Hope this question doesn't offend anyone since I'm just trying to cover all basis before diving into this front-end conversion.

I have read all 4 threads in the mod FAQ before I decided to ask this question. I have read that everyone, except REDMAX95, did not use this additional support bar that comes on the 97-99 Maximas. My question is this, how strong will the converted bumper be w/o this support bar? The reason why I asked is because last weekend, I had a little frontal accident. I was in Long Beach and this lady in a Murano tapped my car while she was backing out of her space. It jolted my car pretty well and I thought the front bumper cover is majorly damaged but to my surprise the only thing that was damaged was the front license plate holder. There were some minor scratches on the bumper but nothing major that I couldn't tell. I have previous cracks on it prior which the front license plate holder was conceiling pretty well. Anyhow, I'm sure the bumper cover held up as it should because of the reinforcement provided by the 95/96 support bar behind it. I am wondering how this same support bar would reinforce the 97-99 bumper cover since I am not sure how it would be oriented behind it. Perhaps there might be a gap behind the 97-99 bumper cover when installed over the 95/96 front end and that the 97-99 support bar would fill that in which then would provide the correct reinforcement.

So this is pretty much my only concern. I hope some of you guys who've done this conversion can answer this question. Thanks.

 

Anyone??? Bumpy bump!!!

 

i did a conversion after an accident. the 97 bumper reinforment is steel. its strogner than the 95-96. the thign directly behind the bumper is a hard impact foam that protects the bumper cover from dent under 5 mph. the impact foam is about 30 bucks, the reinforcement is about 70. u can probably still use your old reinfordement. i would buy new foam for the 97 front though.

if you use the 95 reinforcement. u may want to paint it black. some of it shows throught the larger 97 mouth holes. looks better if its black.

 

Awesome!!! Thanks for the info. What was the original color of the 95/96 support bar?

 

I've also done this conversion. I wouldn't be concerned about the foam or the bar. It's pretty much a direct replacement aside from the headlight and grill assembly. It should be just as strong as it was before the conversion.

 

the 95-96 maxima did decent on front end crash test. the 97-99 maxima with the new sttel reinforcement did much better.

95-96 reinforcement is an alumium silver color, 97-99 is black.

 

Thanks Max Noob.

 

A lil off-topic question but still pertaining to the front end conversion:

Has anyone tried eliminating the plastic grill inserts on the 97-99? In other words, having just the "H" piece w/o the plastic (usually black) inserts in the middle? I think that would look really coool!!!

Hope you don't mind me using your car's pic Max Noob. What do you think?

 

pic doesnt show up..and yeah its cool..

i was goign to cut mine out with a dremel..the 97-99 gril parts.. but if you look at it.its a pretty big dremel project with alot of places to mess up and it would be really hard to make it look clean.. thats why i just had the shop paint the grill part black..and leave the H part painted.

 

Sorry, Cardomain sucks badly at times. I have a few uploaded photos that misteriously pop up with a red X and no photo....lame! Anyhow try this.

Also I didn't realize that the middle piece is such a pain in the ****! I thought it was just a separate piece that can be unsnapped or unscrewed. I can tell that besides dremelling, you'd also need to somehow coverup areas that would show up after cutting to get a clean look. I'll be scouting around the salvage yards around here and see if I can find a grill I can work on. Hopefully, I can find one.

 

wow.. nice phtoto chopping..damn.. haha..it makes me want to try to cut the grills out now.

 

chants......... do it, do it, do it!!!