Amuse replica bodykit Install Journal

wheee!

This is my experience in installing an Extreme Dimensions Amuse replica bodykit. I know this kit has taken a lot of abuse on the forum for quality etc, but I wanted to give it a chance myself and provide, you, the forum member and honest, unbiased review. The good , the bad, and the ugly will all be revealed!

Not all installations will be the same and each car is different. Keep an open mind and understand that your experience may vary depending on which brand of kit and what type of mods already exist on your car. YMMV...

...and always keep the finished car in mind...

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wheee!

First, let's discuss the reason's I went with ED for the kit. A friend of mine is a distributor of their products and wanted me to be the test mule for them. I agreed to try the kit out as I really liked the Amuse kit and there are literally none in this area. I liked the fact the kit was available in North America and that it was very reasonably priced (~$1500 minus wing).

Shipping is a big concern as we get charged a fortune to bring anything into Canada, and that's not including any duty charges! I orderd the comeplete Amuse body kit plus the JP-R hood.

Welcome to Extreme Dimensions :: Item Group :: 2009-2014 Nissan 370Z Duraflex AMS-GT Body Kit - 4 Piece

Welcome to Extreme Dimensions :: Inventory Item :: 2009-2014 Nissan 370Z Duraflex JP-R Hood - 1 Piece

I figured the shipping and brokerage was better as a package than to order a hood separately. Shipping and tax was just over $300, brokerage was about $150 (I brokered the package myself).

I already had the Seibon NS style rear spoiler waiting to be installed so I didn't need to order a rear wing for the kit.

The parts arrived in great shape. Well packaged in cardboard boxes, plastic and bubble wrap. Each piece had a stamp of authenticity on it as well. The JP-R hood was mounted on wood supports as well. Nice touch.







The parts have a black finish and are fairly flexible. I wouldn't recommend tossing them around though! lol



The parts also had a good quality screen mesh pre-installed as well. Remove that prior to working on the raw pieces and store it away for later. I sprayed my pieces in plasti-dip too. I didn't want silver mesh....





I don't have a shot of the hood by itself in the packaging etc. My bad...

I installed the hood onto the factory hinges easily. The hood is light but probably still heavier than the tock aluminum hood. I noticed that the stock hinge height was too high for the JP-R hood and I would have to modify it later on.





There is room to adjust the fit side to side etc with the hinge bolts. I let this go for now as I was just rough fitting.







The hood does not come with any hardware, so you must remove the old hardware from the stock hood and drill holes in the FRP to place your hardware. The good news is that the hole locations are formed into the FRP during the molding process, so it makes the job easier.









After getting the hood positioned, I adjusted the rubber stoppers and the latch height so the hood closed properly and close to factory settings. Then I rough mounted the front bumper to get an idea of how close it was going to fit!

This picture does not have the bumper screwed into place at all, just a friction fit for the moment. Again, you need to drill out all the mounting holes and snap tabs along the headlights before it will mount properly.















Now the bad parts... There was a small gap along the passenger headlight that would not butt up properly. The good news is it can be fixed! Slightly heating the FRP and 'pushing' the part towards the headlight allowed it to reform in the proper position. A small dent was created in the bumper from me pushing, but that would be fixed in bodywork.



Bolt in gap for scale:



The biggest disappointment with this kit is the skirts.... They are covers rather than replacements. They are a good fit, but still leave a ridge along the body to tell everyone they are not replacements but bolt ons.... Oh well.



Again, more dry fitting of the rear bumper. Overall fit of the kit out of the box was an 8/10 in my opinion.







You will notice in these pics that I have already cut out the license plate bolt location and the light and trunk release button locations. This is another area that will require a lot of attention. The license area is easy enough (even though I cut it out too low and had to fix it later! lol), but the light and trunk release bar was a pain. There is no support for the original assembly that is in the factory bumper and you must build/mod your own supports. I cut out the hole for the assembly, then had to custom build a surround and support for it on the FRP bumper. Not too hard for the average skilled guy, but it was my first time molding fibreglas and it was daunting.... In the end, fibreglas is great to work with and small strips of resin soaked fibreglas wrapped around the stock piece (protected by tape) allowed me to mold the bumper to fit the assembly. I used long bolts inside the bumper to secure the asembly to the FRP support molded into the ED piece. Sorry, no pictures of that as I was covered in fibreglas!

The quarter panels were very close, just a slight bulge that could be massaged out.



The fit around the lights was very good. There was a small chip in the corner of the bumper near the taillight, but again something minor that could be fixed in body work.







Here's a tip! Don't drag the panels over your paint job! This scratch was hard to get out...



Excellent fit around the exhaust too. That was a concern I didn't want to deal with.



