1. Yes, I have searched.

2. I am not interested in hearing how "ricey" or "waste of money" body kits are.

2.5 I have my reasons for wanting to purchase a body kit. It has to do with function (my FMIC is too big, and the OEM front bumper will not accomidate it)

2.75 I do not want to buy a smaller intercooler, and I am not interested in trying to fabricate a "lip kit." Nobody makes one for my car, and the ones I have seen in the EF thread do not peak my interest.

3. I am interested in a simple body kit. I have seen 3 that are of particular interest to me:

1. VIS Techno R w/ door caps
2. AIT "M style" w/ door caps
3. Wings West

I am only interested in hearing from people who have direct personal experience with body kits and their installation either on their own vehicles, or the vehicle of a customer (if you own/work at a body shop).

My question:

Which body kit (in your experience, NOT opinion) fits best. It doesn't necissarily have to be specifically for my make and model, but rather what I am asking is which body kit manufacturer tends to provide the best fitment that will maximize the ease of DIY installation?

I would rather pay more for a kit and install it myself than pay less for one, and have to pay a shop more money to "make" it fit.

Other optional responses include which will provide the best longevity and resistance to chipping, cracking, warping.

My budget is up to $1500

My car is completely done otherwise. My motor is fully built, my interior is completely done, now I just need to put the finishing touches on the outside.

Disregard paint at this point. I will handle that after I decide which kit is best.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Bump with a pic

Yes, I know it looks SUPER ghetto. This was just supposed to be a temporary fix. That is why I'm getting a kit...

 

ttt

 

Well, if there's any one bit of information that I've learned through the couple of years I've been doing car modification, it's that nothing fits 100%, it can only get to be about 99% There's always going to be a bit of a issue. Small or large, there will be one. In terms of what fits best? I would guess Wings west. Not sure, never bought something from them. I've been told that urethane is easier to work with. So if your wondering what's easier to put on, it might be the urethane.

Chances are, if you don't have any body experience, and you want it to be perfect, you're going to want to take it to a professional. If you don't want it to be grade A, then you could do it yourself. Hell, you might even get lucky and get it perfect with no experience. You never know. A front bumper install isn't all that hard. I would say, get what style you like the best instead of the one that's going to be the easiest to fit.

 

i had a wings west, mugen style i guess it was with door caps. if pulled off right, it looks fairly stock and clean. plus you can fit a huge fmic with a lil trimming.

 

That's exactly the look I'm going for. I need it to look stock with some simple, clean lines but a bigger front bumper for the FMIC.

Did you happen to snap any shots of your car when you had the kit installed?

Also, did you do the install yourself?

 

Any others? I know more than one person here has a body kit. Remember, I'm just looking for which brand fit best. Doensn't necessarily have to be for an EF.

 

Wings West is the way to go. Best fitment, no problems with it.

 

Did you install it yourself? Any pics?

 

If you go with a fiberglass kit its not going to fit. It will need work, they always do.

 

The wings west bodykit is nice.

 

I've got one one my 91 si.

 

make sure if you buy a wings west kit that IT NOT BE BRAND NEW. Anything that wingswest has that was made 1.5 years ago till now is crap! ViS owns wingswest now and they move a lot of their manufacturing to the same factory that makes ViS stuff. So you are buying a ViS kit but for the wings west price. Anything fiberglass is going to have to be made to fit really. They use cheap poly resins that shrink. Also they copy molds off of already production pieces that have shrunk a little so the mold shrinks a little and then the part shrinks even more. That is why you really never see anything that is too big but always too small

 

I used to import in kits that was manufactured by the factory that make the ait stuff and fitment was pretty good. Be advised that 80 or 90% off all carbon and fiberglass stuff is made by the same company in china but a lot of comanies brand them as their own. Like for example ViS carbon hoods are the SAME as Seibon hoods. They are made by the same company they just brand them as their own

 

Ugh, that sounds terrible! (what you said about the fiberglass manufacturing process) Well, if the new Wings west stuff is no good, where do I get an old one from? Thanks for the insightful info. I had no idea.

What about that other stuff out there like "V Fiber" or "Duraflex"

What would you personally recommend. If for some reason you decided to install one on your personal vehicle? Which would you go with?

 

Any pics? Did you do the install yourself?

