Well, maybe to a few people at least. I was just fixin my friend's 96 200SX SE-5, and noticed that her B-pillar(?, pillar between door window and rear door window) had been rubbing against the rear quarter window. Now, the interesting thing was that it is black, but was wearing body color! So, upon further inspection, it appears Nissan painted her B-pillar body color, and then slapped a piece of black vinyl sticker over it. I wonder why they found that necessary, I know it wasn't cost efficient! Not only that, but I paid a body shop to paint the ones on my max body color! Why couldn't they be that "cost efficient" with the Max's! Here's a picture of what I paid the body shop to paint body color, that her 200SX was painted factory, but then covered with a sticker.

(The pillar between the side windows)

 

Well, if you look around, you'll see lots of sedans that have black B-pillars. Manufacturers do that because they think that people buying sedans really want their cars to look like coupes. So blacking-out the B-pillar sort of gives the impression that the car has only one long door on each side. Of course, I don't like coupes, so I also think that it is a stupid practice.

 

black B-pillars look on almost every car. I had to have mine painted body color. I think it looks alot sportier.

 

Yes. Colormatching is always the way to go, IMO.

 

As for the paint/cost effective thing...

The doors are put on the car, THEN painted. they put the whole body together, witht he doors/hood/trunk/etc open, then run it through the paint booth.. the entire sheet metal structure of the car is painted body color. under the hood and stuff didn't get clear coat, but you get my point.. it's ALL painted to begin with.. then they cover up the stuff they don't want people to see.
it's more cost effective to paint it anyway, plus the paint is a very good corrosion inhibitor.. that black vinyl stuff scratches and peels off pretty easily, but paint must be worn off or sanded.. it doesn't just start peeling after a few years in the sun.

 

Yeah, but what I was saying was that it had to cost them money to apply the vinyl sticker to the paint on every single 200SX when they could have just left it body color and have it look better too! Plus, I peeled off all the stickers, and they did a damn good job painting those B-pillars! Brand New factory paint on a '96! Too bad the rest of her car wasn't in that good of condition.

 

yup.. I guess they just thought the vinyl looked better..

I'd also think it'd be more scratch resistant.. I know the black vinyl on my B pillars is pretty scratched up from people's hands.. my GF's old cavalier is nasty looking, and hers is body colored.. lotsa scratches and stuff on it.. ???

oh.. btw.. she FINALLY bought a car! '97 altima with 14k miles for like 11K or so.. not too bad I don't think.

 

So what are you gonna do to it? Too bad you couldn't put your old rims on there. Aren't Altima's four lug? That sounds like a pretty good deal. When you gonna post a pic?

 

Is the '97 a 1st gen or a 2nd gen?

 

I'm almost positive its a 1st gen. I don't think the 2nd gen's came out until 98.

 

Yeah, it's the 1st gen.. last year they made them.. she doesn't like the back end of the 2nd gen.

I installed her Ecplise CD player in it on Sunday, and that's all she'll let me do to it.
It's got some ****ty lookin Primax wheels on it.. they're 15s, so they're not TOO bad, but the clear coat is peeling off and they just look like uhhh... they should be on a car on the WestSide... (no offense to anyone here!) she doens't like 'em, but they were on the car when she bought it. We tried to get the dealer to switch them with some stock rims off a limited edition, but it was a no-go. she likes these better than the hub caps, so they'll stay for a while.

As for mods, she's not gonna let me do anything to it.. I tried talking her into letting me put a system in it, then her competing in IASCA next year as a novice (with me as the installer, doing the presentations.. it's a weird rule, but I/we can basically compete as a novice again if I put a system in her car and let her show it.. I am present as the installer to answer any questions..)
she didn't say "NO!" but she didn't say yes either. right now, the whole issue everywhere is with money. both trying to pay for college and $250/mo in car payments.. that'll be lotsa fun this fall!


I'll take some pics this weekend probably.. Hers is white with the metalling tint.. that green/grey stuff that I want to put on my car. I THINK it's the metallized film, but not sure.

I got my dash kit yesterday (ordered over a MONTH ago and just now got it! GRRRRRRR) and will be installing it soon.. I'll take pics of both cars then.