BTarb24

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my cubby was pretty seriously scratched and the guage pods had a bit of scratching as well so i decided to repaint them. This guide is to show you how to remove the necessary pieces in order to repaint them and retain the ping pong paddle texture. The result turned out looking just about identical to stock.

Here's what my scratched pieces looked like.

BTarb24

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first step is to pull out the shifter bezel. This is just clipped in place so all you have to do is put your hand down into the boot and lift up on the inner edge of the bezel. It will pop right out without much effort.. but it will not be fully removable due to the boot not going up over the shifter ****.

There are 2 connectors to disconnect. They're the simple 'press a tab and pull' type. Be careful not to scratch anything with the edges of the bezel while you're working on the connectors.

After it was disconnected, I simply rotated it sideways. I put something underneath it so that it didn't scratch up the other plastic pieces.

BTarb24

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Open the cubby door and you'll see two plastic screw covers on the front lip of it. Just pull those covers towards yourself... do not lift up.. just pull forward.

You'll see one screw in each of the holes you just opened up. They're pretty far in there so if you're not using a magnetic screw driver then it will likely fall down into the dash. It isn't really a big deal if it falls since the bottom is already opened up. You can just reach in and grab them off the floor board.

There are then 4 more screws you need to remove from underneath the radio. There's 2 on each side and they're pretty close to each other.

BTarb24

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Ok, now that the 6 screws are removed the unit will be free to move around. The entire center console comes free.. including the guages, cubby, and radio. Be careful not to scratch anything with it.

Put your fingers at the very top, just behind the guages, and pull towards yourself. There is just a single clip up there and it's not very tight, so it's pretty effortless. Be aware that there is 1 relatively short wire up there for the guages so don't pull too hard. The clip is a pain in the butt to remove. The tab for it is actually inside of a plastic housing. It's not hard once you figure it out.. i recommend dislodging the console and then going outside of the car and looking in the windshield to see how the wire tab works. It's way easier once you see where to insert the screwdriver to disconnect the wire connector.

Now that the guage pod is disconnected you can pull the entire console towards you a bit so that you can disconnect the radio wires. The antenna (round wire) just pulls out. The other 3 connectors have the plastic tabs to depress before you pull on them.

There are 2 metal prongs that hang down fairly low on the entire console unit. They are a slight pain to manage when you're taking the console out and also when you're reinstalling it. I found it easier to work with when i pulled the 'white box' outward a bit. It keeps it out of the way of those 2 prongs.

BTarb24

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Now take the unit somewhere where you can lay it face down on some soft material so that you can begin dismantling it. I just took it inside the house and laid it on the carpet.

The guages are held in by 2 screws.. one on each side of the white guage plastic backing.

The silver accent rings are just taped in place by about 4-5 pieces of fluffy tape on each ring. Grab the ring and just pull it out. Then be sure to grab the remaining pieces of tape that are left behind so you don't cover them in paint later. I was able to reuse the tape just fine during reassembly. Each ring has a little notched tab that fits into a groove... should be obvious, but pay attention to this when reinstalling so that you don't install it upside down. It likely would sit real funky if you did it upside down anyway though.

Each pod has 2 screws holding them in place. Remove the screws. Note that the pods are NOT removable! They're plastic welded in place at the top. I just removed the screws and then pushed them down so i could clean around the edges of them. I then popped them back in place after everything was washed up. I was worried about painting them while they were dislodged and then accidentally scratching the paint when trying to pop them in place later.

BTarb24

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The radio is held in by 4 screws. 2 on each side.

The cubby is also held in by 4 screws.

BTarb24

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Now you need to take apart the cubby enclosure.

To take the door off of the enclosure you'll need to undo the spring hinges. These guys may look intimidating, but they're really quite simple to disassemble and reassemble.

You only need to undo the large screw on each hinge. (indicated with a circle on the picture). Pull the screw out. There's a little plastic sheath/washer thing that you need to pull out too.. it just pulls right out.

Now the door should be free to wiggle away from the enclosure. The spring may fly.. it's a big spring so no biggie.

REASSEMBLY of hinges:
just put the springs in position and wiggle the door on top of them. Insert the little plastic washer. It only goes in one way because it has the slit across it. If it's not going in then spin it until the slit lines up. It should be effortless. Once it's inserted you can put the big screw back in. Do both sides.

Once both sides are screwed you can start on setting the springs. I kinda forget if the door needs to be open or closed when you set the spring.. but i think it needed to be closed. (if you're done and it doesn't spring open like it should then that means i was wrong and i needed to be open when setting the spring :P )

Position the long side of the spring first. Now use a screw driver and just push the short side of the spring into position. It's docking spot is right behind that small silver screw, so you can basically pretend you're just setting it behind the screw. That's all there is to the hinge.

BTarb24

iTrader: (1)

Now that you have the door separate from the enclosure you can take the door apart. We want to paint the latch separately from the door skin. Just flip the door so that you can remove all the little black screws on the back side of it.. i think there were 8 of them(sorry no pic). This should make the door skin all by itself and ready for prep.

