is fiberglass bad for a body kit??

[ggarriso]

I contacted mrbodykit.com and they have the saleen style
kit for 499 but its the fiberglass version they have the
saleen kit but its 1399 does the extra 900 dollars warrant
the quality of the materials between the fiberglass
and whatever material saleen uses?

 

[tangerine]

The only bad thing about fiberglass is that if you accidently run up on a curve or something it will crack the bumper instead of just chipping the paint.

 

[nickthegenius]

It depends on the quality of the fiberglass. I had a fiberglass bumper on my '02 Jetta 1.8T and it was fine. I scuffed it a few times on sharp inclines, but it never did anything except scratch some paint off of the bottom where you could only see it from underneath the car. But, it was also by a company that does stuff for VW, Audi, and Mercedes and it was top-notch stuff.

What you have to watch for is stuff that is made from blown fiberglass bits and pieces. Good fiberglass can be likened to plywood. Several layers forming the final product. Poor quality stuff can be likened to "chip board" or particle board. It is small bits and pieces of basically scrap that is blown into the mold and forms the final product. When it flexes, it will quickly crack or break.

 

[Steeda Cheeta]

It depends on the quality of the fiberglass. I had a fiberglass bumper on my '02 Jetta 1.8T and it was fine. I scuffed it a few times on sharp inclines, but it never did anything except scratch some paint off of the bottom where you could only see it from underneath the car. But, it was also by a company that does stuff for VW, Audi, and Mercedes and it was top-notch stuff.

What you have to watch for is stuff that is made from blown fiberglass bits and pieces. Good fiberglass can be likened to plywood. Several layers forming the final product. Poor quality stuff can be likened to "chip board" or particle board. It is small bits and pieces of basically scrap that is blown into the mold and forms the final product. When it flexes, it will quickly crack or break.

The bad your talking about is done with somthing called a Chop gun, it's brittle to a point, but can be repaired just like the cloth and matt fiberglass. It's not scrap that is used, the folicle used, is made specificly for the chop gun, I know this because I used to run one, and have built many products, while working at a former job. If done right, it's more than strong enough for body parts. The main reason laid up cloth parts are more money, is because they are more labor intensive.