 

bump for more feedback

 

OK, so I have decided to go ahead and go with the Wings West kit. I bought it from VIS racing in the City of Industry. I paid $680. This was a "discounted" price. I used to work in the aftermarket parts industry. I know that even with my "discount" these guys still made a killing off me. Oh well, that's what I get for leaving the industry, no more getting cool stuff at or near cost.

Just a quick note, the VIS kit for my car called the "Techno R" is the exact same kit as the wings west, except it is made out of fiberglass instead of urethane.

Talking to the sales guy, he said that the fiberglass is easy to repair when compared to the urethane. He said that the urethane is virtually impossible to repair because it is an oil-based compound which makes it difficult for adhesives to bond to it, unlike fiberglass which is just resin and the fiber.

I looked at both the fiberglass, and the urethane (WW). I noticed that the fiberglass was extremely light when compared to the urethane. The urethane bumper weight slightly more than the OEM bumper. The urethan however was extremely flexible. I mean, I practically twisted the thing completely around, and it did not even give me any resistance compared to the fiberglass which was very rigid and brittle. The urethane was also much thicker than the fiberglass.

I decided to go with the urethane because it appeared to be more resillient to damage, and just the feel of the quality of the product seemed higher compared to the cheap fiberglass. Another side benefit that wasn't really a factor in my decision, but was just kind of like an added plus is that the urethane comes black as opposed to the beige fiberglass, so I don't even have to get this thing painted right away. It looks like a regular plastic OEM bumper with some grill mesh in it.

Since no one knew how to install it, I assumed that it would be pretty straight forward. Remove old bumper, replace with new bumper. I was not so lucky. The fiberglass kit came pre-drilled and ready to install, but the urethane was not. I didn't realize this until I had already paid, but I don't think I would have changed my mind anyway. It just means that I am going to have to be extremely careful when I drill my holes. I have attached a couple pics so you can see where there are some missing holes and gaps (like where the license plate lights should go).

P.S. I have an 89, and the turn signal holes are too big, which leads me to believe that they are designed for the 90-91 turn signal. I guess that is going to be one more trip to the junk yard.

Here are some pics of the kit

 

Here is a teaser of the kit installed. I couldn't do the rear bumper because the muffler is too big. I'm getting a new catback this week, so that fartcan will be out of there sooner than later hopefully so I can put the rear bumper on.

I can't believe that the only thing holding the sideskirts and door caps on is double sided tape. That stuff is super sticky!

My initial impression with the kit was spot on. Everything fit perfectly right from the shop. I messed up a couple of the holes I drilled in the wrong position, but it was super easy to correct. Everything lined up surprisingly well.

The hardest part of the whole process was cutting the front bumper to make room for the huge FMIC.

I am very pleased with the results.

She will be going in for paint before the end of the month. I'll post up some more pics then.

 

i have a wings west RS kit on my 91 hatch, its the urethane kit, and beleive me they dont break. i was rearend before and it didnt do anything to it. just chipped the paint. but it held its original shape. thats the best part about it being rubber lol. fitment was great except the passenger side back bumper i had to trim below the taillights a little bit. besides that tho fitment was great, and imo a great looking kit

 

that's exactly where I had to trim LOL. Everything else bolted up just fine.

 

nice choice. that kit is the best for EF's. now throw up yo pics. lol.

 

I will post more pics as soon as I get it installed correctly.

One major not about the install of this kit is that if you plan on installing the kit using only the 3M tape to hold up the skirts and door caps, you MUST do it when it is at least 70 - 80 degrees outside!

I did it when it was about 50 degrees out at night. The next day when it warmed up, the skirts and door caps stretched and the tape separated from the body once it cooled down again that night, and the passenger side skirt came loose on the way home, so I had to rip it off. *VERY EMBARRASING*

I'm waiting for it to warm up before I put the skirts/door caps back on. I'm also going to be using self-tapping screws to hold them on by screwing them in from the inside of the door panel and front/rear fenders.

 

+1 on the wings west.
Fiberglass 98% of the time fits like poo.
and my door caps where basically bonded (not bondoed) to the doors...
i forgot what type of adhesive they used...but they showed me a test piece...basically you cant take it off even if you wanted to.

 

Good god man! That thing is gorgeous!