As many of you know, the door pillars on Maximas are prone to fading. I'm talking about the black plastic part between the front and rear doors. I've sold a lot of the carbon fiber vinyl to various members here to cover up the fading. I just found out something interesting tonight. The black plastic is removable. The faded part is just thick adhesive backed vinyl and comes right off. My friend who is prepping my car showed me today. He just pulled the black faded piece right off and underneath is body colored metal. If you clean the adhesive off, it's in perfect shape. I don't know if this holds true for all '95-99 Maximas, but it's how it is on mine. So my question is, how many of you have removed this piece? If I had known it was removable, it would have gone a long time ago.

 

Could you post a pic or tell us how to do it... I'm not exactly sure how to do this....
Thanks...

 

does it look good or does it look like there is something missing?

 

Great info! I always liked how my I30T's pillars are body color painted but hated my 95 max's dull pillars. It looks like they will be comming off tomarrow . My guess is you should heat them up real good with a hair dryer a little bit at a time and slowly pry them off with a flat head screw driver.


BTW Jason, whould you please return my email ASAP, I whould like to know whats going on. Thanks!

 

Ethan, are you referring to me about the email? Please email me at sales@ap-signworks.com That other email is hardly ever checked. Am I correct in assuming this is about the dash kits?

 

yea I noticed that they are body colered a while back but never got to removing it. some1 post pics if you do take this off. Im gonna check it out tommorow and decide if I want to remove it or not Ill have pix if I do

 

For some reason, I noticed that my pilars are painted. I called the original owner and he said that it came painted. It's the same color as the body paint. I guess I lucked out.Maybe the dealership painted it for me

 

Ok cool, I will email you now.

 

I think that all the black cars come black painted without the black covering.

 

But won't the color be a much darker shade due to the sun's gracious bleaching techniques? And does it look like a piece is missing (wouldn't there be a gap between that and the window seal)?

 

It looks good on my black I30 with out it. I think I am going to take it off my max now .

 

is the body color backing flush with the other part of the car ( the doors) or is it slightly set back? If it is flush i might have to do this too
thanks

 

I just removed the faded black crap on the left side of my car! It looks awesome! It took me about 25 minutes to do one side. All you do is open the front door and peel the thin layer of faded black crap off and then scrape off the old glue. The stuff is only about .5 millimeters thick so every thing remains flush. I should note that when you remove the crap off the rear doors you have to move the weather stripping out of the way for a minute. Thanks Jeff! BTW sorry I called you Jason earlier .

 

Shadow- can u get pics of your max with out the covering? I want to see what a colored (not black) max would look like with them body color before I do this...Unless some1 can PHOTOSHOP the pillars body color particularly in beige. thank you. Heres a pic of the side view if any1 would like to photoshop the pillars and also you can lower my car for me

 

hey Ethan, thanks for the hands-on experience info. I'm gonna try that too. oh yeah, did you use a flathead and a heat gun like you said you would?

BTW, do you guys think the carbon fiber stickers would look good on the pillars?

 

Mine were fading also (Artic White 95 SE). I simply purchased some of the carbon fiber look vinyl from my "graphics" guy and removed the window trim. Then overlayed the vinyl over the exisiting faded black. No problems.... and it looks custom too

 

I have the carbon fiber trim and it looks good Had I known that there is body colored paneling underneath I would have just removed the vinyl. I'll post pics later
-hype

 

Don't use a flat head screw driver. The stuff is like window tint, just a thin soft material. You should use a hair dryer to heat it up because that loosens the glue underneath it.

 

I removed the driver's side vinyl, looks pretty good. I have a pebble beige car though, and I think in my case, the black looked better (looked more clean).

Anyway, I'm going to do the other side later on, but I'm having trouble taking off the adhesive under the vinyl. What's the quickest (and safest) way of doing that?

Thanks

 

I also just removed my drivers side vinyl. All I did was peel it off, the glue that was still on the paint I used some goo gone and it came right off. it looks pretty good here is a pic

 

nice find mine was fading like a ****...haha turd i love your sig when your playing counterstrike your heads all straight eyes alert ready to pounce but on the board you're about to nod off, thought that was pretty funny

 

Like someone mentioned before, it looks cleaner. But then again, if yours is faded you got nothing to loose. I noticed the same thing on black cars, they do not have that piece. It makes sense since why put black plastic over already black body panel.

 

Can one of you guys tell me how did you remove the glue that was underneath? I peeled off the vinyl and the glue that is underneath it is almost impossible to get off. I tried WD40, Goo Gone, Simple Green to no luck

 

looks nice, if i get some good directions i will go for it

 

ya i did goo gone also but that didnt even help i just used my fingernails to get that femaledog out but like someone said using the hairdryer really helps out

 

try rubbing alcohol

 

ok this is what it looks like on my car and i say it looks better than the balck vinyl

 

Ok, I just did this today, and to tell you the truth I am not pleased. Since my car is white, it contrasts too much in between the tinted windows. Maybe it will take some getting used to, but there is nothing I can do about it now, and I definately dont want to put that fake looking carbon fiber tape on. The only thing I could do to get the sticky glue off was to rub the hell out of it with a dry cloth. The abrasion heated up the glue and eventually flaked right off---lots of elbow grease though. Then, I used a clay bar to completely smooth the surface, and then I waxed it.

 

got a pic of it? i think mine will look good bc its dark red, plus my vinyl is extremely faded, so i will just have to wait for my fingernails to grow back so i will be able to get it completely clean

 

Just took some pics, will post later tonight...

 

Here are the two pics of what my car looks like after taking the black tape off...

 

And the other...

 

i think it looks good, how well does the paint match?

 

The paint matches perfectly, I just think it is cool to have a new piece of factory paint...looks really clean after I waxed it.

 

grow fingernails grow...

 

Interesting ... a new project for this weekend.

 

i agree another project to test out

hmm anyone ever try useing a simple eraser to remove the glue gooy stuff?

i removed a piece of my wood trim from where my vents are in the middle of my dash... i just used a white eraser on the glue that was still there... came off really well.. unless the outside glue is much stronger than the wood trim holding kind...


hmm this seems like a fun simple little project woot!

 

It isnt so fun...Took me about 45 minutes to do one side. Got a blister on my finger too, from rubbing the glue off. But dont be discouraged.

 

haha, i did this after my car was in the sun for a while, took it off in 2 minutes.

 

ok this is going to be my weekend project too