Adding a body kit to your vehicle can make it more custom and individualized. Purchasing body kits from a retail store can be expensive restrict the creative freedom you have for customization. However you can make your own fiberglass body kit at home with your personal design. Although designing and making your own body kit can save you money and give you full control of the design, it demands a lot of attention to detail and is not recommended for people who do not have plenty of time to work with it.
Remove the side skirts and bumpers off of you car. Take the dimensions of the areas where the pieces will attach to your vehicle. Build your design around these dimensions in order to ensure a good fit during installation. Also take careful dimensions of the depth and length of the side skirts so they sit flush with the vehicle after installation.
Connect the foam blocks together using glue to form a block large enough for your body kit. Create a mold that follows the exact specifications laid out in your design. You may use various tools to do so such as a knife and razor. Once you have cut out the mold to your design, use 180-grit sandpaper to remove any rough edges on the foam. Apply body filler directly on top of the foam and allow two hours to dry. Use 220-grit sandpaper to remove the bumps and ridges on the dried filler. The filler is meant to fill in any imperfections in the foam therefore careful sanding in imperative.
Spray three coats of primer directly on top of the filler and follow the instructions on the label for proper drying time. Sand the primer with 220-grit sandpaper followed by 400, 600, 800, and finally wet sand with 1000-grit sandpaper. Allow for your mold to sit for four days. During the wait time, wax the mold once a day to create a shiny finish. After the four days, spray a coat of tooling gel onto your mold and allow for it to get tacky.
Using a medium size brush, apply once even coat of resin directly on top of the tooling gel. Break the fiberglass mat into small pieces of fiberglass and lay it on top of the resin. Follow this step at least four more times to ensure a thick piece of fiberglass for your body kit. You may use a fiberglass roller to remove any air bubbles in the resin by rolling the fiberglass pieces between each layer.
Once the resin has dried, use a wooden mixing stick to pry the body kit out of the mold. Although unnecessary, you can use an air gun to blow in between the body kit and the mold for easier removal. Remove any protruding strands of fiberglass with a razor.
