Before you buy ANY KIT have the manufacture provide you a list of recent customers. If they won't run don't walk as fast as you can from the purchase. -- If they do, call every one of them! They will have the answers - Also check e-bay kits and replica listing. There were a couple of 355's listed last week - contact those sellers and see how the after the sale support was. GOOD LUCK
Kit car Inc. is legit , but the quality is reflected in the price.. the parts need work .. but still go visit before you send money and you would be better off picking the kit up instead of having it shipped. They are in a legal battle with Lamborghini right now, Lamborghini's attorneys have asked for molds to be destroyed but Jackie said he would not... He said he was going to fight it..... good luck....
------------------edit: guess picking it up would be out of question,,,, if you want to build a 355 kit check over on madmechanics and find out who bought the Air Dynamics 355 molds , it would be you best bet.. will cost more upfront than the CKI but will is much more accurate kit and when John was selling the kits were top quality... There is a VERRY nice one listed on ebay for around $19k , you will have more in one if you want it really nice,,, Not really a rebody there is much more involved.. here is the car it was on ebay ,, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No3BvHGcADY 87 GT series 1 3800sc (7.597 @88.53 1.579 60ft) (series II swap in progress) 85GT Northstar/ 4t80e 86GT 3800 n/a My Build
[This message has been edited by jb1 (edited 09-01-2013).]
John sold his molds to Bartman. He is on mad mechanics forum. Johns body's were hands down the best quality available. He was in the habit of buying Ferrari body parts to make his molds from and did high quality work. As far as I know Bartman did good work too. He had the 355 molds for sale just a little while ago. Anyway mad mechanics is the forum for Ferrari rebodys.
Regardless which kit you buy, the F355 bodies don't simply bolt onto a bare Fiero chassis. All of them require chopping steel away from the space frame in the B-pillar area, front frame, rear bumper, and doors, and then reinforced. The wheels also need to be moved outwards about 3" in the front and back to fill the wheel wells which means you either buy a completely new suspension package with longer control arms, or much wider wheels with smaller offsets, or huge wheel spacers. The suspension height also needs to be modified significantly for it to look right as well, and there are several ways to achieve this depending on your tastes and budget. Then, depending on the kit body, you may have the option of keeping the original wheelbase of the car such as with the AD355 kit, but most require that the frame be cut in half behind the passenger compartment and lengthened by 3". You'll need to be able to do some fiberglassing because the inner and outer shells of the hood need to be bonded together, and then there are steel reinforcements that must be bonded into the rear decklid, as well as fiberglassing the roof panel to the rear quarters. Then there are the hundreds of hours of body work to make the panels align correctly, and prep them for paint regardless which company you buy from.
Estimating a cost is very difficult because there are so many choices to make that can drastically affect the overall cost: Are you keeping the stock engine, transmission, interior, or windshield? Is it a stretched wheelbase kit? What skills and time do you have? Do you have a shop full of tools? Do you already own a Fiero and is it in good condition? At the lowest end you might be able to get away spending $15K for a car that only has the exterior body panels done. Many people are satisfied with that, but for a car with an interior, more powerful engine, aftermarket suspension, big wheels, and flawless paint, expect to be in the +$40K range if you can do most of the work yourself.
There are two active F355 build threads in the Construction Zone right now, one by me: www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum3/HTML/000116.html , the other by Yarmouth Fiero: www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum3/HTML/000137.html . Although we both have fairly large budgets, you may glean a few insights into what it takes to build one by checking out our threads.
There's a reason why that saying exists that "98% of kit cars don't get 'completed' ". People grossly under estimate their budgets. $15k barely get people a body mounted on a chassis and to be perfectly homest some people have paid $15k just for dash, seat, and door panel interior work (none of the other interior work).
Now if you're able to do some of the work yourself prices decrease, but if you don't have the facilities to do all the work you run the risk of taking much longer to complete kits.
Most all kit cars require some degree of fiberglass work. Really good kits will require simple fiberglass work to correct minor curvature imperfections or door sill corrections omce panels are aligned. Poorly splashed kits may require such extensive fiberglass work that entire parts would need to be reworked.
Be very careful about kit car nomenclature. "non-stretch" doesn't always means no chassis modifications. For instance, a lot of non-stretch Countach kits out there often still require roof modification for the window/door sill since they're raked so far back in comparison to the standard Fiero setup. Often this means still prepping a Fiero spaceframe as if you were stetching the chassis, even if you're not stretching it.
