My '97 max has the brown/tan interior. To be honest, I don't know what Nissan was thinking when they put this together. There must be at least 5-6 tones of brown in the car: dark brown dash, light brown door panels (fading to pink), lighter tan switch covers, different toned pillar covers, headliner, etc. It's so patchwork.

I know I could do a black interior swap but that is a load of work.

Anybody done some interior piece coating with the SEM color stuff? Can I mask a panel off and do it installed? (I know, not the best, but this is my DD, I can't tie it up for days...)

Anyone mixed black/tan/brown successfully? I've never seen this on a max, I'm thinking get some black seats, coat the door panels in dark brown, keep the tan carpet/headliner/pillars...

Will black seats look goofy in an otherwise brown/tan interior?

 

Yeah, I hear ya on the brown. Ew. My brother's '99 had brown interior, and I hated it lol. My Max has a grey interior, so I'm happy with that. As far as the black/tan idea, I think if you made black the dominant color, it might look fine. You should take a picture of your interior and ask someone to photoshop it for you

 

brown/charcoal is a good combo in my opinion

ive swapped out various pieces in my brown/tan interior for charcoal.

once its all complete, i think it will look good

 

Charcoal interior pieces match leather well, not cloth. Hence why rockart's looks so good.

Dont use that vinyl/carpet spray, it works but fades way to quickly.

 

Yeah, Rockart's does look good. Rockart, what color is your dash and center console? Mine is a chocolate brown color, then the rest of the interior is light brown/tan, yours looks lighter than that. Is that charcoal? I like the charcoal/tan/woodgrain you've got going on.

You mean the SEM color-coat stuff? I wouldn't spray the carpet, just the door panels/armrests. Does it fade quickly when applied to vinyl/plastic?

I've seen some show cars that have a high contrast tan/black interior. Some BMWs have that look too, tan leather, black interior/carpet. Looks good. I was thinking of doing the reverse, black seats/tan carpet...

 

in that picture everything is stock except for the mats.

 

Really? I would swear that my console/dash are darker brown than that.

I can't find a list of available interior colors on the '97, but I thought they were only brown/gray/black. Is the color difference because yours is a GLE and mine's a GXE?

 

i dont know for sure, but after seeing MOHFpros GXE, the dash seemed a little different color, im guessing to match the cloth interior better.

 

nice pic ROCKY....

 

pick a color and run with it, i've never been a fan of two tone interiors. then you start switching out pieces on an interior that already has mulitple shades and you end up with a mess.

as far as painting in the car, it wouldn't even be possible. definitely remove all the panels, but you could do it in sections.

 

Yeah, I know, painting in the car is for goof *****, I don't know why I even asked.

So should I go with red, do you think? Just kidding.

I'm starting to think, pick up some tan leather seats, paint the front/rear door panels chocolate brown to match the dash/console, swap in black interior door handles, switch covers, armrest pulls, etc.

I have to pull off the door panels to replace the speakers anyway, so I'll do it then.

Need to find some good tan leather seats at a junkyard. What's a good price for a full set, $500-600 or so?

 

well youre probably not going to find good leather seats at a junkyard unless you are there at the moment the car is brought in initially


and a full set of seats shouldnt cost you 500-600 from a junkyard. it would be more like 150-300.

 

you don't want no problems.

sounds ok, but in reality i'm not sure how good it would look.

what kind of seats do you have now (cloth/auto correct). i'm not sure if you'd be interested but since i am going to have mine recovered anyway i might be willing to trade + cash for my black leather. not sure that would solve your problem though and i would need to make sure mine are in decent condition (been in storage and shops for years). might have some other pieces to get you towards a full black interior if you are interested.

 

glossy panels = rice-a-riffic

 

What panels? The trim pieces? I prefer a matte finish unless its woodgrain.

 

I swapped out the center console vent from the brown/black combo to the full black from another Maxima and it looked pretty good, much better than the center console being black up until those vents. I was getting a few other parts at the yard and swapped those parts out real quick just to see what it would look like and the black in other parts of the car against the brown made it look kind of generic IMHO.

Just an opinion here, but black with accents of brown or tan can look pretty sharp, but brown or tan with accents of black just doesn't have the same impact. I really don't think that the stock interior for the brown/tan scheme looks all that bad except for the seats. The camel color is just... ugh...

 

man i swear there was a post right before mine that was suggesting taking the panels to a body shop and having them painted like you would an exterior panel. maybe i imagined it...

 

You don't happen to have any pictures of your setup do you?

I agree about the seats, the camel cloth is looking pretty dated. I bet it looked dated the second that it was installed.

 

yes post pics of mixed interior please

 

I'll get some tonight after I get home from work. Pics of the leather e-brake boot and the black center vent. That's all I've done so far.

 

My dash in my 96 GXE was that nasty chocolate brown, but my aunt's 98 GLE was exactly like Rockart's.. They were different colors, look at mine compared to his:

 

Thats why I decided to not tint. I can live with it. Rockart has leather+the wood grain. Maybe replacing the black dash kit and replacing it w/ a lighter color will make it look more decent.

 

There it is, the chocolate brown and tan mess that is my interior, thanks for the pics Fadrvr and Jellyfishian. I have an auto so mine looks pretty much exactly like Jelly's (but not so clean.) And my exterior is black, so it tends to emphasize the lightness of the tan, I think.

