87bluebird

i know body kits are a touchy subject to most third gen owners you either love them or you hate them. so I'm gonna start this thread by asking that if you are one them people that hates when someone puts a body kit on there car PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS. thanx. i am posting this thread so people like me that don't want to drive another plain Jane STOCK third gen can get some real info about body kits.

that being said one body kit that i have been looking at lately is the "FX Designs Xtreme Style Body Kit ." which can be found online at http://www.andysautosport.com/pontia...ts/fx_designs/ its gonna be a while till i get the money sved upto restore and mod my bird like i want to. in the mean time i am looking around trying to gather as much info as possible on what to do to my car. so basically what I'm asking is has anyone actually got this or any other good looking body kit on their car or any pictures of a third gen with one. can you please post some pics or tell about the quality and fitment of these or any other body kits for third gens.

i now some one is gonna say search Google or TGO. so im gonna say now that i have and so far most of what i found is a bunch of haters saying stuff like it looks RICE or one of my fav comments that looks like something a storm trooper would drive and that rite there is the reason i started this by asking that the haters PLEASE DON'T REPLY.

here is the few pictures i found of it so far





thats the only ones i have found if any of you have more please post them thanx

K-slice

iTrader: (2)

I actually like the kit on the white car. The simpe black and white paint schememakes it so it's not over the top. The red on on the other hand looks like s***.
IMO, it's only after you lower it, put the lambo doors, ram air hood, and grille mesh on it looks like rice. The body kit can be done right, it's just most of the people who do body kits want their car to be in the Fast and Furious or something...

Chevy8588

iTrader: (1)

it's funny, that front bumper make it look more camaro-ish

BlackTopKing

iTrader: (1)

It does look different in white from the red- dont like the red, but white look ok, I really like the rear tho, that came out great. the front i am kind pf on the fence because it dont look like a TA, but either way- Its a great job and I think you should keep going

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

And I thought the stock rear bumper stuck out a little too far. The white looks like it sticks out another inch or two beyond that!

I do like the idea of putting 91/92 Camaro side gfx on the 85-90 'birds, but I'm pretty happy with the rest of the body.


4th gen wings & mirrors look good on our cars too.

$750 L98

I like this on personally, It was a german made kit, They also had a non-flared kit that looked really good, I wanted one to put on mine so I could ditch the black rubber bumper inserts lol. The wing also looks neat:

87bluebird

heres another link that has it for 677.45 + shipping http://www.customautotrim.com/bodyki...2-1992/103899/ i wonder if its cheaper any where else. also i wonder how this would look with a notch back

87bluebird

$750 L98 do yo hav a link to that german kit or some more pics of it

Stephen i agree with you about the 4th gen wing and mirrors i thnk the way the fourth gen wing hangs out over the back of our cars would complement this kits huge rear bumper

87bluebird

BlackTopKing and K-slice i agree that the white one looks better the lambo doors took the red one to far. i love how they smoothed the bumpers into the fenders on the white one they look like the actualy belong on the car

87bluebird

$750 L98 is that one of them daytona hoods on that car? i like the way side skirts look on that and that wing is pretty cool. do you know what that kit is called?

also does anyone know of any good wide body kits for firebirds? i know there's one for the camaros but i haven't found one for the firebirds yet. i wonder how a wide body would look blended to one of these kits.

87bluebird

heres an orange one i forgot to add earlier
also i think the white one belongs to a guy that goes by harwood on fbodyonline.com I'm gonna sine up to that site and see if i can send him a link to this thread and ask for more pics.

