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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Skin Deep...


Wolf
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Well I've just had an interesting day sorting out the car I bought from Matt...

 

Whilst it looked great from the outside a nightmare of bodged work lay beneath the front when I came to swap the FMIC and the damaged Top Secret nose...

 

The FMIC, whilst designed to be held in 4 places(2 top, 2 bottom mounts) only had the bottom mounts fitted and these were in 1 mm ally which had bent and snapped under the weight of the IC. All that was holding it in place (though 3" too low as they could not support it properly) were the hoses!

 

The nose cone was designed to have 5 top mounts and 3 or maybe 4 each side. Only 2 of these 11 fixing points had been used so two bolts held on the whole nose cone. What's worse to hide this bodge the rubber bonnet finishing strip had been glued down over where the top 5 bolts should have been to hide that they were not there!

 

The fog lights had been bodged in with insulating tape to the new LED style lighs and the stock light bulbs were still in place behind the bumper just wrapped up in tape ...

 

Fortunately I have a metal shop for making bike exhausts so was able to fab up some proper mounts for the FMIC tonight - 4mm stainless in 4 places to hold it firmly - though it still needs a skid plate making to wrap around the front as the hard pipe kit sits it too low.

 

The stillen Front goes on tomorrow - though needs cutting to allow for the hard pipe kit which is, I can only assume , not made to fit a Supra and the body kit is being refitted properly on the skirts too as they had 3 screws each side and gaps of up to 6mm all round.

 

Whoever put this together really needs to be ashamed of themselves and considering the bills Matt had from a lot of very well respected and professional (!!) people I can only say I am disappoined.

 

Beaty is only skin deep and when you peel that back it can be very ugly - be careful when a so called professional does a job for you - it could be a shiny skin on a dangerous and bodged job.

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Name & Shame!

Name & Shame!

Name & Shame!

 

(to the tune of that song!)

 

No need to name and shame dude , thats my old front end and was a very bad copy from way back when , when replicas were few and far between , my comment would be

1) i allways mount my FMICS so that they are a little flexible , mine is mounted with the same brackets as Matts and hasnt moved in 2 years (letts remember Matt hit a chimney pot that totalled the IC and smashed the front .

2) The fit of most aftermarket nose cones is such that you cannot use the alluminium strip with 5 plastic bolts to fix the centre as it wont hold a gap between the bonnet and nose and also you need to put spacer washers under the center section to line it up with the bonnet this means the push in plastic bolts cant be used

3) My Bomex is today held on with only 2 bolts either side and 2 PK screws under the rubber strip and i think my car will prob go faster than 99% of the cars on this BBS , i have no stress cracks on my front end and that includes putting it on and off the lorry to take it to meets

4) the LED indicators have to be wired in line with current indicators (a bit hard if there arent any !!!) i ran mine with the old indicators and bulbs taped up for over a year

5) sideskirt gaps can be completly iliminated by glueing the skirs to the car with Sikoflex , great untill you need to get it on a recovery truck or 2 post lift , i cannot get a veilside skirted car on my lift if it as low as Matts and Matts car was allways on and off my ramps so we decided to make them easy to remove , i take mine off so often i dont have ANY bolts securing them underneath , miraculously they manage to stay on my car but i never go over 70 mph :sly: and all the events that Matt has ever attended ive never heard anyone comment on any massive gaps

6) CJ's Do-luck front had to have massive amounts of the nose cut to fit his Blitz FMIC (that was designed to fit a supra) also the pipes on Matts car are 3"

7) id actually like to know how an FMIC held in with 3" stainless pipework and 4 ply silicone tube and stainless Mykalor clamps can drop 3" !!! in fact i pretty much only use the brackets to locate the IC whilst i bolt the pipe work on

 

Still at least the single conversion , fuel system , brakes front and rear etc havent fallen off yet .

 

One comment i hear all the time is does the kit fit like a factory fit my advice to those people is stay stock Toyota didnt fit fibreglass kits for a reason , basically compared to factory they are crap , even the good ones

 

Dude :cool:

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One comment i hear all the time is does the kit fit like a factory fit my advice to those people is stay stock Toyota didnt fit fibreglass kits for a reason , basically compared to factory they are crap , even the good ones

 

Dude :cool:

 

That's got me scared! I might keep the standard skirts & spats then.

 

Isn't there aftermarket kits that are made of something other than fibreglass? (can't remember now)

 

BTW - Who the hell's Matt!? :)

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That's got me scared! I might keep the standard skirts & spats then.

 

Isn't there aftermarket kits that are made of something other than fibreglass? (can't remember now)

 

BTW - Who the hell's Matt!? :)

 

The stillen is then your only choice dude , they do fit very well and the quality is superb , TBH having spoken to peter im surprised he hasnt gone for the stillen skirts as well , if you want mercedes like gaps then fibreglass is not for you , sure it can be glued/bonded rigid but it will then crack and i do take a lot of kits off cars to get them on ramps etc , i had to put a car on today with TRD bonded skirts , it took over 1/2 an hour just to get it on the ramps and then ive only just managed it , ive got my ways of doing things and if people dont like it i can allways accomodate their ways but ive nudged mine so many times that i really reccomend some flexability , im actually dapting my Bomex to go on and off with dzus fastners thats how worried i am about haveing a firmly fitting front end , it will come off in about 1 minute , i will stop short of using RSJ's to fit my IC though

 

Dude

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The best aftermarket kits ive seen come from Paul E BTW but even the odd person moans about the fit of these when 95% are happy with it , and BTW i fit em all with screws under the rubber strip its the only way to get a gap ;)

The stillen being one exception , the prob with FG is that no 2 will be the same fit even from the same mould , if you use too much activator in the resin then the product can shrink a bit , if you pull it while its still 'green' it will fully cure slightly out of shape !!!

