'84-'87 CRX body kit

I just finished installing a front bumper on my '86 CRX SI that I got from a friend at Red Pepper Racing who got it from Ground Dynamics. I just wanted to share my opinion on this installation to help others who may be looking into purchasing one of these kits.
http://grounddynamics.com/merchant/mainpage.htm

First of all the quality of the kit seems decent. The bumper took to the molding process well although there will need to be some Bondo touch up work done since there are a few pin holes. All of the edges are nicely finished although there seem to be some thin spots. The only real dissapointment is that wheel openings don't match the stock profile. On a scale of 1-10 I give this kit an 8.

This bumper does not use any of the factory mounts. I needed to create my own mounts to support the top and the bottom of the front, but the kit does provide dimples on the sides in order to counter sink a couple of screws through the bumper and into the body of the car (this seems kinda' cheesy to me!). It is also designed for bumper lights (turn signals) from an 88-91 Civic or CRX, so my stock bumper lights do not fit properly.

I had to remove the entire bumper support structure in order to provide clearance for the kit bumper, which means I'm screwed if I get onto a fender bender, but I figure I'm screwed anyway just because I drive a CRX! Anyway, I created a bumperette just to make me feel better by using a 4' piece of perforated angle iron from the Home Depot. It turned out that 2 of the holes actually lined up perfectly with what was left of my bumper support, which meant that I only had to drill 2 more. I also found that I needed to trim the plastic fender well a little to allow for clearance.

Measuring from the top of my "bumperette" I found that I needed to make a couple of shims to support the top of the bumper. I used 5/8" blocks completely coated in fiberglass resin as shims and fiberglassed them to the underside of the bumper. After the fiberglass dried I layed the bumper on the "bumperette", lined it up and installed a couple of screws into the blocks from the bottom side to hold it in place, then I pre-drilled and installed a couple of screws through the provided "dimples" and into the body. To keep the bumper from flopping around on the sides, I cut short pieces of 3/8" rubber tubing and inserted the screws through them before they went into the body. At the botton I cut two 11" strips of 3/4" aluminum bar (also from Home Depot) to support the front of the bumper. To do this I used the stock holes left over from the stock bumper that are located under the radiator support, then ran the rod to the bottom edge of the bumper and bolted them in place.

I also pulled out all of the pointless tubing attached to the air filter before I installed the bumper. I figure I'll be making a cold air intake after I swap in a new motor and having this bumper permanately attached will make this tubing difficult to remove. It's amazing where all this tubing goes! It's like a 3 headed snake under there!
FYI, your car will be a noticeably louder without this tubbing to baffle the noise.


Here are a couple of tips:

1. Fiberglass does not hold a screw, everything you use to mount this kit will have to be pre-drilled and bolted in place or fiberglassed in place.

2. Before adding fiberglass mounts onto this kit you will need to clean it with wax and grease remover and make sure that there is a rough enough surface for the fiberglass resin to grab on to.

3. Use fiberglass matt and closely follow the instructions on the can of resin. Also pick up a couple of cheap 1" brushes and find an old plastic butter dish to mix resin in, dried resin will pop right out of a plastic container.

4. Have some acetone handy by for clean up.

After all this I really don't feel that it's worth the effort to install this body kit on an 84-87 CRX. My biggest dissapointment is that it does not follow the CRX body contours which makes it look odd on this car, it's as though this kit was originally designed for the 88-91 CRX then as an after thought they changed a few things just to get it to fit on the 84-87 CRX.

Anyway, this is just my opinion after installing part of this kit. I'm not bashing Ground Dynamics, since I'm sure they didn't originally design this kit, I am merely expressing my opinions on this particular kit in the hopes of informing others.

Feel free to add any comments.

Do you have any pictures of the kit on your car?

Naaaaah,
The car is too ugly right now to take any pictures of it. But if you really want to see it, I'll try to figure out how to post 'em.

haha i know about the uglyness. yeah man see if you can post 'em or just e-mail me 'em either way, whatever is easier

Can do.

Arrrgh...I'm such a computer dolt!
I'll get some pictures up eventually!