Shit Can In A Jar: My Car Modification Reversal

"J. Drew Silvers" (drewcoustic) 03/03/2014 at 10:30 • Filed to: Car Mods, Body Kits, Car Sales

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I love cars and I love working on cars, but I am very careful about my choices when it comes to making modifications to the cars I own. My reasoning behind this decision is pretty straightforward: I know that one day the car I am modifying will belong to someone else who more than likely will have a different standard of taste than I. Any vehicle I have owned has had modifications done to it by me which can also be reversed when I decide to sell it later on - likewise, the vehicles I buy are either stock or not far from that form.

Body kits and ground effects are the bane of my existence when it comes to modifications. Sometimes they can look good and serve a style function well if the car in question is only taken out once a week and spends most of its days under a cover. If your car is a daily driver, though? Staying away from body kits is my advice. They rub on parking barriers, stick out in weird places, scrub on speed bumps, and generally don't hold paint as well as the factory panels.

"But they're just stuck on with tape and hidden screws. You can take them off before you sell the car."

Oh, really? I thought the same thing...and then decided to take the body kit off of my car.

Enter: A 1997 Ford Thunderbird LX, 4.6L

This car was an inheritance from my grandfather who passed away in 2008. He bought the car in 2002 and babied it to the point of it being his only obsession. The man who owned the car before him ordered it from the factory and had the Xenon body kit installed at the dealership the same day he took delivery. My grandfather was a great man, but wasn't a great driver and I spent many a day helping him touch up the rub marks and cracked paint on that ugly body kit which he managed to rub against anything within spitting distance of that car. After he died, the Thunderbird stayed in my garage for a few years and it wasn't until I lost my job and sold off all of my other daily driver options that this became my "go to" ride about three years ago.

The thing I always hated about the Thunderbird was the body kit. I picked daily driving a 1979 MGB year-round, in both the snow and 100+ degree weather for over a year so I wouldn't have to deal with it feeling like that front bumper or side skirt was about to fall off. Finally, this past winter, when that nasty ice storm hit Atlanta, the car ended up in a ditch, mangled a side skirt, pulled a fastener out of the back bumper cover, and I said "screw it", making the decision to remove all four pieces.

"It's just a few hidden screws, and some double-sided tape, right?"

Wrong...

Two screws in each wheel well, and a few light pulls removed the front valance.

The rear and side skirts were held on in the same manner, of course.

Seventeen years of shit, grime, dirt, gravel, and mildew were under every single piece of the body kit. Also, the people who installed it didn't just use double-sided foam tape, they used commercial-grade panel adhesive as well. I have used it in homes often enough to know what it becomes when dried, and that is exactly what was used to hold the valances on. Do you see the big blobs lining the factory front bumper? That's the stuff. About 1/4" thick and the size of a U.S. half-dollar.

Don't worry, they were also on the back:

After the car wash, I responded to a text, which aided in my frustrations:

I also saw a nice, first generation Camaro on the way home:

My solution to remove the panel goop was to slowly raise the temperature with my heat gun and use a plastic scraper to gently remove each glob from the paint:

Now, that LOOKS promising, but also avert your vision three globs over from the glob I am "unglobbing" from the bumper. It ripped the paint right off. Every single one of those took at least the clear coat with it, but most took the paint as well.

Globs for days! They were all over my driveway by the time I had finished that stage.

At this point, my idea of removing the body kit without damaging the factory parts underneath was long obliterated, and there was no way in hell I was going to re-fit those ugly, 1990's era monstrosities of style, so I drove the hideous beast to buy some paint and sandpaper.

Every low spot you see was a blob of adhesive. The foam tape between the blobs wasn't as big of a pain in the ass, but that stuff holds a chapter in my book of evil thoughts as well.

If you didn't know, my day job is carpentry. I build things out of wood and do custom finishes on furniture and cabinets. There isn't much as far as differences between prepping wood to finish it and prepping a car are concerned, but when I'm in the shop I have an oscillating sander, a gravity-feed HVLP gun running on an air dryer system I designed and built myself, a proper paint room, etc. The shop is about half an hour from my house and I am there five to six days each week and didn't want to go back to do this work, so everything I did here was by hand.

I do have a siphon-feed detail gun, though.

