Freshly wrecked..... Questions about body kits
 

so here's the deal fellas, my girls mustang was in the shop... she'd driving my S14 to work and back for a week, I'm driving the Tahoe... today she calls me crying cause she spun out on an on ramp in the rain (thankfully she wasn't hurt at all). Well, in her spin she hit the guard rail on the front passenger side, that impact caused her to spin more, tagging the rear bumper cover.... slightly peeved to say the least.... the main damage was to the front cover, it was pushed in about half an inch and over to the driver side about a 3/4 to 1 full inch.... thankfully she just recently came into a sum of money and has opted to fix it for me... she has even offered an ^grade to a full body kit.

now none of the headlight, corner, turn signal assemblies were damaged, just the bumper, no known frame damage as of yet (haven't removed the front cover to inspect yet). Core support looks fine by a visual inspection.... i think it's just the front cover and maybe the reinforcement...

now the question is this... if any of you have body kits, or have had them on previous vehicles, what was the cost of installation and paint? i can get the full kit itself from Raceonusa for around 600 bucks, shipped on eBay.... now just trying to find the average of install and paint.

here's the link for the kit, feel free to post your opinions, whatever they may be i think I've settled on this one, it's subtle, not all in your face "look at me I'm a ricing drfter", clean and in my opinion, very fitting of the Zenki, no hard edges, clean lines, just like my Zenki.

http://www.raceonusa.com/index.asp?P...OD&ProdID=2263

so once again, what i want to know it what kinda of install price am i looking at? not wanting to pay 458730495873450938745948 bucks for an install... my guesstimate is around $2-2500.

thanks guys for you input!!!

dont order from raceon

order a quality kit like origin or something

have someone spray it for a couple hundred and install it yourself to make up for the price of a better kit

You will spend more getting fitment issues straightened out with a raceon kit than you would with a reputably manufactured Japaneses fiberglass kit. I suggest getting oem pieces again or buying something higher quality name brand

i just called customer service at raceon... the guy said that the kit I've already ordered is actually one of their newer kits, and he didn't seem like the guy to bull s***, almost off the record, he even admitted in the past with their earlier kits were junk, but the one i ordered was a newer version of their older stuff and that they have fixed some of their earlier fitament issues with there new kits.... so sorry guys, it's already on it's way.... now for another addition...

any tips for the body shop for this kit? price really isn't an issue as far as repairs/prep go but any way you guys can point me in the right direction when the time comes to take the kit and the car to the shop when i get there would be a major plus... sorry if there's any bad grammar, I've had a few....

Ask somebody on CN. There are a couple good shops in Raleigh that people can recommend (if you are still in the area). Best of luck :thumb:

The place near me that paints all my stuff, Millenium Auto, in Upsstate NY, charges $200-$225 per bumper and $150 per rocker, so at most $750 for a quality paint job. Although that only includes painting. You would need to fit the kit first, then install it all yourself. And he is very reasonable/competitive around here. Just figured I'd throw that number out there for you for reference.

thanks ErnGotti, finally some kind of price range.... supposedly Raceonusa fixed some of their earlier fittament issues with this new line of kits.... I'm going to install what parts of the kit i can, do what prep work i can, try to keep the actual price down, so we'll see.

Also, as I'm doing this project I'll try to remember and take pics of the process, from start to finish and share them with the forum, maybe even inspire some people to do the same to their cars..... there's more options than just the front lip on these S14s.

the kit i ordered is really clean, almost a slightly more aggressive OEM look, and thats exactly what I'm going for...

WTF is fittament?!?!?!

fittament... my little word for "how it fits"......... ease of install...... hot it fits once it's attached or lines up

doesn't line up= bad fittament
simple bolt on= good fittament...

maybe it's a Florida thing... i dunno

the body shop i work at in new jersey is pretty close to the price ErnGotti gave you. since your car is black you should be able to get away without blending the quarters and fenders unless your paint is really faded. preping a bumper is nothing depending on what primer finish the company uses....or doesnt use

hahah

what material is the Vertex kit? fiberglass or polyurathane?

it's an FRP kit... and i got it for under 600 shipped, was on sale and one of their newer versions... customer support told me it was more urethane than fiberglass... like a 20-30/80-70 blend, which is what i wanted...

the strength of fiberglass but the flexibility of urethane....

by the way should be arriving in about a week or two, gonna take a b it longer than expected because the side skirts were damaged prior to shipping... so they're replacing them, but need to get them from their warehouse...

i found a highly reccomended shop here in town, will install the kit and repaint the whole car for 2500, i need the repaint because i have extensive love bug damage on the hood and front bumper.... but that doesn't include dents and door dings, i'll be smoothing those out myself, and might even prep the whole surface of the car, strip bumpers, lights, and whatnot, gonna try and get the price down to around 1500 2000..... can't wait....

after the kit is 17" sportmax 962 staggered wheels, KYB gas adjust shocks with an eibach pro kit springs.... not going the whole coilover route... no real need, it's a daily driver, not a race car....

Sportmax is now renamed to XXR Wheels. They were bought out a few months back. Still same wheels.

And Im not sure the guy at raceon is telling you the truth behind FRP. FRP is basically Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic, its just a more flexible fiberglass. And I dont think its genuine FRP, since the real deal FRP material cost about 600 alone. If it feels super light and flimsy, Id be careful, they might have just used less fiberglass and painted the material black to make it look like FRP.

DRFT uses genuine FRP, now that I know for sure is tough ****! We were sponsored by DRFT for a few years on our S14 for FormulaD. Just for ****s and kicks, we took the rear bumper and did the test that they do online. Stuff is durable, until it hits the ground at 70 mph... But thats just fiberglass for ya.

i had those sportmax wheels on my s14.... i loved them at first but then i grew to hate them lmao so i sold them.

used 350z track model wheels for a while then sold them and im now on stocks and waiting for my pimp SSR Professor SP1 to come in from japan been waiting like 2 months... dont ask what they cost i had to sell my left nut:rofl: