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A warning to those who buy fiberglass body kits!

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Old Apr 22, 2007 | 12:36 PM
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From: Lufkin, Texas
Lightbulb A warning to those who buy fiberglass body kits!

Dont waste your time and money on fiberglass. I found out the hard way.

Over the past month I have had my kenstyle I have cracked it once on the bottom, found numerous spider cracks all over, and then last night I hit a small bump pulling out of a parking lot and broke the bottom peice almost off. I heard some scraping and stopped to find out part was dragging the ground!!! So I ripped it off and kept going. It was not all that mad because I made up my mind to purchase the Kaminari kit anyways.

Yes the Ken Style bumper looks awesome, but the fact that its made of fiberglass is enough for me to change my mind now. Plus I didnt find out till a minute ago when I went to go take pics that ******** (the company who makes the kits) Only used 1 layer of fiberglass on the back of the plaster. Sure the bumper is stiff, but thats the problem. It cannot flex at all without at least cracking the paint.

I know when I was planning on buying it I was told by my friends not to get fiberglass. Well now I know not to. I am not trying to vendor bash because they do have nice fitting bumpers but I cannot live with weak fiberglass anymore. Kaminari here I come.


Here is a pic of my first accident. I was driving and hit a dip in the road.



Here is what it looks like now...




^ you can see in this pic that its just a layer of plaster and 1 layer of fiberglass laid on the inside.



The cool thing is, I now have a neat 1 layer fiberglass special edition Ken Style samurai sword to scare people with.
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Old Apr 22, 2007 | 12:49 PM
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From: INDY
Eww thats was money down the drain! Also fiberglass hates to be cold the cold alone can make it splinter and crack its to dam bad they cant figure a way to make carbonfiber cheaper but, i dont think its easy to get paint to stick to CF eithere. Kan make some sweet kits tho. good luck on ur new front end
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Old Apr 22, 2007 | 12:51 PM
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That has got to be one of the weakest figerglass bumber I have seen. Only one layer of fg wtf. That kit looks nice but dang you should have put some more layers on it before you put it on the car. Ken style looks nice though. They should make a kit for the EVOs. but yeah just buy polyurthane (perfect fit and bendable).
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Old Apr 22, 2007 | 12:51 PM
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From: central cali
Sucks man. You'll be happy with the kaminari, I know I was.
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Old Apr 22, 2007 | 01:12 PM
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Yeah I am about to go and sand it down a little and then I got some black spray paint. I will try to make it less noticable until I can get a new front.
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Old Apr 22, 2007 | 11:54 PM
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dang that sucks. but u gotta watch out for that lots of companies try taking short cuts and screw u over.
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Old Apr 23, 2007 | 12:05 AM
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From: DFW, Tx
lol I hear ya man.

I had my brand new Ken Style front bumper, maybe a day or 2 old, and I got cut off by this SUV.

I went onto the little patch of grass between the exit ramps and highways, and ****ed it all up. I mean, the only think on was the top part that was bolted to the radiator support. the sides were gone!

It's not cheap. My Accolade body kit was cracking, and coming apart from the car being so low.
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Old Apr 23, 2007 | 09:25 AM
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From: MD
that sucks, just sharpen up the sword and sell it on ebay
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Old Apr 23, 2007 | 11:07 AM
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From: Long Beach
thanks for the warning!!!..
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Old Apr 23, 2007 | 01:33 PM
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From: ACCOLADE
Thats one of our really old bumpers I can tell, you didnt buy that directly from us, you must have purchased from an EvoM member? that material you have was discontinued over 4 years ago, now we have been selling our bumpers on PFRP and it is much more stronger.
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Old Apr 23, 2007 | 01:39 PM
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From: atlanta
I have a bumper from you guys, and it is made of the pfrp that you talk about and it cracked on my car. the fit and finish was so bad that I never was able to use the bumper. also when I call about this no one from accolade would help.
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Old Apr 23, 2007 | 02:01 PM
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From: DFW, Tx
Originally Posted by Dave@Accolade
Thats one of our really old bumpers I can tell, you didnt buy that directly from us, you must have purchased from an EvoM member? that material you have was discontinued over 4 years ago, now we have been selling our bumpers on PFRP and it is much more stronger.
I bought your bumpers around Sept. of last year. It's strong, but nothing can beat concrete.

Doesn't matter how strong they are, they will lose against a pot hole, speed bump, etc.
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Old Apr 23, 2007 | 02:27 PM
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From: ACCOLADE
Originally Posted by Evo_Jr
I bought your bumpers around Sept. of last year. It's strong, but nothing can beat concrete.

Doesn't matter how strong they are, they will lose against a pot hole, speed bump, etc.
yes our kits are one of the strongest though non-urethane its the best on the market, urethane has higher impact resistance though.
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Old Apr 27, 2007 | 04:16 PM
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i wish i would've seen this before i just got mine
*keeps fingers crossed*
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Old Apr 27, 2007 | 09:53 PM
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Originally Posted by Dave@Accolade
yes our kits are one of the strongest though non-urethane its the best on the market, urethane has higher impact resistance though.
You guys sell urethane kits?
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