I didn't rattle-can anything other than the primer, which usually doesn't matter if you actually finish sand it before putting down your base coat. The paint was standard, single-stage gloss black. Nothing fancy. I didn't take pictures applying the paint because I tried that when I was painting in the shop one day and nearly ruined an iPhone in the process, while leaving streaks in my finish. Sorry. I did all of this alone because I live alone and nobody I know is desperate enough for human contact to have this sort of project consume their weekend with me.

Anyway, this is the body kit off the car. In all of its hairline crack-laden, scuffed, scrubbed, and faded glory:

And this is the final product:

Yes, those are Volvo wheels. Yes, I love the way they look on the car now without all of that cladding.

Before on the top - After on the bottom.

I guess the moral to this tale is that I still stand by my feelings about not modifying a car to a nearly irreversible point if you ever intend to sell it on to someone else. This little project took me a little over eight and a half hours to complete, but the car I once hated has now become a car I actually like to look at. The old girl only has a hair over 90,000miles on her at this point, and I think the removal of the body kit made her look much younger and far more clean.

Body kits, for me are sort of like the people on Instagram who take a picture and then put a filter on top of it. The object looked good and in its natural state when you took the picture, but you put a shitty filter over it so the sharp edges look blurry and the balance is thrown completely off. You're not being artistic or deep. The majority of the time you just look like a moron who thinks they are a real photographer.

Think before you modify your car if you ever want to get a decent sale price back out of it, because people (like me) may have bought it from you if it didn't have cheap headlight housings, or Krylon-painted dash trim. As far as this article is concerned, ponder even harder about whether or not you are careful enough of a driver to have a body kit on something you commute with on a daily basis. After this experience, I'll never buy anything with aftermarket body bits.

Grace and Peace,

J. Drew Silvers

@JDrewSilvers

jkm7680 > J. Drew Silvers 03/03/2014 at 10:31

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Wait, wait wait, Volvo rims?

N/A POWAAAHH > J. Drew Silvers 03/03/2014 at 10:40

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Personally, I would never do bodykits unless it's whole pieces not lip kits, that way you still have OEM bumpers/skirts to put back on. My car has an OEM lip kit, and the front lip is cracked and scraped from the PO. I also have krylon painted dash trim(that I did myself), but only because it looks better than dash trim with paint chipping off of it (from PO). Also, the finish is subjective to prep work, and I like to think I prepped it well.

J. Drew Silvers > jkm7680 03/03/2014 at 10:43

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Yep. The factory wheels are 15" and hideously styled. The V70 rims are 16" and look much better. I picked them up for $300 with tires.

jkm7680 > J. Drew Silvers 03/03/2014 at 10:47

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That's a good deal, did yours come with the five spokes, or those horrid turbine wheels

J. Drew Silvers > N/A POWAAAHH 03/03/2014 at 10:54

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Maybe yours will hold up over time. For me, it's a subject of scrutiny if I'm buying a car. Only because after years of Armor-All on the factory trim before it was painted, it'll usually let go after a few years. That shiny stuff penetrates the plastic pretty permanently if it isn't sanded really well and degreased a few times before the primer coat. Like I said, if yours holds up because you prepped it properly, good on you. It's something to be proud of since most tend to do it horribly wrong.

J. Drew Silvers > jkm7680 03/03/2014 at 10:56

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Turbines. I ditched the factory temp spare and threw one of those in the trunk instead. That's the only purpose those ugly things should serve.

jkm7680 > J. Drew Silvers 03/03/2014 at 10:58

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Yeah, I'd even plasti dip the spare black, and take the center cap out, just to hide the ugly a little bit.

Jon-o > J. Drew Silvers 03/03/2014 at 10:59

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Made it look so much better great job! Mines a pearl white 96' also handed down from my grand father. glad to see one out there getting some care. I have old guys at gas stations and mechanics I take it to telling me they haven't seen a mint one in ages. And neither have I they rust like crazy in the north east. I'm wondering about selling the old girl I've been driving it since i was 16 and want something smaller and more sporty but i wonder if anyone would actually buy it? Are you going to keep it for a while?

J. Drew Silvers > jkm7680 03/03/2014 at 11:08

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I picked a can up from the shelf and stared at it a bit on Saturday to do just that. I may grab one soon.

