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Started the body mods on my wife's 87 *UPDATED*

Burton

By Burton,
in Body and interior Mods

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Burton Newbie

Burton

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 Added some vents to the header panel and changed my front grille to a smoth, non-ribbed, one-piece.

 

 Its still a little rough, I have all the finishing bondo to do, but I need to wait til I get the modded front bumper/airdam on before I finish it off. As you can see theres still some unsanded putty and edges, but I think you'll get the idea:

 

http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNzA4NDY3NnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE=.jpg

 

 

http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNzA4NDY4NnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE=.jpg

 

 

  Whatcha think?

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jr_ss Newbie

jr_ss

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Sweet Burton, now when can I send you mine to get something like that done? I've been wanting to add vents like that in my header panel for sometime. Should I just send you my headerpanel? Sounds good to me....

 

Glenn

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Burton Newbie

Burton

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    Wow, thanks for all the props, guys!

 

 

  I'll give ya the rundown:

 

 The grille has been the hardest part. I've got probably 6 hours into that alone- of course 2 of those hours were wasted time cause of some "engineering changes" that I realized I had to make- that set me back a bit and I ended up doing some things twice. I'd say now that I know what I'm doing I could cut it down to 4 or less hours. the 3 pieces were molded together on the car with fiberglass matting. I then carefully removed it and reinforced everything from the back so it is a sturdy piece- don't want it cracking after paint. Everything is hand laid fiberglass with fiberglass filler and bondo on top of that- all hand formed and sanded.

  Funny the mention of the similarity to the EVO- that was kinda the look I was going for on the grill. The vents in the header's similarities were just a fluke. I may even see about engraving TSI or the Mitsu symbol real small in the very center of it. Also notice the side marker lights are gone- I will be adding some between the wheel well and door on the fenders.

 

 

  The header panel was a cake walk- I have 1- 1 1/2 hours into that so far. The vents are hood vents from a 88 Trans Am GTA and are molded in.

 

 

 

 

 

 Glenn-  as far as me doing it, I will have to let ya know a price when I get everything done. There are 2 ways I could do the header vents- molded and not molded. The not molded way is actually very easy. The vents are designed to fit a certain sized/shaped hole cut in the steel. Once I figured out the size, shape and placement of those holes the vents just snapped into place from the outside of the panel.

 

 

  Once again guys, thanks for all the props! I love trying out new stuff and doing custom body stuff. Its cool to drive a car that is like no other out there. It does get frustrating tho. It makes it worth all the cussing, wasted time and R&D work to see you guys as excited as I am about it.

 

  Here's a quick rundown of the future mods in store for this ride. Some have been done before, some haven't- some are are a combination of the two :D

 

 -1pc front bumper/airdam with bigger IC opening

 -1pc smoothed out cowl panel- possibly going to 1 wiper instead of 2

 -1pc smoothed out tailights/liscense plate bezel

 -shaved rear spoiler (no antenna or wiper)

 -shaved door handles and locks

 -mold in the vents behind the doors

 -mold in all gaps between the 1/4 panels, rocker panels and fenders

 -remove the factory headlights and replace with projectors. I figure that I will be able to fit some in there and it will only require the headlight covers to raise about 1/2 their normal height. This and the shaved doors will be the hardest mods unless I have the time and motivation for...

 

  -Lamborghini style scissor doors. My biz partner and I are currently trying to aquire a couple various aftermarket kits for other cars. Once we do this I can pay a few guys at work some cash and beer to CMM the kits, my car doors and jambs. From there another guy will plug the CMM readings into a computer and design a similarly designed kit that works to the demension of SQs. Then I buy some steel and CNC machine and assemble all the pieces myself. All within tolerances of .0003 of an inch. This project of course will require much time- hundreds of hours probably. I think I can have a working set done for less than $500 in materials, cash and beer, but with time being a factor I doubt I can even begin that project til after PF05- hell, probably after the entire rest of the car is painted and finished.

 

  Will probably find a few other things to spruce up, and I'm unsure what to do with the hood. I may mod the hell out of it, or try to find a 83 hood or fiber cowl hood. Also not sure what to do with the roof. I know it will be getting some sort of opening wether it be sunroof, power moonroof or my current favorite-sliding ragtop.

 

  No matter what I do its all good practice for for the shop I'm opening this coming year.

 

 

  Thanks for listening to me ramble ;D

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Burton Newbie

Burton

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 Yes, unfortunately. Kates favorite color is green so she wants it silver fading into Candy green over silver. She then wants the entire car green pearled, and a some sort of graffic. If it has to be green, I'd like to see a silver-green flip-flop paint with possibly a green pearl over that.

 

 

 Personally I am not a big fan of the green. If I had my way, I'd be painting it copper. Since its her car (even though I paid for it and all the parts), I suppose I will let her do it how she wants.

