making your own bodykit is not as easy as it sounds... it takes a lot of effort to get it right and the materials that you work with are quite hazardous to your health so be very careful ans use all safety precautions...
i have given this a shot few months ago and it's NOT easy... you can get away with minor and easy things like headlight eyelids or small bonnet vents etc but if you wanna build something substantially bigger like a rear wing/bar etc, make sure you have plenty of patience (and skill)...
well the reason i am intrueged by this is that my father is experience with fiberglass. i equiped his car with a sweet kit but my sister drove it and forgot about the lowered aspect, crushing the left hand side completely on a gutter. one look and i thought it was rooted, half the front spoiler was hanging of and wrecked.
my old man re modled it, and today you wouldnt have a clue that it is half home made. so this is why im scratching my head over the idea. in my case having a skilled old man by my side i honestly think it would take more effort talking him into it then making the kit LOL
infact i think he may have specialised professional equpment from doing that type work many years ago.
i think making a mold would be difficult, thenn again i have no idea.
pagan wrote:sheesh gpxxx, is there anything you havent tried
trust me, there are plenty of other projects i've got lined up, just never had enough time or money to get around to it... (although i always make time when when I get sponsorship / R&D funding $$$... )
Hey i kinda know a fair bit about customising kits and the like with fibreglass. what you need is: spare bumper so you can cut the crap outa it and customise it with plywood and putty. why?? this will build the shape to how you want it and is the first of many steps in the process.
Once you have built the shape you are after you will need a lot of time and patience and sandpaper. why? you need to take out all imperfections and smooth the surface. this is the hardest part.once you have done this you will need to sray paint the bumper and sand it down again.then you will need to wax the Bumper about 7 times. when you have done that you will need to gel coat it. this is the start of the mould. once you have applied the gelcoat you will need to coat it in resin and fibreglass and build a frame in which to house the mould. when this is done about 2 days for it to dry you need to separate the original bumper from the mould. you can now throw away the bumper. from the mould you now need to wax it up about 7 times then apply gelcoat to the inside of the mould and once again resin and fibre glass. leave for about 5-7 days in the mould and fibre glass should be about 5mm thick. after this time you separat the new bumper from the mould being very carefull and if you have taken all the time and done the right prep you should get a flawless bumper and from the mould you can get many reproductions. it is VERY Expensive and time consumming. believe me i know.
hmmm... sounds a lot easier to just get a used front bar and cut bits off it. i have a paint kit example if anyone wants to post it so the others can see. i think it looks sick... um and different lol. but something like that sholdnt be hard i wouldnt think
I recently tried fiberglassing, and i have to say the first time aint easy...
Yeah, for things like the front bar, you really need a another front bumper to play around with... i was thinking along the other lines... the spoiler... get a stock spoiler and start making to what you want it to look like
But with all these things time is really critical...
)
"Im a Little Teapot...."
