Well after months of saving and research Ive finally purchased a 98 SE 5spd. Its in excellent condition, minus some paint scratches that I will fix, and HOLY CRAP its fun on the highway (love that manual). 1 question is where do I get this little piece next to the foglight Ive highlighted in one of the pics?

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...64137914WnmOEl

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...64137392oLjfDN

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...64138492vQOJYB

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...64138259mMrjEn

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...64137616ctFaRl

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...64138100mthIoI

It definitely needs a waxing and touch-up paint here and there and such but im at school and dont really have the supplies to do it properly and all. I had to drive it through 160 miles of a snow storm the day I got it (sat) - kinda scary for the first day. what do you guys think?

welcome to the .org! Hope you enjoy driving the brute, becareful with driving in the snow...

congrats and welcome... pretty clean, good luck moddin it

nissan dealer would be best option for little peices (but if your talking about the reflectors the y want like 30$ a peice)

oh yeah and welcome, read the faqs, and enjoy!

you can also try a junkyard. I need to get one as well. Yeah either the junkyard, or as CarbonDreams said, the dealer. WELCOME!

it depends where the nearest maxima is around you lol j/p good luck with the car

nice another pebble beige.

w1icked max is that a multize.(spelled worng) the dog i mean.. my girl has one just like it... i love the little buddy.. only hers sleeps on its back.. kinda weird but i love that guy..


okay back to max.. welcome.. and enjoy the car ... we lost a max recently so learn and dont drive like a @$$ on the highway.. heheh but its hsure is fun.. heh

Not bad...I would just check the junkyards first for that piece and then hit up the dealer. Something like that junkyards would practically give away...

thanks guys - the guy i bought it from is sending me some touch-up paint soon. anybody have any experience on how good of a job that paint can do. im kinda particular about the paint lookin good and i dont want to have to replace the bumpers but they do have some quite noticeable scratches

Another beige Maxima!!! Welcome to the org. Mine was missing too when I first bought it. Got that piece from the stealer for $9.

BTW, the front and rear bumper on my car was badly scratched and scuffed too. I ended up getting the entire car repainted since its pretty hard to paint-match the messed up areas to the rest of the car due to age.

Welcome to the org. Enjoy!

9 dollars! - nice; was repainting pretty expensive? - ive heard if done right its like a thousand or so. could i just have the bumpers repainted.

Up here in New York there are Maaco's they do repaints for cheap like couple hundred not sure how much. I heard they do an okay job like they'll sand it down and match paint it but if you paint a different color it will look bad because they won't paint the insides so the outside and the inside won't match.

See if there are Maaco's around your area.

anyone w/ maaco experience?

no but dont go there unless you dont care about quality, neways man nice car and welcome

welcome. read the faq's and dont ask any noob questions.


clean max, btw

Yeah its a maltese/poodle.


MaximaConvert
touch up paint sucks. Just look around for bodyshops....dunno about macco.

welcome to the org.

would it make sense to just do the bumpers - ill see if i cant get some more pics up and tell me what you think. thanks for any input.

heres the damages

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...64727315yofFSf

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...64727335iaesfp

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...64727358ftyzFH

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...64727387VBOhbe

welcome to the org. i remember when i first save up and bought my maxima. first time on the highway i loved it too

A good body shop should be able to match the paint pretty good without having to paint the entire car. If anything, it has to look better than the spots on it now...(unless you use touchup paint, then it'll look ****ty)

so the general consensus is touch-up paint = bad idea?

Welcome to the .org.

I have one of those pieces you're looking for for the fog light.I can just send it to you for nothing considering it's a very small piece.Just PM your address.

thanks! PM sent - id really appreciate that.

Congrats, starting off with the right ingredients: 5Spd & 98, what's first? the drop!

yeah touch up paint will look ****ty on that. My bumpers are pretty bad too. I was actually qouted $400 to fix a dent and repaint most of my car(like 3/4 of it).

thanks, yea - cant decide between D2's or JIC's......................

i think repainting the bumpers it is; at some point - im prob going to get the stillen kit. i guess it would prob make the most sense to wait to paint till i get that

Damn i wish i had a manual.

Actually, it depends on where you take it. Don't take it to Maaco! I took mine and for a while the paint held up (a little over a year). Now the paint is peeling! And recently, I had just did the door pillar mod by removing the black film around the door pilars and the color under was lighter than the color of the car! The paint they used is aftermarket! I'll try to take a few photos today showing it and post it here. The upside is that I have a 4 year warranty on the paint so I'm probably going to call their 800 number and complain. With that experience, I'd rather spend the thousand on a good factory quality paint job, than a $500 Maaco job.

**edit**

Went ahead and took photos, here they are:

wow, yea i see what youre sayin. if not maaco is there another well-known company that would do a better job or should i just look around locally?

Welcome to the org. And welcome to the 5 Speed club as well.

enjoy your stay, we have fresh faqs enjoy. . .

I wish you did too

All I can suggest is if you can find a reputable shop that can "blend" the colors right, then you can get away with just painting the bumpers. If a shop is ready to show some of the work they are doing, I'd say they might be a good shop. But then again, Maaco showed me this vehicle they were doing when I got my estimate and I thought that they're going to do a good job on mine. You just don't know anymore what people do when noone is looking. You'll eventually find a good shop based on what people recommend to you. Don't rush into getting your car painted just yet, just do a lot of research. And when you are bored one day, just look in the yellowpages, and visit your local body shops and ask to see their work. Get some quotes as well.

thanks man - yea itll prob be awhile cause i think im gonna wait till the stillen kit bc it prob makes more sense to do so

Ive noticed that my friend's (Mad-Max_SE) 95 pebble beige looks noticeably lighter than mine. Is that gonna be a problem if i try to blend the bumpers w/ the rest of the body (is there that much variability in the actual pebble-beige metallic paint?

Well you have to consider the fact that depending on how each person maintains their car, ie: washing, waxing, etc., the condition of the paint is going to be different. That is why its very time consuming and expensive for body/paint shops to do any kind of color blending. It's true that the manufacturer color code for, lets say, a pebble beige is the same for all pebble beige Maximas. But not all Maximas will have the exact paint condition and appearance because of many different factors such as environment. In due time it will take its toll on any painted surfaces.

not really. My car was in a minor accident, which I needed to replace my front bumper. The matching was perfect IMO,but they did a crappy job of applying it so its peeling.