Chewievette

http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.p...i=54674&t=54674
Ever since I saw this Crazy Body Transformation, I've been rather ...Inspired!

I've worked with composites, esp fiberglass, in the past and I'm confident that I could pull something like this off. but I dont want an F50, I want something a little newer! So I've decided to make a body kit for my car, when I'm done it will strongly resemble the 2004 Ferrari 575 GTC as seen below...



I know I can do the body, in fact that will be one of the easier parts of my project, time consuming for sure, but still not all that complex. I'm a bit curious if there would be any interest in this kit? It will be made to fit the 280zx, because that's what I've got(sorry 1st Gen'ers). If I go to the effort and expense of creating this kit, I might as well make a few extras. I'm thinking around a dozen. The kit would include:
-Front Bumper
-Front Fenders, with integrated headlight pods
-Clear Lexan Headlight Covers
-Hood, with openable louvers and intake
-Rocker panels
-Door Skins
-Rear Quarter Panels
-Lexan Rear Quarter Windows
-Rear Hatch, with rear window
-Tail Light Panel
-Rear Bumper
-Rear Wing, uprights, adjusters, and four piece wing, all Carbon Fiber
-Pre Cut Rear Diffuser, water jetted Steel
-Potential other parts include, Mirror Housings, Roof Scoop, Scoop/Intake backing plates (most notably on the rear), and side exhaust heat shields
-You would also need a Fuel Filler tube extension, headlights, and tail lights; which I might be able to provide, depending on availability (or at least tell you where to get them).



Like I said, I dont know if I'll be selling the kit, but I will be making at least one. Do you guys think I could scrounge up enough interest to sell a few? Unfortunately for the buyer there's a huge drawback to this kit, the front and rear tracks. You should be able to use a combination of spacers, wide tires and rims with a different offset to fill up the fenders, like I'll probably be doing. The kit wont be made until I fix the bad parts and get the new wheels and tires on, so it will probably be a year or so before I'm ready to ship anything.
Comments, Questions, and Criticisms Welcome as Always.
Thanks.

More, Bigger Pictures:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v11/chewievette/Cars/

theramz

You can do this with some variations to fit the Z. I share your enthusiasm and envy the fact that you have so many years ahead of you to do the things you want. Please post any concept drawings you come up with. Good luck, Tom

s/cL3.0

That would be nice but I figure it would cost about 5000.00 right??

DynamicJ

put me down

Chewievette

I'm aiming for the $4000-5000 bracket, Quite a few things on my list could be considered "optional" so even if the kit ends up at $5000 feel free to contact me and we can arrange something, for example, body panels only or some kind of 'stages plan' so that the initial cost wont be quite as high.

btw: lessthanjabo, I only see a red x as your sig picture. Is that intentional or otherwise?

Chewievette

Well, you asked for drawings...

This is the side by side comparison of the 575 GTC and the 280zx, the 575 was drawn at the 575M's stock ride height, and I just noticed that the front end should be a little bit longer, like 2-3inches. I guess that's what I get for quickly sketching this out!


This is the drawing I made of the Ferrari's body grafted onto the 280zx, its not perfect but I think it accurately represents the real car. I dont know how much 'playing' I'm going to do to the windshield/roof yet so I left it basically stock.


and this is a tracing of the previous drawing layed over top of a stock 280zx, for comparison. It didn't turn out so well so please forgive.

and in case you missed it before, I Dont have access to a working scanner so these are pictures of my drawings! Hence the crappy quality. Sorry.

DynamicJ

i like it! very nice lines. as for the x in the sig... wasn't aware! let me straighten it out... I use firefox and it doesnt show anything for a pic that doesnt work...

Bleach

I'll buy one. I'm not into that HUGE wing on the real Ferrari, but a slightly smaller one would be ok.

Build away. I want to see your completed car before I buy the kit though. $4-5000 is to be expected. The 1962 Ferrari kit is $3500 I think and those are mass-produced.

Chewievette

With minor modification you can lower the wing to whatever height you want. In fact that would be extremely easy to do, each wing piece has to be made individually, so it wouldn't be difficult for me to just make yours a little shorter.

lessthanjabo - I can see your sig pic now! I like it!

theramz

I think you will have trouble getting in a driveway with that long, low nose. Airbags? The ZX will have to be lowered about 3 inches. You may have to compromise on the style to fit the ZX but it will cause some serious whiplash to on lookers!

Bleach

you're right. 3 inches is too much to lower the 280ZX. 2 inch is about max then your suspension is all messed up. You can possibly correct the front with adjustable coilovers for better spring response and top chamber plates with the lower ball joint spacer. The rear would be cambered in terribly. Custom lower a-arms would be the only way to fix it properly.

