Wizdom Body Kit - Duraflex?
 

I am seriously considering the Wizdom body kit for my 1991.

From what I can tell, different "places" are selling their own version of this type of kit.

Any experience with these?

I plan to do the install, prep and paint myself...

Mike

Find something made out of Polyurethane, not straight fiberglass.

Fiberglass cracks and is a difficult, and expensive kit to install

Most (but not all) polyurethane kits are flexible enough to withstand daily, or semi daily use.

Whichever kit you get, make sure to get their installation kit, no installation kit offered, walk away and find another kit.

Bill S.

Mike I'm with Bill S., as a fiberglass kit owner my vote is "Polyurethane". I didn't find the fiberglass kit installation a challenge, a very few hidden screws and 3M body adhesive worked great. 4 years and a few thousand miles and no problem. The reason I'd go Poly next time is my kit took a ton of time to get paint ready. The fiberglass could have been much better, I suspect the Poly kit will be slick and ready to paint from the getgo. Also if bumped, likely no repair required.

My fiberglass bumper took extensive work to fit with a price tag to match to make fit correctly and have the strength needed to drive out the driveway. I would not go down that path again.

I alway go the fiberglass route. Yes it's harder to fit, but if you like custom car it's the choice to make.

Maby poly flex more, but not your paint.

If you want to see my version of wizdom look at my picture.

I'm tempted to take the $500 risk but then I ask myself, how good could a body kit be that only costs $500 with shipping that includes complete front and rear bumpers and side skirts. Some of their feedback says the kit is trash and others give good reviews...

I think the one that I get (if I buy it) will be one of the good ones, right?

...Maybe I just go with a quality R package...

The manufacturer offers no mounting kits with their products, that tells me they cannot engineer it and expect the end user to do so. They pull them out of the molds still curing (proper curing takes weeks, sometimes months for out-gassing to finish depending on the temperature. They use fiberglass instead of polyurethane because it is cheap and quick to produce (sorry folks, anyone that tells you differently has no experience working with both products in a manufacturing environment). As such, no body shop will warranty or guarantee the work, not even charging you 4 times what it would be for a quality, well thought out product.

Did I mention I am a retired production body shop owner ;)


Bill S.

I agree with Bill on the fact that a fiberglass bodykit is more work (some wave in the bumper but easy to correct). in the case of the wizdom, it's was not too mutch work to get what i want, but i cannot use poly bumber for custom setup.

If you have no experience in car body, go poly.

If you know how it's work go fiberglass. Don't be afraid to cut your new bumper ;)

Hope that help....

Watching with interest to see where this goes. No matter which way you go it will be better than my mess!

Perhaps start a thread of your own and let us know what you have on your hands now, and the issues you are having.


Can't offer solutions without first knowing the issues...



Bill S.

agree

LOL after the tire thread I thought everyone knew! Well there is no fixing it and really I have no issues other than a few cracks and no doubt will have many more after all the trips to -20 in the last month. But if you want to see here a goes. What I did was just to have fun and keep me out of trouble last winter but there is little doubt it was the dumbest and hardest way possible to do flares. The good news is I have less than 100 bucks into the whole thing and lots of options to fix it when it all falls off!

One of these days I'm going to do a video of it but this is it in a nutshell.

Measuring and forming a vision.
Attachment 6654

Cut and fit
Attachment 6655

Yeah I know why didn't you just keep going with metal?
Attachment 6656

But nope I covered it with fiberglass.
Attachment 6657

Then sanded half that off to get it sort of shaped and smooth and went to duraglass
Attachment 6658

5000 hours later. Yep I did the same process to the front...
http://i58.tinypic.com/dhfzok.jpg

And paint
http://i61.tinypic.com/2vcc2yt.jpg

Kind of looks like a big wart!
http://i59.tinypic.com/2hn448x.jpg

But if you step back 200 feet and blur the photo it's not bad!
http://i60.tinypic.com/6z7fbq.jpg

Sorry you asked right? LOL and now you know why I said no matter what you do it will make a hell of a lot more sense than what I did!

Jim,

We already knew you had a screw loose after watching your original thread on the subject. Yet you had a vision, and had the ability to turn that vision in to your reality. Can't fault you for that.

However, in this thread, we are discussing off the shelf parts that require either the owner, or the bodyshop to fit to a particular car. Having owned a body shop (now retired from it), and worked on countless body kits (Miata and otherwise), I can tell you what works in that sense, and what does not. If the OP is doing it all themselves, fine, then their time is their own. If they are going to pay someone to do it for them, then my original statement is what I will be sticking to.

Time is money.

I'll leave it at that.

Bill S.

Supporting evidence... This is what my body guy had to do to get the fit and body lines right. It didn't happen quickly and it didn't happen cheap.

out of the box

http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/q...pslqz2ihud.jpg

Frankenstein process

http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/q...psn7zv3jpu.jpg

http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/q...psvu3s2se7.jpg

finished product

http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/q...psjulum7s4.jpg