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860QuestTuner Enthusiast

860QuestTuner

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Great Job,Thanks for the rundown too.Clean/good looking body mods are priceless when you do them yourself.
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1stquesTSi Newbie

1stquesTSi

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dude that looks amazing. very clean. the great thing about these cars and their owners compared to annoying ricers in their hondas is that we MAKE our own body mods and it ends up fitting better than those pathetic body kits on civics. (and isnt overkill)
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jr_ss Newbie

jr_ss

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Burton, what year firebird were those from. I thought I remember you saying they were from a firebird, but maybe I am wrong. If you could give me that information I can go hunt some down at the junkyard... Thanks for the help, Glenn.
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Burton Newbie

Burton

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 They were off a 88 Trans Am GTA. I know they came on some lower model cars too, but I am unsure what exact year or trim option used them. I think very few firebirds had them- that was the low end model.

 

 here's a link to a pic of a hood:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...825409&rd=1

 

 I think those hoods fit 82-92 models. I took the long skinny vents back by where the shocks would be under, and cut the middle support out and molded them into my header.

 

 

  I also have the other vents- the ones towards the front of the TA hood- and I think they will be finding their way nto the car as well.

 

 

 Thanks again for the props

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Burton Newbie

Burton

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 Well, the header panel and grille are for the most part done, just needs another spraying of filler primer.:

 

http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNzcxMDQwNnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE=.jpg

 

 I've been kinda bouncing around the car just doing whatever I get the creativity to do. Lately I've been working on the tailights- here's the story:

 

 The first set of tailights I cleared got messed up. I didn't heat them enough before separating the lens, and when I tried prying up on the inside edge the lens chipped off a quarter sized piece. Being a cheap a** and not liking to see things go to waste, I tried to think of a way to fix the prblem. At first I thought- fill it in with a little bondo, sand and paint it black. Then it grew into the idea of making both tailights and the license plate trim all one piece. Then I decided to fill in the cracks between tailight lense and plastic edge. Then I decided to shave the license plate light nubs that stick out. That's my problem- one little idea snowballs into a huge deal.

 

 

 Anyway, I told myself I was gonna wait to add more pictures til I got everything done- I wanted to suprise you guys and let you see it as a total package. But since I'm pretty excited about how this is turning out, I couldn't hold out anymore.

 

 I started by cutting out the light nubs, taping in matting from the backside and taping up the areas of the lenses that I didn't want damaged:

 

http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNzcxMDI0NnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE=.jpg

 

 

 

then I filled all the seams, cracks and crevices in with a heavy fiberglass filler:

 

 

http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNzcxMDIwNnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE=.jpg

 

 

  After that I removed the whole assembly (very carefully) and reinforced the backside with fiber matting and resin. I put it back on the car, sanded the fiberglass and put on the bondo. This is after sanding the first coat of bondo:

 

http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNzcxMDIxNnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE=.jpg

 

http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNzcxMDIzNnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE=.jpg

 

 I still have some more bondo work to do, but I will try to get a pic up with it all primered later tonight.

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Burton Newbie

Burton

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 Forgot- I also polished 3 of the 4 wheels:

 

http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNzcxMDY5NnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE=.jpg

 

 It sure is alot of work, but well worth the effort. Hopefully I'll get the 4th one done this week.

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Turborusty Newbie

Turborusty

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  I love the front end pieces Burton, nice work!!

 

I think you should get those to a fiberglass or C/F guy to make a mold and start offering them as a product.

 

I'd be willing to bet you'd find a nice market for them here!

 

I'd pay a couple hundred buck to spruce up the front end of my car like that. ;D

 

turborusty

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Burton Newbie

Burton

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  I heard the same thing about my fog light covers, and I ended up having to give them away. ::)

 

 Anyway, as much as I'd like to hook everybody up, I can't. My other customers and jobs take up too much of my time. I actually could build the mold for all that at work, but I think my time would be better spent creating something for a more popular car.

 

 This past week was the first time I actually had time to work on my own cars in a while. Hope I get a chance to keep up the pace- otherwise this sucker won't be done for summer.

 

 Here's some more pics of the back piece finished. Looks a little funky now but after its painted the same color as the car when its all done I think it will look sweet.

 

http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNzcxODQxNnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE=.jpg

 

http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNzcxODM5NnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE=.jpg

 

 Not sure what will be next on the list- probably bumper/airdam, but I've also been itchin' to start hacking apart the dash and get it ready for the custom console with monitor.

 

 

 More to come...

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Truth Newbie

Truth

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very good work, mark.  and btw, i would have liked to have those foglight covers, but i never have any money.  as the rest of the starquest world can agree with  ;)

 

can't wait to see the finished product in person.  think you'll have it done before the major meets?

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