280gty

Nice drawings!...Can you work it out digitally?...not that it's necessary cause I know many craftsman work things out intuitively!

I think the price will be too high to make a decent return because it's actually difficult to even sell a 280ZX for $5,000...and I think people would probably want to spend that money restoring rather than modifying...but hey, build it just because you want to!

It'll be one of a kind or maybe 3 of a kind judging from a couple of other posts!

Chewievette

Gee, I just noticed that the picture I drew of the 280zx makes it look like a scared cat! oh well...

Well I dont want to go to "racecar height" because then I wouldn't be able to drive on the street without doing bodywork afterwards! Without acctually doing the modifying and looking at it I'm thinking that I'll lower it as much as I can then build the body kit to look good at that level. afterall, I've decided to do suspension work before body mods.

I;ve never been very good drawing things out digitally, I like my eraser... but I'll probably give it a whirl at some point. Which way would you like it represented? CAD style or Photoshop stlye?

I have quite some time to decide if I want to market this kit yet, but the responce on this board and a couple of others is rather encouraging!

theramz

Whether you use pencil or cad you will have to scale your drawings. If you use photoshop you can start with a digital picture and and otherpicture in layers and then make them fit without losing scale. I did this with Nikon photo impression in a few minutes. Using a mouse to design a car is like trying to paint with a push broom but you can get the idea close before to start to fabricate some exspensive and time consumming work. Here is the F450 rear on a 240Z.

klopas

I'm interested in a kit! Looks awesome...

Chewievette

I've never been too keen on photochopping pictures. I'm a bit A Retentive when it comes to my drawings so if they aren't scale then I'm not happy. Most likely what I'll do is take some pictures and draw in my body kit over those, that allows me to keep it scale, lined up, and allows me to see what it'll look like. The below picture was done using this technique, in fact the same picture I used for that may be used again for this kit's drawing.

I'm hoping to get my car up here so I can start working on it, its starting to get to me, driving two hours each way to work on my car for half a day! Especially with the gas prices how they are! The location the car is at now, is perfect for working on the car in that I have all the tools needed on hand, however the location in proximity to me is horrible! I HAVE to get some kind of shop space up here. Okay, enough of me ranting... I'll be back with drawings sometime soon.

DoTheDrew888

I love the hood you have on there. It looks like the old Corvette Stringray hoods sorta.

Zskyline79

The ferrari hood looks best, how long do you figure it will take for you to make the body kit. Plus are you just going to be making a kit for the 280zx 2 seater or are you going to include the 2+2. Reason asking is because the 2+2 is a bit longer in some areas of the car.

Skully

chewie...i saw a car i think on hybridz exactly like your drawing there...same hood same everything

theramz

I think I've seen that one too. Roadster and G-Nose kit, 1980's. So let's get back to the Ferrari look or something like 2006.

DoTheDrew888

Hahahaha. I hope thats a joke. If its not, im sorry I laughed.

Bryan Thompson

How long would be your estimated time for the body kit to be made, or are you simply selling plans?

Chewievette

Well, here's the thing about the time table guys... I have quite a lot of work to do before I get to work on the body. For example, the body repair and the suspension both have to be done first. I'll probably be another year before I'm ready. Depending on how fast I can get the other stuff done.

I've never seen a zx anything like my drawing there. I've seen the g nose on a 2+2 and I've seen the roadster, but never together before. I've also seen the sting ray hood on 1st gens before but never on a zx.

I'm not sure how in depth I'm going to get with the kit yet, but somewhere between body panels only and the full kit with all the detail parts, mentioned in my first post. If the first set of kits for the 2 seaters sell well I may be persuaded to make a kit for the 2+2. I'm fairly certain that mine is going to be a roadster, so I'm not even sure if the roofed version will be available, perhaps not as in depth as previously thought, but like the GTO kits, it will be abaptable. but more on that later.

crazytvrguy280

ya that is a killer price if you can keep around that. the cheapes kt that ive found is about 10,000

jfairladyz

All you people who expressed interest in that kit but question about wheel track and what not, check out Modern Motorsports. If your going to invest that kind of money in a body kit I wouldn't go cheap with wheel spacers, as these can lead to damage of your wheel hubs if the wrong offset wheels are used. They sell custom aluminum hubs to fit your needs. Wide wheels, 4 & 5 lug conversions and rotor hats so you can upgrade your brakes as big as your wheels will allow. They sell coilovers for the 280zx too. It's worth a look if you can afford a $5000 body kit.