Hey all. I was wondering if there is a way to remove the cubby button without having the remove the entire waterfall on my 2008 Z.

I can't stand the look of the scratched up button and I have an extra can of black Krylon paint at the house.

I searched and I am under the impression that the entire waterfall has to be removed, then the cubby has to be removed, then the button, which I find hard to believe for such a simple little piece.

Thanks in advance!

 

Nope. I was concerned that any type of paint would eventually chip off, so I polished mine. Worked my way from 400 grit wet-dry to 2000 grit, and then used PlastX polish to finish the job. Now the button looks like a shiny piece of black glass, and there's no coating to wear off in the future.

 

That sounds like a great idea! Do you mind posting a pic if the finished product?

 

I didn't realize it was a bit dirty when I snapped the pic, but you get the idea:

 

I dont understand why you can't just get that piece off from the door. Isn't it held by several screws? You can't get to them without taking apart the entire waterfall?

What a PITA to paint such a small piece.

 

Because the back of the door has to be removed to get to that little panel holding the release button. Inside the door is the rest of the latch mechanism, which is made up of some small levers and springs, and it all pops apart during disassembly. That's if you could get to the tiny screws and remove the back of the door while it's in place, which you really can't.

 

Understood. Thank you for your help. Looks like I have a project for next weekend! Will post finished pics.

 

I'll post some pics of mine, if I ever get the dash back together. Back in June I sent the waterfall off to be hydrodipped at JM Auto Racing, and they did such a horrible job (and took so long) I had to strip all the parts and send them to another company. I should have everything back in a few weeks. This is the shop doing the current work:

http://www.shawnaughtydesignz.com/index.html

He's in MT, so shipping from here in FL takes forever, and UPS smashed the rear strut bar cover I also sent to be dipped, so this is taking much longer than I had planned.

 

Just an update. Not to sound lazy but I wanted to try my best to make it look nice without taking apart the waterfall. I was just worried about breaking something or creating rattles so I wanted to give it a shot before. First I used krylon paint with a brush and it looked decent except when the sun reflected on it, showing how bumpy the surface was. Then I followed dcains advice and just started stripping it. I used paper towel and adhesive remover and scrubbed away for almost an hour. I could not get the gray off the edges so I touched up with a black sharpie. Let me know what you guys think, as this is an "easier" alternative. I know it is not perfect but it looks so much better than before.

Before:


With the paint brush:


Now:

 

That's what I did the first time. Taking the whole dash apart, unless you're repainting the whole thing or doing something else major, isn't really worth it just to refinish the button, so I understand what you mean.

 

I like most have done the ink trick but its not going to stay on so this weekend I plan to take a pic of an alternative method. Mine isn't black under the original paint either. For all the years this car has been out you would think they would make an effort to refine / fix these issues.

 

It is black underneath. The top layer is obviously black, then underneath is gray, and then the layer under that is black, which is where I ended up at.

 

Frankly, I had no idea Nissan changed the button.

 

Squals thanks for that I thought I would be stuck with grey. I did find a fix heres a pic

 

64K? You're gonna blow that motor.

 

Did I miss something

 

Think he means the milage on my car its 64k plus. Why am I gonna blow the engine?
I put royal purple 5w/30 in a week ago and a K&N performance oil filter. Next will swap out the gear oil, trans and coolant. = )

I dont always have the torque app running with tablet blocking the beat up paint on the switch; so do plan to remove the paint off the switch and buff up the underlying plastic.

 

Okay that is not alot of miles at all.