sideskirts and more soon...

Hi

this is my first thread here...
so.. sup guys?

yea i own a 97 eclipse GS ( i wish there were a X, but its only the GS)

However, since it isnt that fast, i at least want to let it look good. So i m planning on now changing the look of my lady.
Since i this is my first time doing this, i have a couple of questions, and i m sure u guys can help me.

- is andy's autosport a good source for body kits?
- where should i get 17" motegi MR7 rims?
- when i buy a body kit, what color does it come?
- is it easy to mount or should i better go to a bodyshop?
- how much is the paint job if i want, for instance a Gunmetal grayish color... right now its black... i d love to hear some experiences with paintjobs :)
- my car is lowered, 1.6 inches ... does that affect the body kit or is the stock bumper + sideskirts +frontbumper the same size, kind of?
- i m thinking about buying the extreme dimesion dirfter kit sideskirts first, ... do u think it ll look shitty with only the sideskirts? should i go for the whole thing? ( $$$$ issues :) )

if u have the time to answer some of the above, i d appreciate that. i thought its the best to open a new thread, maybe i can help others with this thread too...

alright, thank u guys!

peace

First of all, welcome to Automotive Forums. :thumbsup:

My one friend works at an auto store and he told me that when you buy kits from sites like andys autosport that you actually get low quality fiberglass kits. How accurate this is, I don't know. But its definetly something to ponder on if your going to be spending that much money on something. As far as fittiment(sp?) issues, it should fit fine with the car lowered. Although once its all on you may have to raise it up a bit to avoid bottoming out on speedbumps and such. The motegi wheels, I'd check the prices on tirerack.com and ebay.com those would be your two best bets for getting them cheaper than usual. The paintjobs gonna cost ya a bit. I'd say you'll have about 1000 or so in full repaint. It all depends upon who does it and the quality of the paintjob. I'd go with someone reliable that knows what they're doing. Once again, another spending that much money for quality issue... Hope I helped ya out some.

hahahaha

Welcome to AF. It's good to see another MA person on here. I can't help you much on body kits but I do know they can be made of different types of materials. I think there are fiberglass and polyurethane. From what I remember, fiberglass is more brittle but easier to fix and polyurethane is more like a stock feel and is harder to fix. They usually come completely raw unless otherwise noted (from what I've seen). That means primering and painting before it's ready.

Paintjobs will vary in price based on how fancy of a paint you get and even the color so it's tough to give an estimate.

I definitely think you should wait until you get the whole kit together before putting it on. A stock car is a finished job. A fully kitted car is a finished job. Anything in between is half-assed.

Although fiberglass is easier to fix, it is MUCH MUCH easier to shatter and completely destroy. Polyurethane (my advice) is more expensive, but is like rubber (like the stock bumper) and can take somewhat of a beating. I would suggest letting a shop do it if your buying it from a store like andys, because it most likely wont be top quality. "You get what you pay for."

thank you for the responses!

it did help... i saw a lot of bodykits on ebay but they are all cheaper then 300... i dont trust that, but its cheap...?
so whats up with that..

Well did you check out the shipping rates? That is what the sellers do...they make the items dirt cheap (I once saw a body kit for like $98.00) and then teh shipping rates are like $300 and up! Becareful!

Try to stay away from cheap body kits. A good brand bodykit will always look better and fitment will be way better. In my opinion a name brand fiberglass kit is the way to go. Most off-brand kits are urethane or whatever. Paint sticks better and will last longer on fiberglass then it will on urethane. Though a good name brand fiberglass bodykit costs more, it costs less to have installed because they fit easily. Cheap bodykits cost more to have installed because they dont fit as well and often need to be modified. The reason high quality name brand fiberglass kits fit so well is because the manufacturer will only use any given mold no more than 10 or so times before a new one is used. Off brand kits are mass produced using the same molds over and over which causes the end product to be distorted which causes the infamous seam gaps. Me personally, I would save up and get a good name brand, fiberglass kit because like I say over and over, you get what you pay for. Most people get cheap, knock-off, mass produced bodykits though. It just depends on how much you are willing to spend and what kind of end result you want.

As for Andys Auto sport.....I have searched their web site and they offer both cheap name brand bodykits and expensive brand names. Though some name brands only produce look alikes ...I hope I haven't confused you.
And if you do buy an expensive name brand kit (vertex, veilside, etc.) they will usually have someway to prove the authenticity such as a serial number and what have you on the underside.

vanilla gorilla's 2 penies

Here comes mine.

I would definately get a urethane kit. I know a bunch of people up here with fiberglass kits, those guys spend more time not driving their car because the kit got smashed to hell than they do actually driving it. The one person up here that I know that has a urethane kit loves it. He says that hes scraped, bumped a curb once, and went through some of our badass potholes without it breaking. I would go with a good brand for a body kit, you'd be much happier with the end result. I would just have a shop paint it and put it on yourself. My friend Josh got fucked for like $1500-$1700 for a shop to paint and put the kit on his Stealth, IIRC only like $900 of that was for painting.