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Vertex Kit - The Ghetto Body Shop Paint and Install (!!UPDATED 4/24 first post!!)

7K views 83 replies 32 participants last post by  junedog 
#1 · (Edited)
UPDATE:

All I need to do is sand heads and fogs, wet sand and buff all painted parts and install. It's going to be a long week...

(thumbnails below. click for larger images)

PPG the way to go!!


Used JDM rear looking like a $2 whore....all beat up and worn out...


The rest of the parts waiting for prep...


The rear bumper looking fresh and ready for paint!! My boy knows his sh!&!


Here you can see how badly the stock fogs fit into the Vertex openings:




3 painstaking hours and a ton of fiberglass dust later, the fogs fit pretty snug. Still have to redo the mounting holes. I used a dremel and a small grinding stone for small areas and a larger sanding drum with a compressor (1/2" dia) for the larger areas. It is VERY rough and needs a lot of sanding but I'm not too picky since the rough areas will be hidden by the fogs:

The right side:


The left side:



UPDATE: 4/12

Step into the "bubble"


What the inside of a bubble looks like:




Mirrors and eyelines done! sweet!








rear lip:


JDM booty!!


Dori VIP frontage:


Finished side mirrors installed on my dirty car. No more black and MSM!!:


I recommend spraying the entire area with water prior to spraying the paint or clear to minimize the amount of airborne contaminants you may encounter during the process. It helped a lot.

all of this work for only $350 including paint and supplies!!

not bad at all :cool:

oh and take a look at what mexican cockroaches look like...



They regained consciousness about two hours after this picture and went to Lolita's for menudo...

UPDATE 4/19/2008:

Installed the kit today. I am excited but a bit nervous about driving the car around being so low. I just have to get used to it.

Here are two pics of what the USDM rear bumper and the JDM rear bumper look like together. The JDM is on the left and the US on the right. (this one's for you nigelllll lol nevermind the weeds):






Here are some pics of the kit installed. Sorry about the crappy pics. The lens on my Cybershot is dirty. I'm having a friend take some "professional" shots later. I'll post those in a separate thread.



Here, you can see how much the Ti-Limited Exhaust sticks out from the japanese bumper. I love it much more this way. My paint guy, also was able to sand and buff the rear bumper and lip so it's smooth now. He'll come back next week to sand and buff out the rest of the parts:




The best shot I could get for now. I'll do better tomorrow:



All things considered he did a great job. The color isn't spot on as far as matching goes, but it's not horrible either. You get what you pay for. He didn't have the machinery and time to do a correct color match. I may redo the rear later but I want to get wheels first. 19" AME CX's in silver polish as soon as I get the cash. Dat at SpeedAlliance a great guy. Awesome customer service...

Sill have to sand the fogs and install them. Probably Monday.

UPDATE (4/22)

Just realized I never gave tips on the step by step process. I'll try and do that as time permits. Pretty busy at work lately.

One thing, on the sides: The Vertex sides have holes at the ends for mounting to stock screws. The front black trim at the back of the front fender wells need to be trimmed at the little crease just below the doors, in order to fit the sides. You can measure and trim once you do the test fit. Once that was done, I reattached the black trim. I'll post pics tonight to better illustrate.
The back end of the sides have a screw hole as well. That one is tricky. I ground that hole to be square to match the little female screw plug which helps to hold on the rear stock rubber aero piece that sits just in front of the rear wheels. Again I'll post pics later.

After all that, I think if I had to do it again, I'd just cut the top of that little plug off and us it as a nut when screwing the rear of the piece in.

FINAL UPDATE:

Finally washed the car and took some better shots. Tomorrow a friend is taking some better shots of the car with his SLR. I'll post in another thread this weekend. Enjoy...







Having a little photoshop fun:

 
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#3 ·
Sweet! Another DIY garage painter. I tried it once with mixed results on my wife's DD. One thing for sure...make sure you have enough(correct) air pressure at the paint gun tip! This varies depending on what gun you have.

What paint system are you using btw?

Best of luck!
 
#5 ·
well I'm not painting it actually. A friend of mine is a professional painter/body guy. He's got his gun and compressor. he knows what he's doing. He bought PPG MSM and everything he needs to do the job. I just have to make sure the area is clean and masked off to minimize overspray in the garage and of course, making sure the pilot light is off for the water heater. I have a huge fan for venting and plenty of light so we should be ok. he's painting everything off the car and I'm installing it a few days after it cures.

Thanks though!
 
#14 ·
nice, the kit is gonna look nice... though i'd suggest some sort of chip proof clear coat. the thing is my front bumper started chipping like crazy a month into it. the rest of the parts i got painted are fine, its just the frikken front bumper. so i'd really look into a 3m type protection or a chip proof clear.
i just wish the bumper lined up with the ltuned sides :( it sits a lil too low for my taste even though it does look awesome.

gonna end up repainting my front bumper with this clear coat...
products of the dominon sure seal
 
#15 ·
thanks...I'll keep that in mind!

didn't get the test fit in last night. I only have to do the sides. I'll have to do it tonight and document it with pics. I have to shave the front bumper where the fogs insert in order to get them to fit.
 
#16 ·
Haha....this is funny, I'm actually painting my Vertex kit right now....literally. I was in between coats and decided to hop online and noticed this thread.

I'm not doing the rear skirt yet. I wanted to keep the US rear bumper so I will be moding the rear skirt. Probably this winter along with some Wald Flares.

What color is your car?


Also going in this weekend..... PT72-GTQ!!
 
#21 ·
Looks good bro. Cant wait to see it on the car.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Well so far it's been ok. Overall, I'm happy b/c i'm spending so little but painting in a garage allows only so much as far as air quality goes. There's a lot of dust so we'll be doing some wet sanding and buffing next week before we install. The mirrors look awesome on the car though. I'll take pics tomorrow. All that's left to paint as of tonight is the rear lip. He's coming tomorrow night to spray that and put a final clear coat on the front bumper.
 
#25 ·
thanks...I think I'll do that too. well the kit is done. Just waiting for the weekend so I can mount it on. I'll be spending this week, sanding and polishing the heads and fogs so I can mount the vertex eyelines.

the rear bumper needs the most sanding and buffing but the rest of the parts need minor touch ups. All in all a great job all things considered. I can't wait to get it on the car! I'll take pics of the new mirrors tomorrow. All I need now are wheels!!

hook me up nigellllll! lmao!
 
#36 ·
that can of paint in the first pic is all he needed. He ran out of hardener so he had to get more.

all together the supplies were $120

All things considered he did a great job. Although the rear bumper needs a lot of wet sanding and buffing to get out some rough spots caused by the cardboard box he used as a stand. he forgot to cover it with plastic prior to spraying and some dust and lint landed on the clear. I'm pretty sure we can get it out. If not, we'll have to repaint it later.

I recommend spraying the entire area with water prior to spraying the paint or clear to minimize the amount of airborne contaminants you may encounter during the process.
 
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