Lets talk body kits~ Options

[D-Man]

okay, i know this is covered in the sticky; "The more you spend the better"

However; out of a few brands, i am trying to figure out witch i am going to purchase. I'm looking for the Blitz front with the invader sides and rear. Now, i WILL NOT buy theese off of ebay. Yeah i could get em for 100 bucks, but will it be anything decent? NO~

Body-Kitz.com offers a nice selection, but due to the fact they wont even give you the name of the manufacturer, I dont really want to trust them to deliver a quality product. Plus One member of this fourm (I forget the name) had a really bad experience with Body-kitz.com.

So I've been looking at Andy's wares, and it would seem there are a few good buys. I dont want to spend $1000 for this... So my question is if anyone has any experience with the following manufacturers:

AIT Racing - VS
Duraflex - Extreme Dementions
VFiber - Vision

Or look for yourselfs here:

http://www.andysautosport.com/toyota/1994_...rior/body_kits/

So if anyone has an opinion on theese 3 brands, i would love to hear all feed back possible.

[bootslimo]

D-man, I installed a veilside full kit on a hatch, the biggest prob was the rear bumper.

Where the kit and the rear fender meet I had to trim some off the top of the kit because it was wavy from extra jell coat or fiber, (wasnt sure) but the top of the kit was like a half T or upside down L and screws went up into the rear fender stock holes.

I had trouble also with sucking the bumper in to meet the fenders right behind the back wheels.

The kit when bolted up it stuck out from the body, luckily some sanding fixed that.

When finished the only thing I didnt like was that there was a gap between the taillights and the bumper, It looked like the tails needed to move down.

But, overall very satisfied.

[D-Man]

Do you have a pic of this Bootslimo? From what i can imagine of your description, it sounds like a reform is in order for the top parts hanging away from the body of your car. You can do this by heating the skirt, and folding/bending it into place. Alot of pro's do it by hand, but i've seen people do it by holding it to the body and heating the kit that way. It's best if done before painting. This can be done with a heating lamp, or a hairdryer. Sounds crazy, but i've seen great work from a hair dryer. lol. You just have to make sure you dont burn it. lol.

I prefer a heating lamp, bc you have your hands free to hold and mold to the car itself. All cars start the same, but over time the panels shift just a little tiny bit. I am a firm believer that the only way to ensure a proper fit is to use the car itself as its own mold. Then by removing it, and exaggerating a key bend to ensure that it holds tight.but that's me.

You were 100% right for sanding it down where need be, that was probably resin for leeway. On some kits, during production, they use a sheet of plastic between the mold and the kit that's being molded, the first layer is always plain resin for those purposes. some kits are composed of solid resin, that's how they maintain those very flexible profiles. It is good to have a fairly flexible kit, but it is also a bad thing at the same time. They have their advantages and disadvantages. Remember Terminator 2? the T1000 had advantages, but was ultimately weaker (hand to hand) than Swartzanager's Terminator. Same idea, different medium.

I'd love to see a pic of this, because id be much more able to help you to perfect this. And i'd love to see a current pic of your car. BTW, the neons look fantasterific!

This post has been edited by D-Man: Feb 29, 2008 - 10:39 PM

[bootslimo]

Do you have a pic of this Bootslimo? From what i can imagine of your description, it sounds like a reform is in order for the top parts hanging away from the body of your car. You can do this by heating the skirt, and folding/bending it into place. Alot of pro's do it by hand, but i've seen people do it by holding it to the body and heating the kit that way. It's best if done before painting. This can be done with a heating lamp, or a hairdryer. Sounds crazy, but i've seen great work from a hair dryer. lol. You just have to make sure you dont burn it. lol.

I prefer a heating lamp, bc you have your hands free to hold and mold to the car itself. All cars start the same, but over time the panels shift just a little tiny bit. I am a firm believer that the only way to ensure a proper fit is to use the car itself as its own mold. Then by removing it, and exaggerating a key bend to ensure that it holds tight.but that's me.

You were 100% right for sanding it down where need be, that was probably resin for leeway. On some kits, during production, they use a sheet of plastic between the mold and the kit that's being molded, the first layer is always plain resin for those purposes. some kits are composed of solid resin, that's how they maintain those very flexible profiles. It is good to have a fairly flexible kit, but it is also a bad thing at the same time. They have their advantages and disadvantages. Remember Terminator 2? the T1000 had advantages, but was ultimately weaker (hand to hand) than Swartzanager's Terminator. Same idea, different medium.

I'd love to see a pic of this, because id be much more able to help you to perfect this. And i'd love to see a current pic of your car. BTW, the neons look fantasterific!

The car was sold, but i still have pics, the rear mudflaps ended up holding the body kit in, never seen a prob with cracking even after paint.