Archie: Mark me down in the category of folks who would be interested in a kit and who think the ~$2500 range is fair.
Just a few observations/questions.......please excuse as I looked at the thread late last night and I might have missed the answer to my questions:
* It's not totally clear -- would the widebody parts eliminate all the side molding, or would they be designed to allow the factory moldings to be used? IF these parts are designed to eliminate the moldings, why not go the extra distance and offer a "Stage II" level of kit that updates the front bumper/fender with something non-stock as well?
* If you're creating a mold for a part that then has to be bonded to the existing door, why not just splash the entire door and offer it as part of the kit?
Personally, I think this kit makes great sense and is appropriately priced. About the only issue that I have with things is entirely personal -- I've had my car built, road worthy, and taking down trophies at local shows for the past 2 years -- it'd be a little difficult to blow the car partially apart (again!) to do some sort of widebody conversion.........especially since I already have some sort of widebody conversion occupying my shop and garage...............but then again, that's my personal issue. thx,
Apparently you’ve never watched Overhaul in? They’ve turned some 70’s cars into soup’d up, Tub’d up, & Dub’d out creative machines. My reference to the Ford Escort was joke. I’m not to out-beat, out-perform, or out-price the Vettes, Ferrari’s, or even a 350Z Nissan.
All I’m saying is: If you want to spice up your 20+ Fiero….then lets change the exterior a bit. As for the “Blingn’ 20’s: That’s up to the owner of the Fiero. No need for 20’s, 17/18. 18/19, or 17’s can do. For some, 15 have fit the bill. As for every Joe-blow having the same car….we’re in a different category. “Status” or glorifications… I neither seek nor shall I every want it. If you’ve ever read any of my threads, “it’s all about helping others tweak their Fieros even if it’s not the “popular” among the ranks. I travel 3200 miles just so that others can share in having VDC. I bend over backwards to help someone receive the rims that he/she dreamt of. End the end, it’s better to be wide-body dagger pom. poms carrying whore.
Yes Ive seen Overhaulin. Even with the Foose rims, theres still more than a 2" sidewall on them. So when they do hit the gas they will actually go, instead of do a burnout and go now where. But they look good right?
I never said you didnt help anyone. Youve given me info a few times. Im not question your loyalty or passion. I was just replying to what seemed to be a complaint, as observed by another forum member. That was the 2500 for a widebody kit that required waaay more elbow grease than what the ricers have to put up with.
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Originally posted by madcurl: The pics of the wide-body car is a real nice kit car. All of the parts flow together but....it ain't no Fiero.
I feel the same way
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Keeping the car "PONTIAC" humbles a person so that one's head doesn't get too big.
Im not sure what that means. F-BODS RULE!!!
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Originally posted by madcurl: Now I ask: Why wasn't it a issue with [other] Norm flipper applications? Was it "too big" for their applications? The last application I saw and read was R.Venhalen's (sp?) black formula. If you've viewed that thread, you'll see nothing but compliments. Read here: //www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/050959.html
Lets be honest, if we ALL said how we felt we'd be banned. I think his car looked like BUTT. The front end doesnt match the Fiero.
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Originally posted by madcurl: I'm not even finished with the "Cowl" and some are condemning the part before it's finished.
$19k for the kit, which includes a frame, the fiberglass(carbon fiber?) body, the LS1 adapter plate, all the glass, seats, etc etc. It's a steal. 0-60 in mid 3's with a stock vette engine Looks, performance, price. It's got em all beat.
The turn-key price is more like $70K...40-45K if you build it yourself. I know someone who is doing that.
Yes Ive seen Overhaulin. Even with the Foose rims, theres still more than a 2" sidewall on them. So when they do hit the gas they will actually go, instead of do a burnout and go now where. But they look good right?
People dont have future vision like you .
My 3yrs research on the side wall from the 20x11 thread:
Originally posted by madcurl: The tires though, are just about the same in over-all height. Rears 3.2 and Fronts 3.1. So for me I can't "visually" tell the difference in height, but hey...Both are rubberbands. THanks for comments curls
Troy’s 345/25/20 (3.2" sidewall) exceeds 2" of side wall. As for #020’s 305/25/20’s are 3.0” and the fronts 255/30/19’s are 3.1” Although, Troy’s 345’s widths are 13.6” however…I don’t think he’ll be doing any spin outs @ $550 per tire! When the “20x11” thread was started, the P Rossos’ 345’s were @ $420 at the Tire Rack to which are only produced once a year (March-April) after that, you’ll pay upwards of $700-800 per tires do to the supply and capitalism. Just ask Troy what one guy wanted for them, hehe. Granted, the 325’s are the better choice; price, availability, and two companies that make the particular size. The Continental’s are cheaper. Using the wide-body (10.5- 12") you have several sizes 275,285,295,305,305,325, and the 345’s. Anyone of these tires are still considered, “rubber bands” at best….so tread lightly, hehe.
