WHICH FRONT END???, invader or andy's combat Options

[playr158]

Ok i'm looking into a front end before i leave for tuner bash and i was just looking for an opinion/quality imput from you all. so which one is it and a short lil reason why would help out alot thanks guys
andy's combat front bumper?
or
Invader style?

[Einhander]

If your wanting something to just throw on the car and paint, get the invader. But if your going for something not everyone has, and have a descent body shop or are good with fiberglass/bondo, get the combat. Although some have lucked out and got good fitting combat kits others have not been so lucky.

[boosted_K2]

i would really suggest getting sideskirts with either of these kits if your wanting to show the car off... because both just dont look right w/o sideskirts.

[klr_toy]

ya what Einhander said. invaders are a dime a dozen. Probably fit better though. I love my Combat. Was not a perfect fit of course. Very good though. I've been slowly working on it here and there to get the fit better. Sanding mostly. Minor details. Nothing was hard, and this was my first install. Got mine from Andy's. I had good experience with them as far as service and product quality/fitment.

[Einhander]

i've heard a lot of people say the cyberbestbuy.com invader kits are perfect fit, wouldn't know from experience. . . .i've been working on getting my combat kit perfect since june'03 getting all the nicks out and getting it molded on, once i get the z3 fenders on. . should make things a lot easier.

[playr158]

yea i'm getting my invader bumper from cyberbestbuy cause i saw your profile and i checked there...best price so far too

[Pvc99gT]

ive heard nothing but bad things about the combat fitment and we all know invader will fit nicely. a lot of ppl ON THE SITE have invader, but its unlikely that u will ever come across someone with the invader unless youre at a 6GC meet. i would personally go with the invader if i had to pick between the two, and i second the sideskirts thing. its like you have this sweet front bumper and the rest of the car is stock. not very balanced if ya get what im sayin.

[Digndoug]

yeah does any one know if they make a plastic, or well like poly or abs front end?? cause im looking for one, well more of a lip, but i would rather not deal with fiberglas.

[playr158]

yea i'm getting the sideskirts too don't worry, its money crunch now to get the parts in and painted and on time for the daytona show!

[Einhander]

to my knowledge, no one makes a polyurethane kit for the celica. . .unless you go with original jdm kits, or the gt-4 front. I am sure though if you had the money and contacts you could get a 1 off of a kit in polyurethane. . .but your lookin at a lot of cash.

[playr158]

ok new idea for the invader.......what about installing the piece between the head lights on the GT-4 (bumper scoop maybe?!?!) and putting it on the invader bumper ?!? anythoughts or anyone wanna try to photoshop it and post it up for me?

[slipgun]

Doesnt the invador require the front support bar to be removed or something to that effect? Which of course would be very illigal and very hazerdous *not that many would care*

[boosted_K2]

both these front ends require either the bumper support beam to be removed or the front to be modified (the back of the bumper must be notched out). if you were in a front end collision above 10MPH, your car would likely be totaled because there is nothing besides fiberglass stopping the collision from reaching the radiator support beams and more than likely bending the unibody. your car will no longer hold its crash safety rating making it as illegal as a racing steering wheel w/o being certified to remove the airbag. will you get pulled over by a cop specifically for not having it? no. but if you really were to piss a cop off and he wanted to write you citations for everything wrong with your car, he could possably impound it for that. like i said though, 99% of the time this doesnt happen, and i bet over 50% of bodykits for just about any car require some kind of modification to the 5MPH bumper setup (making it "illegal"). for piece of mind you could probably custom fab a new bumper support beam to not interfere with the kit, but it wont make it any more legal... unless you are really good at custom fabs and the cop doesnt notice it isnt the actual support beam.

[playr158]

how do i notch out my invader bumper to fit over the bumper support beam cause i don't wanna remove it

[Sh0gunkid8721]

[klr_toy]

Anybody ever seen a modified support beam or one that some one has fabbed? My support beam is gone for now, but I would like to put it back in or make a new one sometime this spring while I am doing other body work and will have the bumber off. I'll try and get out and take some pics of the area in question sometime soon. See how much room there is to work with. I'm sure if you bolted a piece of flatbar, angle iron, or some kind of box tubing to where the old beam was it would help. Gotta be better than nothing. Will probably just have to be smaller than the beam that came out. Ideas?

[boosted_K2]

yea, you can notch them both out, jwalk did on the vader bumper, and i think custoe did on the combat kit... its possable, but just know you are going to have 1/2 a steel beam showing through the mouth of the kit... jwalk fixed a set of fog lamps to it and put mesh on, and it didnt look too bad.

[NEVERSTOP]

I did it on my invader front end, took about 2 mins to do here are some photos.. and I used procarpart turnsignals to hide it.. cant even notice it unless your layin on your back looking up under the turn signal... for my new front I will have to cut the support beam down.

well imagestation is currently down but will post photos when its back up.