Notice the pinkish tint to the door panel in Jelly's photo on the right. Mine are about 3x worse than that along the top, or maybe I just focus on them. The contrast between the door panel and the switch covers/door handles (all of which are supposed to be tan) drives me crazy...

So I can't find info on the available interior colors for the 4th gen, anybody have a definitive list? It looks like to me like the GLE came with a lighter color dash than the GXE when both where spec'd with the brown/tan interior.

I wonder if the GLE door panels tend to fade to pinkish, too. Perhaps I could pick some of those up someplace, rather than recoating mine to some possibly worse color.

 

I will show you guys over the summer how to make it nice

 

yo kevlo u coming to the big WPB meet this weekend ?

 

Na gonna stay at home with the fam before school starts back up

 

You could go with a leather kit from leatherseats.com, swap the carpet, then dye the door panels and dash. Or you could hit up the junkies to find some interior pieces.

 

Yeah, those leather kits ain't cheap though. Probably cheaper to find some decent I30 seats or something.

I don't want to spend too much money on this project, so I hesitate to do too much swapping.

I'll take some pictures and keep the thread updated over the next several months as I try and make it look decent(er).

 

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you on this. I left my camera at a friend's place after the UK-Florida game (sorry about the loss Kevlo911, lol).

Here's a pic with the black leather e-brake boot and full black center vents. Yes, I know I need another steering wheel cover but even that monstrosity looks better than what's under the cover right now. I'm thinking about a black and tan cover steering wheel cover from leatherseats.com.



Leather ebrake boot came from gottagetashiftboot.com. They make ebrake and shift boots both. Found out about them from fleabay, but it is actually quite nice leather and the best part about it is that the wires come pre-installed so you don't have to reuse the old one.

 

I like that brake boot, and I dig the center vents too.

Actually, the more I look at it, the more I like the black center vent. It ties in with the black dash kit area much better than the brown vents tied in with the dash. I'll start hunting for a junk yard one now.

Thanks for the photo man, worth a thousand words and all that.

 

If anyone wants to see what it will look like in a different color, PM me the colors and ill Photoshop it

Phil

 

The brown on there is only painted on. Same with the airbag covers. It's possible that with a little bit of work, you might be able to remove that paint without having to get a new vent. I'm not sure though how it would look or what you would use. Might want to locate a black center vent for a reasonable price, but not buy it... just keep it in mind as a backup and try getting rid of the paint off the brown one. Would save you a few bucks.

What I'm going to try next is put black in place of the cloth door inserts. I've got a feeling that is going to look pretty good.

 

Ahh, thanks for the tip. I'll pull it out and try some mineral spirits or something on it.

I agree that getting rid of as much of the camel cloth as possible is a good idea.

I still want to do something about the color of my door panels and the camel cloth seats/door inserts.

These are the nice kind of projects, slow and steady, rather than the "oh **** my car won't start, now I have to replace the x!"

 

I'll take you up on that generous offer. Could you take one of the photos above and change the interior door panel color to the same dark brown as the dash? And change the camel seats to smooth tan leather?

 

I thought of possibly swapping the whole door panels themselves for black, but thought that would be too much and would mismatch pretty bad as opposed to just splashing the black for targetted accents. I agree the light doors aren't attractive and they become even less so the more that I see them. Only options though are a full interior swap... rear deck, headliner, doors, steering wheel, full dash, carpet, etc... $$$$$$ lots of that. Another option which would be ghetto would be to use that vinyl paint to recolor them to something you like. Cheap, but won't last and may or may not look good. Only other option that I can think of off the top of my head would be to purchase some vinyl or whatever material to cover, tear out the old and use it as a mold for the new and cut and glue back on. Advantage is that you're truly one of a kind custom and it could turn out great, disadvantage is that it could turn out lousy and might be a bit of work. I love the idea, but it's kind of scary undertaking.

 

I sprayed all my trim pieces (door switches, center console pieces.. all the things that would have been wood otherwise... )

The color is some Home Depot can which is gunmetal-ish. I dont tell people this .. but i found the color when I sprayed the inside of my headlights. Its the same color around my headlights = ) as it is on the interior trim.

and i changed to the Black door handles... cause the Red Unlock color stands out more.. and I like it.

PS my car has been sitting for a few weeks, thats why so dusty... Im doing some modding = )...


The Alpine which just matched out of the box. + Biolite(yay!)


Shifter trim is cracked = (


Radio/Navi


The unlock position reveals red mark which stands out on Black


Door switch with matching color.

 

Center...

 

I think that looks pretty sweet.

It doesn't look like you've have any problems with scratches or adhesion. How long has it been since you repainted them?

 

... like 1.5 year... I did it half assed too... only sand and spray no primer... but anyhow i have alot of coats on it..
i took two days.. i sprayed it then dry for a while before completely dry i sprayed again.. and did this for couple of hours.. then put in oven with little heat.. and i got that glassy look... but i didnt do that to the center console cause i was cutting it for the navigation... at time of paint. its pretty good.. the pain doesnt come off.. and its working fine...

OH and i painted the door speaker mesh this color too.. i bought too many cans.... so gotta use it...

 

Hey guys, this is my first post. I'm new to the Maxima forums, and i just bought my first car on Tuesday. It's a '96 Maxima GLE.

On to my question.

Does anyone know where online i can get some info on getting the ENTIRE interior color switched on my '96 maxima? Or is there somewhere in TORONTO i can go to get some quotes?

If anyone can PM me with some info, that would be awesome.