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I bought a new (to me) footwell finisher piece and was shocked to see it was totally different than mine (2011 IPL). Mine (black) is straight plastic. The one I bought (white) is padded foam like the dash. It’s 100x better. I assume it’s from a newer model, why did they change it? I don’t know. Any ideas?
Does anyone have any other examples of upgrades like this?
re: footwell panels. Was the padded one you bought NOS (New Old Stock) or used?
Originally, those pieces came padded on the G's. At some point, likely around the 2010 "facelift," the part went to the solid plastic panel. Reason? The padded ones will crack, deform, and the adhesive will fail causing the padding to separate from the plastic "frame." Just like the gauge cluster housing deforms near the two switches. I have been meaning to replace mine but as I will need to replace the whole dash assembly anyway I am just waiting until time and tide will cooperate.
Hey @ILM-NC G37S, good to be back! My interior project didn’t hold up too well. The leather I used on my dash faded in the sun. I foolishly didn’t use a well enough protected leather. The doors, headliner, rear qtrs etc are all great since they aren’t in direct sunlight. So I swapped my dash and related/connected components (center console). It isn’t ideal since now some of the car is leather and some isn’t but it matches good enough and the dash is mint so it looks clean. Perhaps I’ll try again to wrap those again someday but for now I just wanted to be don’t with it.
That’s interesting that it goes the other way. Rather than fix the issue with a similar quality good part, they just said “make it plastic, who cares”. I got the part
from eBay so 99% it’s just off a wrecked car. It fits great tho. It also seems more snug, less prone to squeaking.
I don’t have any real issues with build quality, but Nissan really dropped the ball with some material choices. My dash is cracked to hell, the sunroof drain system is an utter failure, and the outer rubber scrapers tore off the front door windows. I now have to drain water from the front doors after a heavy rain.