Bump... So Archie what the status on this?... price wise & availability?
Well, the wide body rocker panels have been sanded perfect & dura-tecked. gotta wax them about 10 times over & we'll be pulling molds off of them starting sometime this week.
We still have to prep all the other parts before they're ready to make molds off of.
I won't have anything new on pricing until we can actually makes parts from the molds & do a time study. Availability????? They'll be available when they are ready. We've also got a whole shop full of other work that needs to be done too.
This is very nice. Actually the first body kit (or side kit I guess) I've seen that I actually like. If these were made available I would seriously consider using them on another Fiero build. Props goes to Madcurl for the ideas and Archie for making it a reality.
I'm all for wide-body cars, if they are made well and look good... And I think I have a pretty good idea of what looks good, and what doesn't. Now believe me when I say this, because there are a lot of ricers around where I live... Hell, during the summer I hear one tear up and down a street like 200 some-odd feet from my house... Really obnoxious.
Archie, some of the kits on your site look really great, The Finale and GT40 kits being two of the best I think. This current project of yours seems to be coming along very nicely, and I can't wait to see the finished product after all is said and done. In the future I do plan on purchasing some products from you, the Integrated Rockers and the Interior Kit in particular.
As for my car, I'd seriously love to widen a couple parts up, especially the fenders... My wheels and tires poke out from the sides in a pretty distinctive manner, and I feel that my car would look so much better with some flares over them. I really like the look of the IMSA Notchback, but I agree with whoever said it earlier, some aspects are in dire need of being updated, or at the very least, a tweak here and there.
At the moment, I have lots of ideas and plans floating around in my head, but as was also said earlier, not all of us have nigh-unlimited cash to throw around... I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, it's just some of us can and will get easily depressed when these incredible looking cars are posted here... But I digress...
Archie, keep up the good work... And I don't know if this has been said or not, but if you ever look into adapting this for us Notch' owners, I think you'd have some serious support.
I just looked over the first post in the thread, and Archie can confirm or deny this, but from the looks of what is being offered, there really isn't anything here that is FB-only................
I think the intent was stated at the beginning that these are designed to be builder-level parts. Some degree of talent/effort will be needed to bond these parts to a car. That being said, I don't see where these couldn't be used on a notchback.
Archie -- keep going! That integrated quarter/rocker looks awesome!!! You still have my interest/support..........even to the point of tearing apart my complete car to do an upgrade!
Also just thinking outside the box...........wonder what a car would look like with one of these widebody kits added on, wide front fenders from Fiero Warehouse, and an F355 nose that someone put a little effort in to change the look of it. Or a hood from Norms.......
I just looked over the first post in the thread, and Archie can confirm or deny this, but from the looks of what is being offered, there really isn't anything here that is FB-only................
I think the intent was stated at the beginning that these are designed to be builder-level parts. Some degree of talent/effort will be needed to bond these parts to a car. That being said, I don't see where these couldn't be used on a notchback.
Archie -- keep going! That integrated quarter/rocker looks awesome!!! You still have my interest/support..........even to the point of tearing apart my complete car to do an upgrade!
-jeff d
Thanks for the positive comments guys. But, this is the guy that has it figured out.
The comments I've quoted above are a 100% correct interpation of my original post.
The only thing that looks like it's changing is that the parts out of the molds for the Side Rockers & the Rear bumper are going to be a lot more towards finished parts than I had originally thought.
Thanks
Now If no one minds & while this original topic continues on, I'm going to post semi-daily updates on the making of the molds for the Rocker Panels.
In these pictures from yesterday the rocker panels are mounted upside down on a workbench. This will have to be a 3 or 4 pc. mold & each of those pcs has to be made seperately.
Here we are going to make the part of the mold that will be the bottom surface of the rocker panels. So just like an operating room, they've used the red paper to make a protective drape around the rest of the rocker panels. The while sheet metal walls outline the area & will form the fiberglass wall of this mold section. As we left the shop on Monday the Orange Tooling jelcoat had been sprayed on the work area. this needs to sit overnight so that we can start laying 6 to 8 layers of fiberglass on this area to form this part of the mold.
Today they began laying in layer after layer of fiberglass matt. It's really not too exciting to take pics of & they have to wait an hour or so between layers. They are working on 2 parts at the same time so that, as they go from one part to the other, less time is lost waiting for the fiberglass to start to setup before doing the next layer.
Wow! It looks like the "Crew" is working "big time" on this project. If the first set of wide-rockers is finished prior to D7...I wonder who will be the first recipient. Hmm...Lottery?
[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 03-07-2007).]