87bluebird

another cool body kit i have found is at http://www.wraithinnovations.com/knight.html i think its some kind of knight rider spinoff not totaly sure there was a posst about it a while back cant find the link to that right now but did find this pic
i like the top part of this front bumper best. i wonder how the the other body kit would look with the top of this bumper any one good with photochop just thinking

heres the link to knight registries wher theres links to a bunch of pictures of this front end . http://www.knightregistries.com/foru...ead.php?t=6733 oh and he goes by firebat im pretty sure hes a member on this site also

87bluebird

another thing i was wondering about is if any one has squared off the corners of a 4th gen wing. i like how the look on third gens but there just a little to round the match the look of our cars. i was thinking it would look awesome if someone pulled the corners out to square it up a bit. also maybe put a 1 inch rise on the back just thinking

Zerocyde

My poor 80's camaro already looks too rice as it is without a body kit! lol

87bluebird

out of the pictures posted so far the orange is the ugliest. but as shown by that white firebird if this kits done rite it'll look awesome also the orange one even the same kit it looks it different. also something i notice is that if the car has a simple paint job like the white one the kit looks awesome its when you add bright colors and designs to the paint scheme then the cars look rice. a lot of the haters jump to the thought that cars with body kits are gonna have a bright goofing paint job and are therefor automatically gona look rice. but they dont have to remember K.I.S.S keep it simple stupid. if you do that in paint then you dont have to worry about it ending up rice


sorry for rambling

87bluebird

is it just my eyes or does the car with the German body kit and the orange car have the same rims t

$750 L98

I have a link to their website: http://www.otp-vondracek.de/ (seems to have gone under)

Only pics I can find anymore really:

BlackTopKing

iTrader: (1)

WHAT!!!!!! Now that is the best kit i have ever seen on a 3rd gen by far. Makes it look exotic and still simple.

I like that the best, the main think to me in the features, its hard to kit the car and keep the features. I like third gen TA for the features so i would not want to change it so much you lose the effect.

The redish one and the white one seem different because of the color and the contrast they give. Still on that kit the bottom lip on the front (minus the bubby fog lights ) is nice. The orange one....thats a old school ***** kit for the 3000gt stealths and or the probes_ they just mod the bumper for that look and I am not really liking that- just go buy a differnt car then....you know.

But this blue one....wow- i am impressed cause its alot change with out getting so flam- that its gay...
not liking the wing but the sides are pretty cool...

personally I just want a WIDE BODY and call it a day

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

That blue car is pretty neat, but I see 2 problems (IMHO) with it.....

The rear wing is too narrow to look right. I understand WHY they made it te way they did, but it still doesn't look right.

And that extended nose. The very bottom wouldn't last very long on a lowered car that was actually driven on real roads. Between road dips, parking curbs & speed bumps? Say goodbye to that nose!

$750 L98

I agree with both counts, I like the 4th gen SS wing, the big whale tail looking one. This one has the same "style" but does need to be a bit wider to compliment the cars coke bottle shape. While the nose does look good, it's a bit long, I believe they had one that was a bit more stock looking, minus the bumperettes. That one looks like a snow plow, it would be AWESOME looking on a lowered car, until you came across the first speed bump.

PeterFeix

iTrader: (1)

to that german bodykit , i'd like it much more than the other kit shown here, but like "750$ L98" already said, "otp vondracek" doesn't exist any more.

i read some stories about this in our forum, that this company has not delivered all payed orders, so if anyone is still in touch with one of the owners (if still existing in any way) - be careful!

87bluebird

$750 L98 that kit looks sweet the front end kinda reminds me of a 4th gen camaro. that link didn't work for me i don't know if its just my computer or what. got any other link also what is that kit called and how much does it cost?

87bluebird

i finaly got the briliant idea to look and see if harwood {owner of the white car} is a member of tgo which he is and while going thru some of his old posts to see if i could find some pics i found a link to a thread of autotec101 puting the duraflex kit on his car

hears the link to that thread https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...ored-lots.html

87bluebird

theres only 3 things i dislike about autotec101 car
1 the front sits a little too high
2 theres a lip on the front wheel wells where the body kit ends
3 the foglights look od but he cant be blamed for that there part of that body kit
otherwise that car is amazing.

Harwood

I wish I had taken more pics of the kit going on. I'm not a mechanic or a body man so I found the fitment to be fine. I still have pieces that I didn't bother to put on. I think you can see in some of the above shots that there's a piece missing from the bottom of the doors. Atleast I think it's where it's s'posed to go. :S

There's alot of online bashing, like the Storm Trooper comment, but I haven't had anyone say anything like that in person and I'm certainly not the most intimidating at 5'9 and 200lbs with a big goofy grin all the time. In fact, in person, I've only heard positive. Some people don't take the time to see that it is all blended and the body lines remain straight and it's filled nicely. They just immediately think of the '92 Sunfire that some kids have stuck a fiberglass hood scoop onto next door to them.

And besides, a car going from what is viewed as a trailer park car to a Storm Trooper car, isn't really that much of a difference.

I tried not to go too far with it. There's no Lambo doors, huge spoiler, soup can tail pipe or any fiberglass mesh showing. I removed the spoiler to keep with the flat hood. If anything, the big bird on the hood was the part I was the most iffy of. In the end I decided it did need a touch of old school to keep it balanced and to keep the guy down the street who has a Cavalier with the lambo doors and poorly mounted useless scoop, with the huge rear spoiler from thinking our cars were similar in any way.

So thats my story.

87bluebird

harwood with you about how people just jump to conclusions about cars with body kits the don't take the time to actually see the beauty of these cars. they just asume there gona have fake glued on scoop and ridiculous paint jobs. but that doesn't always have to be the case. cars with body kits can be done rite and look amazing like your car. i love the bird on your hood. do you have any more pics of you car that have not already been posted.


another body kit that looks nice on our cars is the predator kit.
i think this kit can be bought at http://bageco.com/mckkits/mckkits_ponti.htm for 599 bucks the only thing i dont like abot this kit is the front is to rounded to match the car i think its a 91 or 92 bird

87bluebird

another body kit idea i think would be cool is a wide body.



does any one know any where other than show cars. i have heard allot of bad reviews.

i wonder how one of these would look blended the durflex kit.

radical82

I like them all!!! Sure do get tired of the "rice" comments.... Who cares what it resembles or where the styling is influenced from? Even at that, most of the styling on these cars has nothing to do with the fart can brigade... Still easy to tell it's American made iron and restyled in a fashion that the owner likes, even though (heaven forbid) he might have done it without a poll to see if everyone else "approved" of what he was attempting!!!!!!

Really good to see others go in for some styling that is a bit out of the norm....

87bluebird

heres a link to a wide body camaro. dont know much about it. but i wonder if that kit could be modified to fit a firebird. http://www.americansportscardesigns....mar/index.html theres a few different companys that sell this kit. so it could probably be found for a reasonable price.

radical82

Eventually going to be doing a wide body rear and raised front fender openings on my '82, but all out of steel... Wish I could get on it right now, but have a couple of customer cars to finish up and they sure do pay better then working on my own!!!!!!

87bluebird

i found some more pics of that german body kit at http://www.cardomain.com/ride/775309/5 if you go to some of the other pages there you will find some sweet third gens.

87bluebird

i found a link to tgo member neil doing a wide body to his camaro by pulling the quarters out. hers that link https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...one-phase.html

radical82 how do you plan to build a steel wide body same way as neil or something different

GTA Sammy

iTrader: (1)

I personally love the FX Designs Maroon Trans Am minus the Lambo doors!!!!

I was thinking about doing much the same thing including the RAII hood..... this would be great for a boosted firebird with an intercooler or a High Output setup that runs on the warm side.

Who else around here has that kit? Is it made well?

radical82

Not really--but sort of... His was done by opening the quarter at the top, I'll be doing mine in 3 different places to keep the proportions correct... Hard to explain, should be on it sometime early summer, I hope... Busy time of year for me, getting one car finished, and 2 others waiting for some freshining up.

radical82

For me, these are reminiscent of the old Can Am body kits we used to put on Corvettes back in the late 70's, early 80's... Some of the race types and really serious street cars had functioning tranny and rear end coolers mounted in the air intakes, a few others used them as functional brake cooling ducts.

87bluebird

radical82 followed that photo bucket link on your signature and you car looks amazing i like the way removed the hatch that looks cool. what is you front end off of?

radical82

All my own design, built out of a sheet of 20ga., same with the rear end.

