I met up with a guy last night, who's "project" maxima i'm probably going to buy to frankenstein into my car. I'm going to be doing some light modification to the body while I have a spare car to experiment with, and when I was going over my ideas with him he said that since I had extra bumpers we should fiberglass a custom front and rear lip, now he is relatively experienced with working with fiberglass, but is this as easy as he says, Can I just custom build a front and rear lip? He said the only real hard parts are the side skirts because they're so long, that i'm better off just buying them. So please any feed back would be much appreciated, especially you Shavedmax this sounds like something up your alley.

thanks in advance for any help

 

seems like it'd be hard to make it look symmetrical on both sides without a mold and not sure what design/look he has in mind
also, fiberglass is brittle and could crack if you hit something like a curb with the front lip

 

Fiberglass is NOT easy to work with. if you think it's that easy, go ask a good bodyman what he thinks about it. it's nasty. it stinks. you get tiny cuts and scrapes all over because of the glass mat. you have to wear full body armor and a facemask while you're working with it. it's nasty. it stinks. it's brittle.

did I mention it stinks?

I highly recommend trying to free-form something a lot smaller first- like a speaker pod or something. once you figure out how the stuff works, you'll have a better idea. this isn't just something you jump into blindly.

 

I can't remember where I heard it before, but I think fiberglass stinks and not to mention its' nasty.

 

Well, if (and that's a BIG IF) he's as experienced as you say he is, then he should know the perils and pitfalls of working with 'glass. While this sounds good on paper, once you get involved, you'll see how big of a monster you two have bitten into.

I've been an installer for roughly 13+ years, and I agree with Matt that it's NOT the easiest of materials to work with. It's one thing to 'glass yourselves an amp rack, speaker pod, or even a dashboard. But exterior panels are another thing altogether.

While I commend you and wish you much luck in your efforts, I also caution you to be careful, study, protect yourself, study, take your time, and for the love of Maximas everywhere.... STUDY!

(oh... and did I forget to mention STUDY)

 

thanks for all the input guys, its much appreciated, I'm assuming where he is the one who brought it up and suggested it, that he does know what he's doing, but i'm not sure if i'm willing to take the chance that he doesn't. Do you think I could use the extra bumpers somehow to create something, with some cutting and moulding, I don't know how plausible any of this, i'm just getting close to starting this project and I would hate to paint my car and then, be like, "well it sure would've looked good if...." or "I bet that would've worked if..." I just wanna see what subtle body mods I could do, no huge lip, just a slight extension. Again thanks for all the feedback, it's very helpful.

 

like nike says, just do it

 

...oh and did someone mention that...it stinks?