Please dont post until im finished it wont take long...

First off, I pulled all the pieces off the vehicle. There are four screws in the main engine cover, take thos out and you have that piece off. The other two plastic pieces are held in by clips. There are four clips on the small piece and five clips on the other piece. Pop thosde off with a screwdricer or butter knife. I had some problems with my clips as im sure many people do. (i broke them all exept one...LOL)
Now you have your pieces off.

Set all hardware from the pieces (bolts and clips if you have any left) to the side in a safe place.

Now you take off the silver piece on the top of the main engine cover. If you flip it over there are little clips attached to the silver piece. Guide those out carefully with a small screwdriver.

When you have the piece flipped over you will notice the NISSAN hamburger is pushed in with small clips. I used a pair of needle nose pliers and just pushed the clips through to the other side and emblem came right off.

Last you want to make sure you take out the small rubber grommet and metal sleeve that are on the main engine where the bolts go through (just use your hands they come off very easy) and set them somewhere safe as well.
Finaly, i cleaned all my engine pieces with regular hand soap and water in the bath tub with a washcloth and dried them with a towel.

The next day it was raining (of course) so i set up a make shift paint booth out my back door to get started then it stopped so i went outside.

 

I put maybee three or four good coats on each piece until everything was covered real good. This is the paint i used.

Then i applied 2-3 coats of clear. This is the clear i used. Be carefull with the clear coat, it tends to spit out of the can and can be a real pain in the butt so take your time.

 

This is how the pieces started to turn out...
And then the main cover with the silver piece put back on and the hamburger snapped back in. This is a very easy step just go backwards from earlier.
And here is the finished product on the car and looking sweet.

 

Thank you to everyone at maxima.org for all the help you have given my. I hope this thread helps some of you with your future mods.
GOOD LUCK!

 

looks good thanks for the write up

 

Nice write up. My questions is tho where you going for a matching of the exterior parts or did you just want a red?

 

I plan on doing mine in a few weeks when it gets warmer here. Thanks for the write up it answered all my questions

Cheers

 

looks good man, how many spray cans did you go through?

 

Nice write up, maybe when the weather gets better here, i'll try it. Your engine looks good, now how about adding a cai to that engine?

 

I like it. Looks good. Nice write-up.

 

well, i knew i would not be able to match the engine exactly with the rest of the car so i went with red. I have all the red LED lights so it looks good all together.

I went through 3 cans of paint at $4.40 a piece (walmart)
and only one and a half cans of clear about $4.50 per can.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

CAI is one of the next mods. It will also be easy to find a red CAI to match the engine.

 

Looks real good...did u have any problems finding replacement bolts and clips?

 

Very nice job and write-up.

 

Good Job Nice Thread..

 

Looks good.

 

nice writeup how long did everything take you like the coating and drying?

 

The clips that i bought are not the same as stock but they work just fine. I got them from autozone for $3.99.
i had all the pieces sprayed and coated with the clear in about two and a half hours. then i let the pieces sit for about 6 hours and put them on my car overnight. The paint and clear that i used dries extremely fast. If you find a color you like i would recommend both products.

 

nice job.

 

thanks for the right up, i was plannin on doin this in the next few weeks...my only question is what did u use to clean the engine pieces off before u painted them and did u have to do ne prep work to them?

 

very nice, thank you for the write up

 

no sanding or priming is needed with the paint i used. I cleaned the pieces in my bathtub with regular hand soap (i think it was softsoap) using a washcloth to get them good and clean then dried with a towel.

 

We'll see how long it lasts...