I was just wondering how long I could expect a molded on bodykit to last before it starts cracking. I know there's a lot of variables, ut a rough estimate would be great. Thanks.

 

From what I've heard you'll have a good amount of hairline cracks after the first year; if you are driving conservatively. This is from a buddy with a showcar who barley drives the thing. If you're doing any highway/street driving on a regular basis, stay away from molding.

Rivets are cool.

 

If you have a "good bit" of cracking over the first year your body man is a hack. A kit that is well built and attached using the proper prep and materials should last forever on a car.

 

I had a celica with molded fender flares that didn't crack for the two years that I had it. Just find a reputable shop that is willing to warranty the work and knows what they're doing.

 

it also depends on what kind of fenders you'll be using. a rather large one like the Origin or Msports fenders will crack sooner than the burnout ones since it covers more area. i drift and time attack my fd so i rivetted the fender using the big rivets and it still looks good.

 

i hope your not serious..are you a body man? I will bet if you go to any shop in the country and ask them if they will warranty a molded kit if it cracks they will laugh at you and of course say no. The quality of the prep and materials will extend the life of the kit without cracking but i don't care if your using a product made by NASA, it will eventually crack out. you can NOT permanently bond fiberglass to metal. one reason is the shock and vibration the car will endure while driving, and the main reason is fiberglass or whatever else your kit is made of reacts to expansion and contraction due to heat and cold differently then the steel your car is made of. this will eventually cause cracking even if you never even drive the car. In the end its not worth molding a kit. and in my opinion if you get your kit to fit just as good as factory bumpers then molding it doesnt even look all that better.

 

The bodyshop that did this work also warrantied the work for 3 years. In the time that I had it, I never had any trouble from it. There are BRS fender flares molded in with a Veilside front bumper along with flares in the rear that were molded into the stock bumper. Lots of work went into it and it turned out just fine. Would I do it again? No, too much stress about clearance and bottoming out the suspension. If you do crack it by hitting something or scraping the bottom, there's no telling how long that crack's going to be. It could go down the whole seam or just half-way. Then you have to get it repaired and reblended. It looks good, but it's really not worth it.

 

for a show car i'd say go for it but for a track car no. looks good tho

 

molded **** just looks weird to me

 

I wasn't planning o getting the whole bodykit molded, just the fender flares. Basically I was kinda hoping to get the fenders and sideskirts to look like this car.

 

No I am not a body man but I did stay at a holiday inn express last night.

I had my side skirts molded on and the shop that did it most certainly warrantied it. I will still hold to my reply that if it has many cracks in a year, the shop is a hack or you tried it yourself.

As far as the expansion/contraction of stell vs plastic, it is a mute point. That is why there is a bonding agent there. The bonding agent acts as the "rubber" isolating and joining the 2 different expansions.

I will tell you what my body guy told me...

1. The majority of people that put on body accessories rivet them in place then layer on the bondo.
2. Rivets work lose (Except some aircraft quality ones and then the plastic/fiberglass is liable to deteriorate from the rivet
3. more than a small skim coat of bondo as a final layer is TO much

Dont know what to tell ya, if they wont warranty it then odds are they arent confident in their ability.

 

#1 Dissimilar materials. End of discussion.

#2 I've done lots of moulding, shaving, joining, whatever else you like to call it with a huge variety of materials. I offer warrantys on all the work we do here, but I always make it known to the customer the RISKS of joining DISSIMILAR MATERIALS. I always do my best, and use the proper materials for the substrate being used......sometimes there's problems, sometimes not. Think of it this way. "I want a SS end tank on my intercooler.....but its AL. I can epoxy them together and they won't leak, but is that ideal?"

#3 Any *good* shop will offer a warranty. A warranty doesn't reflect whether or not the job done or the way it was done is IDEAL or PROPER. Just means they'll back the work up.

#4 Phone any of the following companies. Lord Fusor, 3M, Norton, Pro Form. They all sell panel bonding adhesives, Fusor in particular is an OEM product, and ask them "hey, your fiberglass to metal panel bonder............if I use that to shave a FG flare to metal fender and use filler over top, will you guys warranty the product still? " The answer you'll get will be NO because they are ALL epoxy based. There is no epoxy based filler (that I'm aware of) designed to be applied to metal, only plastic. The only fillers you can use are polyester, and poly and epoxy do not get along. The instruction's you'll recieve with your tube will even say so explictly.

#5 -

Any top quality filler is advised to be applied up to 1/4" of thickness. Puttys (finishing glazes) are much less. But up to 1/4" is advised and OK'd by the manufacture. "skim coat" can mean alot of things.

#6 THINK about what you're joining together. A sideskirt will be much less likely to crack then say a front bumper. Use your head and plan accordingly, thats all.