Discontinued Parts

[leff522]

Hi everyone

I drive an '03 350z in Le Mans Sunset

I recently noticed a pretty nasty crack in my left rear splash guard the other day, and was hoping to pick up a new one. The problem is, the Le Mans Sunset color has been discontinued and I've talked to a few dealers who all tell me there's nothing they can do because the parts aren't available from Nissan.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[rmezz13]

Not the cheapest, but go buy one, have it painted at a body shop, then install it on the car, then take it back for them to blend it (at the body shop) if it doesn't match up great. Make sure you take your paint code or just drive the car there and they can get the code off the car. My eyelids were done that way, except they matched enough for me to not get them blended. Can't tell unless you really stare for a minute when the light is hitting it just right. And that could just be paranoia.

[NSRsheets]

I love that color. What Rmezz said is probably your only option. Either find a good body shop or someone who does amazing paint jobs.

[nterrigno]

Are you saying the part is unavailible? Or the Paint because of the discontinued Color? The part is availible and there is a dealer who sells discontinued parts on ebay for the 350. Try this auction

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...photo

This dealer has a very good rep with 100% positive feedback and I have personally talked to him. He will sell just the fronts seperate and not for a bad price. But in all honesty, from my opinion. I would rather buy a part and have it painted. I wouldnt buy it prepainted because of it not blending correctly. Unless you have a color that dont need much blending like solid white or black and sometimes, they still tend to be off. Good Luck!

Nick

Hi everyone

I drive an '03 350z in Le Mans Sunset

I recently noticed a pretty nasty crack in my left rear splash guard the other day, and was hoping to pick up a new one. The problem is, the Le Mans Sunset color has been discontinued and I've talked to a few dealers who all tell me there's nothing they can do because the parts aren't available from Nissan.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[Danni]

I wouldnt buy it prepainted because of it not blending correctly. Unless you have a color that dont need much blending like solid white or black and sometimes, they still tend to be off. Good Luck!

Nick

Actually, there are many variants of each paint code and to get the right one you need to compare sample cards to your car. This is because car manufacturers use less accuracy in colors than real bodyshops. You can only blend this color difference by painting all adjacent panels (color half way, clear all the way). You are right about black colors being less likely to need blending, this is because mixing black paint requires less accuracy since each drop of color changes black paint very little and therefore variants are very similar. White however usually has the most variants since one drop of color changes the white a lot.What I'm guessing bodyshops do when you guys have them "blend" the color is simply polish paint that has faded, taking away the difference in light reflection. This will make it look better but will not help much if you have the wrong variant of your color.In addition to this, you can almost almost never paint one single panel in any silver or thee coat colors without a visible color difference.

Regards,Daniel, european painter

[jabber87]

they should be able to get the mixing code from your VIN number...

[leff522]

I was afraid to hear all this...

Nonetheless, thanks for your help everyone. It looks like I'll be paying my body shop a visit in the next few days.

Then maybe I'll be able to post a picture if I can get my camera working.

Appreciate it...Austen