..:::my VIS body kit progress:::... -||# 11 #||- bumpers ready for paint

[VHull03]

finally got my body kit in today, got the VIS GT Bomber (smiley) kit. looks pretty hot in person, only 2 minor stress cracks in the top of the rear bumper from poor shipping, but otherwise its all good. i do believe that it is made out of something other/thicker than fiberglass. nows the time to start sanding, repairing, and molding.... yay!!!

[Crispy]

lets see some pictures....

[Panthro]

yea man, you cant just post something like that and not show us!

[AmesBlackCat]

Yeah, pics would be nice!! Who did you buy it through??

[Crispy]

I swear every guy in the Midwest has some sorta teaser thing.. if you want to play with the big girls on campus you need to prove yourself and post pics.. words mean nothing to some of us anymore..

[VHull03]

k, tomorrow after school i will be dry-fitting the bumpers, hell, i'll throw the side skirts on there too and take pics.

bought it through my main man at cc.com.

[NascarSigEp]

Originally posted by: Crispy
I swear every guy in the Midwest has some sorta teaser thing.. if you want to play with the big girls on campus you need to prove yourself and post pics.. words mean nothing to some of us anymore.. We don't have any teasers :cover: Lets see some pics mang!

[CBG]

Originally posted by: VHull03
i do believe that it is made out of something other/thicker than fiberglass.

its polyfiber and the [censored] rocks! i've never seen a fiberglass bumper flex soo much and still not break

[Crispy]

damnit.. I want to see!!!! stop freakin teasin.. thats 2 of ya now..

[VHull03]

give me like 2 hours max and i'll have it all dry-fitted

[VHull03]

hmmmm, kinda under-estimated the difficulty of taking the bumpers off... i gotta go to our shop and hoist the coug up to do it i guess, so it may be a day or so till i get fitted pics, but heres the bumpers... the sides are nothin special.

[Crispy]

it's smilin at me.. hehe..

that rear is really boxy.. not sure if I like it yet... ya know it would be sorta cool to paint that rear indented center portion an accent color.. maybe? reminds me of a transformer or somethin though...

[VHull03]

i didnt get to work on it till after 9.30pm, but i got the rear bumper off and ready to go. i had to rotate my tires front-back this afternoon before my dad noticed that they have slightly less tread than the rears....but thats a whole nother story.

i realized that i'll either have to trim my 5mph bumper like 4 inches or make something else to put there, cuz my dad wont allow me to go without. he had some kind 4-letter words about that fact. but heres pics of what i got done tonite. im not gonna inline the pics anymore as i'll use this as my progress thread till i get a site of my own up and running.

[Crispy]

dude.. seeing that its gelcoated a baby shade of yeller you could technically roll with it like that for a bit.. super cool

[VHull03]

right..... the term "poor-ass rice burner" comes to mind with that idea... haha. i gotta drill all the holes in the bumper and hopefully i can have it fully fitted soon. time to go work on the front, which looks to be a severe pain in the ass.

[VHull03]

end of day 2's work... got the front off. fun fun fun. now i need to figure out how to bend the hell out of the bumper to make it fit and not crack...

[unknown2kcat]

so what did you do to the 5 mph bumper support. If you trimmed it then i know your pain as i trimed mine.
also how wide is the front bumper ( right where it meets the fender ) and when are you going to get it painted?

[VHull03]

-we are going to leave the 5 mph bumpers off and make new ones out of steel tubing once we get the bumpers fitted better.
-the front bumper is about an ince too wide on the pass side, and almost 3 inches too wide on the drivers side. i have been posting about the fitments in exterior cosmetics frequently
-painted... thats a few weeks away yet. my ultimate goal is to have the kit on, molded, and painted after labor day weekend (6 weeks).

[Crispy]

very cool... :)

[unknown2kcat]

hey how's the kit coming along

[VHull03]

no real progress in the past few days other than some "engineering" ideas being thrown around to figure out how to make it fit. im gonna need the help of my dad to hold the bumper in place and drill the holes and bend it into place to get much farther. im workin on some of my other mods right now in the meantime, keepin busy and gettin stuff done.

[VHull03]

got the main holes drilled on the rear this morning and have it fitting. now that i have the holes drilled, it fits a hell of a lot better. just check the pic. the tail light isnt tight, and i still have to countersink the holes for the quarters, but it fits pretty nicely now. i am very very happy to see its not gonna be much work on the rear!!

[VHull03]

quit early on it today (stupid friends), but i got the rear bumper fitting like a glove. after countersinking the holes on the quarters, it lines up perfectly. now just to see if i can get the front to line up that good, i'll be very happy.

[silverfrost99]

Lets see a straight away shot fro mthe rear, I want to see how the duals line up and all that jazz.

[VHull03]

i'll get them for ya tomorrow, i just have the duals hangin loosely, im gonna have to drop em slightly to get em to fit under. they line up nicely on the indentation lines.

[NascarSigEp]

Wow. That pic of your car torn apart reminded me of what my car looked like. I'm sure Crispy can attest to that also.

