I think it looks bad ass with the stock tail lights in that pic! Very cool. I am not digging the whale tail though, kind of makes it look funky. It's all good though. Very awesome project! It is inspiring me a lot!
I think it looks bad ass with the stock tail lights in that pic! Very cool. I am not digging the whale tail though, kind of makes it look funky. It's all good though. Very awesome project! It is inspiring me a lot!
Don't you worry, these are the very 1st stages. Troy and Archie going to "tweek" it.
------------------ "Anyone can make a copy of something, it may look good but it ever is the real car. Make something from your imagination, something unique, something nobody has, anything is possible and, ideas can be a reality."
There was a little change of plans when we went to opening up the wheel wells. Earlier I had said that we were going to do it just as Russ had done it in his thread. I still think that the method Russ described so well is a good way to do it, however, we decided to do it a bit differently after all.
The IMSA body (along with some other body kits like my Fino & Finale) have what I call a wheel well liner return on the insides of the wheel wells. Now on my Fino & Finale kits, we don't have to open up the wheel well to put on big wide tires, but on the IMSA you have to open them up.
On the picture below the red "X"'s indicate the area I call the wheel well liner returns. They allow you to uns a stock Fiero wheel well liner without modifying the liners. We wanted to open up the wheel wells but still retain the ability to use the stock wheel well liners.
So we marked off the area we wanted to remove on the lip while still retaining the returns. You can see where we drilled a couple of holes from the inside to mark the area where the returns were on the inside. that way we could cut the lips off & keep the return area where it belongs.
The lips we cut off looked like this.........
The cut Wheel wells look like this........
I'll show you what we did next in a few minutes........
Archie
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Originally posted by Archie:
Then we took a strip of sheet metal & with a few self tapping sheet metal screws installed it in the wheel well Archie (<~~~ I know I did that on purpose)
Then we laid up fiberglass on the inside.......
Then, the next day, we removed the sheet metal.......
Archie
Blast from the past: Have you talked to Doug/Sage/Whomever about modifying the molds so that the pieces are like this from the get-go and don't have to be modified? Good idea. I like that the stock wheel house liners can still be used.
Blast from the past: Have you talked to Doug/Sage/Whomever about modifying the molds so that the pieces are like this from the get-go and don't have to be modified? Good idea. I like that the stock wheel house liners can still be used.
I'm sure Doug has been following this thread, or at least he was watching it when we were modifying the body.
You have to understand that making the modifications to the molds to do the wheel wells would be very expensive.
I'm sure he already has a pretty good investment in buying the molds & I'd expect that he's only selling about 5 bodies a year.
It would take several years to get a R.O.I. for the mold modifications that would be needed. So I wouldn't expect that it's a top priority at this time.
Those headlights are tight! Who makes them, and where can one purchase these? I would seriously do it, but I am sure we are looking at 300-600 bucks a set?
Those light are off a newer NSX, they run about $1200, each. You can get them from your local Acura dealer. Anyways, nice build, I can't wait to see it done.
Those light are off a newer NSX, they run about $1200, each. You can get them from your local Acura dealer. Anyways, nice build, I can't wait to see it done.
another lighting option.... I like the ones above better though.
I agree. The ones that Troyboy have are a complet kit whereas the Honda headlamp kit, you'll need the "extras" and that's where the cost go's up and possibly other issues. That doesn't include the cost of shipping to the U.S.
[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 08-23-2006).]
Well, I guess we'll have to show you the steps we are going thru to finish off the headlight installation.
After the last post I made we made some carboard cutouts for the hood the new headlights. Then we removed the hood. Here is a picture of the underside of the cardboard & the area around it ground down so we can lay up some fiberglass in that whole area.
After the glass cured we removed the cardboard & reinstalled the hood.....
Then it's time to start making the pocket in front of the headlight assemblies.....
Looks kind crude but we do it like this all the time....
After putting in all that metalwork, We laid fiberglass mat across the joints. That way we would have a solid modification when we laid up the fiberglass on the underside of the headlight bucket...... Here is a view fron the underside right after we removed the nose....
Then we remove the steel & the straps from the outside & figerglass the insdie surface real nice ...... like this....
Now, you may have asked what's up with this little notch we've taken out of the hood and added to the nose of the car?
Several days ago when we were doing our early fitting of the headlights, we noted that when opening the hood the corner of the hood would hit on area of the headlight that is under the hood. Now we could have designed custom hinges for the hood but that would take a lot of time. Or we could have notched the headlight but for what these things cost, I'm not gonna chance it. So we came up with the idea to keep the part that was interferring stationary. Like this.......
Here we have the nose back on the car & we trial fitted the headlights back into it just to make sure we're going to add the next layer of glass in the right areas .....
Now we're ready to lay the final layer of glass to the outside, we gring the Gelcoat out of the fiberglass parts so there will be a strong bond between the nose fiberglass & the new glass we're going to lay up.
Here's what it looks like after the final layer of glass matt.......
Monday we should finish up these headlight openings by using a little body filler & a lot of sandpaper......
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Awesome looking car! Love teh chop tops!
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