Modding a KnightBus

Hello,
At the start of the school holidays my partner started modding my zafira for me - I thought I'd try to keep you all up to date as it progresses.
Angel




This is how it was 2 months ago - un-touched.


And then I bought a kit which then meant I needed bigger wheels to lift the car higher off the road.

!

I couldn't get the wheels I wanted but opted for these to get things underway - I'll get some different ones later on down the line.



These were the ones I wanted!




And then designing!

THis is a sketch of the shape it should be.



Lining up the rear valance with the bumper and exhaust.



And then the front was screwed and glued after cutting 2" off the front to clear the dip at the end of my road - and to make speed bumps easier!



And then we got playful with the headlights and come up with this -




They don't make after market headlights for a zafira so we customised my own - will add halo's when I recieve them!

Then we started playing with the rear bumper - where to put the number plate.



And a big hole was cut in valance and a lightbox built in it to light up the numberplate in the dark.



The number light bulbs



And this took hours of work to build it up to accommodate the number plate - in a resess rather than just screwing it on.



And was finally finished.

Getting bored with the filler work - my lovely man started fiddling.



And the bonnet grew!
Always wanting one on the Astra - and them never making them for the zafira, he got to work with the welder and only a few hours later......



Produced this - I love it!
It still needs blending in - but you get the effect.



Then the bonnet has been off and on for blending and filling and sanding and it took at least 10 hours so far and still needs final work before it gets painted.



and so I am driving around with it like this!



At the moment only from the mouldings down are getting sprayed. My father-in-law is spraying it and they haven't really got the room or the equipment at the workshop to do the whole car - the roof being their biggest problem.

If I was to have the whole car re-sprayed I think I would opt for having it filmed as I've been quoted £2000 to have it done then any designs I wanted would just be printed on to a coloured background and filmed all in one go.

I am not keen on the blue it is but have little choice at the moment.

I will be airbrushing shooting stars up the sides in silver/purple. And maybe if Im feeling brave be either airbrushing a fairy on the boot lid once its smoothed out - depends how my practices goes - the original idea was to take a photo of my kids and make them in to angels/pixies - with wings and pointy ears - that sort of thing - but we'll see.
I've been looking at some photos of airbrushing and have seen some nice ideas - which are added to this post.

I have also added my first attempt of airbrushing a fairy Hopefully with practice I'll improve - otherwise its £550 for that design.



I like the idea of this one but not her being quite so naked!



And this one I really love but the boot lid is not big enough to fit it on.



Love this one but I will never be able to paint something like that and I think the cost of having this sort of thing would be about £1200 - where I would rather put the money towards getting it filmed instead.



This is what I think I will end up doing - nice and simple.



What I was going to do - and below my 1st attempt!



I have been busy cutting out the design for the sides



And my partner got to work welding on the bootlid









And just to prove - I helped!





I tried to design something to have cut into the bonnet and come up with something like this



Whilst my partner does all the hard work I practice airbrushing and have decided

to give up with humans



This is supposed to be my 9month old son!

And thats it so far - have come to a stand still as work as picked up again and just dont have enough time to get the bus into the workshop.

Left to do:

fit halo lights into the headlights
tint and spray the rear lights with body colour
sideskirts still need filler work
bumpers still need final prep work
bonnet still needs a couple layers of filler
bootlid also needs a couple more layers of filler
Windows still need tinting
wheels need painting
bonnet needs cutting and meshed
bumpers need meshing after painting
painting!
designs on sides and bootlid airbrushed
lots of clear coats
sunstrip fitted
dents removed
polished

AND thats not all of it!

Thats alot of work, i like the bit across the bonnet

Scottzaf wrote:Thats alot of work

Your telling me.

Any timescale for completion?

i do like the smoothed boot look.

perhaps a vauxhall logo spaced out across the boot would look uber cool?

Initially I expected about a year to complete the car (outside only) but my mans amazing determination has got so much done in the last 2 months that I give it about 6 months. Where work has picked up he cant get the car in the workshop as easily which means long wkends and late nights which neither of us can be bothered with at the moment.

The funny thing is it seems to annoys others more it looking that way than me - but then I have the satisfaction of pissing the nosey neighbours off! I have the local ex-mayoress and current councillor 3 doors up from me and I just love her reactions as I drive past!

My friends mum thought the car had caught fire and my next door neighbour thought it had gone rusty - its amazing to tell them its supposed to look that way.

Strangly enough my dad thinks it looks great - (he's a matrix driver! and soooooo not in with the car thing let alone modifying thing)

The car has had a few more layers of filler on the tail gate - but still not completely smoothed out yet. I am looking into tinting the rear lights soon too.

Its a great project, will look mad when done

Angel wrote:My friends mum thought the car had caught fire and my next door neighbour thought it had gone rusty - its amazing to tell them its supposed to look that way.

Class ... would love to have seen their faces when you told them

Have decided on trying this one out on the boot

Been having a practice









As you can tell got very pissed off towards the end.

((just the spraying took me 4 hours today) the drawing and masking out was about the same yesterday)

looking good so far,

is this you?


as thought you was the 1 in your avatar

Yep thats my fat arse!

And yep thats a piccy me in the avatar (when I was slaughtered at my 25th birthday party )

I dont wear my wings everywhere I go

I am picking up the kids from school then heading down to the workshop to have the front bumper removed and primered properly and the halo's added to my headlights YEAY! THe front bumper will hopefully be painted morrow so I'll be drving around with no bumper for few days

Angel wrote:THe front bumper will hopefully be painted morrow so I'll be drving around with no bumper for few days

Errrrrrr ... is that legal?

As long as there aren't any sharp edges then yeah - you can get away with it. So everything gets stuffed with tissue then gaffa taped up - even more appealing!

Today I got as far as taking all the screws out of the headlight and taking the switches off when my son decided he couldn't wait any longer and wanted his dinner so they were promptly put back together and I shall try again morrow with the HALOS

Hmmmm ...... a gaffer tape bumper, we need pictures

AndyM wrote:Hmmmm ...... a gaffer tape bumper, we need pictures

Apparently he didn't bother gaffer taping it up when he come home last night.
Hopefully just one more night and I can have it back morrow.

Bumper got all painted today




And Halos added too!

Looking really good.

Couple of questions. May sound stupid but how did you colour the inside of the headlights and do the angel eye's.

Cheers