J. Drew Silvers > Jon-o 03/03/2014 at 11:12

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I am. The miles are low and the junk yards are full of them if I need an obsolete part or piece of trim. I'm like you though, older people see it all cleaned up and give compliments randomly.

Jon-o > J. Drew Silvers 03/03/2014 at 11:29

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Mine has about the same miles its going to go on forever its just broken in! Seriously I just got the wheel bearings done on the front as one of the first major repairs ever on it and it was so cheap for a job like that. If you want to keep it these cars will last forever it seems

Takuro Spirit > J. Drew Silvers 03/03/2014 at 13:08

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VEDDY NOICE

Although I prefer the Supercoupe 16's (a buddy of mine has lots of the cars and spare parts including sets of wheels), anything looks better than the stockers on the LX.

J. Drew Silvers > Takuro Spirit 03/03/2014 at 13:22

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Agreed. Fifteen inch wheels on something that is styled to look aerodynamic makes no sense to me.

J. Drew Silvers > Jon-o 03/03/2014 at 15:46

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The interior is falling apart one piece at a time. Seats are doing well but the plastic dash parts, window regulators, and door panel inserts aren't holding up to the same standard. Mechanically, they are pretty solid, and I like the independent rear suspension. That proves the Mustang having a live axle was a choice for all of those years since the T-bird had it for an entire generation behind the same basic engine/transmission combination.

Jon-o > J. Drew Silvers 03/03/2014 at 15:58

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I bet in the south that dash and all those plastics take quite a beating! My dash is starting to rattle a bit but mostly because of the 2 subs i put in the trunk because 16 year old haha the power stuff definitely starts to go after all these years i had the power window motor die and an actuator for the door lock go.. all a complete pain to repair there isn't much room to get those things out or tools in there. and its true i have no idea why the mustangs wouldn't have just shared the rear suspension but i know ford went a little overboard with the basic design in 1989 on these things and spent too much money!

J. Drew Silvers > Jon-o 03/03/2014 at 17:16

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That's not a sixteen year old thing. I'm 28 and have two tens in the trunk as well. Ive had over a dozen cars and every one of them has had a system. My current amp has been in five different cars and the subs have been in three. The difference being that now I'm into audio clarity, but as a teenager through my early twenties, it was about shaking everything around me.

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > J. Drew Silvers 03/05/2014 at 21:22

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haa....

Call me a ricer but I happen to like the look with the body kit

:P

J. Drew Silvers > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 03/06/2014 at 00:34

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I've seen worse, haha. I probably hold some bias since I noticed every time it had a new scrape or paint crack appear. Honestly, I thought it looked cool when my grandfather bought it, but the more I had to live with it, the more I hated it. So, it probably has more to do with the practicality than the look. Something else will fall off soon - it's a 90's era Ford, afterall.

Casper > J. Drew Silvers 03/06/2014 at 11:31

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My theory on modifications are simple: does it make sense and does it improve performance in a way that makes sense. If it is something to do with personal style or taste, it better be easily removable with no lasting impact on the vehicle.

The only car I have used a body kit part on was my SW20 MR2, and this was because when I bought the car it had been wrecked in the front end and needed a new bumper and fender. The car was a DD as well as an autocross car, so i opted for a polyurethane front with proper paint and body work. Turned out to be a good idea, more than once the urethane was flexed a considerable amount by cones. The kid who bought the car from me crashed it head on into a light pole and the bumper popped right back out (the radiator support and such didn't, but it looked ok from the outside).

Now, the car I have done the most modification to with the least concern about resale is my 240Z. I plan to never sell the car, but just in case, resale is in the back of my mind for all my part and modification selections.

J. Drew Silvers > Casper 03/06/2014 at 12:14

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That's pretty much my idea as well. Personalization is fine if it can be reversed. Customization is fine as long as you know you'll either take a huge loss when selling or are 100% sure you won't sell unless something catastrophic happens in your life. Even then, like you said, it should be of a little consideration. But there are a lot of people who dump $20,000 into a $5000 Eclipse and then put it on the market for $15,000. You, sir, have your head on straight.

Casper > J. Drew Silvers 03/06/2014 at 12:34

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Anyone who assumes they will get money back from optional upgrades of any kind is a fool. You have to consider them simply an expense of doing what you want to do, then if you get a percentage back at sale it's a bonus.

J. Drew Silvers > Casper 03/06/2014 at 13:10

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Bingo.