My exterior styling project thread, A look at me do up my car thread... Options

[Mangozac]

Well I finally received the rest of my kit on Friday and fitted it yesterday. I thought I'd start a project thread too so that I could make some notes along the way and show off when it's all done

Fitting was an interesting exercise. I drove the car up on some makeshift ramps and jacked up the rear side that I was working on in turn. The best thing we have for when working on the car is a foam 'camping mattress'. I'd hate to ever sleep on it but it makes lying under the car soo much more comfortable

Oh yeah also notice the black stainless steel mesh I put in the front vents a couple of weeks ago!






Yeah I know that there's big gaps. They have been moulded using a heat gun but until they are taped everything still bends back out 5-10mm.

So here's the notes/questions:
The front lip is kind of nasty to put on. It has these fibreglass brackets underneath that have to be bent whilst the lip is squeezed into place. I wouldn't want to mount/remove it too many times. Also it tends to gouge bits of paint from the front bumper where the lip piece comes up and into the main front vent.


This pic is showing where the skirt meets the front wheel well. The other skirt was a much tighter fit and needed a bit of filing and heating to get it on. I did as suggested here and cut up the mud flaps but I think it looks a bit dodge. I'll investigate getting a pair of the correct parts to go there (anyone got some they want to part with?).
Also, there's a bit of a mark left from where the mudguards wrap onto the side panel. I'll have a go at polishing it out today - may have to give it a go with a buffer...


Last picture. These are DCW OEM rears and needed a fair amount of work (compared to the Topmix parts). I've just got the one screw that you can see on the inside of the well holding them on. I reckon that once it's taped up it should hold on OK but if anyone wants to advise otherwise I'm happy to listen
That wheel arch is looking really nasty - I swiped a post there early in the year and although it didn't bare any metal, it took off a lot of the top coat of paint (the car had been resprayed so it's the original coat that shows through). I'm thinking of getting some touch up guys to attack the area and get it looking better than it currently is...


Hopefully I'll get the kit painted this week. I was thinking about getting the painters to do the final fitting too (they do a lot of this stuff) but we'll see what happens.

It's so great to finally have it all coming together! I'll definitely get some pics posted as soon as it's all finished.

Zac

[Mangozac]

Next step. As some may note from a previous thread of mine, I was looking for a set of stock tails to do some LED experimenting with, but ended up buying NGHTKD's JDMs as he was having problems with them (two of the mouting bolts on the right hand unit had been sheared off).

They arrived on Monday, and, yesterday being Saturday I found some time to fix them. First, I pulled out what was left of the mounting bolts and replaced them with those from the stock tails I'd just removed. I don't wanna sound like I'm bashing NGHTKD but he did a pretty dodgy job of removing the amber parts from them! Instead of sealing back up the turn signal after removing the amber lens, he just pulled the section he'd opened up off completely!
So I got some 1.5mm plastic sheet and used a heat gun to mould it to fit back over the giant holes. A coat of silver paint on one side, black paint on the other and some silicone sealant to hold the plastic in place and you can hardly tell they've been modified!

Anyway here's a pic:


I have one question though:
The outer pair of the red panels don't do anything. And it seems that they didn't on my stock lights either
The inner pair light up dim when the headlights are on and bright when the brakes are on but the outer pair don't do anything. I'd expect they might be brake lights also. I noticed that the globe inside is only a single filament one (i.e. it doesn't have dim and bright options). Any suggestions? My copy of the electrical manual is on my work computer so I'll have to wait till tomorrow to take a squiz at that...