Hey everyone, after about 2 days and nearly 2 bottles of Duplicolor wheel paint I finally finished painting my dash! Feel free to let me know how you think it came out, thanks http://maxima.cardomain.com/memberpage/837045

 

Yo bro What do u ahve to do to paint it? do u have to sand it a lil bit to get the paint to stick? Is it a silver-ish color? It looks amazing wish i had that digital A/c controls cuz u get that black stripe on ur dash when u repaint the dash i've heard. I want to repaint mine a dark silver to match the interior set up i plan on installing.

 

beautiful

 

why didnt you paint the ashtray? other than that it looks great i really like the contrast

 

Looks good, but so does the original solid black.
I have thought about changing mine, but I dont think i can leave the entire black inside

 

that's awesome. makes me wish i had black interior too.

 

There is a write up in the stickies on how to paint the dash. Yes it is a good idea to sand it to get a smooth finish (especially if you bought the car used because you don't know if any armor all has ever been used on it, etc...)...you want to get any dirt and chemicals off. I followed the writeup to a T and even used liquid AJAX as recommended and wet sanded all the pieces to get them nice and smooth prior to painting. Yes it's silver...it's silver Duplicolor wheel paint, just like what was used in the writeup. Goodluck

 

As you can see my ash tray has the "burger" Nissan emblem on it and I decided the emblem would have better contrast against the black ash tray rather than if the ash tray were to be painted silver. I personally like how it looks better with the ash tray black, but then again I could just be weird.

Thanks to all who have commented!!!

 

sweet, looks good

 

looks good bro

 

Looks sweet, can't wait to do mine memorial day weekend.

 

Looks great. One question for ya.
HOw did you get the side vents out? I thought you had to take the entire dash out for those...did you? I couldn't get mine out.
Happy modding.

 

i agree with ruthless; i would do anything for an all black interior. but it also does look really nice after the paint. if you take the time and effort to do a good job painting, it really pays off. you can tell when someone just slapped it on there.

 

bhmax16, did you put a clear coat on everything once it was finished?

 

All black interior is the way to go.

<--- Black on Black

BTW, the paint looks good, but would look a lot classier/less ricey if you just painted the center stack and gauge surround, and left all the little peices alone (door pieces, cupholder?, etc.)

 

it looks really good... maybe i should think about doing it

 

Not my style, but looks like you did a good job.

 

looks hot as ****

 

I thought it would look like crap until I clicked on the link.

It looks pretty good.

What did you do to prep the plastic?

 

yea, looks really nice for a 'do it yourself' project. just as good as a dash kit.

 

beautiful!!!

hey, if u sanded it down, what did u use for the finish? bcuz it looks very smooth.

 

Dave H. - Which side vents? The ones up high closest to the windshield or the ones by the glovebox and side mirror adjustment? I'm assuming you're talking about the ones by the glovebox and mirror adjustment. Those were a pain to get out, but I figured out a method that works pretty well (just be careful). I took a flathead screw driver and start by prying the corners at the bottom of each. Once you get the bottom corners popped out tilt the screwdriver so it is practically verticle and push up gently, seperating the rest of the vent little by little as you work your way towards the top. It will eventually pop out (Warning, it was also a pain in the a** to put them back in...but it was worth it in the end). If this was unclear at all let me know.

Enjoyincubus - You can clear coat it if you'd like but I chose not to. Clear coating it will give it a glossy finish which I thought would probably make it look artificial and fake. The wheel paint is resistant to chipping and scratches so it should hold up just fine and worst case if something ever gets scratched badly I can take it out, wet sand it, and paint it again.


Black Max - I didn't see any problem with doing the window switches, but I can understand why you maybe wouldn't like the tweeter grills and cupholder, etc... The main reason I did the cup holder was because it was really scratched up so I sanded it down and painted over it and I feel the car looks much better in person than the pics. I'm not a fan of rice at all

Paredline - Prep for this entire mod is in the stickies, but to give you a quick summary I soaked all the pieces in warm water with liquid ajax and wet sanded them smooth prior to painting

tslrock - I give you props for giving me the best comment so far! Thanks glad you like it!

