As most of the people on this forum know, tuning cars takes alot of money, time and effort to be done right. Regardless of who is making the products, when you're modifying a car like a G, you want to see quality and you want the end result to be clean. You did not compromise quality for price when you bought the G (you could have "saved" alot of money and bought a KIA) so why would you when tuning the G. Personally, I prefer a super clean stock body G to a G with a poor quality or fitting bodykit. (regardless of manufacturer) I'm far from a "rich boy" but I try to never skimp when I spend money on my car. Even if it takes time to save up for top quality parts, the satisfaction one gets when you finally have it on your car is worth it. I'm not attacking anyone here, just pointing things out.

This man knows exactly what he's talking about.

 

Yes, and the satifaction one gets knowing that he saved loads of money on a bumper and got the same result is priceless.

of course you'd say that, in this case, he agrees with your point of view...weeks ago you were slamming him and had a post he made about his opinion of your hood removed...oh, wait...you had nothing to do with that...my bad.

 

Well actually the following statement is only partially right. A mold for ta fiberglass part will not necessarily warp after 30 pieces. The reason why some pieces don't fit exactly like the mold is because sometimes when bumpers are stacked together prior to completely curing, the bumper will takeon a weird form. However, what the bodyshop for Asianboichoi failed to mention is that this is easily correctable. By simply looking at the pictures provided, it seems that the bodyshop can easily leave the bumper in hot direct sunlight to let the bumper "uncure" a bit causing the resin to soften. When that happens they can go ahead and reinstall and the bumper should settle into the new form.
Regardless, I thought the fitment on the bumper picture was close enough where the bodyshop could have even installed it nicely without doing what I just said. Now onto this theory about molds going to poopoo after 30 pieces, while a mold may take damage from pulling 30 parts, meaning chips, stress cracks and the such, the shape will generally stay the same. Know why? A mold is typically made with 11oz fiberglass resin, made about 12 layers thick. What do you think that'll do for the mold? That will essentially keep the mold together from changing even under the temp changes that undergo inside the mold everytime you make a part. Cracks/chips can be fixed so long as the mold is being taken care of an rejuvenated every x amount of bumpers. Now for some places, what they do is remake a new mold after say...50-60 pieces, or maybe even 100 pieces. Now if that happens, it all depends on what piece they copy off of now. If it was the same manufacture, they would typically copy the same good fitting piece again, making a moldthat fits great again. Now in the case of body kit industry, people don't like to pay $3-4k either for an original kit to copy as this is a capital investment. So they buy a copy and decide to copy that. Now, understand that no matter how good a copy is, it'll never be 100% fitment of the original. Even the bst will still only be 98% or so. Now imagine if a cheap small company bought a replica, and copied it (i'm not going to even mention the cheap company's ability to make a 98% mold), then the bumper would be probably like 90% of the 98%. The process goes on and on, until everyone has copied a copy (and of a copy, and of a copy's copy's copy).

Hence, which is why you'll see after like 30+ sets are sold, the new copies are starting to fit like **** because new companies will start copying copies and sell them to places like 350zforums for a cheaper price than the first replicator (because they paid less to copy the kit by copying a copy). You want an example? How about the grey Ings lip kit that's floating out there? I think I've heard a blue one as well....Both crap. But remember when it first came out? People said fitment was good? That was the white one.

SO - if you want a good fitting kit, I suggest you request vendors like 350zforums to continue support whoever they are buying the G kits from right now.

 

Well it sounds like you know a bit about moulds. BUT you can only get 30 to 40 pieces. How do I know this? Because I was going to make one of the first copies. Yes I WAS. But I couldnt get the kit soon enough so I gave up. I also have a friend that owns a bodykit company. Thats does in house and sends his stuff overseas.
As for 350zforums having the best. Well I ordered a ings kit from them about six months ago. Did it fit? NO NOT EVEN CLOSE! So say what you will, kind of odd that this is your 6th post.

 

LOL i know it's only my 6th post. I'm not a G owner that's why but been looking to get a G as my daily driver because I'm about to send my S4 i nfor some serious modifications.

The Ings lip kit, was it white? Beause I have a couple of friends who put the first few white Ings replcias on that were made in white on and they fit very well.

I've also seen the Ings original lip kit, which fit very well, and was the Hybrid Aero material as promised. Lately though, the trend I've been seeing is taht the hybrid aero stuff is NO LONGER flexible like the sets of lips kits I've seen. I'm not sure why....as they were black like the old Hybrid aero stuff (but that's easy to do as they just put pigment into the resin and spray a black gelcoat).

As to only getting 30-40 pieces out of a mold, it depends on how your mold is. Trust me, on well made molds you can make about 100-150 pieces. Average cost saving molds use lesser grade material and less material period. Have you always wondered why urethane pieces are always more expensive than fiberglass even though urethane is cheaper and quicker to produce than fiberglass? Well let's just say the molds cost 8X as much due mainly in part to the material used. Epoxy resins are supreme for holding shape. Many companies will use standard bottom grade resin for mold making, which is only really acceptable for bumpers and the such. Remember how I said pieces can get warped after being produced if held in the wrong position too long? Well, the same now applies to the mold if they use cheap materials. If they used a high grade resin or epoxy, then the mold will retain original properties.

That my friend is problem today with small cheap body kit companies (and even some big ones). I can only say that G owners have it lucky because they have high standards and are quick to reject poor quality/fitment products, thus weeding out the bad companies from making G items. That is why I say to support only the vendors who seem to give a sh*t about what their customers get.

