Thoughts On Body/paint Plans

[violentrapture]

Ok, so the audio is nearing completion, suspension, wheels and tires are done, interior is going to be taken care of soon, and it's time to turn an eye towards the body. I don't like body kits, period. I really like the lines on the Alero - it's a very well designed car aesthetically in my opinion. What I've had rolling around in my mind and am wondering if anybody has done anything similar is this:

(going from front to back)
New headlights, cleared, bezels painted green (same paint as body paint)
Stock front bumper, molded smooth to the body
Door handles shaved
"Chrome" window trim stuff removed - the piping looking stuff, not sure what the proper term is
Door panel trim thingy removed (that long, thin and utterly ugly thing on the door panels)
Door panel concave part filled in smooth
New rear window, minus that defroster line crap (just glass)
Remove spoiler (god those things completely wreck the body lines)
Stock rear bumper molded smooth to the body, concave sections filled
Repainted using factory metallic green

Anyways, that's how my thought process is running so far - has anybody seen or have pictures of anything alone these lines, and what are your thoughts on how it would all work together?
Cheers,
Collin

[2fst4u]

i'm not sure, how it will turn out. do you plan on doing the work yourself? or having a shop do it? i'm interested to see a rendering.

[violentrapture]

Doing it myself? Good lord no :P Most definitely going to have it all done by a shop. Things have been crazy at work and I haven't had a chance to work more on the 3d alero model, so a rendering can't happen right now. I might photoshop up something like what I'm thinking later on - I just didn't know anybody had the stuck bumpers molded along with the door handles shaved.

Cheers,
Collin

[eag182]

Originally posted by violentrapture@Jan 16 2006, 10:24 PM
New headlights, cleared, bezels painted green (same paint as body paint)
turbo aleros turned out good

Stock front bumper, molded smooth to the body
This might cause a hassle in the long run. A small fender bender would cause a lot of work!

Door handles shaved
:thumb:

New rear window, minus that defroster line crap (just glass)
How are you going to get a replacement window without the lines?

Remove spoiler (god those things completely wreck the body lines)
Amen

[cherrington17]

new rear window w/o the lines....

grrr! damn you texans! i use my rear defroster several times a day! its just plain, not fair.... :cry:


anyway... enough of my jealousy. sounds like it would turn out quite interesting. i'll see if i can photoshop a pic of what it would look like.. unless someone beats me to it. might have to set up a new term. "he did his car violent style." :biggrin:

[violentrapture]

"This might cause a hassle in the long run. A small fender bender would cause a lot of work!"

Hm, didn't think about that - but would it be more hassle than the body kits I see molded? It's all about the pretty anyways! ;)


"How are you going to get a replacement window without the lines?"

I called up the first auto glass repair place in Dallas I found on google, asked them what my options were and and the lady I spoke with said that they could get a non-heated rear window from the dealership.


"grrr! damn you texans! i use my rear defroster several times a day! its just plain, not fair...."

lol, I've never turned mine on once - another nifty side benefit to doing this... I could use that little button down there for something completely different. I'm planning on putting a sunroof in also in a couple months when Aftermath gets around to removing his and selling it to me - might work up that as the control for it.


"he did his car violent style."

ummm, first ever Alero S&M video? *shudders*

Cheers,
Collin

[AftermathAlero]

plastic to metal doesn't bond well. Soundxtreme molded his on, but his isn't a daily. Fiberglassed bumper to metal would mold better. Since yours is a daily i wouldn't recommend molding in the bumpers to the body. (Tell you from personal experience, I'm unmolding my rear bumper.)

Shave door handles .. cool.. hope ya find a good welder who won't warp your doors, cuz our doors too thick or thin(like a honda).

Rear glass. I dunno if they sell one without the defroster lines, you could take a razor blade and scrape the lines off yourself.

