I'm thinking of getting the hood and front bumber repainted on our '02 Gray Lustre. It has the common dings and chips associated with 5th gen Maxima's.

Has anyone else done this? What was the cost and will the re-paint hold up better than the factory paint? Are there different ways to apply the paint to make it more durable? What kind of paint shop should I look for?

 

I had mine repainted after some old lady swiped my front fender. Honestly, its a waist of your time if you ask me. The new paint will become just as crappy in no time....

Just drive around old people and they will paint it for you for free...

 

But there must be some way to make the paint more durable. Of all the cars I've owned only the Nissan's have had this problem. I mean the other cars had a few dings but nothing like the Nissan's. Is it cheap paint or is it the way they apply it?

 

3m clear paint guard, works for me.

 

It is the paint, they have really crappy paint...

 

funny, but also true

 

Just find a shop that will use a flex additive in the clear and you should be fine.You gonna have to get the whole nose painted(to blend the color) Make sure you emphasize that you need the paint to hold up if you talk to your insurance company they can recommend you to a shop that will warranty there work. hope this helps.
Fred

 

+1 on the 3m. I, unfortunatly, didn't do it.

 

Those 3M's cost too many beans. You're looking at something like $250, not sure how much a repaint would cost.

Nissan's paint is pretty thin if you ask me, my sisters durango has never been washed for 4 months and looks newer than mine, oh and it's a '98

 

$250 more to protect a $750-$1000 investment sounds good to me! I really wish I would have done it.

 

I had mine repainted about a year and a half ago. It's back to the way it looked before the paint job. If you et a repaint, make sure to try and get some sort of baking action as that will help the paint stay on longer. Also go to a shop that will give it a lifetime warranty.

 

if you get a reputable body shop to paint it, you'll be ok. I got mine done w/ front lip and it still looks new. Another big factor is how you maintain your car. Do you wash it weekly,montly,etc...I wash mine once a week no matter. I paid $450.

 

+1 on the 3M, but it's probably more like $500-$600 for the Maxima, but worth every penny!! I had it installed on my wife's Acura MDX 2 winters ago and have NO nicks,chips or scratches. Here in CT the DOT believes in "sanding" with crushed stone instead of the fine beach sand. Once I have my front end repainted I'll be applying it to my Max as well.

 

Ask them to add more more coats of the clear coat, the more clear on top, the harder it will be to get to the base paint coat.

 

Its also easier for the clear to start cracking if there is to much...

the 3m stuff is the best bet, but it is expensive.... If it is just rock chips, I would leave it alone unless you can afford the 3m covering to protect it.

 

The rock chips on this car are horrible...worse than any car I have owned...is it just a poor paint quality or what? The hood already looks horrible after only 4 years.

 

Even with proper curing? I see a lot of those car shows on TV apply 3-4 coats of clear and haven't heard of a problem.

 

I had a problem with my rear bumper, it had to be re-cleared after it was already re-painted and it started to crack and chip even worse. Every body shop in town told me that it is just to much material on Plastic bumpers. If it was on metal that did not flex so much, it is not much of a problem.


The big problem is, you cannot really strip or sand down the bumpers. The strippers are to harsh I guess, and sanding gets to hot. So you have to paint over old paint and it is to much material on a flexable plasstic bumper.

 

So how does the 3M work? Is it a film that is applied after the car is painted or is it part of the painting process?

Also for those who have had your hoods repainted how much did it cost you?

 

Bumpers are totally sandable!

 

Try Dupont Imron, it is what they paint airplanes and trucks with.

 

What is 3m?

 

http://www.innerbean.com/housecor/clear_bra.html

 

I repainted both hood and bumper at Nissan body shop. Cost me about $500. I wanted to have exact match for Icelandic Pearl paint. Then I put on 3M ClearBra on both. I think, bumper was $120 shipped and hood was about $70 shipped. Check out www.invisiblemask.com, they have good prices and I bought the bumper part from them. My buddy that owns a window tinting shop and I installed them together in less than an hour...

 

A new bumper for me was about $50, the new paint for the bumper and AE lip was $250, so total cost was $300 with the flex additive in the clear coat

The only difference is that I don't have the pitting issue as I did with the original bumper and factory paint. Rocks and debris used to hit and make little craters in the paint plus the rock chips. Now there is no pitting and less rock chips

I asked for the highest quality of paint they have, the paint code is not neccesarily Nissan specific so it matters little on what type of car you have.

 

Yeah, I can see that, I think my bumper alone to paint with the elastomer was $250 and another $250 for the hood... I just went with Nissan body shop so that the paint looks the same all around. The rear bumper was done some time before I bought the car, and though the paint on it is icelandic pearl, you can see that it is slightly off compared to the rest of the car and I did not want the same to happen with hood/bumper as it would be more obvious...

 

Not enough to really strip them, thats what I was told by EVERY bodyshop in the area. It gets to hot and the plastic starts to melt.

One shop said they could strip it, however they really did no want to. They also told me that it would be cheaper to just get a new bumper by around $100 than to pay them to strip it.... Thats also stripping with a chemical, not sanding. No shop would sand it. It would cost so much to use the chemicals because they had to apply it slowly and many times, so it is time consuming and labor intensive = $$$$.

You can sand a bumper enough to rough up the current paint to make the new stuff hold better, but not enough to strip it.

 

Yup, they have just lightly sanded mine and painted over... They did a good job so I don't mind them not stripping it all the way... Depending how badly roughed up your bumper is, it may be worth buying a new one...