How risky is fiberglass??

I'm really wanting to get a polyurethane body kit, but i cant find one, soooo, how risky is fiberglass for everyday driving? Or, if you know where I can find a Blitz body kit for a 95 mit. eclipse that is polyurethane, let me know!

Considering that's the material they use to make most cars nowadays, it's not to risky at all.

personally i came across the same dilemma. you can find urethane if you know where to look. i chose fiberglass because it can be made to fit easier than urethane. there are some guys on here that do bodywork, so you can ask them.
also, if fiberglass breaks, it can be fixed. the only con of fiberglass is that it is not as durable as urethane.

I love my urethane front airdam... i've hit so many parking curbs with it. Or scraped it going up and or down steep driveways.

Still looks great. Makes the front end really stable at highspeeds on the freeway. Love it.

"Makes the front end really stable at highspeeds on the freeway. "

So you are saying you kit adds downfoarce? What kit are you running?

Yes, It adds downforce.. it's not a 'bodykit' its a front spoiler.


It's from MSA: Front Airdam (http://www.zcarparts.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=50-1402&Category_Code=7AD1)

It's hard to see cause it's black. But yes it adds downforce... without it the front end feels light on the freeway. Normally the air rushes in and press up against the inside of the hood creating lift. Giving out highspeed 'light steering' feeling. My front spoiler deflects that and helps cool my brakes a bit as well. If I ran some ducting they'd cool off better.
http://socalz.org/memberspics/mattb/images/DSCN1344.jpg
http://socalz.org/memberspics/mattb/images/DSCN1329.jpg

^ also, with the front being lower than the rest of the car like that, more air is forced over the top of the car that would normally go under it, and you get a low pressure area under the car which actually sucks it down towards the road. A good front spoiler is a great way to produce downforce over the entire car, and help stabilize a floaty car. However, it creates a larger frontal area, which can increase drag, lowering top speed and high end acceleration. If it was designed right, it could actually decrease the CD enough to make up for the increased frontal area, so you get the pros of more downforce without the cons of more drag. A front spoiler like that would look like the long noses on LeMans cars and would be impractical for a street car though.

However, I think that's getting way deeper than necessary for this thread :lol: If you tend to bump into stuff a lot, fiberglass is pretty risky. If you can keep it off the curbs, you'll be fine with it. Fiberglass is a more rigid material and will hold shape at speed better, I've seen some urethane kits wobble like jello at highway speeds, there's no aerodynamic benefit if it's like that. In fact, the urethane Blitz kit on my friends 97 Talon was one of the ones I saw do that.

Which brings me to the next point, yes you can find a urethane Blitz kit for a 2g DSM, he got his off eBay.

Considering that's the material they use to make most cars nowadays, it's not to risky at all.

what are you smokin?

the only car made out of glass is the vette.

everything else is steel, aluminum, or has urethane bumpers.

the only car not made from these products is saturn, with plastic body panels.

So...u guys seem to think that fiberglass is better than urethane as long as im not too prone to bump into things? lol

no one said that definitively, that's for sure...

provided that the kit is built correctly (and if you really need the aero effect it has, brace it up), a urethane kit is going to last much longer (with getting curbed, etc) and is going to hold up better to cold weather, etc.

glass can be just as flexible, if it's not built right or braced correctly.

a few of my friends have fiberglass and none have had any bad problems with it....i think one cracked but he got it fixed easy..and i heard somewhere that urethane cant be fixed if its cracked or broken

what is urethane made out of?

polyurethane.
you can "plastic weld" urethane.

it's fixable

One advantage of Fiberglass is the parts are REALLY cheap.

iv seen 800 dollar bodykits (veilside) and its fiberglass...thats not cheap for moi :(

800 for a whole kit is really cheap

vis racing has a new type of very flexable fiberglass. although I would never trade in my urethane for fiberglass, watch out alot of cheap fiberglass kits are shity, dont fit worth a dam. The ONLY advantage to fiberglass is that it is light, urethane will slow you down.

have you picked up a glass kit and a urethane kit?
not much difference in weight...
and for the durability of urethane, i'll take a couple extra pounds...