OK every body's saying 7 piece. The door strip, side scoop, quarter piece and rear bumper piece. Are we getting the the whole rear bumper or just a filler piece for the side of the bumper??(Witch would be 8 piece)
Either way. I'm most definitely interested in this if you do offer it. And no 2 G's is not an over the top price for this kit! It's a lot of money, But that's what custom is all about
In these pics Kris & Mark are removing the sheet metal that had formed the walls of this 1st section of the multipiece mold.
In this picture you can see all the wood fixturing that was screwed or clamped down to the table to hold all the walls in place in that 1st operation. You also can see the bottom part of the mold which is orange Gel-coated & it's still attached to the dark Gray rocker panel which is the "Buck" or model that we are taking molds off of. The goal of this whole project is to completely surround the finished areas of the "buck" with these Orange gel-coated mold parts.
While we keep that one part of the mold we just made, we are now getting ready to make the small mold pieces that that will form the front & rear ends of the rocker panels.
Most of the dark gray you can see in these 2 pics is the view from inside the wheel wells looking at the ends of the rockers as they extend into the wheel well and will finaly attach to the original Fiero wheel well. If you've noticed the whole shape of the rocker panel you'll notice that in addition to the surface of the rocker that you can see from the outside of the car, you have the bottom area that goes up under the car, you have the 2 ends that turn and go into the wheel wells, you have the scoop area that goes into the rear 1/4 panel & you have the scoop area the opens up from the front fender 1/4 panel towards the door area. The reason you make a multipiece mold is that when you're making a part that has a lot of surfaces that go off in different directions, you need to be able to dis-assemble the mold to get the finished part out.
So this mold making process will continue on until all of the finished areas of the part are covered with these orange tooling jel-coated mold parts.
They did manage to get the orange gel-coat sprayed onto these ends tinight but I didn't get any pics of that. Tomorrow they'll be laying up the layers of fiberglass on these surfaces to astablish more of the mold on the part.
The Mold making process continues, yesterday we put on the Orange gelcoat on the ends.....
Then later, after that had setup, Kris & Mark applied 7 layers of Fiberglass mat to the ends of the rockers.....
This morning, they removed all of the sheet metal that had formed the walls & we now have a pair of 3 pc. molds with more pcs. to come......
The molds have to be Bolted together, so this pic shows the bolts that are holding the end pc to the bottom pc. It's important that we keep all of these mold parts on the buck until the mold is complete.
I'll post more tonight.
Archie
[This message has been edited by Archie (edited 03-09-2007).]
I'm a few days behind on the updates to this thread but we haven't stopped working on them.
So let me bring you up to speed.
Last time we talked we had a pair of 3 pc. molds & were getting ready to build some more on the molds.
The next thing we did was prep & make mold parts for the front & the rear scoops.
Now remember from the beginning we have planned so that we can get the part out of the mild once it's finished.
Here is what we did in that little front scoop area. Note the white metal flange will form the flange for the next & last mold part. The flange will go out to the black marker line.
The side scoop behind the door is really a deep scoop. So, this time around, we made a plug to go in the back of it.
Here we have the whole part covered in paper again which means that we're ready to spray the tooling Gel-Coat again.......
After that cures, we're back to laying glass to form the next 2 mold parts....... we usually layup about 7 to 10 layers. These smaller mold parts will be about 7.
Once that cures, we take off all the rigging & we now have 2 5 pc. molds
Here is the same pc. with the final side of the mold layed up on it about 6 hours later.
And here's the rocker panel for the other side getting the gelcoat so the mold can be built for the last part of these molds.
Now that the mold is complete on thise rocker panel, we're going to open it up soon but 1st you need the bolt holes drilled in the mold flanges so it can be bolted back together again to make a part from the mold.
So here is the right side mold all taken apart. Now it's hours & hours of cleaning & waxing before we can mold the 1st part out of this mold.
Here is the final mold layup on the other side, tomorrow we get to open that mold up.....
We'll try to follow his on thru to where we pull the 1st parts out of these molds.
I wondering if anyone has noticed that making simple molds is not all that simple.
Archie
[This message has been edited by Archie (edited 03-15-2007).]
After 2 days of waxing, polishing & buffing....... The molds are finally ready to make a set of parts out of.
I had the guys working today (Saturday) in an effort to get everything done in time to leave for FL early on Thursday.
Today Kris finished the polishing, put the molds together, PVA'ed them & then Sprayed the White gel-coat on them.....
That means that we will be laying up fiberglass in them Monday morning.
Here are various pictures of the molds, if you look close you can see where they are bolted together. Each of the rockers are 6 pc. molds & when they are bolted together, it's very hard to see the seams.
Wow! A very difficult 6-piece mod. How many hours you'd think was involved in making the wide-body rocker? How many piece (normally) needed for the regular IRM rocker? 2-piece?
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Originally posted by Archie:
I wondering if anyone has noticed that making simple molds is not all that simple.
Archie
[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 03-18-2007).]
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