[Crispy]

I think I remember my car torn apart more this year than it all together anymore.. :rofl:

hang in there.. the final outcome will be all worth it.. plus doing the work yourself will gratify you and earn more respect amongst others.. :thumbsup:

looks great.. still freaks me out that the gelcoating is yeller..

[VHull03]

cant really call it day 4, as i can only work for a couple hours after school now. i'll just put number #4 instead. heres the pic of the duals. i have them hangin loose, but thats where they will sit when done. and the bottom corners are sitting wider than they actually do, i just havent gotten the bottom hole/screw in there yet. got every other hole in the rear, only went with 4 total on the top instead of 8, dont need that many. i realized when drilling the holes for the bolts that go into the quarters, that im gonna have to build up the edges there because they dont meet the quarters flat, and if i tighten the bolts they will crack. but im leaving that fiberglassing for the same time i fix the bottom of the bumper. (and anything else i manage to screw up in that time)

sometime early next month i will be setting up my own personal web site, devoted to, among other things, my car. so my usage of this server's upload capacity will be done within a few weeks.

[unknown2kcat]

In that last pic is the car still jacked up?

[VHull03]

the front is jacked up, and therefore the rear comes quite a ways up.

-and my car isnt exactly a virgin to being stripped, we must remember its humble beginnings.....

http://www.fastcougar.com/forums/attachments/5%5Fleft%2EJPG

[NascarSigEp]

Ahh, I remember those pics.

[VHull03]

finally, i had some time and got back to it. almost done with the rear. now that i know exactly what im doing, the front should go a lot quicker than the rear (until i get to bracing it). but here is what i got done quick tonite. used some duraglas filler to build up the corner to meet up with the quarter nicely. and now that that is on there, the bumper fits tightly to the quarter and looks pretty nicely.

1 (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?loc=img7&image=IM1437.JPG)
2 (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?loc=img7&image=IM1439.JPG)
3 (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?loc=img7&image=IM1440.JPG)
4 (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?loc=img7&image=IM1443.JPG)
5 (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?loc=img7&image=IM1441.JPG)

[CBG]

lookin better mang!

[VHull03]

yea, when it is in place like that, the bumper looks awesome from all angles except straight from the rear- thats the only one where you can really notice the straight lines on the bottom.

[dv6cougar]

looking good :cool:

[NascarSigEp]

Looking good man! Can't wait to see what its gunna look like when it's done.

[VHull03]

i got the rear (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?loc=img7&image=IM1444.JPG)
bumper completely fitted (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?loc=img7&image=IM1445.JPG)
today, and here (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?loc=img7&image=IM001445.JPG)
are the completed pics!! (http://img7.imageshack.us/my.php?loc=img7&image=IM001446.JPG)

now on to the front. i still have a little bit of fiberglass repair to do, but i will do that when i glass my sub boxes. there is also some finishing to do before it can get painted, but the thing fits like a charm now!! hopefully the front doesnt take near as long as the rear, since i now have knowledge of what needs to be done. and if you noticed, my right taillight sticks out a little on the outside for some reason, not sure why, it just does.

[VHull03]

the car is curved, the bumper is flat.... (http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5959/flat.JPG)
getting these corners to fit were, well, scary. (http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/1543/gapout.JPG)
my finger shows where the hole on the car is... (http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5862/topholes.JPG)
right side, bottoms not fitted yet (http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7751/rightnotfitted.JPG)
left side, bottoms fitted. (http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9276/leftfitted.JPG)

k, i had to do some cutting underneath the headlights since this bumper doesnt curve down like the oem one does. got the holes drilled that go into the fender and had to take the plates off the oem via drilling out the rivets. i did have the top holes lined up and had the buttons in em, but took those out to tighten the bolts on both fenders. as you can see, those fender bolts pretty well put the bumper in place.

bending those bottom corners in to put a bolt in them was not cool, thats a loooong ways to bend fiberglass, but i didnt hear any creaking this time. another thing to notice is the flatness by the fenders, and also the gap under the rear of the headlights. looks like i have some duraglas work ahead of me again. but i think this front should go together much quicker than the rear.

upon closer inspection of the rear, i didnt line it up perfectly with the quarter panels, so i'll have to put some filler there too and build that up to match. oh well, better than having it off the other way.

[Crispy]

that kit makes your car look too "happy" in the front :rofl: I like how the rear turned out though. good job.. although my current garage project looks scarier but I know in the end it will all come together.

[VHull03]

i absolutely cant wait to get it painted, i think its gonna look [censored]in awesome in yellow. im still entertaining the idea of throwin a little silver pearl in the clear since i am repainting most of the car, might as well do the rest.

but yea, i have about 2 stalls worth of stuff (including the car) and my basement and room is full of projects. full transformation into version 3!!

[Crispy]

versions are where you change the car 100% from it's stock appearance... I'm currently building V3.0 as we speak to give you a good idea of what I'm talkin about..

