i dont think it looks like the stock bumper at all. I think in person it looks much better painted I had it in the tuner shop today and the guy said he loved the way the front end looked. said it gave it an "executive" look lol

anyway to each his own.

 

great job BigSash...It's great to be somewhat unique from the rest. One of your next step should be getting clear bra on the painted Nismo bumper's horizontal bar. I can see tiny pits on mine eventhough it's black plastic.

 

yeah there are def. imperfections in mine too, and they got painted over so they are more visible but you really have to get in there to see them because of the lighting in the recessions

 

Hey--don't get me wrong--that is banging compared to stock. I am just saying that painting that "bar" is theoretically similar in style to the stock bumper in that the "bar" is silver that splits the opening. Thats all. But you are right--your bumper does not look like the stock--it just has a similar feature. Make sense

 

I dunno...to me when I see bumpers where the whole thing is shot in one color and I know it's not suppose to be, I just think to myself "hmmm...that thing has been in an accident and the bodyshop half assed the respray...". Then agian the average joe would probably never notice or come to the same conclusion...

 

I see what you are saying, funny thing is it would've been a lot less work to just tape off the scoops and not paint them.

Honestly it is always hard to tell on mods like this in pictures. In person I really do like the way this looks and I'm not just saying that, because I am a bit of a perfectionist and if I didn't like it it would be NP to just pull it off and shoot them back to euro trim black. Like I said I like the look and think it is more classy. But while I was in there I got to know how the bars clip into the bumper very well. I am thinking about making driving light housings that clip in with the same clips as the bar, so you just pull your bars out and clip in the driver's light housing.

 

makes sense, hopefully you guys get a chance to see this in person sometime I think you will like it.

 

well I think it looks nice, looks like a newer model. props to getting a difficult job complete!

those pieces really brighten up the exterior and interior of the vehicle. I never liked the dull black of the 03, 04 interiors.

 

Bigsash, how has the paint been holding up on the center console? I'm sure the flat part near the cup holder gets the most abuse. How did you paint the cubby hole cover? ie.. Navi lid if it came oem. Thanks

 

+1
i tottaly agree, the black makes it look more aggressive

 

Paint on console is holding up 100% still looks as good as the day it was painted. The paint does bring out the pre-existing imperfections though, so I could've sanded before but not worth it for me and on a newer car this wouldn't be a problem, my console had 3 years of wear when I painted it.

I painted the navi lid the same way i painted everything else, took it out of the car and took it apart. basically I just dismantled the dash and removed the cubby hole and then painted it seperately.

 

just out of curiosity, what kind of airbrush/compressor did you use? how many coats? and did you clear afterwards?

 

Used a little tiny airbrush like this


find one for less than $20

The compressor was a big one in my friends van but you could use a small one no problem.

did a couple of coats and just eyed it. a good trick is to do it in the sun with a reflection on the car and then put your arm in the reflection as you paint stop spraying a section when the reflection is smooth.

Def. shot clear afterwards.

 

Well I am still really really happy with the way it turned out, I think it looks much better than stock with the black scoops, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Here is how it looks these days, dropped and all, I think it's pretty aggressive but just MHO

 

wow, did you have to thin the paint out or anything? i'd think that the paint would have been too thick for that