with that will be able to accomplish the job. If you ever need any maintenance also hit me up and ill hook you up with someone that can help you out and not steal your pocket.

Im thinking of selling my cattman coilovers if you are interested. or if anyone else is interested

hit me at ryder@n2mail.com

 

What is involved in installing them and how muck do they run? Do you adjust the color with different bulbs or what?TYIA.

 

Here's a link to the thread that discusses it.
https://maxima.org/forums/showthread...threadid=22964