Although I'm still undecided as to whether I actually LIKE this look on my car (needs to wait until daylight), Here are pics of the fun.

I baked them in the oven to pull them apart, then completely disassembled the headlights and taped up all the chrome... First pic is of everything right after painting.







After drying enough to pull tape off:

 

During reassembly:







Tools to fix the cloudy plastic cover:

 

And installed on car:

 

Should have gone body color with the grill.

 

I still may.... Once I see it in daylight I'll decide for sure.

The reason I even painted any of it is b/c the grill and the headlight housing was so similar to the sterling mist, but obviously a different color. It bothered me alot

 

i still need to do my headlights.....

 

Really nice work on the Head Lamps, and once can figure out just how to get the front grill off I won't mind trying the color swap to my body color, again very nice work. Alway good to see pic's of the work in progress.

 

love the way its comming outt.. might be doing this to my max.. its a grey lustre soo it should come out good ... g00d work tho

 

I like it.

When I blacked mine out, I decided to only do the outer trim piece and keep the inner parts silver and it gives it a nice two tone effect.

 

man my 00 bumper blows. good work.

 

You can still paint that 00 grill, it'd just take a little more taping

The engine cover and custom intake painting came out perfect~!

Before anybody even mentions it, I am going to paint the bolts on the engine cover black to match lol.

The only annoying part was taping over the v6 3.5 lettering.

 

Oh and the easiest way to get the front grill off is as follows:

Pull the 4 pins holding the bumper on the top.

Using a 10mm deep socket, or a 10mm regular socket + an extension, remove the 2 nuts on the far left and far right sides of the grill. They are about 80% of the way UP the grill, on the far left and right sides.

Pull the bumper back some (don't go heman on it and break something...) so you can reach the middle bolt near the nissan emblem.

After removing all 3 nuts, you can either pull on the grill (risky) or reach down to the bottom of the grill and release the tabs on the far left and right sides. It will slide right out.

 

would have gone body color if i were you on the bezel

 

Nice job man.I'm thinking of doing my headlamps as well but would rather color match them.

 

the headlights are beast. on that light of a car i would have gone with body color as well, eng. cover looks good as well. real clean job. i want to do mine, but the chrome is peeling on the letters.. pissing me off.

 

does anyone have pics of the headlights painted body color on steerling mist? im curious to see what they look like before i do mine.

 

What temp and how long in the oven for the lights ? I tried my tails at 200F for 6 mins and i still cant get them apart, i cracked one....................................ouch

 

What type of paint did you use for the headlights? Any sanding prior to painting them?

 

great work looks a lot better blacked out!

 

man that looks good i got a silver max too and was gonna do that(the headlights and engine cover) looks good now i know its gonna look sick on my car props dude

 

+1 (I'm still scared to put my headlights in the oven!)

 

Guys the headlights in the oven is really really simple....

Preheat oven to 200 degees.

Wrap headlight in a towel then put on a baking sheet.

Put in oven for 10-20 minutes.

As long as the plastic is not directly touching any metal, NOTHING will melt but the adhesive.

I've baked mine open a couple of times now, and will again when I get angel eyes, it's really simple!

 

I like how everything came out, however on sterling mist I think the stock colors look better IMO. Definitely good work on it though, would be curious to see some daytime pictures maybe it looks a lot better in natural light.

 

That look pretty sweet. I would definitely do it if I had the time to.

The one thing that sticks out to me now is the clear corners. If you went with the smoked corners, and blacked out the tails (or get 00-01 SE tails), the whole color scheme would be complete, and IMO look great.

 

Like I mentioned (guessing you didn't read), I found myself very annoyed every time I looked at the front of my car b/c the color of the stock grille and headlight housing is similar, but so obviously different from the sterling mist that it REALLY contrasts when looking at it in person. I've had so many people ask me if I got the wrong color when I did my grill.

The reason I went with black first is b/c it is MUCH cheaper than going with the sterling mist, and also b/c the sterling mist paint is pretty tough to get looking right b/c of the metallic flake in it. At a later date, I may go with sterling mist for the front "lip" area of the grill and the headlight housing.

 

Daytime pics:

 

 

I think for the black grille to look right I'm going to have to blackout the lower grille area, as well.

 

bold painting it in your house...PS wana come and bake my headlights to pull them apart? i'm scared to do that to mine haha

looks good..shoulda color matched the grill though

 

my painted grill and engine cover...i personally think its looks better on a black car

 

I like the look of the blacked out grille in the daylight. But body color would look good too, so you really can't go wrong. And nice job on the lights. Looks sharp.

 

Looks decent but I think the emblem sticks out to much on the black grill. IMO, you should smoke it with some translucent smoke paint.

 

Damn, that's hawt! Where'd you get that masterpiece of a work from?

 

I like the daytime pictures much better.

 

Me too! I'm pretty happy with it like this... I think it looks alot more agressive than the body color grill would.

 

me like it..... good job

 

I like the headlights man!!!...I was thinking of doing this on my sheer silver but do you think it would look good or is sheer silver to bright for blacked out housing headlights?

 

I suppose it depends on the look you are going for. I've seen alot of silver max's with blacked out headlights and they all look pretty nice

 

I'm goin for the blacked out look, headlights, tails, corners. I just didn't want to paint the housing and then not like it. Are your tails also blacked out or anything?...


Any sheer silver's out there with the blacked out look? PICS?

 

Looks good, but I think it would look even better if you blacked out the lower part of your bumper (body colored part under the lower grille)