Body line - Havin fun shaving that

thats my 2 cents

[violentrapture]

Aftermath - what problems arise from molding the bumpers and it being a daily driver? Also, if fiberglass to metal is better, would there be a way to make some sort of mounting bracket or plate or something to attach them? Regarding the door handles and welding - is there a place you can recommend around DFW that would be a good place to go to have it done? I found a place called Glass Doctor that's over in Garland that said they can get/install the non-heated rear glass. The body line shaving/molding - that's what body shops are for! I drop it off, they figure out how to fix it and I pick it back up. :P

Here's a quick photoshop I did removing the chrome piping trim, simulating the bumper molding, etc. - I'd be lying if I didn't think it looked pretty hot.

Cheers,
Collin

http://www.collind.com/pikshures/pscar.jpg

[AftermathAlero]

collin.. plastic will flex too much, fiberglass still flexs but less. So even when you mold it it in, in the long run like maybe 1 yr or later.. it'll all crack out again. From daily driving, wind drag, vibrations, etc. As far as shaved body lines, all the grandam's and alero's i've seen like 10 at the most with them, if you look really closely, you can still tell where it was before. like an outline. Its really hard to get it shaved and can't tell it was there in the first place.

Thats cool that ya found a glass place without lines.

[eag182]

I think there's more you can do with your money than buy glass without lines though.

[violentrapture]

It's only money :P (and I got quoted less than $300 for the new rear glass installed, which I didn't think was too bad) I'm more than open to suggestions, that's one of the reasons I posted here. If anybody has some ideas they want to toss out that they think would look good, please do so!

Richie - if that little strip on the door panels is removed, and the concave part is filled in (what do you they use, bondo?) wouldn't that give a smooth appearance, like shaved door handles? With the molding of the bumpers, say in a year it cracked or started coming apart - could it just be redone and touch up painted?

Cheers,
Collin

[AftermathAlero]

Originally posted by violentrapture@Jan 17 2006, 03:49 PM
Richie - if that little strip on the door panels is removed, and the concave part is filled in (what do you they use, bondo?) wouldn't that give a smooth appearance, like shaved door handles? With the molding of the bumpers, say in a year it cracked or started coming apart - could it just be redone and touch up painted?

Cheers,
Collin
Quoted post


I hope they don't straight bondo.. thats like 1" thick of bondo in the middle. They should weld in with metal in that area. Then put a thin coat of bondo by the 8" area around it.

With molding the bumper, If it cracks and its needs to redone.. it would more than likely to repaint the whole car since its all 1 piece. But if you spot paint it and try to blend wouldn't look as good. but its up to you.

[Oldsmopimp]

Your racking up QUITE a bill looking to do all of that. Also added on filling in the concave part of your door and rear quater......You will notice it. no matter what you do I dont care how good the guy is, its impossible. The ONLY way to accomplish that would be too custom fab a whole new doorskin. (door skin is the whole outside layer of sheetmetal that makes up your door)

[natedawg9640]

i'm gonna second richie's comment about the difficulties of molding bondo to plastic... it just doesn't bond well and with time it's likely the seams will fail... technically it might not induce a full paint job to fix it as the onaly "one piece" parts are the front bumper/fenders... and the rear bumper/QP/Roof... the hood, skirts, and doors are free... unless you are molding those together too... in which case i will eat my words with a little salt and pepper. might you consider the razzi kit? becasue to me it looks like a stock valance on steroids... it's the "stockest" kit available... and it would solve your "bondage" problem... no pun intended with the previous posts... haha..

[violentrapture]

Actually I talked to Richie about that earlier - the Razzi kit is plastic, just like the stock so that wouldn't work unfortnately. Looks like one of my only options would be something like having fiberglass bumpers molded from the stock bumpers, which... would actually be a little extreme, but, I guess I'll just have to keep checking into things and see what's available.
Cheers,
Collin

[2fst4u]

unless you could heat up the plastic and mold it to the right shape in certain areas. sounds like at least a plan for the ribs in the bumpers.

[|Rev|]

minus the much grande bondo... sounds like it will look very sleek!