i finally did it, and i'm not so sure i like it. it seems like it makes my car look more like a sedan, even though i know it is. i almost think of a camry when i look at it now!

someone said something about buying the stuff from nissan to make it black again? anybody know about that?

do you think it would be ok to have it painted black when i get my car painted? or would that be weird?

 

 

i dunno, i did a ****ty job on removing, and i scratched the paint some, so i do kinda regret it. its just vinyl tape right? how did they get it under the trim so good....

 

the people that have done this know what it looks like.

i don't have anywhere to host a picture.

 

well they probably put it on before the weatherstrip and all that stuff.

 

is this only for 97-99 cuz I was trying on my 95 and it doesn't look like it is the body color. now on my passenger side there is chuncks of tape still atached and on the driver side the back dooor it make of black metal. my car suck now, i feel so stupid.

 

maybe someone had previously done work on it and re-painted it or done body work or something...

 

I liked it when I could do it. Can't do it to black!

 

nope I love mine...



taking the black tape off between the doors..

 

hey metallic97gxe, where did you get that grille?

 

looks way better if you ask me

 

i like it stock better. when you get some tints, th black in the middle gives the illusion of just 1 window but when you convert to body color you will see that color insert between front and rear window and it just doesnt look as sharp as stock IMO

 

exactly







10chars

 

body color on light color cars disrupts the flow IMO especially if you have tint. all you focus on is the light colored verticle line sticking out on your windows. Basically what Magikone69 just said.

 

slap on a set of CF door pillars and ur almost back to stock

contact slammed95 if ur interested !

 

the grill I have is a Trenz polished billet grill the original one that does not have the bar in the middle like they do now...

 

Yup I totally agree. I only did one side on our white SE to check how it would look so I only have one side to fix now. I was wondering if there was something in carbon fiber that I could use. Mostly likely I just spray it back in gloss black.
If your vinyl is faded and ugly you can just buy a can of clear and spray it. I did it on the GXE and it looks pretty good. You'll have mask the area around it when spraying of course.

 

I hate the way it looks body colored...as others have mentioned it disrupts the flow of the glass....especially when tinted.

 

I did mine and I love it!

 

yes! exactly what i was thinking!

i wish i would have known that...

 

well compared to the faded vinyl I had. This looks much better with shiny paint.

 

I like mine.
like optimus said, shiny paint > faded vinyl.

I don't have any other dark colored trim on my car either, so the black between the windows was sort of out of place.

overall, the difference it made is hardly anything major anyway, so whatever.

 

I did a crap job removing mine and left lots of glue and stuff on the pillar, but I still like it over stock.

 

Not trying to stop anyone that wants go body color but if your complaining about faded vinyl then you can always buy a fresh sheet of vinyl at a graphics shop and redo it

 

I agree that is looks terrible on cars with tint at or below 20%. I did mine and it was terrible. I recently repainted it with black engine enamel and its MUCH better.

My 95 was body color.

 

IMOA "It looks like DOGSH!T"
I can't figure out why anyone would ever want to break up that section of the car. Especially when window tint increases the beauty of a Maxima by making the glass look 1 piece.

 

exactly what i thought, to me it doesnt flow with the car. i dont know how to explain it but its like the car has been sectioned off like, front door, back door... magikone said it alot better

 

after this thread i just started to notice that mine sorta looks faded. if i make any changes it will be to just add another piece of black vinyl. or maybe the CF insert. i saw one in person and it looks very sharp upclose and not that noticeable from afar. not ricey at all IMO

 

so you painted it and it turned out ok? does it look like it did before?

 

I do not regret it at all, even with my 5%.

 

hmmm... I was about to chime in and agree with everyone that said it breaks up the window thing going on, but I must admit that does look pretty nice

 

how do those look... pics? real cf?

 

Yep. Two coats and it looks good as new. Just be sure to cover the entire car will drop cloth and tape off the area. Paint floats a lot farther than one would think. Makes me wonder how they keep paint booths so clean. I know they wet down the floor but the walls are usually sparkling white.

 

what did you use? flat black? duplicolor?

 

I dont get the point in it...it really clutters the design on lighter colored cars imo.

 

I kind of like mine with the black there.
Just My opinion.

 

Okay...

Being a detailing guy I got a lot of **** from everybody about my black strips...even "non car" people were ghettoing me so I decided to do something about it.

I decided that I liked the black and I had heard that you don't even have to go to a sign shop...you can just order replacment vinyl from Nissan...pre-cut, proper finish, etc.

So I go to peel the first one off. OH MY GOD what a pain in the *** getting the adhesive off is!!!! I have no idea how you guys could go through that 4 times. We tried amonia, we tried alcohol, we went to the store and got 3m adhesive remover, we tried using the heat gun as we peeled...etc. Nothing we tried "worked" in any kind of acceptable manner...everything was about as easy as just using your nail. Finally towards the very end I tried claying it, and that worked decently. There was not enough left at that point to say if the clay would make the process "easy" for the rest of them though.

So, what did I do for the other 3? I just cleaned the vinyl and stuck the new vinyl right over it. Technique and cleanliness is *very* important and my passenger side came out better than my driver's side, but overall it was relatively easy. I have 0 idea how you guys could get all the adhesive goo off in anything approcahing a reasonable amount of time.

The toughest part is removing the moldings from the car. I actually bent one of mine and need to replace it (which means I will probably have to replace all the others to make it look the same...ugh). But replacing the black vinyl is not bad at all. If I had to guess I would say you could stick two layers of vinyl over the original before you had to peel it to make it look right and fit properly....so I have one more replacement before I even have to worry about it again.

 

how much did it cost from nissan?

 

to remove adhesive i found the perfect chemical. we have it at our job and its denatureated alcohol?? i believe it is called. well reading the instructions i saw no warning saying not to be used on paint and i went ahead a and used some on a cloth to remove the adhesive after removing the maxima emblem and gle emblem off of my trunk. goo gone, that 3m remover and all of that stuff did absolutely nothing. the denatureated alcoho removed the adhesive in just 4 wipes with a cloth and it didnt harm the finish in no manner at all. if you have problems removing adhesive residue i suggest some denatureated alcohol, a tin from home depot ran only a couple of bux.

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't denatured alcohol strip the clear coat off?

drew