Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior How to Mold a Body Kit? Should you even do it (ie will it crack)?

Aight to anyone who has experience with body work (or had mold work done)...how do YOU mold a body kit... I have seen people that use FiberAll and FiberTech...How do you do it? Whats the best way? Whats the best materials?

Some people say dont do it cause it WILL eventually crack? Can you do it right so it wont? esp on a uni-body?

Thanks

personally i'd get a bodyshop to do it. if you have no experience with it you will most likely make a mistake and it probably won't come out looking smooth. if you want, pay attention to someone else while they do it and that way you will have gained some first-hand knowledge for the next time.

cracking mainly depends on where you mold. obviously if you are in a wreck anything can crack. that said..some places are more prone to cracking than others. fender flares should be bolted on and then molded. this reduces the potential to crack.

sideskirts are also a nice place to mold because they are relatively untouched by the road.

front bumpers shouldnt be molded unless you are making a show-only car. your front bumper will amost always hit something (be it a curb, speed bump, rock, etc.) and this will cause it to crack.

rear bumpers are almost the same as front bumpers--not unless it's a show car...rear bumpers have a high potential to be wrecked (just like a front bumper) and it can also be more prone to skidding & dragging, which will crack molding

I molded the kit on my last car, and will do it again on the Celica. You need MUCH patience, a good automatic sander, and bodyfiller/fiberglass materials. It just takes some good practice. The best thing to do is, where you are going to be slapping on molding, sand ALL the paint off, so it sticks to metal. Sand sand sand, that's all there is to it. Oh and make sure that the kit is FLAWLESSLY straight (fitted on the car) Becasuse you'll kick your self in the balls if you mold it, and it's not straight.

If it is a aily driver the beast things to mold would be the sides and the back, but like said before the front might not be to good to do becasue of parking spaces and such. The back however is perfectly fine because if someone hits you there Ins. had to pay to get it redone anyway.

If your planning on doing it yourself i dont suggest it. but if youd liek to know the process its like this.

Start behind the bumper with some long strand fiber glass to give the area being molded some structure. after that your gunan wanna feather edge the areas you are molging into then scuff the metal o the body filler will stick , then use short strand fiber glass on the front, block sand the Fiberglass to take the top down so there are no highspots. After that add some body filler over top of that, to sand it down do 80, 180, 320(cant rem what the closet number to 300 is that they sell) to sand around indented body lines you should take a roll of somesort something like a coolent hose but only the straight part and use that to get the for. I don tthink celicas have any like that in any case tho.

After you have got your body filler down to size you gunna wana use some metal filler glaze with some flex additive to give that bumper some place to move. when you have go everything straight and smooth, you then run over it with some 300, etch the areas coverd using etch oil and a 220 scuff pad, prime it, then use guide coat and wet sand with 300, then paint blah blah blah i dout your gunna paint it yourself.

unless your backing in to a spot

best advice for daily driver-it's gonna crack-that's all there is to it. But if you always say "what if", you'll never do anything-if you don't mind having it redone later on, go for it. Everything eventually will crack, it's just a matter and craftsmanship until it does. But, hey, go for it if you really want it!