2002 season V1.0 - full WW kit
2003 season V2.0 - what you see in my sig
2004 season V3.0 - no single component from the previous years will remain.

[NascarSigEp]

Glad to see it's coming together for ya. Is you car on buckets?

[VHull03]

my car is sitting on cement tiles, not buckets.

but i would consider this to be version 3 for me when its done. cuz when i bought it, it was totaled (v1), so we completely rebuilt the car (v2), and am now putting kit and many others that will make it look completely different once again (v3).

right now im just letting the bumpers sit in the humid heat so they form a little better and bend into place. the rear did that pretty well. im thinkin of pullin out the skirts and see what they look like.


-on a side note, some stupid ricer kid in my class (old style grand am, double tier fiberglass wing, white wheels, dual cans, etc...) has a fiberglass kit comin in and plans on it being a straight up bolt on!!!! haha, hilarious i think.

[VHull03]

whole thing (http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1557/whole.JPG)
lights cut out (http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/659/lights.JPG)
left frontside (http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/5246/leftfront.JPG)
left rear (http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2844/leftrear.JPG)
right side (http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/8840/right.JPG)
little bit of glass work (http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4300/glassing.JPG)
left glass (http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6329/leftglassed.JPG)
right glass (http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/5400/rightglassed.JPG)


theres the new pics from this past little while. since the pics i have used body filler to perfect the corners and where i glassed. looks reall nice now. just needs to be scuffed up and its ready for some primer. as you can see i had to cut out holes for the license plate lights, used a dremel with cutoff bit for that. we projects for the remainder of the weekend are to take off the brake calipers and paint them bad boys bright yellow and to build a sort of skeleton out of steel square tubing for the front bumper.

attn mod(s)- if you want to clean up this thread of the small talk, you are more than welcome to do so. just please leave the pics of my progress up. thanks buddy.

[VHull03]

got my calipers painted!! gotta let em dry and will put the wheels back on tomorrow probably. started molding on the front.

before.. (http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5075/before.JPG)
front ... after (http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5854/afterfront.JPG)
rear caliper (http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2288/rearpaint.JPG)
rear bumper complete. (http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/3622/rearcomplete.JPG)

[03firecatf7]

Originally posted by: VHull03

-on a side note, some stupid ricer kid in my class
coming from a kid who owns a cougar with a body kit :rolleyes:

[cougar4life]

Originally posted by: 03firecatf7

Originally posted by: VHull03

-on a side note, some stupid ricer kid in my class
coming from a kid who owns a cougar with a body kit :rolleyes:



:rolleyes::loser::kick:

[03firecatf7]

Originally posted by: cougar4life

Originally posted by: 03firecatf7

Originally posted by: VHull03

-on a side note, some stupid ricer kid in my class
coming from a kid who owns a cougar with a body kit :rolleyes:



:rolleyes::loser::kick:

:rofl:

[VHull03]

you dont even own a cougar do you? whats the point??

[VHull03]

calipers on with wheels (http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/6704/caliperscomplete.JPG)
front on the ground (drivers side) (http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7264/frontdrivground.JPG)
(passenger side) (http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/1792/frontpassground.JPG)

if the weather clears up a lil tomorrow, im gonna take it to our shop tomorrow to change the exhaust around and build the front skeleton and paint stuff and have all kinds of fun.

mod- nascarsigep... you can delete all non-pic posts if youd like to clear things up in this thread. and no, im not just saying that because someone tried making fun of me. i just do as JayZ says when he tells me to "brush ya shoulder off" haha.

[03firecatf7]

Originally posted by: VHull03
you dont even own a cougar do you? whats the point??

no point, just don't see how you can make fun of other ricers

[VHull03]

k. im sure my car will be called rice at times. oh well. theres ricey cars that look good, hopefully mine will be one if you wanna call it rice. when i was talkin about rice, i was talkin like honda civic-style with no taste. sorry for the confusion, but i just dont think old old style grand ams can be compared to new style cougars...

[03firecatf7]

Originally posted by: VHull03
k. im sure my car will be called rice at times. oh well. theres ricey cars that look good, hopefully mine will be one if you wanna call it rice. when i was talkin about rice, i was talkin like honda civic-style with no taste. sorry for the confusion, but i just dont think old old style grand ams can be compared to new style cougars...

I see what you're saying ;)

[VHull03]

here is the replacement for the front inner bumper (http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1919/partialskeleton.JPG)
this way, if something does hit me, the shock will go into the frame instead of crushing the entire engine. we are cutting down the rear bumper to fit.
just a pic of the exhaust in its final position (http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1668/exhaustfitted.JPG)
had to lower the tips a bit, and straightened em so they dont point down so much.

in the meantime, i have also cut out the moronic 2.5" fog light holes so i can put something in there that will actually give off light. i just got done scotch-brighting both of the bumpers entirely so they are now ready for primer and paint and should be done come this weekend!!! finally get to drive it for a lil bit till i feel like puttin the sideskirts on.

[NascarSigEp]

That bumper support looks good and useful. :thumbsup: