Fibre glass wings?

[rav]

Im looking at a car that is a SE model registered around in 1990.
Strangely the car has LSD etc, but isnt M030. Werent all post 1989 cars M030?
It also doesnt have sports seats.

My main concern is:
Why would someone put fibre glass wings on a car like this?
They are sprayed the colour of the car, and if the owner hadnt told me, i wouldnt be able to tell from the pictures.

He also mentions that the sills have some surface rust on them.

Another concern was that he is keeping the forged SE wheels and will replace with 993 cup3 (turbo style) wheels.

Comments please?

 

[944Turbo]

no mo3o is not unusual on post 89 cars, no sports seats is though. I am considering some fibreglass wings for mine at the moment - they wont go rusty again.
Tony

 

[Mike_Pollock]

Sills can be bubbling just under the paint or coming through from the inside. Check ploof pan in region of bubbling and look into sills through vents in B pillar- vent unclips easily, tag at the top.

Mike

 

[Hilux]

Check ploof pan in region of bubbling

My 951 never had a ploof pan ...........................

I`ve tried e-bay and there arent any.............................they must be really rare, whats the part number? []

 

[Diver944]

ORIGINAL: rav

Why would someone put fibre glass wings on a car like this?
They are sprayed the colour of the car, and if the owner hadnt told me, i wouldnt be able to tell from the pictures.

Ooooh what brand are they and who did the spraying? Most FG body panels can be spotted fairly easily but I want some done that are hard to spot.

 

[Neil Haughey]

Paul it will be in the prep work to fit them, if you want you can pop round and have a look at my race car as Barry is fitting the fibreglass this week. He can explain and show all the problems/issues much more then I can on here. TBH on anything other then a pure race car I don't think I would be fitting FG again, not unless I could get parts of undoubted quality. None of the parts I have other then the bonnet and rear bumper are a good match to the factory panels. AFAIK you only really have 2 choices, buy the club auto sport panels or import the much more expensive panels from America. Simon 944 man mentioned a company doing some CF panels and I am interested in that, we may look into some proper factory fit CF panels in the future even if means getting them made myself.

 

[944 man]

Neil, Id forgotten to send you the link; until someone mentioned the firm here a day or two ago. Clicky link to the 4.5KG carbon fibre bonnet that I told you about.

Simon

 

[944 man]

Clicky link to the 5.5KG fully braced GRP bonnet that you were sceptical about. []

(Id still pin it fore and aft; though)

 

[Neil Haughey]

They do look good Simon, makes the ones available here in the UK look a little porky. Something we noted with the badge panel for example is that it is very thick and really doesn't need to be. However some of those parts are pretty expensive once the conversion into pounds is made, I think my wings for example where about 1/2 the price of theirs. I do fancy one of those bonnets though.

 

[Diver944]

ORIGINAL: Neil Haughey

However some of those parts are pretty expensive once the conversion into pounds is made,

You're right, they are definately on the high side of the market, pricewise. However it's not until you see them in the flesh (and fitted) can you tell if it's worth it or not [8|]

 

[rav]

Getting back on track though. Do these wear as well as standard metal panels?
Can they be waxed as normal like the rest of the car?
Will they fade quicker than the rest of the car?

 

[Peter Empson]

Fibreglass can chip more easily, so on strong coloured cars you will see spots of the material underneath (one of the reasons why I didn't want to go CF on my white car as they'd be black, instead of the creamy white of FG), but it's still remarkably resilient, and you can always put some clear tape on the leading edge behind the tyre for extra protection. I've only done a few thousand miles and a few track days but it's holding up brilliantly so far (I was expecting to have to paint my bumper every 2 years, but it's lasting well).

Paint and waxing is as normal, on some lighter colours you can get a slightly different colour on the FG (my rear bumper is slightly more blue/grey than the rest of the car), I can't imagine there will be any difference in terms of fading, but you can get stress cracks if the panel isn't fitted correctly or it has an impact.

If it were me I'd fit them whenever I needed to replace the wings, whether I was worried about weight saving or not, a good set that have had a lot of work done to them can look so good that the majority of people wouldn't spot them, and you never have to worry about rust there again!

 

[944 man]

On a road car, you need to re-fit the wheel arch protectors, or coat the inner surface; in order to prevent crazing and cracking caused by stones.

 

[Diver944]

It's all down to the preparation and attention to detail.

Lets not forget that TVR's and Elises do not have metal bodywork, in fact a lot of modern Renaults and Peugeots now have plastic front wings and the paint finish is infinitely superior to that on our 20 year old cars

 

[Peter Empson]

ORIGINAL: 944 man

On a road car, you need to re-fit the wheel arch protectors, or coat the inner surface; in order to prevent crazing and cracking caused by stones.

We haven't done this on mine (it was the original intention for exactly this reason), but then my wings are quite thick and so far there's been no sign of any problems.