I finally received the Andy's Autosport bodykit. Through my site I met a guy who imported this kit from America a couple of months ago. Because he bought a house and had to sell his Prelude, he no longer needed the kit. I was able to buy it from him for a good price. Beside you see the front bumper which will make my car look much better.
Two friends are holding the bumper in place here, so I can see how it looks and how the fitment is. On first sight this bumper won't need much work. The only thing requiring some precision, is mounting it on the bumper stay. And the bumper will need to be sanded completely. Now I've got to find some applicable clear corner lights.
Here's a photo of what the front bumper will look like.
The rear bumper needs more work, unfortunately. The previous owner had already started modifying the sides. I'm planning to remove the small lower part of the bumper, because now there are two cutouts for two muffler tips, while I'm going for just one. To close up the left cutout isn't an option, as it would make the bumper asymmetrical.
The rear bumper is held in place as well to see the fitment. The right side had unfortunately been modified by the previous owner. Both sides stick out a little, but little has to be done about that. The bumper is quite flexible in these areas and by gently pushing it inward, the fitment is okay.
Here's a photo to, again, show what the rear bumper is going to look like. The large see-through holes in the mid will be closed by black mesh, and as said I'm going for one muffler.
These side skirts are part of the bodykit as well, but for me they're worthless; I don't like their shape and fitment is a nightmare. So I sold them.
Still, a lot of Preludes in America are driving around with the complete kit. They probably went through the trouble of fitting them, or they had it done for them. You can't argue with taste, but in my opinion there are too much curves in them.
By incident I found out that skirts meant for a Celica T18 (1990-1994) actually fitted very well. I already had some replicas made of these side skirts, making my kit complete. They look clean and I think they match the design of the front- and rear bumper pretty well.
The rear of the side skirt, as you can see, perfectly lines up with the wheel well. The 'shark fin' almost fits seamlessly. I will ultimately mold this into the body so that there won't be seams visible.
The length of the skirt is perfect and seen from the front it looks very nice. The flared area in the front does leave a one centimeter gap between skirt and fender, but I don't think it will be hard to fix. I'll mold the front seamlessly into the front fender as well.
Fitting the other side. It does make the car look much better.
The plans for the rear bumper have also changed drastically. I always liked this FX-designs rear bumper from Canada better than the Andy's one, but it was practically impossible to get it here for a reasonable price, because FX-designs wouldn't ship the bumper to Europe. After a lot of mailing around and research, I finally found a way to get it here for a fair price.
After paying a ridiculous amount of import taxes I was allowed to take the Canadian rear bumper with me. As soon as I took the bumper out of the box however, I noticed something wasn't right. FX designs sent me a bumper for the 88-89 type, whereas I ordered one for the 90-91 type. I immediately called FX designs and told them they had sent me the wrong version. But according to them, there are no differences between the 88-89 and 90-91 bumpers. The photos below prove I'm right. On the right the differences between the FX designs bumper and the Andy's.
As you can see, the bumper doesn't line up with the taillights at all. I have no idea how I'm going to solve this problem yet. Sending it back to Canada isn't an option - it would be way too expensive. I may be able to custom fit it, but I really rather wouldn't try. In the mean time, I contacted FX designs again, and I'm certain they'll fix this problem somehow.
There's a gap of 1.5 centimeter between the bumper and the taillights. This looks awful.
Here a few more shots of the two aftermarket bumpers. The FX designs bumper is less round than the Andy's, which is why I think it better fits the rest of the kit. I'm going to remove the cutouts for the LED's and fill them up.
I'm keeping the two lower extending fins. The finish of both bumpers is about the same. The Andy's bumper has already been sold, by the way.
