Homemade body kit on a car: affordable tuning of your favorite car
Content
It is best to create a new tuning element in a warm garage with good lighting. When working, it is important to keep the room clean. Particles of dust and debris can stick to the workpiece or final paint and give the finished part a sloppy look. When working with fiberglass and epoxy, it is recommended to use a respirator.
The most popular tuning method, which immediately improves the appearance of the car and (with the right design) reduces air resistance during movement, is the manufacture of a body kit for a car.
Is it possible to independently manufacture a body kit for a car
If the ready-made options for auto parts do not suit the car owner, or if you like it, but are too expensive, you can start making a body kit for the car with your own hands.
Drawing development
Before you make a body kit on a car yourself, you need to develop its drawing or carefully consider the appearance and design. If you have the skills, you can do it in any 3d editor or at least draw it by hand. It is useful to show the finished sketch to a familiar tuning specialist, race car driver or engineer.
What can body kits be made from?
Homemade body kit on a car can be made from various materials:
- Fiberglass (or fiberglass) is a cheap, easy-to-work and repair material, the best option for “home” tuning. But it is toxic and requires a complex fit to the body. Depending on the manufacturer, some types of fiberglass may not be stable at low temperatures.
- Polyurethane - it can be rubberized (flexible, resistant to shock and deformation due to the addition of rubber fillers, holds paint well) and foamed (it differs from the previous one only in less resistance to deformation).
- Most of the factory body kits and auto parts are made from ABS plastic. This is an inexpensive, durable and flexible material that paints well on. Its disadvantages are instability to high temperatures (when heated above 90 degrees, ABS plastic begins to deform), severe frosts and difficulty in fitting elements.
- Carbon is light, strong and beautiful, with carbon fibers in its composition, but it is unfavorably distinguished from others by its high price, difficulty in self-processing, rigidity and weakness before point impacts.
Styrofoam body kit
You can also make a body kit for a car with your own hands using ordinary building foam or polystyrene foam.
Stages of manufacturing a part
Making a fiberglass body kit for a car will take 1-2 weeks, so you should be patient and calculate your free time in advance.
Materials and Tools
To make a body kit on a car with your own hands, you will need:
- drawing of the future product;
- fiberglass;
- plasticine (a lot);
- epoxy;
- gypsum;
- fine mesh;
- sharp knife;
- wooden bars;
- wire;
- foil;
- cream or Vaseline;
- sandpaper or grinder.
It is best to create a new tuning element in a warm garage with good lighting. When working, it is important to keep the room clean. Particles of dust and debris can stick to the workpiece or final paint and give the finished part a sloppy look.
Operating procedure
A step-by-step master class on creating a car body kit from fiberglass and epoxy:
- Model a plasticine frame on the machine, with all the recesses for the headlights, air intakes and other elements according to the drawing. In wide places it can be supplemented with wooden blocks, and in narrow places it can be strengthened with a mesh.
- Remove the frame, coat it with cream and install on bars or tight boxes of the same height.
- Dilute liquid gypsum and pour into a plasticine frame.
- Leave the workpiece to harden (in the summer it will take a couple of days, in the winter - three or four).
- When the plaster part dries, remove it from the plasticine mold.
- Coat the gypsum blank with cream and begin to glue strips of fiberglass with epoxy.
- When the thickness of the fiberglass layer reaches 2-3 millimeters, lay foil over the entire surface of the workpiece to strengthen the part and continue gluing with a cloth.
- Leave the finished element for 2-3 days until completely dry, then detach it from the plaster mold.
- Cut off the excess and carefully sand the resulting part.
Homemade body kit on a car
The finished body kit is painted in the color of the body (or another, to the taste of the owner of the car) and installed on the car.
Tips from tuning experts
Before starting to create a body kit, you need to consider and take into account the following factors:
- The effect of such tuning is felt at speeds of 180 km / h and above. If you go slower, it will increase air resistance and interfere with movement. An improperly made homemade body kit on a car will also increase drag and lead to a decrease in speed and excessive gas mileage.
- Adding new elements should not increase the weight of the car more than allowed in its documentation.
- In the manufacture of body kits for cars, it is not recommended to change the factory design of the bumper, this can lead to a decrease in the strength of the entire body.
- If the thresholds and bumpers are not hermetically installed, moisture will get under them, provoking rotting of the body.
- Vehicles equipped with a body kit can skid on snow drifts.
- Due to the reduction in ground clearance, it will be more difficult for the car to drive onto the curb, and in some cases, poorly secured thresholds can fall off from the impact.
It is not necessary to buy expensive and standard car tuning elements. You can make do-it-yourself body kits for the car according to your own project, or by copying your favorite model from a movie or photo. However, it is important to maintain a sense of proportion and not spoil the aerodynamic characteristics of the vehicle.
