If you decide to do something to your car because you saw it here, please give me credit where it is due! (link to my page w/ my name or something) Thanks.

Body Kit Installation and Body Work Round 2, Page Updated February 13, 2008

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Project Completed in January-February 2008

So, a year after my last paint job and round of body work, it was time to do it again! This time, I removed the side markers, added the Erebuni side skirts and rear bumper, customized a 2002 Corolla front bumper and front lip kit, redid all of my old body work (including the trunk), added a BMW rear lip spoiler, changed my mirrors again, and repaired all of the new dents and rust.

First, I prepared my new mirrors. I removed the covers for the LEDs, I removed the LEDs, I sanded the surface, and I primered them.

I also painted the mirror surrounds black. I will put the mirrors on the car after everything is painted.

I also sanded and primered the 49 inch BMW lip after pulling the LED brake light out. I will put it on after everything is painted. I just laid it on the trunk in this picture to see what it will look like. Don't get a 48 inch long one, because it won't fit very well. It will look better I think with the new non-extended bumper that doesn't stick off the rear as much.

After trying out the third brake light, I determined that it would not be bright enough. After looking carefully at the light, I realized that the 3 mm LEDs were encased in rubber, and the rubber was dispersing the light so that it would be seen from a wider angle. But, I wanted it to be a lot brighter, so I took a knife and cut of the rubber around the LEDs. The left side has been cut. Now that it is all cut, the light will look a lot cleaner in the spoiler.

It is hard to see, but the LEDs on the left are significantly brighter, so they will be usable after all.

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Then, I moved onto the 2002 Corolla front bumper. The first thing to modify was the grille that goes in between the head lights. So, I used a jig saw to cut the grille off of the bumper.

I determined that the grille had to be 5 inches shorter, so I decided to cut out the emblem part of the grille. I made the cut just on either side of the opening for the emblem. You can see the part I cut out behind the grille.

After lining up the grille and the bumper, I used Epoxy and wood to hold the pieces together. It was very strong, so I decided against using fiberglass in addition (since I had never done fiberglass before, I didn't was to mess it all up)

I took the bumper off, which was a pain since I had those HID fog lights on the bumper.

With the bumper off, I realized why my front end never lined up. It is hard to see, but the bumper is closer to the car on the right side than on the left. That is why I never got my head lights to line up and why I had to break the z3 fender in one place to get it to fit. After taking all this stuff off, it looked like my car had smashed into something (not good).

Now, I don't need my bumper, LED turn signals, custom grille, HIDs or fog lights.

With the old bumper off, I tried the new one. The only problem was where the bumper meets the fenders. There is a 1/2 inch part that needs to be cut off so that the bumper sits on the car straight. As you can see, the bumper is at an angle now.

You can see it better in this picture. I drew the line, and cut off the lip with my jig saw.

Now that the lip was removed, I needed a new way to hold the bumper to the fender. This is what I came up with. There is a plastic right angle glued to the bumper. A Popsicle stick is glued over that to hold it to the bumper better. Then, I mounted a bolt facing up where it would go into the fender and be secured with a nut. This alone wasn't strong enough, so I bent an Erector set piece to support the plastic right angle. I used a cable tie to hold the metal to the right angle, and then I covered everything with lots of Epoxy. It is very strong! And now, the bumper is ready to be mounted!

Here is the support bolted to the fender. That was very hard to do, since I had to tighten the nut when it was up in there, and I had to take off the mud flap before I had a chance of getting pliers up there to tighten the nut.

Here are the supports I made to hold the front license plate inside the lower opening rather than just sitting on the the front of the bumper. You can also see where the bumper mounts on the bottom (on the very edges of the picture). I used my drill to make the holes for those two bolts, which used to hold the old bumper on.

Now, it is mounted and ready to be driven! After driving, though, some of the Epoxy broke on the grille. But, Bondo fixed that later. For now, I have cable-tied my LED turn signals in the fog light holes.

Here is the Bondoed front bumper, ready for primer.

