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Seamless look in modified and custom painted Supra |
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Thursday, 05 April 2007 |
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Page 1 of 2 In a massive undertaking that spanned the course of a few months, the staff at Huntington Beach Bodyworks recently completed a 1995 Toyota Supra that required an entire, from-the-ground-up build. Toyota Supra has been a very popular project car for the past decade or so due to its lightweight appeal, good looks and high horsepower potential.
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After looking at the body kit mocked up on the Supra, the wheel wells needed to be extended.
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A 4-inch wide area along the edge of the body was grounded to prepare for wheel well welding.
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The area where the inner wheel well met the outer wheel well was filled with 18-gauge steel.
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Before the body was broken down, reference points were made on each panel with small holes to help with alignment. |
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Our first task was to modify the body of the Supra with a new wide body kit from TRD. Before breaking down the car, we mocked up the body kit to see what modifications we were going to make. At this point the customer had also decided to mold the kit to the body to give it a seamless look. This required some extra fiber glassing and bodywork.
Preparing for the wide body kit
The reason for these wide body kits is obvious- to give your car a wider stance and appearance. It also allows you to extend the wheel wells to allow for wider and taller wheels. While looking at the body kit mocked up on the Supra, we decided that the wheel wells would have to be extended three inches.
To begin with, we cut off the original lip of the wheel well and mocked it up from inside the wheel well so it sat out three inches from its original position. We then made a cardboard template to fill the area we needed. After the template was made we transferred it to a sheet of 18-gauge steel by tracing the template with a marker and cutting the outline. Then we formed it to the contour of the body.
Before we welded in our new piece, we grounded a four-inch wide area along the edge of the body where our new fabricated wheel well would be welded in. We also grounded the areas where the fiberglass was going to adhere to the body of the Supra and the new body kit. We used 18-gauge steel to fill the area where the inner wheel well met the outer wheel well.
To prep the body kit, we sanded the inside of the body kit with 36-grit sandpaper. This allowed for a proper adhesion to the body of the Supra. When our panels were mocked up to the body, before the breakdown of the car, we made reference points on the panels with a marker. We made at least three reference points per panel. Screws were used in harder to reach areas to hold the panels in place while the fiberglass was drying. Just remember to fill these holes later.
We were fiber glassing this kit to the body, so we had a short window of time before the fiberglass began to harden. To allow for a quicker alignment of the body panels we used the reference points to line each panel with each other and to the car.
Rich tip: It’s always a good idea to mock up your new body kit before you break down the vehicle. As an alignment guide, we make holes with an 8-inch drill and use 8-inch rods to put panels back into place. With the car broken down and bumpers, interior, doors, etc. removed you will still know where everything goes.
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