Car styling body kits

Body kits although primarily cosmetic can dramatically alter the appearance of the car and sometimes for the better! Kits that require spraying must be properly prepared and sprayed or they will start to peel and look shabby – this can add another £300-£1000 to the fitting cost. Replacement bumpers are sometimes more flimsy and brittle than the standard padded ones and will not offer the same level of protection in a crash to a pedestrian or the engine. When fitting a new kit is is a good opportunity to get the car resprayed since it is difficult to match the paint colour of the kit to the current cars paint colour especially if the paint has faded a little. Mesh and similar grill and vent covers can look good but are often hard to apply when the kit is already on the car so spend a little time beforehand thinking about the order you need to do things in - it can save hours of fitting unfitting and fitting again!
A specialist body shop is the best place to go to have a custom kit fitted. Most off the shelf kits do little to enhance the appearance of the car. Like any modification to a car you will always get what you pay for. If you don't pay enough you are just wasting your money. A good well fitted kit can be an ivestment as the car will attract sponsorship deals, TV appearances and it is fun to go on the show circuit ensuring your weekends are busy throughout the year!
Before fitting the kit - check the instructions the last thing you want is to spend hours getting the side skirts on to discover that nothing else will fit on as these should have been the last thing you did. It's also worth checking that the parts in the packing list are all provided and just lay the main parts around the car and check for fit by holding them against the body work.

It is very tempting to spray the kit before fitting it to the car but you get a much better finish if the kit is given a final spray on the vehicle. Cover up the screw holes etc with a good quality filler and spend some time putting a little 'flexible plastic' filler in the seams to give a nice clean finish.

They can also get scratched and split more easily in little parking incidents so if you are going to get a kit make sure it’s of the best quality that you can afford. Carbon fibre panels reduce the weight of the car maintaining most of the rigidity. Low skirts and sills can increase cornering speeds but a badly fitted kit can cause grounding on speed bumps or dramatically effect the cooling of the engine for good or for bad – check the temperature gauge after having a kit fitted and ensure that the engine is not running hotter.

To cut holes for the exhaust aim to be at least 3cm wider than you need, take time measuring up using a cardboard template for best results. Put some tape on both sides of the bumper and drill some holes all around the area you want to cut. When you get your saw out make sure the cutting edge of the saw cuts away from the outside edge to the inside edge with the smallest teeth you can find. Otherwise you will have horrid jagged edges. Then finish the cut edge with a fine file or grinding wheel then use wet and dry sheets.

The kits should usually be fitted with a stiffer suspension to maintain the ground clearance of the car but this can really kill the around town usability of a car.