Heel: The cat wanted food so she was definitely not impressed with the wheels!

Mic: I try to wash my car with it parked on the lawn, in order to use the runoff to water the lawn. Of course, parking on the lawn is a no-no in my neighborhood, but its only for a few minutes and Id rather conserve water. Is that sticker really on your car? If it is, I guess I need one....:-)

Yesterday, I dropped a wheel off at the paint supply store to have it color-matched. I decided on a one step paint, which means that the base and clearcoat are all-inclusive (I think). When I did the bit of sanding on the wheels, I noticed the paint is very thin. I also decided to have it put in a can so I can use the paint gun. I preferred not to do it this way, but the paint guy suggested it because he said it would make sure the paint matched better than if sprayed out of a can. Also, Ill be getting a pint of it so Im trying to decide if I want to spray the whole outside face of the wheel, or do just the touch ups as originally planned. Decisions, decisions.......In any event, it won't happen for a while since the weather is not painting weather for the next week, at least. I prefer 80 degrees, low humidity. If I see mid 70's, I may spot shoot fill primer. Cheers.....

 

I received a response from a lighting engineer at OSRAM/Sylvania in a message relayed by the Marketing Coordinator. This response was to my multiple queries regarding the differences between the d2s and d2r HID light bulbs.

My follow up questions were as follows:

1. Is the difference of mechanical keying due to the external pinstriping on the glass, or due to an internal feature?

2. Is the optical difference due to the external pinstriping (similar to first question).
* Is lumen output and optical distribution different due to external bulb pinstriping?
If lumen output and optical distribution is different NOT due to external pinstriping, then why are they different?

The principle engineer for OSRAM replied as follows:

"The mechanical keying and the optical difference is due to the striping on the D2R light source

Again caution that these light sources are not interchangeable. If there is a price difference between the two light sources it is because of market driven demand for one light source versus the other.

The headlamp is designed explicitly for one light source and it is marked on the headlamp lens typically."

The engineer's response seems to indicate that they are similar but not interchangeable. The response seems to imply that they are not interchangeable due to the pinstriping and notch, but without explicitly saying so. I believe they are covering their a$$es in case there is a legal problem.

Bottom line:
By removing the pinstriping and cutting a notch, the d2r and d2s bulbs seem to be interchangeable based on the slightly murky statements from two HID lighting engineers, my personal experience driving with both bulbs, and the experience of many, many others who have done the same.

 

I pulled that pic off the web but yes, I have that sticker too.

Hmmm, "wash the car on the lawn"..... interesting workaround. Would still have to do that between the hours of 8pm and 8am... which I can totally do if that means "clean car". Thanks for the idea!!

 

Ill have to get that sticker if thats what the Nismos come with. Can you take a pic of the sticker so I can see where it came on the car?

You No. Cal. people must have different drought rules. You cant water between 8 am and 8 pm?

By the way, Im still driving up north next week, but taking my Maxima. Ill bring the Zed up there one of these days and we can meet and drive around.

Today I plan to pick up the Nismo wheel and paint from the paint shop. I am not sure if time or weather will permit me to paint the wheels before I leave town next week. Also, still debating if I want to paint the whole face of the rims, even the "good" sections, or just spot paint and blend the "bad" sections. I'm using one step paint (base and clear are mixed, I believe).

 

I got one of my wheels and the paint from the paint shop. The weather looks nice on monday...77 degrees. Ill shoot for Monday to get the wheels spot primed and painted.

 

Stop watering your goddamn plants and washing your goddamn car. -.-

 

The rain took care of both....plants watered...car washed....:-)

The weather is just not very cooperative for paint. I'm thinking it will be more like week after next when I'm back in town. I like to paint when its 75-85 degrees and low humidity...below 20%.The paint seems to lay best in those conditions. Since im using one stage paint, its a bit harder to fix errors.

 

Update*** I did not have to go out of town this weekend so I decided to work on the wheels. The weather got a bit warmer than predicted, so the temperature is right in the range in which I like to paint. The humidity is a bit higher than I like but still not bad.

When painting wheels, I learned of this cool trick to prevent overspray on the tires. You take either playing cards or index cards and place them around the edge of the rim and that completely protect the tires, particularly if they are low profile. I had already sended the bad parts of the room where there was curb rash and a bit of gouging from rocks. The Nismo decals are off so no need to worry about those. When I paint the wheels, I will have some Nismo decals made up.

After placing the index cards around the edge of the rim I sprayed some filler primer to fill in the small nicks left after sanding the curb rash.



Next I will wet sand the filler primer until it is smooth and blends in with the original paint.