I decided to cut out all of the slats in my grille and just have mesh there, so I cut them out and Bondoed the openings. I will put mesh in the opening, just like I did with my previous grille. Finally, after like 4 or 5 coats of primer and sanding in between each coat, it was perfectly smooth and finished! I must say, it looks pretty good. Then, I mounted the front lip with double-sided tape and screws in the wheel well. In this picture, you can see the Erector set used to hold the grille up and in to the radiator support. Also, you can see how the license plate mounts underneath instead of on the front.

I also filled in the pin stripes on each side of the bumper so that it would be nice and clean. You can also see the two screws I used to hold the front lip on each side.

See page 9 for info on the front lip.

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Next, I set out to fix the rust that was really bad around both or the rear wheels on the fenders. At the same time, I would mount my Erebuni side skirts. I had to remove the rear bumper to get to all the rust.

Here is the rust on the driver's side after I sanded it down and applied some paint that converts rust to primer. Yuck!

Almost as bad on the other side, too.

Here it is after I Bondoed and sanded it. I had to remove the rear wheels in order to drill holes for the side skirts.

Here are the two holes I drilled to mount the side skirts. I also had to drill the holes in the side skirts, since they did not come pre-drilled.

Now, it was ready for primer. I made sure to get it up inside the wheel wells, too. Finally, that hole under the gas tank is gone! I had to apply several coats of primer with sanding in between each coat to make it super smooth.

Side skirt is mounted! There are two screws on the back, double-sided tape all along the length of the skirt that I put on there, and ...

one bolt on the front end. This bolt is where the mud guard screws in, so I only had to drill a matching hole in the side skirt. The other side skirt mounted the same way, and now, the side skirts and rust are completed!

See page 9 for info on the body kit.

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Now, onto the Erebuni rear bumper!

You know how the US version has extended bumpers? Well, one of the reasons I got this bumper was because it is not extended. Of course, I found out that it wouldn't fit without tons of modifications, like the front bumper.

Here is the bumper. I had to take off the Styrofoam, and I cut the bumper a lot around the license plate to try to get it to fit. It almost fit, but it was too wide! So, I cut the bumper in half with a circular saw and cut 1 cm out of one half, as you can see. It still didn't fit. So, you see the parts of the bumper that bump out around the license plate?

Gone! I used a circular saw to remove those lol. Now, the bumper almost fit! I had to cut some more fiberglass where the bumper goes under the tail lights.

I put these pieces from the old bumper on the new one. These hold the bumper onto the sides.

Another problem- the tail pipe did not line up with the hole in the bumper. So, I cut one of the springy supports holding the muffler, and I cable-tied it to the side to hold in in place where it should go.

Then, I tried putting my tail pipe cover on. It didn't fit, so I had to saw lots of fiberglass off, as you can see. Now, the tail pipe was done.

Finally, after almost as much work as I went through with the front bumper, I got it on. Those two holes on the bumper ended up not doing anything, so that was a mistake. Now, the tail pipe cover is nice and clean! That license plate area was so ugly, since it was much too big for my plate. That was a challenge to fix.

Here is where it bolts underneath the car in the middle.

It bolts here under the fender.

However, the mount on the passenger side broke, so I had to use more Erector set to mount it here.

I drilled some holes and screwed it on top, too.

If you didn't notice from the rust pictures, the supports for attaching the rear bumper to the rear fenders were completely rusted out. So, I screwed some long screws into the bumper where it would normally mount to the fender. The only thing the screws do is hold the bumper in against the fenders so it is a smooth transition from the bumper to the fender. I had to use long screws so that they would push against metal instead of the Bondo I had used to repair the holes.

Then, I Bondoed the rear bumper. I had to fill the two holes I drilled, plus the crack where I sawed the bumper in half. I also made the opening for the license plate smaller, so now it is the exact size of the plate.

I figured out how to mount the plate so that I could still light it up. I used a 1 inch drill bit to drill down the two top bumps that the plate mounts to, so now the plate is flush on the top. I left the bottom bumps so that the plate would angle a little so the light on top would light up the plate. But, when I drilled the holes, the threads for the bolts to hold the plate on got too big. So, I just put some large drywall anchors into the holes, and the screws that came with them hold the plate on very nicely. No more rusty bolts holding the plate on!