 

Another famous quote

'I dont want it to look like an aftermarket kit'

 

Err hello it IS an aftermarket kit and a lot of 'normal' people actually find the kits laughable , youd be shocked by the amount of non enthusiasts that say to me 'why do people ruin these cars with these silly bits'

 

Again the stillen looks like a Toyota 'sport' option so its different strokes etc

 

Dude :devil:

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One thing I have seen with the Stillen is that it depends on which FMIC you use, as with some IC's hang lower than the bottom of the bumper which looks a little odd IMO.

 

However, I have seen the same bumper with a different FMIC and it looks fine....shrug

 

Note: I don't know which FMIC were used on each car but, the photo's don't lie. ??? maybe it's just the angle of the photo ....?

 

Go figure...

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At the end of the day it cant be sitting too low as the Top Secret and Veilsides have trays that go back to the X member and the IC doesnt sit near this , of course if you wanna go green laneing its not ideal , i suppose the car performs crap (not) because it used 3" pipes which arent as easy to bend into tight bends , funny how they fit Bomex and veilsides with no cutting though .

 

Dude :cool:

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Sorry to hear that Wolf.

 

I kinda feel your pain/annoyance, my brothers RX7 had badly fitted body kits parts on his car after the SVA, as a result he lost a side skirt down the M4 which ended up costing around 600£ to get replaced etc for geniune C-West, shipping and painting etc... then when we were trying to fix some headlight issues it became apparent that front bumper was only held on by 3-4 of the 6 bolt holes!

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My Stillen front took about 13 hours to prep, fit, and paint, and it needed cutting to go around the intercooler & hard pipes. The intercooler is flush with the undertray (good for ducting :thumbs: ) but is held on by four mounting points. The bodyshop did a cracking job on the Stillen nose but it's got a small gap under one headlight and the driver's side corner pokes out slightly from the wheelarch. That is one of the best fitting fronts, and one of the easiest to fit. So christ knows what a fibreglass one is like.

 

Jusy FYI :)

 

-Ian

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My Stillen front took about 13 hours to prep, fit, and paint, and it needed cutting to go around the intercooler & hard pipes. The intercooler is flush with the undertray (good for ducting :thumbs: ) but is held on by four mounting points. The bodyshop did a cracking job on the Stillen nose but it's got a small gap under one headlight and the driver's side corner pokes out slightly from the wheelarch. That is one of the best fitting fronts, and one of the easiest to fit. So christ knows what a fibreglass one is like.

 

Jusy FYI :)

 

-Ian

 

You sod! I've just spent the last hour looking at Stillen fronts on here, thinking that was what I wanted (after changing my mind about 8 times now!)

 

Can we safely say then that you're lucky to get a decent fit on any of the aftermarket bodykits?

 

Wolf, sorry to hear your troubles. Sounds like you're getting it sorted though. Would be good to see some pics when it's all 'pucka'!

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My Veilsnide bumper and skirts (Miami GT fibreglass copies) were fitted by Dude in 2003, over 20,000 miles ago.

Still rock solid, still a great fit.

 

I've biffed the front bumper once and scraped the bottom of it ten or more times. It's still fine.

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Who the hell's Matt!?
Matt Benney (might be spelt Benny, I forget) The guy who owned Peter's car before him. You must know him, top geezer. He famously starred in the "Your Driving Is Atrocious" video clip.
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My Veilsnide bumper and skirts (Miami GT fibreglass copies) were fitted by Dude in 2003, over 20,000 miles ago.

Still rock solid, still a great fit.

 

I've biffed the front bumper once and scraped the bottom of it ten or more times. It's still fine.

 

Looking at the photos in your link, they do look an excellent fit. Sounds like it's the luck of the draw on whether you get a decent copy or not.

 

It's all so confusing! :cry:

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My Veilsnide bumper and skirts (Miami GT fibreglass copies) were fitted by Dude in 2003, over 20,000 miles ago.

Still rock solid, still a great fit.

 

I've biffed the front bumper once and scraped the bottom of it ten or more times. It's still fine.

 

F**k me another satisfied customer !!! I should really get him stuffed and hung on the wall with the other one !!! ;)

 

Dude :littled:

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Looking at the photos in your link, they do look an excellent fit. Sounds like it's the luck of the draw on whether you get a decent copy or not.

 

It's all so confusing! :cry:

 

Pauls copies are as good as they come , trust me the originals are far from perfect if you want a factory fit !!! so why pay twice as much

 

Dude :complain:

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F**k me another satisfied customer !!! I should relly get him stuffed and hung on the wall with the other one !!! ;)

 

Dude :littled:

Don't get too cocky, Sonny Jim. It was only 20,000 miles ago. I still might come back and complain yet.

 

...or the guy who buys it after me. :sly:

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Don't get too cocky son. It was only 20,000 miles ago. I still might come back and complain yet.

 

...or they guy who buys it after me. :sly:

 

You coming to the Pod on the 15th dude we need the TOTB elite squad present :eyebrows:

 

Dude :devil:

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