My friend sold me his 2001 SE with 151k mi for a steal, and when I got it, the truck was in great shape overall, but needed some maintenance attention (belts, timing belt, cam cover gaskets, rear main seal, tuneup, etc). And I decided the faded plastic parts looked like crap, so I pulled them all and went for a monochrome look.

Before pics:

http://www.aerialsouth.com/xterra/xterra-before-front.jpg

http://www.aerialsouth.com/xterra/xterra-before-back.jpg

Then some pics during the transformation and during the heavy maintenance (easier to do with hood removed). After stripping parts off to be painted, I had a shop detail everything so they could get into the tight spots easier.

http://www.aerialsouth.com/xterra/xterra01.jpg

http://www.aerialsouth.com/xterra/xterra02.jpg

http://www.aerialsouth.com/xterra/xterra03.jpg

http://www.aerialsouth.com/xterra/xterra04.jpg

And the after shots:

http://www.aerialsouth.com/xterra/xterra-lf.jpg

http://www.aerialsouth.com/xterra/xterra-rt.jpg

http://www.aerialsouth.com/xterra/xterra-rr.jpg

And finally, one more shot will be posted when the new wheels and tires come in this week. I opted for 18" MB Chaos 6 spoke wheels in silver, and I intend to paint the spokes black. I didn't like the options on the market--either too popular and "just like everyone else" or little things about the design I didn't like. The MB's seem to be just what I want, without the paint. On 265/55's, it should have just the look I'm after.

As much as I wanted to go the offroad direction, it's only a 2WD, so giving it a more intense offroad look seemed kind of silly to me. It's the wifey's truck, but I may drive it from time to time.

After the wheels are installed, I may drop it 1-2" depending on the look. Gotta get some tech help from those of you who know best how to achieve this. I PM'd gixxersixxer, but haven't gotten a response yet. So if any of you have some advice, I'm open to hear it.

Looks like a brand new X after all the work you did! I'm a fan of the all black look myself. Nothing wrong with going with a street look, to each his own. Especially if you aren't going to off road it at all. Looking forward to the pics with the new wheels and tires! Oh and welcome!

I wouldn't lower it and not because of the street look or anything like that. My co-worker dropped his X 2" and now he is hating it. It beats him to death on the roads and the increased vibrations are shaking all sorts of things loose. Plus, going with an 18" rim will add to the already rough ride of a lowered vehicle. I think with those 18's it will look good as it sits now.

Nice work on the paint. Glossy! :D

I noticed the Jeffco tag. I'm north of you in Huntsville. Welcome to the club!

Thanks for the kind words and welcome from y'all. Interesting twist, last night I got a call from discounttire and they said the tires weren't avail. I considered going to 20's because I'm trying not to get a smaller diameter wheel when this is all said and done. The salesman (Mitch) had a chance to upsell my order by about $200, and believe it or not, he talked me out of it. He said the 20's would add too much unsprung weight, and I'd be fighting the road rather than enjoying it, because the X is too light to begin with, especially this one being a 2WD. Shout out to him for not pushing something on me that I didn't need! I ended up finding my tires at another online shop, and decided to increase the width just a hair more to 285's, up from the 265's on order. The suck part is now I have to get a local shop to mount/balance them, where prior to all this, they would have been bolt-and-go straight off the UPS truck. Uggh.

Drake, I'm actually in north Shelby County--you couldn't PAY me to live in Jeffco!! I've got a good friend and colleague in H'ville who like me, is an aerial photographer. I find myself up that way from time to time. Next time I have a trip up there, I'll shoot you a PM on here first. And thanks for the tips on dropping it. I was concerned it would destroy what little ride there is now. I hate like heck this thing isn't 4WD--I would have gone the other direction so well. Right now I'm eyeballing some YJ's to build a rock crawler since this one is only good enough to pull up to the parking lot of an OHV park. :>)

Greg

Nice looking X! I've seen color matched bumpers on X's before, but yours is the first that actually looks good (the other two were white and maroon). Great job!

The black plastics looks great. One of the things I despise about the 1st and 1.5gen X's is how the grey plastic ages them. Even if it's not faded to crap, I think the grey makes the trucks look older. A coat of black freshness really makes a huge difference.

Have a look at CAOS (Central Alabama Offroad Association). You could probably find somebody getting rid of a jeep on there on the cheap. Or at least a good supply of parts to upgrade one you find elsewhere.

Definitely shoot me a pm. I travel a lot with work (in Vegas right now actually) but if I'm in town, we can meet up for a drink or something.

Alright, I can finally sign off on the truck and say it's "complete" even though I haven't lowered it--still on the fence about it. May drop it 1" at the most, but not sure it'd be as dramatic as I would want, and any lower would really compromise the ride. So here's a cellphone shot of the truck with new wheels. Wife didn't like the black wheels at first, but after all the compliments she's gotten, she's decided I didn't do such a bad job after all. :>) And Drake thanks for the info on CAOS.

http://www.aerialsouth.com/xterra/xterracompleted.jpg

Sexy, good job. :)

Very slick!!

Thanks y'all

Ja wol!!

That looks really good! Now all you need are some go-fast mods :)

wow, the color matched bumpers actually look good in black. x looks good for a 2wd!!

what kind of paint did you use to get it that close to stock/ and glossy?

Cool looking rims!

Thanks for the great words everyone. My wife recently lost 30lbs and went from a size 10 to a size 0. I see her driving around in this thing and think "damn, she makes the truck hotter!" And would you believe she'd rather own a Camry?!?! Ugggh.

@Nesterra: I used Valspar Universal 2K base/clear system, Nissan paint code KH3. I also used Gorilla adhesion primer for the plastic parts, and thoroughly cleaned all parts with acetone before applying. None of this is oven-baked...just prepped and sprayed in my driveway on a non-humid, calm day. Fortunately no dust to worry about that day.

For the step bar and roof rack system, I used SEM Black trim paint. SEM is the sh*t when it comes to trim paint--expensive for rattle can, but it goes on well, and is very duarable.

Don't laugh, but the wheel spokes are painted with Rustoleum high heat rattle can paint from Lowes. The reason was that if wifey flipped out, I could easily remove the paint with acetone. Turns out she is cool with it, and so far, it's been durable and I've had no chips or flaking issues whatsoever. At the first sign of weakness, I'll remove it all and respray with a truly durable professional product through my HVLP gun. But so far, so good. Powdercoating not necessary--these are just street rims, so it's not like they'll be exposed to rocks, etc on a regular basis.

Now the truck is for sale. She really does want a Camry. Oh well, someone's going to get a cool looking X.