 

this might be a little off the current topic but I have a similar situation. I bought a kenstyle replica kit from 350z. the rear bumper alone took 2 days to fit properly. but the shop got the kit to fit like a glove after playing with it for a few days. the new issue we're having is bubbles in the paint. according to the shop some sections of the kit are so thin that after the paint is on and the go to buff it. the heat is causing the kit to flex and in turn create bubbles. have any of you gut experience or hear of this as a issue with the replica kits. and other than having the shop lay a couple of full sheets of fiberglass . ant thing else I could do ?

 

The KS replicas that I've seen are all thicker than the original KenStyle kits. What your bodyshop may be noticing is that they *think* it's think because resin is clear and when they sand off the white gelcoat, they see the clear resin giving them the impression of a thin product.

Now, I think your main problem from what I can deduce is that you are having bubbling paint. There are a couple of causes of that problem - none of which are associated with fiberglass thickness.

1) Did the body shop sand/prep the surface of the bumpers? The correct procedure even if the surface of a bumper is silky smooth, is to run over it with fine grit sand paper so that they can find any holes under the gel coat and sand down any surface imperfections.
PAINTING OVER a NON PREPPED SURFACE IS THE BIGGEST CAUSE FOR ANY PINHOLES / BUMPER / OR BUBBLES IN YOUR PAINT!

2) If they didn't prep it well enough what you'll find is that even the best paint and adherance material will bubble and flake off... Now again, this could be due in part to the bumper having "air pockets" under the gel coat caused by someone not squeezing out all the resin from the bumper while they were doing the lamination process. Or it could just be the body shop not taking the time to prep it well enough. Once they apply heat (or the sun applies heat), the air pocket whether it's big or small, will want to come out and then what you get is a bubble. If the paint is cracking and peeling, it's a problem with the paint adhereing.

The important thing though, is trust me, they won't be able to sand through the bumper. DO NOT LAY MORE LAYERS OF FIBERGLASS ON TOP OF THE BUMPER!

 

well another factor I noticed was that the finish wasn't smooth it was kina like the finish on the out side of a refrigerator. some of my friends think that it could be due to the humidity that we've been having here in nj or he didn't let it dry enough before putting it in direct sunlight. I know that this guy knows what he's doing he repairs corvettes for a living so its not like he hasn't worked with fiberglass before. and also my car got hit as well he repaired it and it looks like new. so the only issues are with the kit.

if the paint isn't to my satisfactory what could I do? I am spending a good amount of money on the painting and installation of this kit as well

 

You noticed the surface wasn't smooth when? When you first received the kit or when? If ti wasn't smooth it is very important that he smooths it out...And if it was wet, I would have no idea how it got wet! LOL! Oh and lastly, metal is much easier than fiberglass because it's smooth already. In any case, you can PM if you'd like so it doesn't hijack somebody else's thread.

 

You guys have brought up a good point....I've seen how most knockoff companies warehouse their parts. I don't know if it's the heat or what, but alot of the parts lose their shape just sitting in the warehouse. (doesn't say much about the quality of the material they're using)

In the case of these Kenstyle knockoffs, you're getting not getting the same product. Quality is subjective but I wouldn't be satisfied spending any money to put the knockoff on a G. I would rather it stay stock.


I disagreed with him on a different issue and I agree with him on this issue. What's wrong with that? Looking at your past and recent posts, you obviously have a chip on your shoulder against me. I don't take any of this personally but I must say that this vendetta of yours is getting really old and lame.

Here is a clean example of an authentic Kenstyle Kit with a Top Secret Hood:

 

does that hood fit your widebody kit??

 

All widebody kits that I'm aware of still have OEM fitting hoods. So it should fit. The only times that a hood wont fit anymore are possibly on some of those extreme widebody kits from Veilside... like the RX-7. The entire front end is different.

 

Point noted. However, my point is that price does not always reflect quality equally. If the same exact Kenstyle was sold for $6,000 instead, it wouldnt make it any better. It would be the same thing for a higher price. The value of something is determined by how much people are willing to pay for it. Looking at all bodykits in general, most G35 bodykits are way overpriced. The sellers/manufacturers have tried to classify G35 bodykits seperately from all other bodykits in order to justify an insanely high price tag. Their reasoning is that since we spent alot of money on a car, then we should spend more money on everything else. If we can afford an expensive car, we can afford to pay double the price for a bodykit. A bodykit is a bodykit... no matter what car its designed for, or where it was designed. In comparison to all other bodykits of equal quallity, G35 bodykits are overpriced imo.

You may argue that people still buy authentic G35 bodykits at full price, showing that the product's price/value/worth is justified. Just because a few people have bought it doesnt make it worth it. If it was worth it, there would be no room for people to make replicas. People would be thinking to themselves, "should I buy a replica, or spend up to $500 for the authentic one?" At this point, the price for the authentic one would much more reasonable! I saved over $2,000 by buying a replica, and will be spending an additional $200 TOPS for any modifications needed. Compared to MSRP for the authentic bodykit, I could have bought three sets of replicas and still have money left over to paint and install!

 

Agreed. I've had personal experience with this. If the surface is not prepped well, the best of paints will bubble, crack, and peal. Also, if the surface IS prepped very well, even the cheapest paint (even Krylon spray cans) will turn out beautiful!!!

I've been in the import scene for about a decade... selling bodykits, painting and installing bodykits. I've never heard of a bodykit being so thin as BIGAPPLEVIP mentioned.

 

Older corvettes had a fiberglass body/outer shell. I remember when I used to work at a car audio place, and it was a pain in the butt to ground the system since everything was fiberglass lol.