Official jdm conversion/aftermarket body thread

you dont need blend , because your repainted your car , so you know the variant and the brand of paint , so it will match perfect .

 

in automotive we blend when we know color are not a perfect match , better to clear adjacent panel than redo the job. i started very young as painter , we will always touch up formula to get close and blending most of time to be safe .

Probably right. I'm not an expert on paint so I'm leaning on their recommendation and what I've gathered over the years from others with pearl paints and blending it in. This is my go-to shop for the past 6 years and they know what I expect out of their work and they deliver. For example, when the car orginally got re-painted they had a younger kid who was just sloppy with the detail in his work and very slightly overtaped the rear quarter and the roof rail. So small you wouldn't see it unless you were really up close and looking for it. They re-did the entire roof and rear quarter and ate the entire cost because "it should have been done right the first time".

Plus I've got a great relationship with them so I'm never paying the standard rate.

I got him down a little, $450 shipped for bumper and beam. Think I'm gonna do it.

You really need to find the JDM headlight brackets as well, they have different bumper attachment points and the JDM bumper fits much better with them.

I had my doors blended when I swapped the JDM front clip because of aged SWP that was impossible to perfectly match and they did a really good job. With polarized sunglasses you can easily see that I didn’t have any surrounding panels painted around my JDM rear bumper.

I had two body shops tell me the same thing. Now that I have a JDM rear bumper to paint and blend too I might as well paint the entire car.

I would never blend a plastic bumper into adjacent panels. That's crazy. Even factory does not do that. Plastic parts are painted separately. They can look off for that reason and also because the plastic parts take paint differently/use different mix.

Of course if you paint like 60%+ of the car anyway, might as well paint the whole thing.

I had two body shops tell me the same thing. Now that I have a JDM rear bumper to paint and blend too I might as well paint the entire car.

The thing to remember is front clip includes fenders. That's why you'd want to blend the doors. Not because of the bumper.

I'm hoping to avoid painting a quarter any time soon just because of all the extra stuff that has to come off. Unless insurance is paying for it.

Oh look. It's become the how to paint your car thread. Really I'm just jealous everyone is going out and painting their cars.

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You need the fenders for postface lifts only.

Or if you are going post-facelift to pre-facelift. (like I am)

Or if you are going post-facelift to pre-facelift. (like I am)

Ooh, that's different. You have the fenders already? I was going to post mine for sale but I can see that being a stretch and me just giving them away.

Or if you are going post-facelift to pre-facelift. (like I am)

You're right. But you're the first I hear doing this. Interesting.

Funds sent for bumper and beam. Joining the JDM conversation club!

Anyone know who's selling the headlight brackets? If anyone can get them included in an order easily too I'd pay for them up front.

Funds sent for bumper and beam. Joining the JDM conversation club!

 

Anyone know who's selling the headlight brackets? If anyone can get them included in an order easily too I'd pay for them up front.

I got them new from Partsouq.com. I accidentally purchased pre-facelift first before buying the post-facelift. I am fairly sure it was InfoSecDad that I sold the pre-facelift ones to.

57707AG060 and 57707AG070 are the part numbers.

Probably right. I'm not an expert on paint so I'm leaning on their recommendation and what I've gathered over the years from others with pearl paints and blending it in. This is my go-to shop for the past 6 years and they know what I expect out of their work and they deliver. For example, when the car orginally got re-painted they had a younger kid who was just sloppy with the detail in his work and very slightly overtaped the rear quarter and the roof rail. So small you wouldn't see it unless you were really up close and looking for it. They re-did the entire roof and rear quarter and ate the entire cost because "it should have been done right the first time".

 

Plus I've got a great relationship with them so I'm never paying the standard rate.

like you say relationship first , now they are professional so they know the way to go . i usually don't give advice , there is not only one way to do thing. .

Yes, any facelifted JDM/EDM Legacy fender will work. No USDM Legacy will work and JDM/USDM/EDM Outback will have the flares and won’t look/work right.

Is this the case if I just wanted to run jdm facelift headlights on my usdm 09, with keeping the usdm front bumper? I just want the headlights, I know the brackets and rewire are required.

Everything is required if you want to run the jdm facelift headlights. These headlights are a little different than usdm. If you want them, you need the bumper, bumper beam, fenders, and hood.

Don't need the hood.

Someone on the Facebook group posted a JDM wagon bumper with the usdm headlights and fenders not sure how they made that work. But it can be done.

If you're talking about Bo (Bl5Bo on here) with a plasti-dipped white sedan, he cut the nib on the jdm facelift bumper and it lined up perfectly. What this guy wants to do is the opposite though, usdm bumper with jdm facelift lights.