87bluebird

GTA Sammy that's one of the reasons i love that kit the airflow to the engine bay would be incredible and you could probably redirect the air from the lower scoops to cool the front brakes.

radical82 what kind of grill you plan to put in your car? that kinda reminds me of a late sixties muscle car

GTA50

For me, if the body kit is functional (i.e. scoops on the front for brake cooling , radiator, etc.) that's cool. If merely decorative................

I do love the IMSA style though.

On the original post, the front looks good, the rear (to my tastes) sticks out a little too far -- uhmmmm, unless you can say "I like big butts"

radical82

Not sure of the design of the grill yet, whatever it is it'll be done in aluminum... Paint scheme will decide if it's body color or polished... Still a ways to go on the body, lots of details to work out as the build progresses. Actually gave some thought to reproducing the whole thing in fiberglass and offer it for sale to shops with the knowledge of how to trim, tweak, and install it correctly... The thought of selling it to the general public scares the heck out of me!!!! Man, if one bolt hole would happen to be a quarter of an inch off the buyer reacts like the world is going to end!!!!! Not sure if I'll bother, probably way more hassle then it would ever be worth.... One off's done in steel are more my style anyway....

87bluebird

GTA50 theres nothing behind the bumpers when you get them all the air would just go to the radiator you'd have to redirect the airflow to make cool other things like brakes or tranny. the imsa wide body still is cool too. id like to seethe imsa and duraflex kits blended together. and as far as the rear bumper sticking out to far i think if you put a 4th gen wing on also it wouldnt look so bad. the only thing i dont like about that idea tho is that the 4th gen wings are a bit to round to match the 3d gens looks. i wonder if theres a way to use fiberglass or some thing and pull the corners out

87bluebird

radical82 do have a thread going for your build that is amazing looking. you realy have some talent. it would be nice to see that sold as a kit. buti know what you mean by poeple freaking out over little things. not every car is the same so you can never assume a kit is just gonna bolt up directly to every car.

radical82

I don't have a thread on it now, just the pics... Might start one when I get time to put some real work into the car this summer....Just too much stuff going on right now.

If I did ever make a package deal for the 3rd Gen's, think I'd only sell it to shops that I knew had the knowledge of how to put it all together!!! I could never put up with all the whiners who would think they could install it in their driveway on a Saturday afternoon with their $200 Craftsman tool set!!!!! As I said, I kind of like the one off stuff anyway...

87bluebird

radical82 your car reminds me of a 70or71 dodge charger


sweet. i almost bought a 71 a couple years ago.

87bluebird

radical82 if your where to sell that as a kit that would work with either firebirds or camaros.the only thing that might not be right on the birds is the wheel wells probably wont match rite.

87bluebird

another thing that would look cool is a notch back. like this one at hawks third gen parts

theres more pics of notchbacks and other third gens with body kits here http://www.cardomain.com/ride/775309/8

Firebat

iTrader: (7)

The biggest problem that I see with the rear FX bumper is trying to get a jack underneath the jack up on the rear axle, especially on a lowered car. You would definitely have to drive up on a couple boards first or jack up the car from the sides.

Sooner or later, these guys that bondoed or fiberglassed the bumpers to the sheet metal of the car to make everything look smooth are going to see separations or cracks. Vibrations from driving, flexing of the car from driving, changes in temperature will cause these to separate.

87bluebird

would this happen if you had fiberglass fenders like the imsa or wide body ones. if anyone has ever combined one of these body kits with wide body fenders i'd really like to see that. or if someone could photochop a pic like that

firebat your car is sweet

radical82

Reason is that fiberglass and sheetmetal expand and contract at entirely different rates, cracks are inevitable... For everything to remain intact and not have the cracks and seam lines as Firebat mentioned the entire fender would have to be in metal,,but hey, no biggie! They could be built!

Too bad you live way out East, would be a fun fab project to help out on!

Slash

Wow i'm not usually the one who likes body kits but damn that german one is seriously nice looking