^Witty. Point being.... I neglected/erred in not addressing praise to the item. Wish I had your life

 

I think I'll have to check out your door handles in person, I like the look, just never thought of that.

 

I like the subtle interior/exterior mods you have done.

Since you took the effort to paint the grill, why not try to paint the plastic pieces of your front, rear, and side sills?

 

I was just kidding with you man. I couldn't resist.

 

Thanks man. I do plan to paint the side/rear sills once I get the Aero bumper. The sides will be easy because I can remove them, the rear bumper will be a little harder though because I'll have to remove the entire bumper and do a decent job of covering the bumper.

 

IMHO, Grill is one thing, but the sides front and rear you need to have a body shop take care of it. For goodness sakes its a Infiniti, not a Maxima. Have a quality paint job.

#1 you need a flex and chip agent put into the paint for the lower parts of the car, with spray cans you can't do that.

 

I painted my Stillen lip on my black Maxima. I even did a lot of spray touch up on the Stillen side and rear sills and my custom fabbed grille. It's not a big deal. They make spray black bumper paints that have flex agent in it. Prep the surface, primer with flex agent, black paint with flex agent, wet sand, gloss. Also, flex agent isn't terribly crucial for the side sills or bumper because those areas don't receive impact like a lower front bumper does.

I'm not going for a perfectly matching gloss finish. The dark gray already blends in nicely. Making it black with some gloss will make it look OEM. It won't have finish like the 05s, but that doesn't bother me much. I also don't feel like spending $400-500 to have shop do the work.

I specifically bought a black G35 because it's so easy to do paint work yourself. Any other color basically requires professional help.

As you can see in the pic, the Stillen kit had plenty of gloss

 

Well it does look good. I just be afraid of it coming out bad. Good work Dave. I want to do my grill like yours as well and buy the smoked out lights maybe with PROJECTORS in them eventually. The handles and around the windows are also on my list. Trying to figure out how I want to do those. The chrome around the doors comes off, but not sure if it holds the windows iin or not.

 

Nice.. I don't feel .like spendingthat much either.. Could you help out with the brand names of what I need to buy (paint, matierals, etc?) Thx man.

 

Dave can you give more details on the interior aluminum piece for the dash? Do you have a close up pic of the trim? Did you get it at home depot? How did you install it?

 

The way I look at it is if I screw it up or it doesn't work, I can always get bent over and have a shop paint it. My primary concern isn't the paint, but instead getting the paint to stick. The 03/04 side/rear sill texture is such that I don't think I'll have to prep the surface much at all. I may remove a side sill and do a little work on the inside of the sill to test how well it adheres.

I've got another idea for the handles which involves getting some super thin smoked plastic from a hobby shop and forming it with heat to fit the handles. I believe they make thin sheets of plastic of RC airplanes. The smoked plastic could give a black chrome look. Adhering it to the handle would be the only issue. Forming it and cutting out the template should be really easy.

 

I'll you get a better pic shortly.

I bought the aluminum round stock at Home Depot in their department where they carry sheet metal. I used aluminum because it's really light. The stock comes in 36" sections and you'll need two ($3.50 each). The long section of the dash needs about 33" of material and the driver's side needs ~4.75" material. Adhering the trim to the dash is easy and easily removable. It's automotive grade dashboard velcro Again, purchased at Home Depot for $3.50. The velcro comes in ~1.5" X 3" pads. I cut the "fuzzy" velcro pad width wise into 3/16" X 1.5" portions and adhered it to the dash in the gap. I spaced the sections approximately 1" a part for maximum hold. I then cut the "abrasive" velcro pad in the same diminsions and adhered them to the dashboard existing fuzzy velcro sections. I then removed the adhesive tape covering on the abrasive velcro and placed the aluminum trim to the adhesive. You'd be amazed at how tight the trim fits. You can barely move it. But if you lift from the edge of the trim, you can remove the entire peice without the velcro strips pulling away from the trim or dash. I experimented and removed one of the velcro pads attached to the gap in dash and it didn't leave any adhesive residue.

Prior to adhering the trim to the dash, I painted it an aluminum color which is softer and less shiny than the bare metal. It seems to match a bit better. I prepped the metal by sanding it a little and then primering. But if you want some bling, you can simply polish the aluminum.

The bar stock/dash won't be perfectly straightly so you'll need to do some VERY slight bending of the stock to make it fit snuggly against the dash.

 

I bet if you asked BlueBatmobile nicely, he would make you some dark vinyl overlays.


A high-mil vinyl is pretty durable, without any heat/adhesion issues.

 

That's a good point.

 

I too put electrical tape on door handles and exterior trim, but only to see how it would look dark. I don’t think I would never consider leaving it that way. In a quest to "dark out" my entire G I finally finished. The series of trial and error is long and involved, but the bottom line is it's done. The color isn’t exactly what I was looking for, but the effect is there. Keep in mind, the car name is Grey Ghost, the theme is a dark, stealth, mysterious look rather than bling/flash. All polished aluminum/chrome look is gone!

I replaced the stock grill with powder coated (same color as wheels) billet upper and lower (no pics yet - soon).

Anyway, here are pics of the window trim and door handles. I realize it’s not going to be everyones cup of tea – it’s a like it or hate it kind of thing… but for the theme I’m going for it works (pretty much).