Maxima Net: the maxima enthusiasts website

If you could get your car into Lowrider Magazine, what one fact would you most hate to have left out? Nick Ruvalcaba, owner of this 87' Nissan Maxima, would never forgive us if we failed to mention that "Sunny Delight" was the world's first convertible Maxima. It was also the first Euro evr lifted in Northern California, but that was back in 88'.

Nick's brother Felipe owned the car back then, and he was heading the detail shop to prepare for a car show, but he crashed the car and never made it to the shop. So Nick bought it, fixed the damage and got so excited he cruised over to Richard's Custom Hydraulics in Salinas, California, for a new hydraulics setup (lifting a Euro was unheard of in NorCal at this time). Rich installed 6-inch cylinders all around, two Red's pumps, four Sears Die-Hard batteries (900 cold-cranking amps wach) and four switches for front-to-back and side-to-side moves.

Nick also decided to make the Maxima a convertible, so he and homie Randy McGraw in Watsonville, California, joined forces and soon found that cutting the top was no simple matter. Late model Nissans (among others) are maade of rather thin metal which can easily buckle, and before they could do any cutting, the body had to be reinforced. So they built a custom frame to brace the body and the cutting began. The frame idea worked, too, as the top came off without any flexing of the body. They even welded plates into the cut body instead of upholstering over the work area for a factory look.

Joe Rodriguez of R&R Auto Body in Watsonville shaved the hood, doors, gas lid and key holes and installed dual Frenched antennas and a tube grill. He also installed a Kaminari body kit and painted the exterior in multiple shades of candy tangerine. Tony Declett of Auto Touch-Up in Marin, California, airbrushed the graphics with lots of gold.

Many of the accessories are gold-plated, such as the headlight trim, fender trim, door window moldings, muffler tips, and wipers. Then there's the all-gold 15x7 Daytons with 195-50 BFGoodrich radials, and under the hood, gold and chrome accents and paint make the engine sparkle.

Alex Rivero (Watsonville) covered the seats in leather and installed a wood veneerdash, accents and a Nardi steering wheel for a Mercedes Benz look to coordinate with the gold and tangerine color scheme. With all the attention to detail, this Euro makes a powerful visual statement, so Nick backed it up with a boomin' audio system which includes a Pioneer Premier CD, Zapco pre-amp, a PPI 100-watt chrome amp, four Infinit mids, four 8s, four tweeters and two Pioneer 6x9's.

Attention to detail has paid off at such shows Sacramento, Watsonville, Fresno, and Merced, where Sunny Delight placed first or second in Luxury Sport and Full Custom. But no matter what happens in the future, Nick Ruvalcaba can rest easy knowing that he owns two records that will never be broken.