Here it is... yet another widebody project. I just picked up another car, '99 Toyota Solara, so the real work can begin on the fire.
I will be updating this thread as I progress through the project. I really have no timeline, but I just plan on working on this in my spare time. All comments/criticisms welcome. Also, if anyone feel ambitious and would like to do some photoshops, that would be great.
I am still working on the design. As of right now, I am planning on making a slighty modified mold of the Streetfire front bumper I have now. The fenders will be widened as they go back, and will be blended into the front bumper. The sideskirts will be widened and a line will run up to the rear window, with the rear quarter panel behind the line being widened. The rear bumper will be custom and not stick out.
Here are a few very poor photoshops that I did
Here is the car as it started
Some slight design changes to the front bumper
Working on a design
One dilemma that I have right now is weather to make the sideskirts smooth on the bottom like in my first photoshop above, or to make a mold of the bottom part of the Type-J skirts which in the picture below you can see has it's own line that I could extend.
I am going to mess around tonight with some different designs, and will be back to doing some more work tomorrow. Thanks for looking.
Wide Body Progress
i like where you are going with this.. cant wait to see some more progress on this
good luck, because that's going to be a nightmare to sand.
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- Sold my beloved J in April 2010 -
damn is EVERYONE DOIN WIDEBODY?
curious to see wher ethis is goin..keep us updated
isn't the urethane kit going to give you a problem?
Proud member of Jbody of Kentucky ... Click on sig to go!
I don't think he's FG'ing the urethane kit in with the widebody... I think he's just copying it in FG and building the widebody from there... I think the design if implemented well can be a contender... but progress will help alot! Keep this updated... I expect a 63+ page post on this as well!
What about the fiberglassed door panels?
JoeyDaBomb - Rusty is right, I am just making a copy of the urethane bumper with fiberglass for the widebody.
Lance Sharpe - The door panels are still here. The passenger side is painted and installed, I just need to install the door handle and a few other pieces. The driver side just needs a little more work. I plan in finishing it when I need a break from the widebody.
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I taped up and started making a mold of the rear quarter panel today. I finished just before it started raining.
I'm at a little bit of a standstill until I finalize the design. I should be able to do some more work around the middle of the week. Hopefully I figure out more of the design the then.
I also need to make a list of what else I will be needing and need to put an order in at US Composites. I've only used Bondo brand resin since I can get it locally, but for a project like this I think I will start ordering the materials online.
Wide Body Progress
since you're starting off get ready to take on a HUGE project. I knew it would be a lot of work, but you really don't realize it until you spend hours upon hours of sanding. All the best to you too man.
Try to keep you're glass work smooth as well, it will pay off and save you hours and hours of work that could have been avoided.
ill wait to see more updates...
I really like where this is going, it will make the back end look really nice too. It looks like it will be like the rear end of a corvette,
very nice, it looks great
I love the rear bumper idea. Try to keep this updated regularly. I love all the widebody threads.
Wow, cant wait to see the progress.
~2014 New Z under the knife, same heart different body~
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WHITECAVY no more
2012 numbers - 4SPD AUTOMATIC!!
328 HP
306 TQ
Big Poppa - Thanks a lot! Your work was a big inspiration for me. I know it will be a lot of work, but since I am not really on a time line I can take breaks when I need to and work on other projects. I'm sure I'll be hitting ya up along the way for advice.
Steve Whitehead - Yeah, I have always hated the way out bumper stick out so far on the back end. I think it will looks good the way I have it now. Just need to build a box and get some two part foam so I can start shaping the rear bumper.
the lemur - I will try to keep posting regular updates. The next few weekends I have wedding to go to, but hopefully I can squeeze some time in nights after work and before/after the weddings.
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Well, I got 1 layer of glass on the front bumper today.
I will hopefully be able to put another couple of layers on over the next few days.
Wide Body Progress
good luck with it, off to a good start! i kinda like that first photoshop you posted, deffinatly not what you usually see on the widebodied J's, so im deffinatly interested to see what you come up with. keep it up
wow honestly, I mean great idea and all but that front fender will need way to much bondo to be smooth.
For everyone commenting on how not smooth the fender is, here is the reason. A while ago when I first decided to do this, I was messing around with different ideas on how to actually build the widebody. I tried using spray foam on the fender and glassing over that. Here are a few pics.
I am debating on whether to keep using this piece and do the same thing on the other side, or simply make a new mold from the body and extend it (like I am doing with the quarter panels).
Well, today I removed the quarter panel and did some trimming. I then just hung it up to get an idea of how it looked.
It took a while to get it off of the car, which makes me worried about how hard it will be to get the mold off of the front bumper. I added one more layer of glass to the bumper today. I am wondering if it will be easier to remove now with only 2 layers of glass, or after adding a few more layers.
I also did a few layers on the passenger side quarter panel.
Wide Body Progress
i need to buy stock in masking tape lol
when i made my rear panels by molding them off the car i used duct tape. left the quarter panel sticky and gross, but the glass popped off super easy. you can get it started by either grabbing a piece of tape that sticks out farther than the glass or popping it up with a screw driver. i haven't really tried peeling anything off masking tape so idk if there's much of a difference, but like i said, it comes off duct tape real easy. and i normally put 3-4 layers before pulling it off. i found that only 1 or 2 was too easy to bend and wouldn't keep the shape that well.
best of luck to you. really curious to see what your end design will be.
yet another widebody begun keep it going man
In Loving Memory of Phil Martin December 14 2005
Alexis: Dustin, you're ghey, lol. I am better. I have tits, and tits rule all.
I am wondering about the masking tape too, tried the duct tape for a trunk liner and it was a huge mess, heat from fiberglassing and duct tape is a bad combo,
I wonder about gorilla tape(kinda like super duct tape)supposed to be able to put it in the oven and it wont really melt too bad and still be usable like it was new!
but maybe it would just not want to come off even worse.
oh ya, I don't really like the park bench rear bumper either, just don't have the skill or time to change it right now, but I think yours will look very nice indeed
nice job so far man. as far as being able toget the fiberglass parts off the cartry using wax papper as a backing and glassing over that. it helps alot when building boats so it just might very well work good for this too
In all honesty man that fender thing you made is better off in the trash brother man. You'll spend the rest of your life trying to smooth it with bondo. It would have definitely been in your best interest to at least try to plane it down to a general shape before glassing over it. I'd suggest getting yourself a long sanding block and plenty of say 40 grit sand paper so that cutting your shapes will be alot easier. As said before, the flatter you lay the glass, the easier it is to sand and prep, so try to shake out any mindsets of just going back over it later, trust me. Also for something like this project, you might want to order yourself a gallon (at least) of Duraglass, that fiberglass reinforced filler stuff. Good luck with the project, that first rendering you made looks pretty cool so I hope it turns out how you planned.
-- John
To be truthful, that front fender mold isnt salvageable, cut your losses and make a new one...remember...the smoother things are in the beggining, means much more quality in the end (as in not having to use 16 gallons of polyester filler). Maybe, use the one you have there, use filler, get the shape you want with it, then make a mold off the top of that one.
