I am looking for a body kit for my 97, and am totally confused by all the choices. What brand kit do you purchase, and how was it to fit?
Should I go with fiberglass or plastic?

 

The kit is really up to you, its a matter of what you like, there a million out there. There are many of the same kits that are made under the same name by different companys. I personally would say that the plastic is better only because is will flex more, if you use the right paint, the paint will crack otherwise, than the fiberglass only because the plastic will give more than the fiberglass if you hit a curb or something like that.

 

I have a 98 4door and I put the Xenon kit on mine, all in all it was really easy to put on tho I plan on useing pop rivits to hold the sideskirts on along with molding them in, one thing I noticed on mine is that the front bumper dosent flare out the same on my passenger side as it does on my drivers side i.e. you cant see my tires lookings strait on from the drivers side but you can from the passengerside (I'll end up fixing this later on) but that could just be a minor defect. I dont know if you have lowered yours any, I put Pro-kit springs on mine and sofar I've scraped my sideskirts about 6 times, it was really light each time and it never broke or came off so I can vouch for the flexibilty of the urethane.

 

I have a fiberglass kit and theyre not as stiff as people think. I have scraped a few times and only the paint has cracked on a few spots. I have only installed fiberglass so i know nothing about the urethane ones, but i can help on anything with the fiberglass kits. I also install the kits for about $500 if any of u live in wisconsin. I also do a lot of stereo work along with any other custom things.

pm me with any questions.

 

I am not saying that the fiberglass kits are bad, but they do crack easier.

 

that is true.

 

If I would of had the money to have someone install a kit I would have gotten the fiberglass kits hands down, but where as it was my first install I went with the xenon.

To tell you the truth if I could do my car all over again (I would of sold it and spent the money on my mudder) but most likely I wouldnt have lowered it or put a kit on it, but my whole county has like 20 paved roads so not many areas to drive a lowered car around.

 

Fiberglass isn't bad at all, most kits are made out of it, its for cost. Polyurethane is much more expensive, but more durable. As stated before Fiberglass cracks easier than Urethane does.

However, Fiberglass is 10x easier for a body shop or anyone familiar with auto body repairs to fix than Urethane is. Once you toast your urethane front end, its hard to get it back, whereas with fiberglass, its much easier to bring back to normal.

Where and what kit you get is totally up to you. Alot of people carry the same kits. My favorite kits are by Kaminari for the neon. Big name companies don't always mean a better product though. Often your just paying for the name (sort of like apparel).

 

I got this one really cheap off ebay.

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Ebay has saved me so much money on body kits. Me and my shop have bought over 40 different kits on there and the amount of money spent comparred to what it would have cost is insane. You can get a complete 4 piece kit (no deformities) for price of one front bumper.

I have a fiberglass EVO 3 kit on my car and it's been very durable. I did however put a 1in crack in the front the first day I rolled it out of the shop after the spray was done. It wasn't a big crack and I scraped it pretty hard. Wasn't hard to fix at all.

So yeah I recommend e-bay for body kits. If not look for wholesale sites or clearance items. Other than that your more than likley to pay an arm and a leg no matter what.