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PROJECT WIDEBODY!!

C

crackerican69

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Apr 27, 2011
Messages
553
Location
Gilbertsville, PA
So...as some you know (via facebook) I am in the process of widening the body of #6357. While I wanted to wait until closer to completion to post progress and pictures, I have some down time so might as well do it now.

For starters, we'll take a look at the front bumper. I took a 2001 Mazda Milennia front bumper and molded it into the SVT bumper. And during that process, I picked up an F-150 bumper filler, cut it in half, "soft mounted" to the Mazda bumper, pieced back together and made a splitter/lip. Unfortunately had to remove due to hitting a raccoon and breaking it. Back to the bumper... Once the fusing and rough filler work were done, I cut the lower grille section and sides off another SVT bumper, mounted and fused them to the sides of the existing bumper, filled, sanded and primed and is now ready for mold making for fiberglass with tabs to use the stock SVT mesh. As of now, I'm waiting to order NOS Milennia fog lights and the correct size LED bulbs.



















 
As for the rear bumper, I wanted to go a completely different route. First thing I wanted to do was run a center exit exhaust. Not an easy task in itself, with the evap system and lower balance area being the issue. While I considered moving the evap system inside the trunk, I kinda went the easy way out and used a heat shield for my parts car and mounted underneath to help protect from the potential heat. Next up was the issue with the bumper. I didnt want to cut up a perfectly good rear bumper, and luckily had a severely damaged one and one that had damage down low, so I used both of those bumpers. I cut the "diffuser" off rectangularly, cut the exhaust opening in half, did a test mock up and checked the clearance with the exhaust tips I would be using, made the necessary adjustments, and used a strip of 3/8 plywood to screw mount the 2 halves to the bumper. Then, with the other half of the exhaust opening, I removed a section and cut notches and mounted at the far ends to create a rounded end on both sides. Once everything was in place where it needed to be, I finished up the mounting/molding process and moved on to the sides for widening. For that, I also used sections of a damaged bumper. I cut off just after the start of the curve, test fit, screwed into place and adjusted the panel to match the curve of the quarter panel. That is also ready to go for fiberglass and retains the use of the stock mesh, just cut in half and sides switched.







I found different tips that fit much better.








 
The quarters and fenders were a little easier, yet awaiting welding. I picked up 2 fenders from the junkyard, cut about 3/4 inch below the body line, straightened up the wheel well edge by flattening the inward roll and making a straight edge, trimming off the lower mount on the fender, as well as 1/2 inch in from the door edge. The area where the bumper mounts to the fender also had to trimmed on an angle to fit properly. Once the positional adjustments were made, holes were drilled and screws were used to temporarily hold in place til I can tack it in place. Also, relief cuts had to be made in the center of the wheel arch, as well as the rear section near the hole where the HO badge would normally be. This helps the new panel sit a little more flush with the existing one.







 
The quarter panels were....well...for lack of a better term... A B!+C#.... Needless to say I won't be doing that again... But anyway...to the work. Once again, 3/4 inch below the body line was cut off, into the tail light mount, as well as the door edge down to just above the rocker panel. And the same cut was made in the wheel well like the front fender. I cut along the edge of the spot weld on the under side where the rear bumper would sit. The process was similar to the front, with the exception of the gas door, which I have yet to work anything out for alleviating the issue of not being able to open it. I have an idea for that, but haven't messed with it yet. Mock up, adjust and align, drill and screw and waiting on a weld. I cut both bumper mounting tabs off both quarters on both sides so I can adjust the final width of the bumper to match the curve of the quarter since it is a slightly off. Once that is worked out, they will be welded back in the appropriate location. One last thing I'm am waiting on before I do any welding at all in getting my hands on a pair of 2012-2015 Jaguar XF tail lights, trunk lights and chrome strip. I would use any from an 09 and up but they have an issue with LEDs sporadically burning out and would rather not deal with that hassle. Plus the "facelift" tails look so much better!

















 
A few other things I've done body wise... Besides the previously completed Mystique front end swap, I now have Lexus ES300 projectors fitted to the Mystique headlights. Once again...probably won't do them again as of now. Another modification was done to the hood. While the more aggressive look to the Mystique hood is nice, I felt it needed a little pizzazz. My original thought was to skin my spare Contour hood and make a "somewhat functional" ram-air style hood, but my actual metal shaping skills are crude at best. My next thought was adding Saturn Sky hood vents, but no luck at the junkyard finding them, but found something else that did. I happened to come across an early 90s Chevy Lumina Z-34 with the hood and vents still on it. I pulled the vents, as well as the screens and was pleasantly surprised to find out they were actually metal and not plastic like I thought. So those were removed, curve-compared to the Mystique hood and found them to be close enough and hastily purchased and sandblasted. When I had a good amount of time, I used fryer filters and a folded blanket and later the vents top down and made a stencil for each side and positioned where I thought they would be both asthetically pleasing as well as functional. While I'm not sure if they will bring cooler air in, they definitely let got air out. And with the driver side placement directly over the intake, that can't be a bad thing. The corresponding cuts were made and vents were installed. There was a clearance issue with the drain pan on the driver side hitting the intake, so I cut the pan off on both sides and installed just the mesh screen. I'm currently in the works on a set of 3D tail lights that I originally started about 5 years ago... One last exterior thing was done and that was removing the late 90s Ford Taurus spoiler and adding a 2004 Pontiac Bonneville lip spoiler.

















Bonneville Spoiler. Door is getting replaced!


 
Wow. Well done man. It's gonna look dope when it's complete. I'm guessing you've done the measurements of the jag tail lights & trunk? How much of the surrounding contour tail light/trunklid area are you gonna have to mess with to get the jag lights to fit?
 
BAD SVT said:
Wow. Well done man. It's gonna look dope when it's complete. I'm guessing you've done the measurements of the jag tail lights & trunk? How much of the surrounding contour tail light/trunklid area are you gonna have to mess with to get the jag lights to fit?
Click to expand...

At this point, its gonna be a buy-the-lights-and-make-buckets and go from there. And it'll probably be the same with the trunk as well. I was hoping to just get the quarter sections and trunk of the Jaguar, but
A. None I'm the yards
B. Every place so far won't sell just the tail light section of the quarters
C. The trunk is about 4-600 and that's bare.

I do have a guy in the UK trying to track what I need over there. So hopefully I get some good news in the coming weeks
 
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