New style bumper skid plate and hood scoop

[tomdietrying]

We certainly have a lot of people with talent. Nice job!
Peace.
Tom

[gergmon]

Count me in for one too, once in production!
Looks amazing!!

[LittleBeast]

Not meaning to knock on your mod, but the purpose of a skid plate is to protect whatever is underneath it from getting all scratched up from rubbing anything you are driving over, rocks, curb, speed bump, and pretty much anything while offroading. I am glad you are happy with your mod but I am totally confused as to why anyone else wants one, this just looks totally out of place on a vehicle meant for both on pavement and off pavement use. If you are just planning on making this a road only grocery getter than more power to you, but this really makes the VX look more like those other non-offroad cross over vehicles built on car chasis or unibody chasis. No offense intended, it is just out of place on an offroad/onroad vehicle and looks more like a fast and the furious modification.

Nice quality work though and I hope you are happy with the results, but I would suggest never putting any lights that are expensive down there as the first time you decide to actually use the off road capability of the VX you can say goodbye to those lights. There is a reason off road vehicles many times have light guards even on lights mounted very high up. Sorry this just looks totally out of place to me. And I am not a fan of hood scoops that are just for looks. Are you going to make the hood scoop functional at all?

[maxprime]

As far as the skid plate. I have stated it is purely for cosmetic purposes. But, I disagree that it looks like a need for speed mod.
I like the one Ron made and think that the skid plate makes the Vx look more finished. But, I wanted the addition of driving lights and that is why I made mine like this.

The Vx is a collector's vehicle and I wouldn't ruin mine by beating it off road and besides the Vx is pretty limited to hard off roading due to the lack of a rugged suspension,tranny,engine,axles and the list goes on and on. Yes ,you can off-road in it .But, over the longterm it will have a heavy cost on the vehicle. But, that we all know. If I was interested in doing that I'd invest in a Jeep or Bronco or something that has lots of off-road parts available for it.

Anyhow, my rear lights will be here today and just finishing gel coating the skid plate. I'll be molding the plates soon.

[maxprime]

Ups dropped my rear 2" lights off and I hooked one up to 12v to take a picture. Nice thing is they are hard wired and sealed.

[maxprime]

Ok,since I got my rear lights and had time between coats of tooling gel. I decided to smoke my tail lights and install my new lights.

Here's the pics.

Smoked tail



New lights off


Lights on

[workmeistr]

Great work. I'd like to do the 2" tailight mod, would you list where you got them and the part number, please? I am concerned, though, does this leave any reflectors out back; are there any reflectors in the tailights? For that matter, are there any reflectors in the front? The only ones I can think of are the two red in the rear and the front side turn signals have a little reflective spot.

I for one, am very interested in your skid plate (sic). I drive 30 min. early in the morning and I often drive through thick fog. I would love to be able tastefully mount fog lights down low where they are most effective. Keep up the good work and keep us posted, thanks.

On another point, if I ever rear ended someone with smoked tailights I would make it an issue in my defense. I have tinted my side lights, but opted not to tint rears for safety reasons, and I just don't want to give anyone an excuse after hitting me. I did change my amber turns to red, thinking this was enough of a tailight mod. I would like to do spider light bulbs, though they are expensive.

[maxprime]

I purchased the 2" red tunnel lights from towmart, here's the link:
http://www.towmart.com/2-inch-led-tunnel-light
I used 2" trucklite rubber grommets that I had on stock. But, you can get them at Napa.
I wanted the lights to be flush with the edge of the grommet so I had to cut out the little 1/4" nubs to let the light slide to the very bottom of the grommet. With the nubs intact it seated the light a 1/4" passed the face.
Then I used a 2.25" hole saw from lowes to cut the hole in the bumper cover after I removed the original reflectors.
I have another Vx to do this mod to and I'll a detailed "how to".
As far as reflectors in the front, there is only the round parking light which i'm replacing them with the 2.5" ambers.

Update on the skid plate.
I have two molds that will be finished tomarrow and will be ready to make the plates hopefully later this week "I have to goto the VA hospital thursday" if not, next week for sure.
The plates were made to accept "ONLY" 4" pilot lights and here's a link to see the different types they make and part numbers.
http://www.pilotautomotive.com/pdfs/..._lighting1.pdf
The ones I have are NV-361W. They have a chrome look when off and match the tunnel lights I installed.

