Overhaul Front Clip & Interior advice

[BonesDT]

My door is bashed in, grille is cracked, hood and fender dented, bumper is mangled, and everywhere else the paint is chipped. My interior also looks like a McDonalds bathroom. I have way too much pride to sell the '99 Ex and get a new car, so I'm looking for an overhaul instead. I need some advice.

Since I'm going to have to get about half the body repainted after body work, I figure I might as well look into an entire paint job. What's involved with that and how much $$ am I looking at here?

As far as fenders, I would like to upgrade to fiberglass with larger wheel well diameters for big tires, but WITHOUT those exagerated (in my opinion, ugly) flares that bulge out. I still can't find anything like this.

I also see there's this one-piece F-150 front clip conversion kit for the Explorer. It looks like a cool concept and I'm wondering if that one-piece means that the hood opens up in reverse with the fenders going with it (like a semi) for full engine access. However, I want to maintain the Explorer front clip look. I wondering what would be involved in rigging something like this up since I have to get work done to the hood, fenders, and grille anyway. Say I go with a fiberglass cowl hood and glass fenders, can I bond all these pieces together somehow and rig up a hinge?

For the interior, I would like to get all the panels (front door panels, kick panels, windshield pillars, dashboard, middle console, etc.) re-done in fiberglass. Everything is so nasty and dirty that I need new panels anyway, but fiberglass would be nice so it smooth and can be painted to a shine and most importantly I can clean it easily by wiping it down. It seems simple enough to do by myself since I just want exact replicas of what's already there, but knowing me, I won't ever get around to it, or ever finish it, so how much am I looking at to have this professionally done. I always see those hot-rods with those super-custom all fiberglass interiors, but I never knew how much work like that ran.

I'm sure I'm probably way in over my head, but I want to get some thoughts out there. What's impossible/cost a fortune, and what is decently reasonable?

 

[410Fortune]

wow

You can get fiberglass fenders with a 1-2" buldge, but that kind of defeats the purpose of going with fiberglass, just get metal replacements

The one piece front clips you have to make a hinge for and mount, or you can mount it all with pins and just carry it off the vehicle every time you need to get under the hood.
The one piece clips are made with huge bulges to clear large tires, usually there is no inner fender factory metal underneath them or it can look kind of funny.

For the interior the sky is the limit, you can expect to pay alot for 4 custom door panels, there is more to it then just fiberglassing over the factory panel
You can always find a Gen II ex with a nice clean interior and grab the entire interior as a starting point for a "refresh" MY 88 BII has parts from 1984-2002 in the interior to make it as nice as possible.

Just my 02

 

[briwayjones]

For the interior panels would it be possible to spread some fiberglass resin (or other type of resin) over the existing panels to give them a smooth finish?

 

[BonesDT]

Actually, it's a 2-door sport. Plus, I'm only looking to upgrade everything from the front seats forward. Screw the rear...for now, which means those huge plastic wall panels.

Give me a number I could expect to have something like 2 custom made door panels made. I have no clue what something like that costs.

Spreading resin over the existing panels is something I thought about too. Any suggestions?

Here's someone who redid his Mustang kick panel. Seems simple enough, however, I've heard larger fiberglass pieces will be harder because they will require support for their weight. There's no direct link, but click on pics and then Ford. Somebody made a sick Dashboard too!
http://www.glassmanscustomforum.com/

Here's a one-size-fits-all fiberglass dashboard I stumbled across. Kind of looks like an Explorer interior too. Anyone know anything?
http://www.stylinconcepts.com/part.aspx?partid=39759&scid=affprod

 

[MONMIX]

all over paint job, keeping the same color, decent quality, not the best, but not Macco, think around $4,000.00 go from there.

 

[BonesDT]

The front-clip idea has been abandoned.

As far as the interior, I'm still pursuing. However, I don't need the lightweightness of fiberglass nor am I looking to make overly custom panels. I actually just want the painted shine of a fiberglass interior and the ease of cleaning it (wiping it off with a wet-nap).

So I was thinking, could I do something like cover the existing plastic panels with Bondo, sand it to a smooth surface, then paint and clearcoat it to a buffed shine?

I don't know anything about materials, Bondo, priming or painting, but I think this should be a do'able project for me (much better than the fiberglass idea).

 

[BonesDT]

I know there are dye's and paints out there for interiors, but I don't think that is going to solve the "smooth" issue I would like. I've always idoled those extreme custom fiberglass interiors in hotrods because they look so easy to clean with a swipe of a rag. The stock interior has tiny dimples and a rough surface, where I have spent many hours with hard bristled brushes and toxic compounds trying to clean, and there is still 7+ year old dirt in there.

To get an idea of what I'm looking for, I would like to paint match my interior to the "platinum" color plastic trim molding on the outside of the vehicle. Nice smooth clearcoat silver color.

 

[Nocturnall]

Bondo probably won't stick to your door panels. I wonder if you can take your exsisting interior peices, clean'em the best you can then just spray a filling primer on'em, few coats of primer, some base, clear coat the crap out of it and bam, should be pretty smooth...