IFC Widebody Kit - WARNING! Parental discretion advised

Started work on installing the widebody kit. Marked off 2 inches from the engine bay
and 1 inch from the nose and door.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Then I took the grinder to it!! OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

It brought a tear to my eye . . . .

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Wait.....what? I thought they were bolt on like mine?!?!

Im confused

No - these are different. These are bonded to the OEM fenders - sorta scary!!

YIKES!!!! I had to do that for the rear quarters.

so........whatcha using fer glue? I used fiberglass resin jelly. You know the green stuff? I roughed up the surfaces to be bonded and then screwed in selftapping "zip" screws every 1" overnight. Same method? Interesting thread!!!

OMG!!

You have some serious balls man. That makes me cringe.

You should have found a parts car to rip the fender off of.... not the original ones!!

944-LT1 wrote:YIKES!!!! I had to do that for the rear quarters.

so........whatcha using fer glue? I used fiberglass resin jelly. You know the green stuff? I roughed up the surfaces to be bonded and then screwed in selftapping "zip" screws every 1" overnight. Same method? Interesting thread!!!

I am not looking forward to doing the rear end! Did you get the tubs to go with the rear flares? How did you estimate the cut to put those in? I'm planning on using 3M 8115 Automix Panel Bonding Adhesive. From what I've been reading on the Corvette forums, this is the stuff to use when doing this sort of stuff. Going to pick up 2 tubes - I'm hoping the supply store will let me rent/borrow the gun (I hear it's super expensive)

m73m95 wrote:OMG!!

You have some serious balls man. That makes me cringe.

You should have found a parts car to rip the fender off of.... not the original ones!!

Yeah - I had to take a deep breath before I made the first cut! But it was the same feeling I had when yanked the harness out when I first started 'the journey'. In order to make an omelette you gotta break some eggs ...... sometimes catchy phrases still don't help you feel any better.....

thats gonna give me nightmares

Im sure its gonna turn out great though. You did all that neon work so its not like youre fresh off the boat. When I did my rears, I didnt have any instructions (gtracing) so I followed a picture of a guy doing a 911 flare job.

For the rear tubs I just used a foot width of mcmaster carr plastic, bonded it to the OE rear tubs with plastic rivets and then to the fiberglass with a strip of rubber seal. Nothing special but I wanted it to be removable.

Still havent extended the front tubs though. They are 2" short of meeting the fenders. I guess I will just cut them down the center and put a 2" strip of plastic in and plastic weld them together?

Take lots of pictures!!!

Keep us posted on the progress! I'm sure it'll look great.

The pictures made my pass out for a bit. I had no idea there were widebody kits like this. I thought the "kit" was just a new fiberglass fender you bolted on in place of the old one.

The 3rd pic STILL makes my stomach hurt. You are FAR braver than I!

944-LT1 wrote:Im sure its gonna turn out great though. You did all that neon work so its not like youre fresh off the boat. When I did my rears, I didnt have any instructions (gtracing) so I followed a picture of a guy doing a 911 flare job.

For the rear tubs I just used a foot width of mcmaster carr plastic, bonded it to the OE rear tubs with plastic rivets and then to the fiberglass with a strip of rubber seal. Nothing special but I wanted it to be removable.

Still havent extended the front tubs though. They are 2" short of meeting the fenders. I guess I will just cut them down the center and put a 2" strip of plastic in and plastic weld them together?

Take lots of pictures!!!

Rest assured! I will be documenting all progress - as for gt-racing, I am not happy with the hatch I got from them (lack of instructions - mounting points), so I will probably be replacing that with an IFC Racing 'European-Style' hatch (Looks much nicer!!). Thanks for the props on the ricer - I will definitely be calling on skills gained from that effort to complete this. BTW - the adhesive that is recommended for this sort of work is this. Just picked it up today, and got a great deal on the gun - only $40 bucks! It pays to develop a rapport with your autobody supply people - show them what you are doing - they may give you significant discounts!!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

m73m95 wrote:Keep us posted on the progress! I'm sure it'll look great.

The pictures made my pass out for a bit. I had no idea there were widebody kits like this. I thought the "kit" was just a new fiberglass fender you bolted on in place of the old one.

The 3rd pic STILL makes my stomach hurt. You are FAR braver than I!

Thanks for the support! I guess there are many iterations of 944 widebody kits. Since I will be adding tubs, I guess there is a certain amount of cutting that needs to be done. Believe me! Making that first cut was one of the hardest things that I have done, but hey that's what conversions are all about!

A 2-part jumbo sized epoxy eh? I believe thats whats used to put the 16 piece corvette front clip together.

[I used the same epoxy on an L88 scoop...May still have the gun.
It was free, BTW...but @ the time, the 3M epoxy was new. Sort of a promotion thing, I guess
through SEM Products...]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Hey Pat...
She's gonna look wicked!
You should DOMINATE the Castrol Showdown this time!

Before and after - much depth!!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

More pictures please, and work faster. I want to see it all!

Ask and ye shall receive . . . . If you get the widebody front spoiler, you'll need to test fit everything.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Probably goes without saying, but grind down all surfaces prior to applying adhesive
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Can't use enough glue - probably pays to overdo it here....
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Same with screws - the more you use the better the panel will stick to the body
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

WOW, looks good.
You really need some of those headlight bucket things.

I can't wait for more pics and info, I want to do this to my car so bad it's not even funny. I have to work on the rear end conversion first though.

Grind on man...[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

So with this widebody kit, does it mean the fenders will now stick up above the hood 1/8"? (since your gluing on top of the old fenders)


It does look very nice with everything glued on.... can't wait for paint

Did i miss where you got the kit? (link?)

m73m95 wrote:So with this widebody kit, does it mean the fenders will now stick up above the hood 1/8"? (since your gluing on top of the old fenders)

Did i miss where you got the kit? (link?)

Pretty sure thats where MR. Bondo comes into play. Smooth the transition.

I got the kit from allporscheracing.com. As for the flares sticking above the hoodline, I think I can blend the flare into the body - it's going to be interesting. Mike, the maker of the flares is suggesting installing UNDER the existing fenders. I didn't quite understand the reasoning, so I am not following the 'typical' install.

Dawgz83948 wrote:

m73m95 wrote:So with this widebody kit, does it mean the fenders will now stick up above the hood 1/8"? (since your gluing on top of the old fenders)

Did i miss where you got the kit? (link?)

Pretty sure thats where MR. Bondo comes into play. Smooth the transition.

Yeah, there's some sort of filler that is spcifically used for this type of work.

Well, I can now see that if you had installed the new fenders under the old ones, then you could blend the bondo down, onto the new fenders, rather than up, onto the already painted hood...

I think it would be harder (and use more filler), to bond and level the panel if it was installed
underneath the stock fender - just my thoughts......

well, I have already admitted that I would not have the guts to cut my fenders like that....

Whatever you say goes!!

I can't wait to see how it looks when you're done.