 

Thanks! I just wet sanded with very fine grit sandpaper as the pieces were soaking in the warm water and liquid ajax mix. The pieces weren't primed at all if that's what you're asking. The paint is Duplicolor wheel paint, which is the same paint that was used in the writeup in the stickies. As long as you sand the pieces down smooth and take your time while painting and not try to rush it you will get a very nice smooth finish, which, IMO, looks better than any dash kit you can buy. If you have any other questions let me know

 

Yep, you're alright! J/K

Obviously, the nissan "burger" has the better contrast against black, but why do you need an emblem there anyway? To remind yourself you're driving a Nissan? To remind the passenger he's in a Nissan? Looks totally out of place. Ditch the emblem, paint the panel, and it's awesome! Nice paint job. Way to be a DIY'er.

 

Now that I think about it you may be right. I guess when I took the emblem off I wanted to do something with it instead of just trashing it and I saw a few other maximas with it on the ash tray so I just sorta threw it there thinking it was the most logical place, but I guess you're right that it'll look cleaner without it. This weekend I'll take it off and fix it Thanks for the comment on the paint job too. I'm definitely a novice when it comes to some of this stuff but I'm usually willing to take risks and as long as I take my time I rarely have disasterous results!

 

Nice job... It looks very professional.

 

looks nice, makes me want to do it

 

Looks great! If I do anything to my dash, it will be paint. I don't think I want a dash kit. Overall, would you consider it to have been a fairly easy DIY?

 

oh ..... what the hell? first time seeing this, Nice!

 

Looks real good. Looks like a fun project.

 

Looks great! I was thinking of doing it but i thought it would take a lot a work and would be a pain in the ***. How long did it take you for the whole project?

 

Northern Maxima - Def paint it, it has much more of an OEM look than a dash kit would. And no there is nothing that I would call "difficult" about doing this mod. The important thing is you can't try to rush it. You have to take your time so you don't break any plastic while removing some of the pieces, and it's just as important to take your time while spray painting so you don't get any runs/bubbles in the paint. If you do you'll have to sand it down and start over again unless you want your dash to look like crap. The writeup in the stickies was written VERY well and if I was even able to do this successfully I'm sure just about anybody can!

Fr33way02 - There isn't really anything that's a pain in the *** about this. I wouldn't suggest trying to do the small piece of trim around each of the heated seat buttons like I did though (if you have heated seats) because it's very easy to break the switches while taking them out. I broke both regardless of how careful I was being and had to fabricate new hinges by cutting and bending paper clips! After that and some super glue they now are as good as new but that def set me back a good 2 hours fixing those. Other than that everything else is pretty straight forward. It took me 3 days to get everything done but keep in mind I was only working on it a few hours a day (oh and just so you know, your car runs perfectly fine without your speedometer in it!) so even if you had nearly everything out of your car and you weren't finished you could still go drive somewhere if you REALLY had to

 

good to know

 

doing the exact same thing to my car as we speak...well my friends doing it for me anyway...im using wheel paint...primer..and clear coat..to make it a little shiny..hope it turns out clean like yours..GJ

 

Wow man that looks amazing, did you paint over the Woodgrain? or just the regular

 

I have an SE, not a GLE, so just had black plastic to paint over, no woodgrain. I can see you have a GLE. I don't see any reason why you couldn't paint over the wood grain but I think you would definitely want to prime it. However if you're happy with the woodgrain I'd recommend keeping it...it'll make the car easier to sell. Plus this mod is a little risky because if you don't do it right it definitely will look like crap, but if you're confident in your abilities and you take your time you should have no problems

 

Well, it's not my style. I have all black interior and black leather and I love it! It looks sooooooooooo sexy. Today's cars are such a cluster of different colors and textures, it looks too busy to me, ( not yours ). Looks like you did a fine job my man. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, simple is better.