In the shop since Monday getting the door my brother hit fixed. Body shop had to order a new door skin, should be here today but my car probably won't be ready until Monday at the earliest.

Insurance put me in a Pontiac G6 (2.4 Ecotec 4 cylinder). Not a bad car (significant improvement over a Grand Am) but I miss the hell out of the VQ35 torque and the instant response I get with the SE suspension and Bridgestone Potenza RE-050s. At least the stereo is decent in the G6.

 

i feel your pain
i was put in a chevy Aveo holy batman can u say plastic galore?

btw, by door skin u mean the door shell? How much is the estimate on the fix?

 

I really really understand you! i'm in Montreal and there's snow here. I store my maxima for the winter and I have a civic!!!!!! I can't stop thinking about how fun is to drive my maxima! 2 months remaining for me so you can wait 4 days! looll
GL

 

skin-just the outer part. They separate the old one, crimp and weld on the new one. Apparently cheaper than using an entire door shell and swapping in the glass, door panel, speaker, etc.

I think it will end up around $1250 for the door, plus blending the paint into the fender and front door and clearing all three sections.

 

please explain the "instant response of the SE suspension" im back on my stock SE suspension, and it sucks!

 

Perhaps in comparison to the G6? I dunno.

Scott, you are one peculiar cat. But you certainly respect your Maxima.

 

What kind of tires do you have?

FSTB helps quicken steering response and the RE-050s are like having tires made of glue.

Compared to how the G6 responds, my car is an Ariel Atom.

 

my insurance co put me in a 2.5 altima. love me some nissan but that was a piece of ****! they totaled out my 4th gen but now im in the 5.5gen 6spd so...WIN!

B

 

The car I drive on a normal basis is a 2006 G6 GT... lol I know what you mean.

It helps to have 17's, a FSTB and MMI's

But I definitely love the torque and power of the VQ.

 

i dont have the option to run a real sticky street tire as i see lots of rain and snow. i guess i could if i wanted to have 2 sets of wheels. i like my toyo 4s, good all around tire, and for the 3-4 hpde events i do they suffice. man that g6 must really be a piece of crap if you think your max handles like an atom!

 

See? At least you have something done to it and have a V6. At least it beats getting stuck with a Sebring or some other horrible Dodge/Chrysler hunk of garbage that doesn't have a Hemi.

HotshotVQ35-steering response is really mushy. Has an odd feel to it, not sure why.

0-60 in about 8.5, guess that isn't bad for a 4 cylinder.

 

Same here... there is so much snow over there, crazy shiat...

can't wait for summer fun!

 

I miss my Maxima after driving my buddy's RX8

 

All revs no torque.

 

Went to the body shop today:

The door was going to need more work than it would cost for a new door skin, so here it is:



The frame along the top is original, but the metal over the rest is new.



Bumper pulled down (no tape lines there!), tail light removed since besides the door, that fender and the front door need to be repainted to blend in the metallic properly.



Having the dings on the passenger side removed too, total of 17 circles! No more dings in this fender:

 

This door had a pretty bad ding that broke the paint, so that area was repaired and refinished. As you can see, to paint a car right, the trim, door handles, mirrors, ect all need to be removed to prevent issues with taping along the edges.





Couple bad dings here too, one was too deep for PDR (paintless dent repair) so that section was also repaired and refinished.



Nice and straight!

 

C pillar had a nasty ding and scratch. No more.



More straightness:



Here is a 1965 Cadillac the shop has been working on for a few months, as you can see by how straight and orange peel free the paint is, this shop does outstanding work.

 

Nice.
Looks like the repairs are coming along well, is your brother paying since he hit it?

I want to see some more pics of the caddy

 

Scott, why are there so many dings on your car? Are you using the word "ding" in the same context as a "nick" in the paint? The only thing that would cause a ding would be another car door, I would think.

On topic, however, this is turning into a blessing in disguise. Your car is going to be sweet when done.

 

My brother turned it into his insurance. I'll try to get more pics of the Caddy when I pick my car up next week.

Rochester-the original owner wasn't careful with the car, I guess. It had a lot of door dings on the passenger side (and some minor hail damage on the hood and roof) when I bought it. I paid a good $1500 or so under the blue book in the car when I bought it because of that. I plan on having the hood reshot this summer due to the paint chips and I'll have the hail damage removed then.

 

^^^
Original owner... that makes sense. Now I get it.

 

what do you know about that! lol weird seeing cloth on an SE, at least its black..i see very few grey lustre cars with grey interior..

 

I like the grey on grey and cloth is warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Plus, with detailing cars all day and getting sweaty, leather is a pain to keep clean. The cloth seems to hold up very well too.

 

My GTP has been a nice replacement to the maxima so far, the move I improve the interior quality and such the better it feels.

Looks like the they are taking good care of your car, that shop seems to do some very nice work. Whats work like that gonna end up running?

 

What insurance is paying for will be around $1250, I'm paying another $350 or so to take care of the dings and minor refinishing.

 

I don't know about weird... but uncommon, yes. Back in 2002, I had to wait months for my dealer to locate a SE 6MT with cloth and no sun-roof.

And while I still don't like sun-roofs, I'm finally liking the leather now. My next car will likely have leather.

 

Every '02-'03 SE I looked at all over Colorado had cloth interior. I searched for months (to no success) to find an SE with a six speed and leather. I HATE cloth so I was pretty disappointed to end up with it, but just like Scott the owner made me too good of a deal to pass up so I lived with it. Now every time I get out of the car I get shocked when I close the door. What's strange about my car is it has the Meridian package. Heated seats on cloth is just strange.

 

when i bought mine i had 2 choices, a base model SE, or a loaded SE minus Navi. the HLSD was the dealbreaker for me, so i got the loaded car, plus they were on special that weekend...i got 5K knocked off the sticker..lol


my buddies jetta has cloth and heat, its def strange.

car is coming along nice scott, are you going to redetail the detail the bodyshop gives you?>

 

Back when we lived in Georgia, a friend of mine's mom bought the Titanium package, the metallic silver and I believe it was a shiny gray cloth. 6MT SE with a sunroof. I loved it, but she sold it for a Tahoe. Stupid.

When my Max dies or gets too many problems to keep paying for, I want the exact one she had.

 

Why you hatin on sunroofs?

This looks good Scott, looking forward to seeing the refinishing process.

 

rochester is the biggest hater...1st the hlsd and now the sunroof

 

Doubt I will have to, they actually have someone who can buff out the wetsanding marks without leaving buffer swirls all over the paint.

kbohip-I hear ya on the shocking when you get out. Seriously looks like this.

 

 

Lol, and you're in humid Texas. You should feel the jolt when the humidity is 10%!

 

I don't think I've got a rep for hating, HotShot. Teasing, yeah OK, but not hating. I've got my simple reasons about the sunroof... but I shouldn't have gone there. Scott's thread. My bad.

Move along, guys. Looking forward to reading Scott's excitement about his reborn ride.