Now, it is primered and sanded perfectly smooth. For the plate light, I am going to use a bar of white LEDs that stick to the bumper above the plate. So, I cut one of the lights out, and I will cut the other light to wire the LEDs to when the car is painted.

See page 9 for info on the body kit.

If you were wondering, I sold the Erebuni front bumper to slowngreen.

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Then, I moved up to the trunk in between the tail lights. Since I was in such a hurry last year, my Bondo job did not last, as you can see in these next two pictures (you can also see how well the plate fits now on the bumper):

So, I started by sanding down the paint. However, it was flaking off everywhere, and there was no way I would be able to use the stock middle piece.

I ripped off the stock piece and took those lights out of the trunk.

I went through a lot of sand paper to remove the remaining paint and Bondo on the trunk. When I smoothed out the trunk before, I didn't even have time to sand off the paint before I Bondoed, so I had to sand off the stock paint, too. Eventually, I had the metal exposed everywhere, and I was ready to start building my trunk again.

I was able to use the altezza middle light on my trunk when I found some different screws that could hold in on (since the ones that came with it broke). With the piece tight on the trunk, I sanded the surface rough and cloudy so that stuff would stick to it. This light is so much easier to use than the stock piece, since it is perfectly smooth all over, because the stock piece said "Corolla" and had several grooves in it. Then, I put some nice and even Bondo over the edges.

Ha, take that! Now, it is so much better than my trunk ever was before.

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Here I am filling the gap between the roof and the fender. Bad picture of me, but you get the idea.

After not doing anything for a day because of snow, I decided it was time to sand the paint. I started with very rough sandpaper, and I used it on my old body work and the dings on the car.

Then, I used very fine sandpaper to sand the entire car. Now, the thing is smoother than before I sanded! I also primered all the spots that needed it.

Yeah, here's another bad picture of me in serious need of a shave and covered with blue dust. There was blue dust everywhere outside.

Here are pictures of right before I took the car to get painted. The entire car is sanded, the grille is cut out, all of the body work is done, all 4 pieces of the body kit are done, and it is relatively clean.

Then, the car went to Maaco for the Presidential paint job for $200 plus tax on sale.

Now, it is painted!

The color is World Rally Blue Pearl from the latest Subaru Sport models. It is my favorite color! (obviously). It doesn't get ANY bluer than this. I got the Presidential paint job at Maaco for $200. A good deal!

I still can't believe how good it looks! I installed mesh and stuff later.

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Don't forget that if you have any help, advice, comments, criticisms, or questions about my car and future mods, please sign my Guest book!

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Table of Contents

My Corolla Today
Page 1: Current Exterior
Page 2: Current Interior
Page 3: Current Engine
Page 4: Current Audio

Corolla Time Lines
Page 5: Phase Time Line
Page 6: Detailed Time Line

Other Stuff
Page 7: Photoshop
Page 8: Look at this page before you buy replacement LED bulbs
Page 9: Details on my current and future mods
Page 10: For Sale!

DIYs and Project Write-ups
Page 11: Bumper light LED retrofit 1
Page 12: Third Brake light LED retrofit
Page 13: Diablo Mirror LED replacement
Page 14: Taillight LED Retrofit 1
Page 15: High Beam DRL Mod
Page 16: Bumper Light LED Retrofit 2, PLUS detailed description of how I do LED mods
Page 17: Painting preparation (details on my fenders, grille, trunk, and Bondo)
Page 18: Side marker LED retrofit and installation
Page 19: HID fog lights and headlights
Page 20:
Interior painting, modifications, and exterior trim painting
Page 21: Installing Halo/LED/Projector headlights
Page 22: Mirror cover LED replacement
Page 23: Installing a new stereo and speakers
Page 24: Body kit installation, front end conversion, and other body work for round 2
Page 25: Retrofitting LEDs into my third mirrors and front turn signals
Page 26: Putting interior LEDs behind the dash and in all the buttons and all over the interior
Page 27: LED tail light retrofit 2 and baking your lights in the oven to remove the lens