MaxJag

My Max came with the Black lettering. It's starting to peel.
Which looks better on a 2K with SE tails:

Chrome

or

Blacked Out?

01SE02SER

For '00/'01, GXE and GLE Maximas had the chrome look to the rear badges. Only the SE and SE AE had the black-colored badges. For '02/'03, all trims had the chrome badges.

Anyway, I prefer the black-colored badges. It better matches the smoked taillights of the '00/'01 SE.

Peace.

Y2K1JKSE

i concur =P

MaxJag

What can I use to restore the Black coloring? I tried a permanent
black marker but it failed.

Loe max

iTrader: (6)

Your best bet is to buy another pair of badges from Nissan, either chrome or black ones. I believe the Chrome ones run about $20 for MAXIMA and $10 for SE and paint them yourself and add a coat of clearcoat.

jsmith24

You can do sort of what Nissan did. The lettering is chromed, with an overcoat of a semitransparent smoke paint. Here's what i would do:

See if you can strip as much of the black off as possible. I'd recommend lacquer thinner, but man, if you miss I'd hate to see you rub paint off the trunk. So, do whatever you can to remove the smoke coloring, or you could try to repair what's damaged.

Now, go down to your local hobby store and pick up a bottle of Tamiya Clear Smoke paint. Any store that sells model kits should have it, especially those that sell radio control cars.

Now, either brush it on by hand with a small flat hobby brush or airbrush it on. You really don't need an airbrush, this stuff leaves almost no visible brush strokes. Anyway, brush/airbrush a coat, let it dry for a few hours, then brush on another coat. Let each coat dry for 1-2 hours, and keep going until you get the color you want.

When you achieve the color, let it dry for a day at least, and don't wash it (Tamiya paints are water based, water soluble). Then you can use either Krylon crystal clear (requires spraying and masking), or any good Gloss Lacquer (Testors Glosscote) and brush on a protective, glossy coating that should make a nice, fairly durable coating.

You can also do this to plain chrome lettering, or if you want, you can apply Tamiya Clear Yellow or Clear Orange to achieve a gold-like appearance. I can't recall which of these makes a more convincing look (not that I'd do it anyway).

You'd be amazed what you can learn in the furniture industry...

Jack

2k3TitaniumSe

iTrader: (3)

blacked out...looks sportier.

MaxJag

Furniture rules! I'm gonna black-it-out. Now I just need some
Miglia Evo 5's. Thanks for the tip jsmith24. I'm printing it out now!

jsmith24

Oh, I should have mentioned, those paints come in red, blue, green and a few others. If you want that "anodized" color matched look, you could experiment.

Before the clear coat, you can usually remove this paint with a good strong ammonia cleaner like Windex or even 409 and a toothbrush.

Jack

KL99SEA

iTrader: (1)

I removed the chrome ones on my Titanium colored 03 and put on the black chrome. Looks MUCH better. I was going to leave it without but it looked plain.

Triple8Sol

iTrader: (29)

I'd say black lettering for superblack