Bit of an update
A few weeks ago I took the C-One front bumper and Eurou skirts to my mate's workshop to have them repaired and sprayed. They initially looked in pretty sound condition overall, but as he prepped them he found loads of micro cracks in them, so he painstakingly ground these out to a "V" fibreglassed them flush and skimmed them. He also installed metal reinforcing plates behind in several weak points, such as where the central bars to the upper, lower and side vents of the C-One bumper have been removed. I was never a fan of these additional bars and think the bumper looks way better without them, more simple and less fussy.
I then went back there this weekend to get them fitted. I ordered some nice OEM looking grill mesh over a week before (for the main bumper openings), however annoyingly the company failed to deliver it in time as promised :rant:
Everything was a really good fit, we bonded on the skirts with screws in the wheel arches at the ends, front bumper was a straightforward fit apart from having the cut a little metal off the support brackets for my oil cooler. When I take off the bumper again to fit the grills I will adapt these brackets so that the cooler sits a bit further back as there is loads of space and its right up against the bumper opening so I'm worried it will rub over time.
So all done for the day it was rolled out of the workshop and this is what she now looks like. She is pretty dirty in the pics apart from the new bits, but colour match is spot on, will get some propper pics next time she is cleaned properly:
Really happy with the look, it is more aggressive and also the skirts actually have the visual effect of making the arches/car look considerably wider, but I think the look is also fairly subtle in black. By the time I add the grill mesh and maybe paint the coolers black so they are less visible I'm hoping it will have a quality fairly OEM look, rather than a chav'd up boy racer one which is definitely not what I want. Overall what I am trying to do inside and out with the car is make it look like a more modern and aggressive sports car, I certainly think it looks at least 10 years younger than it is.
Also pleased with my decision to keep the headlight air duct in white, I think this balances up the look off the front better with the light on the other side, and the white ties in with my wheels and interior nicely.
Next job on the outside will be to sort the rear end as the stock bumper looks too high next to the Eurou skirts. I have a good condition black rear bumper with SS-iii rear spats on it, and an RT-Performance rear diffuser to fit which will help the look, but I'm thinking these may not be deep enough? I am considering a Zapt rear lip with the middle section cut out and a diffuser installed in its place, like this but imagine the fussy centre bits removed and replaced with a diffuser - opinions?
I have also been in talks with Ray at RT-Performance about the possibility of them producing some OEM look 20mm wider front wings, which would allow the fitment of the same width and offset wheels as is possible on the back, this should allow us to improve the look and stance of our cars whilst retaining the front and rear track width difference, which should improve handling over just fitting rear spacers which can contribute to understeer without making similar track increases on the front. I will start an interest thread on these soon as I think they could be really popular :thumbsup:
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GT4 no 10 - I must be mad :help:
^^^Click the banner for my Black Treacle project thread ^^^
Now back home and mapped to 531bhp & 411lb/ft - that's enough power for now!