To remove the latch from the back of the door you just need to undo 2 (maybe 3? screws. Very simple.. sorry for no pic again.

BTarb24

iTrader: (1)

I painted the little latch first. To prep it i used a knife and scraped off the old black paint. Have the knife positioned perpendicular with the piece so that you don't accidentally cut into the piece. You don't need much pressure.. that paint is super crappy and comes off easy. You'll need to use the tip of the knife to get the paint out of the 3 dots. Be careful when doing this so that you don't mess up the shape of the dots.

The old primer stayed on the piece just fine for me.

I then used some 800grit sand paper to finish getting the last little bits of the black paint off as well as smooth out any scratches i made with the knife.

Now go wash the piece with soapy water.. and wash your hands. Always wash your hands before you paint so that you don't leave oily finger prints on the parts and mess up your paint job.

I sprayed one relatively thin coat of primer and waited 10 minutes for it to dry. I then sprayed 2 coats of black paint (waited 10 minutes between each). I then finished it off by spraying a nice heavy coat of clear on it to give it a nice shine. Let the thing dry for a few hours before messing with it so that the paint can harden.

BTarb24

iTrader: (1)

My goal with this project was to return everything to a very stock look. Due to wanting to retain the ping pong texture I opted to not do any sanding on those pieces. I simply went and gave them a good long wash with soap. I took them to the tub and used my hand to rub hand soap all over the parts to get any dirt or oily protectant off of them. I then dried them with a microfiber towel. I had the pods dislodged when washing so that no dust/dirt was on their edges... be careful not to break the plastic welds.

When drying make sure the part is completely dry.. including any crevices. I didn't have any canned air so i just blew on them really hard so that the water flew out of the seams. Make sure your hands are clean so you don't end up putting fingerprints on the parts before you paint them.

I didn't do any primer on the ping pong pieces. I just sprayed 2 average thickness coats of black paint (10 minute wait after each). The black paint has a tendency to dry blotchy if you spray heavy coats. I learned that spraying an extremely light coat on top of the blotches causes them to even out. So if you get any blotches just spray a light mist over them to fix em up. I would blow on the part after each mist to see how it turned out.. only took about 1-2 minutes to dry. If it needs more then just give it another light mist in that one spot.

BTarb24

iTrader: (1)

Let everything dry for a few hours before you reassemble. Put the door back together (see above for how to assemble hinges). Put the rings back in the pod windows then screw in the gauge assembly. Remember that the rings have a notch.

Put the radio and cubby back in the main assembly and you're ready to put it back in the car

BTarb24

iTrader: (1)

Here's some final pics.

By the way.. don't be dumb like me and accidentally press too hard when screwing the cubby door back together. I made a slight indentation on the back of the door already. You can only see it when the light hits it.. but still annoying. I'm going to go in and try to add some kind of stopping mechanism to the door so that it can only open about 90% and thus not hit the front of the door off the top of the hole anymore.

support the back of the door with your hand when screwing those little black screws back in the door.

BTarb24

iTrader: (1)

Oh.. and here's the paint i used along with their UPCs. I bought the black and primer at Advance Auto for about 5 or 6 bucks a can. The clear came from walmart for 3 or 4 dollars a can. You will only need 1 can of each.

btw.. if you mess up and want to take the paint off to start over then you can just wipe it down with rubbing alcohol. This wont damage the plastic but will soften up the paint. Just wipe on the alcohol, wait a few minutes then rub off with a rag or perhaps use a soft bristled brush to get it out of the ping pong. I didn't actually try this, but it should work.. just don't use a wire brush or you'll scratch up the texture.

tookrzy4u192

iTrader: (2)

Great write up! I've been searching how to take out the center console on the 06+ since all I could find were the earlier models. Thanks!

BTarb24

iTrader: (1)

You're welcome Other people had recommended that black paint and i must say that it matches perfectly. I can't tell the difference between the HVAC panel and the dash panel whatsoever. and they're touching each other!

The paint may not need any primer at all, but i wanted to be cautious and add an extra bit of thickness on the non-ping pong pieces. The gloss is optional.. i liked the idea of giving them a bit of shine and a smoother texture to make them stand out against the ping pong.

I did my door handles at the same time and they also turned out pretty good. I posted my results on this thread earlier today: https://my350z.com/forum/9174801-post310.html

KingBaby

iTrader: (3)

Awesome!

flecko28

iTrader: (13)

great write up! whatever nissan used to coat their interior parts is seriously garbage.

Does the interior of your car have a paint odor now? or does it when it gets hot inside?

jv350z

iTrader: (6)

looks good!

BTarb24

iTrader: (1)

It had a slight paint odor for the first day or two, but it was very minor and quickly went away. I painted it Friday night.. It was in the mid 80's yesterday(Monday) and I drove it 2 hours on the highway with the windows up and couldn't smell it at all.

ImWeeZzel

iTrader: (27)

thanks for the write up!