I was inspired to start my own custom body kit from a thread at AutomotiveForums.com

So here are just some pix of my progress, you can follow it along at http://www.xanga.com/xavierfg if you are interested.

Right now, its all blue masking tape and posterboard, but i will be fiberglassing it this weekend hopefully. School's been a bitch, in for my last year in HS this week, so it might be going slower than i hoped.

 

umm pretty interesting.

 

on the effort....but that aint my style nuckahhh...... I keep it stock exterior-wise

 

gotta give ya credit for trying. i would sugest to take a few inches out of the kit and lower the car some.

 

might wanna open that up, radiator has to get air somehow

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stockcrix1616 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">gotta give ya credit for trying. i would sugest to take a few inches out of the kit and lower the car some. </TD></TR></TABLE>
exacttly what I thought, that big fish mouth would be cool with an intercooler in it, nope ??

kranked

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kranked91dx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
exacttly what I thought, that big fish mouth would be cool with an intercooler in it, nope ??

kranked</TD></TR></TABLE>

yea it would. i also kinda like it because theres not a lot going on, unlike most kits that they offer. its smooth and not a lot of open holes.

 

well, i did save a few inches for lowering. It just doesnt show in the pix, there's still 3-4 inches to the ground.

Also, i'm gonna cut more vent holes in the bumper after the fiberglass is layed down. Its too hard for detail right now as the substructure isnt that rigid. I just formed the big hole for the radiator because that would be too much to cut later on.

 

in my opinion it looks pretty good, i dont know about the side skirts though. andon the front bumpers i recomned a vent hole on each side of it. like the blitz kit has

 

nice. i really need to learn how to fiberglass

 

i wasnt going for the "bodykitted" look, w/ like, a million vents and tons of curves and twists.

I wanted to turn it into what i think it would look like if honda remade the crx in a more recent style.

... hence, the simplicity of the skirts. Its only there for the lower body appearance and to follow the line curve set by the new front bumper and the rest of the body.

 

I think you should keep it like it is, and drive it around with those funky colored construction paper moldings.

 

not bad not bad

 

Yeah, I would open it up more, and exaggerate the lip (I guess) around the hole. But then again once you see it when its done, it may look like crap. I'll definitely give you your kudos, and a free bump.

 

I gotta say that is awesome you are tryin out something new and something no one else has. Good luck and be sure to show us when its done/progress of it.
Only thing is these cars (lowered) are hard enough to jack up, so you might as well make a nice set of ramps so you can jack the car up also.

 

try new design

 

I'm not a huge fan of bodykits, but good luck man- good effort. My one suggestion is to take some styling cues from the WW or Mugen kit as those are the cleanest & most OEM looking kits. Show us the results.

 

you gotta be kidding

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by [626 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">JDM-b16a-EF9]you gotta be kidding</TD></TR></TABLE>

LoL....

 

baaahaahahhahaahhahahahaahhahahaha

 

dont mind these haters, i think what your doin is awesome! good job on the mask up, cant wait to see the final product. half these haters wouldnt even know what your talking about, but i ive you props, question tho, are you going to fiberglass over the original bumper? because its flexable, whereas fiberglass isnt, so anytime the bumper flexes the fiberglass part will in turn try to flex and make it crack , so making it harder on you try to make a whole new bumper, that would be sweet.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 4inspeed &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">dont mind these haters, i think what your doin is awesome! good job on the mask up, cant wait to see the final product. half these haters wouldnt even know what your talking about, but i ive you props, question tho, are you going to fiberglass over the original bumper? because its flexable, whereas fiberglass isnt, so anytime the bumper flexes the fiberglass part will in turn try to flex and make it crack , so making it harder on you try to make a whole new bumper, that would be sweet.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i would think it would be less prone to cracking if it had the additional support of the stock bumper behind it. if it was all by itself, it would seem much more brittle. anyways just make sure you do enough layers and dont ever let a woman park it and you should be ok just take your time and do a nice job - looks like you're off to a good start already

 

my gf and i did the fiberglassing today, 5 layers and its pretty rigid. and i agree w/ keebler, i think just adding on to the stock bumper will make it more rigid. Anyways, it was my first time fiberglassing, so there are a lot of bumps i have to fill up w/ bondo. but, the shape was kept intact, and its pretty smooth after sanding it down for like an hour and a half w/ a rough sanding block.

The skirts i'll have to redo tmrw. I didnt have enough reinforcement and they rippled when i glassed it. so i have to rip the old one out and i'm gonna glass nice flat ones on a flat surface, cut them out, then screw them on and put glass over the screws to smooth it out. If that doesnt work, i'll order some sheet plastic and just glass that on on the edges.

Tomorrow, i'm gonna bondo the front bumper and sand it down. hopefully i'll also get the skirts done. I'm planning on finishing the construction of it as a whole tmrw, at least i hope so. Driving arounda crappy, dented, purple ford minivan is no way for a a senior to drive to high school w/out getting some awkward looks, hehe. I'll get some pix up tomorrow hopefully. its late and i've been working on it all day.

 

Sexy...you and your girlfriend working on your car together...

be sure to post some pictures for us...please please please!!!

I'm thinking of doing something or other that is more or less similar to this project...

Two Quick Questions...
1. How did you keep things symmetrical, from side to side on the front bumper, and keeping the side skirts the same

2. I assume that you're not going the -make mold then make bumper- route, so basically you just made the approximate shape, then laid fiberglass over it, then smoothed out the imperfections...?

Thanks

 

1. for symmetry, i cut out patterns for vents and general shapes, then just approximated as best i could w/ landmarks on the body already there ... like, headlight marks, fender lines, etc. then after attaching the paper (really easy to work with), i jus cut off what i needed to to adjust. a ruler came into play now and then, buh usually i was too lazy to use it, heh.

2. yeah, you got it. its not the best or most accurate way, but its the fastest, easiest, and allows for better strength. Also, one thing i didnt do, i suggest you put your car on jack stands or raise it somehow when you do this, otherwise, your back will be hurting like a bitch the next day. heh, as you can see, i learned the hard way.