I layed the Seibon wing on the hatch to get an idea of the final look...

The factory spoiler had to be removed, and there are many threads that detail that so I won't get into it here. Suffice it to say that it is not fun...







Then I dragged it outside to get a look at it with a few pins in place to hold it where it should be. Overall I was very happy with the general fit!







Here you can see where I did a little rough sanding of the 'bump' on the quarter area.







Then after a long wait for the body shop to have an opening.... in she went!



The first thing they did was cut and weld the hinges to the proper height for the hood.



Then they welded up all the old holes from the stock spoiler and drilled new ones for the Seibon. This process was an extra cost but I thought it was worth it.





Then they began touching up the corners that had small waves etc.



The hood needed to be sanded and blocked as well. Overall the hood had two little low spots. Nothing major.

It is important to note, the black finish gelcoat has to be sanded and prepped before paint on this kit. No shortcuts!





And then primed...





The rear bumper had the most work. Not because it was so bad, but there were more curves etc. Plus the small chip near the tailight that needed fixing. The body shop had one small accident as well and dropped the bumper on the floor, cracking it near the taillight corner too...







Lot's of test fitting...

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The front was considerably easier...





The side skirts just need a small amount of prep. One had a bit of a wow in it but I will discuss that later.



Primer











Then the sacrilege! I had them sand down the CF Seibon spoiler and prep it for paint. The shop wanted me to keep it CF, but I wasn't going that route...



Then into the paint booth!









Followed by final fitting.











Finally it was out of the body shop! It was there for 6 weeks.... over 40 hours of labour to get the kit done. The quote was $2100 for paint, body work and mounting/fitting. The actual bill was over $6000...!

The owner and I sat down and worked it all out to $3500 for the work. He underestimated the time for his body guy to fit and finesse the panels to look just right. I wanted a good job and knew the quote was going to be low, but I was not prepared for a 300% surcharge! Bottom line is: talk to the body shop and make sure they are accurate with their quote. You don't want a cheap job, but you don't want to put their kids through college either!

Finally home!



A couple final touches like the Fairlady emblem and a custom made tow hook!



The stock HKS tips still on here. I had the FringeXVO tips sent out for new powdercoat!



















As you can see here, the side skirts have still not been put on at this time. I would need to find some time to 'fix' the slight wow in the driver side skirt.







A couple with the Fringe tips on!







Then up into the air to have the skirts mounted finally!



This pic shows the side that had the wow. If you look you can see the white silicone filler in place by the driver door corner. It dries to a clear finish and then coloured black to hide the small gap. The passenger side attached no problem.



And that is it!



Thanks for reading! I am happy to answer all questions.

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Overall I feel I got a fairly good deal on a very good kit. Not the best, as the design of the ED kit does not include the bumper openings or the extended rear bumper design, but seems to have been well made. I'd say an 8/10 overall.

Would I do it again? I'm not sure.... Knowing what I do now, I may have purchased a higher end kit to get the features more like the original Amuse with a better 'out of the box' fit and less time in the body shop. It may have ended up the same dollar wise (more kit cost, less body shop) but you have a better kit in the end.

Would I buy FRP or CF? FRP is easy to work with and allows for body work and reshaping very easily. CF is a finished product, and any body work has to be performed at a minor level by a skilled bodyworker to avoid damaging the kit. The fit has to perfect... I would only buy CF if I was local to the supplier in case it needed to be exchanged for one that fit. Inlaid CF is not an issue as it rarely affects fit.

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zefaulter

Great journal! What's next? New wheels or FI kit?

wheee!

Small things next. Thinking of doing the headlights this winter while she's in storage.

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pfdaxe

Car looks great wheee! Headlights would look good. Maybe color match the door handles?

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Build Thread: http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...xes-build.html

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Colour match the door handles Black Rose or Night Armour grey? I was going to paint the lights with Night Armour over the chrome and Black Rose on the shrouds...

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Jayhovah

what kind of lift is that?

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2013 Gun Metallic Sport - Gamma V3 Twin Turbogized
DIY Gamma V3 TT Install * Jayhovah's Gamma V3 TT Install Pic'Z and Vid'Z * DIY: Washer Reservoir for the Boosted

cooltoy

Changing wheels this weekend.

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Ranger (Bendpak) QuickJack, 3500lb capacity 110v hydraulic lift. ~$1000

cooltoy!

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pfdaxe

Handles Black Rose. It would blend nice. Headlights sound pretty good what you suggest.

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Build Thread: http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...xes-build.html

wheee!

I was thinking these would look nice with the two tone kit...

Attached Images

Work M560 Avant Garde.JPG (106.2 KB, 1832 views)

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cooltoy

Are they yours?

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wheee!

... not yet....

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