Finally got to clean up my Maxima

[Scottwax]

Since I don`t get paid to work on my own car I figured I`d post it here instead of the pro forum.



2002 Nissan Maxima, just over 172,000 miles on it. I last polished it in August (Meguiars #105/205 and 3M Ultrafina all by rotary) and have maintained it through an usually cold and wet winter (8th coldest on record, 2nd highest snowfall total) with about twice monthly ONR washes and an application of Optimum Car Wax every other wash. In January, my brother backed into the side of my car, taking out the rear passenger side door which had to be reskinned. I also had the shop take out most of the door dings on that side, a few of them needed actual body work. The right rear fender and both doors were resprayed and I got the car back in early February.



After the rough winter, time in the body shop and a trip to Arizona and back I was pleased to see my car is still nearly swirl and marring free-haven`t corrected my car to 100% because I`d go nuts trying to maintain it at that level, but seeing as the last time I polished it was August, I can`t complain...



http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/36432002_Nissan_Maxima_sun1.jpg



http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/36432002_Nissan_Maxima_sun2.jpg



http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/36432002_Nissan_Maxima_sun3.jpg



You can see the body shop did a pretty good color match. The metallic in the respray is a little larger flake (that is the hardest part about repainting metallic cars) but the orange peel match is very good along with the color.



Fender is original paint, door is repainted.



http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/36432002_Nissan_Maxima_paint_match.jpg



I didn`t see any point in polishing my car, so after an ONR wash, I applied a coat of Clearkote`s Carnauba Moose and buffed it off with Optimum Car Wax. Tires and fenderwells dressed with Armor All, exhaust tips polished with Optimum Metal Polish.



http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/36432002_Nissan_Maxima_front1.jpg



http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/36432002_Nissan_Maxima_side1.jpg



http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/36432002_Nissan_Maxima_rear1.jpg



You would not have seen this shot a couple months ago, there was a plethora of door dings all down this side.



http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/36432002_Nissan_Maxima_backend1.jpg

[BigAl3]

looks great, and relatively defect free. have you thought about getting some tint?

[vtec92civic]

looks good scott. man amazing how it looks with even that kind of mileage on it! Some slightly darker tints would be great for not only looks but would help protect the interior by keeping the temperatures down.

[Scottwax]

Tint is on the list. Might be buying a fellow Maxima owner`s struts and springs (he is getting coil-overs) which will give me a 1.7" drop in the front and just under 1.5" in the rear, probably do that first. I can`t hook worth a damn off the line, especially in the cold, so better springs and struts should help by limiting weight transfer. Definitely getting tint before summer.

[Banks]

Hey Scott, I`m kinda new here... I`ve owned two Maxima`s and they drive beautiful! Yours looks spectacular! Great job, that thing looks awesome for 172K miles.

[levander]

It probably just sounds like I`m sucking up to you, but it is absolutely amazing how similar our tastes our. I drive a `99 Maxima SE with a manual transmission. Love the Maxima. Half thinking about getting a new car now and looking at maybe getting a Nissan Murano. I haven`t been crazy about working with Nissan dealerships the few times I`ve had to, but their design ethics and reliability is exactly what I`m looking for.



Haven`t check recently though, no idea if they`ve kept up their solid reputation for reliability or not.

[Nikku]

Scott didn`t you just buy that brand new? j/k it looks fantastic for it`s age and miles :)

[trhland]

looks great scott. i used to think that 100.000 miles on motors used to be at the end of there life. but this sure isnt the case these days .yours is in outstanding shape !!! thanks for sharing ......

[adalsky]

Awesome Scott. From the picture, the door to fender paint match looks excellent. I`d never guess the door was resprayed.

[Scottwax]

Hey Scott, I`m kinda new here... I`ve owned two Maxima`s and they drive beautiful! Yours looks spectacular! Great job, that thing looks awesome for 172K miles.



I`ve been really happy with how reliable my car has been for the miles on it.



levander-I can only wish mine was a manual transmission but I couldn`t find one. Still pretty good acceleration with only 4 gears (VQ35s have pretty good torque) but 3rd gear is really long, I`m in it from 72 to 115 mph!



trhland-I pretty much drive my cars until past 200k now. Both my Celicas were past 200k when I sold them, my Accord had 280,285 miles on it and still ran great. My 626 only had 163,300 miles on it when I stopped driving it but that was because it got hit from behind and totaled.



On my trip to Arizona, I had one tank of gas that in 414 miles, I averaged 79 mph (80 is legal in west Texas, New Mexico and Arizona are 75 mph on the interstates) and got 26.3 mpg! That was doing the actual math, not going by the overly optimistic trip computer. Not bad considering my car is rated 26 mpg freeway by the EPA and we all know that is at speeds well under what I was going. :)



adalsky-the shop did a really good job, took the entire side apart for paint. You can see the difference in the metallic in the sun at certain angles but most probably wouldn`t notice it.

[Corey Bit Spank]

Looks great! I am sort of considering one of these to replace my Accord.

[Scottwax]

Looks great! I am sort of considering one of these to replace my Accord.



Wow, you still have your Accord? How`s it running?

[gdal]

You definitively know how to take care of vehicles. That paint works looks great. It`s almost impossible to get a perfect match on a metallic color, but that looks great Scott.



I love metallic cars, but I don`t love performing paint work on them.



My dad had one of these back in the days. He sold it because he hated dealing with the nissan dealerships. I always liked this particular model.

[JohnKleven]

Looks great, nobody would ever guess you have that kind of mileage on it.





John

[2005GTPinMD]

Fantastic work as always Scottwax.