 

curious why you masked off spokes and parts of spokes?

 

The wheels are in good shape but I fixed the curb rash and some gouges in the spokes. The parts of the wheel that did not need paint got masked off. Ill blend the paint by wetsanding and polishing after the paint dries.

 

gotcha

 

Still waiting for cooperative weather. If I had a paint booth, it would not be an issue. Since Im painting the wheels at home, I like to have little to no wind, low humidity, and about 80 degree ambient temperature. Of course I have to find all this when I am off work. I am also researching the best way to set up my paint gun since painting wheels is different from painting body panels. My ideas are to shrink down the paint pattern, and lower the paint flow and air pressure.

 

While Im waiting for the weather and my schedule to cooperate, I bought a touch up HVLPgun paint gun from Harbor Freight. It cost $35 and vame with a regulator. The first thing I did was take the gun completely apart and remove the awful silicone that is used as a dealer for the threaded pieces. I soaked the opened up gun in soapy water to remove the oil inside. I sealed the threaded bits with plumbers tape. Some of the silicone that was used to seal the threaded bit had plugged some of the holes. The cleaning removed all of that and now the gun should work as it was designed. The tip is .8mm. I figure this would be more appropriate to use for painting Wheels then a full size gun because of the much smaller surface areas of the Wheels. I determined this after much research online. still waiting for weather and schedule cooperation and I will give it a try. cheers for now....

Pic of gun taken apart:

 

Deus, perhaps I missed it but what paint are you using to paint the wheels?

Presume since you're going or "all original", you got paint code KH2, the OEM charcoal/gray color for the wheels and body trim?

Reason for asking... still considering re-doing all the "new-to-me" Track V2 wheels on my '03 in a sort of charcoal/gunmetal/Nismo OEM color (just for a different look since I'm fixing the lips as you've done). Doesn't need to be exact because I'm just looking for a rattle can solution and if I can find KH2 in a can, well, works for me.

This was the final color of one of my recently repaired Volvo wheels and it's not really THAT close to the Nismo color but I kinda like it.



Used an old charcoal chimney to see what it would look like on my Track whills...



It's OK, wife hasn't missed it.

 

You can order any color (OEM or custom) from this place, in a spray can:

http://www.apstowerpaint.com/

The air filter box in one of my old Alfa's is a very unusual gray, with a semi-gloss finish. I sent them the end plate from the box, and they matched both the color ans sheen exactly.

I'm not sure there is an OEM color code for the GT wheels, though. If they're like the touring wheels, the silver color is thin and applied over a black base, which makes it a tough color to match in a single-stage paint.

 

The problem is that I would have to send a wheel to them to match up. Most paint shops should be able to match the paint, as mine supposedly did.

There is no OEM color code for the Nismo rims. I even contacted Autech of Japan for a color code and they said that there is no code. I have been toying with the idea of just painting the entire face of the rims instead of just the parts that were repaired. If I painted the entire front of the rims, then it would not matter if the paint color was slightly off because the color would be uniform.

I suppose I could spot paint the repaired parts and if it didnt match, I could paint the rest of the outer face.

 

I think you'd be crazy not to paint the whole face of the wheel. Much less work, and you'll know the finish will be uniform.

 

It sounds like it should be a no brainer to paint the entire wheel face rather than spot paint. However, I was hoping to keep as much of the original finish as possible. Also, I only have a pint of paint and I am not sure that would cover the entire wheel face. These wheel repair guys probably do not paint the entire wheel, but, of course, they are experts at spot painting and blending.

 

Thanks, Doug, that's extremely helpful! If I eventually try to dark-finish my GT wheels, I'll keep this info handy.


Actually, zakmartin pointed out a couple of paint options as well here. But if I do paint 'em, they're going to get a darker color as I already have two sets of silver/hypersilver sets of wheels and want a little variety.


Interesting. I read a thread on here that the Nismo trim and the Nismo wheels both use the same KH2 paint code that I alluded to earlier. Looking at a paint sample, it is a body color used for later model Nissans (not Zs) but who really knows....?

Word. Somewhere in one of the "What I did today" threads I showed the results of just doing the rim of the wheels. Ehhhhh..... Might have turned out much better if I had actually used the factory color whatever it was but I just thought I'd give the Duplicolor "Hypersilver" kit a try for better or for worse. This is what prompts me to never again just try to spot paint wheels - even with wet sand blending.


PS - Unrelated sidestep: Doug, you didn't happen to live in Berkeley, CA at one time did you? Bought my first Z from a "Doug Cains"....

 

I was told the niz wheel color is the same as the niz body kit gray accents.. there is a paint code for it.