Very insightful information thank you guys! I have never fiberglassed in my life, it scares me a bit. Ive welded, not much but that im more comfortable with that. Luckily being in the car scene since a young age I have a lot of conections with painters and bodywork guys. Suspensions are my thing as well as wheels and offsets so I would probably do some more upgrades to my suspension and then crank out some wide wheels with low offsets to fill the fenders. Im thinking BBS LMs 17 Fronts 18 Rears. I would love to find someone local who has built one so I could see it in person. Maybe I should start slow and just do my own take on a F355 by using the Fiero Fiberglass front and Rear and some Ferrari Tails and tweak the GT body here and there.
[This message has been edited by XThirtySeven (edited 09-02-2013).]
I posted in the mall one for sale but it is here in TN , It needs finished and a front bumper for $1500, for that + shipping , the body is mounted and you would be less than CKI kit with a lot of the work already done
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87 GT series 1 3800sc (7.597 @88.53 1.579 60ft) (series II swap in progress) 85GT Northstar/ 4t80e 86GT 3800 n/a My Build
[This message has been edited by jb1 (edited 09-02-2013).]
Would it even be possible to make a 355 body or any other body that just bolts directly on? Why don't the manufactures do this instead?
Wheel base and track width make it difficult to have a true "bolt on" and if your are a manufacture of a kit that vaguely resemble the F or L cars you will be sued out of business. Probably the easiest and closest to 'bolt on' would be an Italian themed kit based on the "MERA" replacement part panels being offered by a Pennocks member (Search MERA) and as stated in the thread there are a number of first class nose and tail bolt on products that can give your vehicle an 'Italian look'. Check out www.fierofiberglass.com for a unique and first class looking kit the (Lizardo). They also have other nose and tail panels. I've seen a couple of the noses and tails they offer ----- look great !
My 308 --- KIT
[This message has been edited by steve308 (edited 09-02-2013).]
Regarding the stretch. I have the non stretched AD355 and it is achieved by moving the rear wheel wells forward 3" on the body. I thus have a chassis that has not been cut in half. I think that if I were going to do it over I would do the cradle stretch that only requires moving the strut towers back an equal amount. I could still do that and relocate the wheel wells, but I'm not sure that anyone would notice the difference. I should say that this is all theory on my part so there might be a downside to the cradle stretch that I'm unaware of.
I was buildimg a 355 and my old thread is here somewhere. Not starting with a quality kit is crucial. I ended up deciding on a "cheap" kit. But I had decided I wasnt going to badge the car as a ferrari and would have had to make mods to make the kit look good. Simply because the body wasnt in great shape. So if you really want a close to exact replica the AD is probably the only way to go. It is also way easier to build than the others.
If you are willing to travel you will be able to find someones kit you can get at a decent price. I was one of them. But it had more to do with being surprised by having twins than money or knowledge of how to build it. Yoi will notice I have a new build thread 4 years later with a different car as my time has freed up! Lol.
Very insightful information thank you guys! I have never fiberglassed in my life, it scares me a bit. Ive welded, not much but that im more comfortable with that. Luckily being in the car scene since a young age I have a lot of conections with painters and bodywork guys. Suspensions are my thing as well as wheels and offsets so I would probably do some more upgrades to my suspension and then crank out some wide wheels with low offsets to fill the fenders. Im thinking BBS LMs 17 Fronts 18 Rears. I would love to find someone local who has built one so I could see it in person. Maybe I should start slow and just do my own take on a F355 by using the Fiero Fiberglass front and Rear and some Ferrari Tails and tweak the GT body here and there.
I did something like this and in my opinion it turned out very well. I did it on a 20 year olds budget and was able to get 90% of the stuff preowned and never installed or preowned and in good shape i'll see if I can find you the thread on it but here is a few pics of it. this was also done before the Ferrari rear bumper was so easily obtainable
Wheel base and track width make it difficult to have a true "bolt on" and if your are a manufacture of a kit that vaguely resemble the F or L cars you will be sued out of business. Probably the easiest and closest to 'bolt on' would be an Italian themed kit based on the "MERA" replacement part panels being offered by a Pennocks member (Search MERA) and as stated in the thread there are a number of first class nose and tail bolt on products that can give your vehicle an 'Italian look'. Check out www.fierofiberglass.com for a unique and first class looking kit the (Lizardo). They also have other nose and tail panels. I've seen a couple of the noses and tails they offer ----- look great !
My 308 --- KIT
Is your 308 a kit steve? I thought you had a mera?
It will cost 2 x the price if a used kit to complete and will take close to what seems forever. If you build it you will need to do a tonne of work so it all lines up on your car. After you have finished you will be an expert on fiberglass.