So, now the price.
The kit will include the fiberglass skid plate that will be primed and ready to paint ,all stainless steel mounting hardware and your choice of lights installed with cables,relay and switch for $250.00.

If anyone is interested, PM and we can take it from there.

[LittleBeast]

I saw many people have problems with getting read ended with smoked tail lights on the RX-8 club when I had mine. The guy I ended up selling my RX-8 to was rear ended by a semi because he was stopped and turning and his smoked taillights prevented the driver behind him from reacting correctly. He did have major problems when insurance found out he had smoked his brake lights, hiscar that he spent tons of money modifying was totaled and he was in the hospital for a while. Smoking the brake lights is definitely illegal and can get you a ticket anytime you are driving or pulled over. Almost a guaranteed additional citation if pulled over for speeding as well. A car with smoked brake lights also should not pass inspection, good luck with that. I for one would never chance my or my passengers safety to look cool, but once again this is a fast and the furious mod in my opinion, but at least he added 2" accessory lights below which should help but I can't tell if they are hooked up to the driving lights or the brake lights because the stock brake lights look much dimmer now. And now that the taillights are smoked the 2" lights don't match the color of the stock brake lights. But to each there own.

[maxprime]

littlebeast
As for the smoked tail light. If you look carefully. I only smoked between where the lights don't shine and not where the light emits out of the tail light, that is the reason if you look you can see the black seperation on the lens and even on the outer so-called reflective part it is not smoked. The only part that is smoked is the black patch.
As for the need for speed remark, running big wheels with lower profile tires is part of that whole scene. As for me. i'm running 17's with 31" tires. Mine is far from looking like a need for speed car. But, like you say. to each his own.

Update:
I knew you were incorrect about tinting tail lights. But ,I wanted the exact figures before I posted in detail. Since I had to goto the shop and do some powder coating I decided to check my DOT books.

In Pa, you are allowed to tint your tail lights as long as they meet these requirements.

Daytime. The brake light must be visible at 150'
Daytime. No requirement on parking light
Night time. The brake light must be visible at 500'
Night time. The parking light must be visible at 300'
So, they way I did it, it hasn't changed it from factory. But, if I wanted to tint all of the light I could but need to keep with the above requirements.

[Vendetta]

As for the smoked tail light. If you look carefully. I only smoked between where the lights don't shine and not where the light emits out of the tail light, that is the reason if you look you can see the black seperation on the lens and even on the outer so-called reflective part it is not smoked. The only part that is smoked is the black patch.

Nicely done. What did you use to smoke them?
-V

[maxprime]

Nicely done. What did you use to smoke them?
-V

Well, I'll do one better. I'll tell you how exactly I did it.
I started by wet sanding with a grey 3m scuff pad,400 grit ,2000 grit sand paper in that order.When the tail light was dry. I cleaned it with wax & grease remover and wiped it with a tact rag.

Then,I masked off the turn signal,brake, reverse light and the outer reflective ring only leaving the non reflective part exsposed.

Then, I gave it 5 smooth coats of tinted black clear or you could use nightshades and let it dry.
After removing the masking tape. I wet sanded the tinted clear with 400 grit,1500 grit and 2000 grit. I sanded it till there were no high spots and was totally glossless
When that was all dry I cleaned the tail light with wax & grease remover and used a tact rag.
I then sprayed 3 smooth coats of clear and let dry.
Then, I wet sanded from 1500 grit, 2000 grit and buffed with a 3" wool pad and 3m buffing compond to a high gloss.
To finish it off, I hit it with a coat of liquid glass polish.

[VXorado]

The lights look great. I'm tempted to do this myself over the summer to match my front smoked markers.

I really like the fact that the you still have 100% light output.

[Cris]

I love the skid plate the lites are in just the rite place. I've had mine since new in early 2000 one owner me never been off road, would work out great!

[workmeistr]

I didn't mean to make too much about the smokes. I think they look great, I was just making a point that there is an aspect of vulnerability even if 100% of lumens could be proven. The right LED's through smoked should be brighter than incandescent through non-smoked, and the instant-in of the LEDs should further enhance others' reaction time, but...yer still smoked and legally vulnerable, IMHO.

On another note, I'd love to see pictures of your "Go Mango Orange" AMC SX/4; could you post in the for-the-life-of-me-I-can't-find-now "What else do your drive Thread," if you can find it?