Saleen Kit Install in Progress

sirpoofington

New Member
Jul 20, 2006
11
1
0
Introduction Hey all, just thought I'd give a quick write-up while I have some down time during my saleen body kit install. Pics coming soon for those of you interested. My base car is a 2004 Mustang GT in Dark Shadow Grey. I bought the kit from underground mustang via ebay. Price was right, service was excellent, if you want a good experience give em a call. That being said, I received the kit after a short backorder lag from saleen. Sent it out for paint at a reputable local shop and received it promptly after it was finished.

A Warning First off, TEST FIT ALL YOUR PARTS BEFORE PAINT! This was an overlooked step on my part, and has provided a bit of frustration, though I don't believe any body shop could have done anything about it even if I had test fit it. It wasn't feasible for me because I needed the least downtime and taking all the ground effects off my car makes it somewhat difficult to drive. More on that later.

Paint/Prep The paint turned out as well as I expected. I had the paint guy follow saleen's instructions. As most of you who have read anything about saleen kit paint and prep, he had a bear of a time with pits, gouges, and overall poor quality of the materials. All said and done it cost me $1200 for the prep and paint, that included front and rear bumper covers, side skirts, side scoops, rear spoiler and a cervini's hood.

Installation Intro Installation time had arrived. Taking everything off the car is pretty remedial, the hardest part was removing the rear seat interior panels. I do recommend this though, as you'll be able to do the installation right. The new side scoops bolt on instead of clip on like the stock scoops, so you won't be able to do anything without removing the interior trim panels and back seat. Good enough for me, I wanted a rear seat delete anyway.

Instructions The front bumper was by far the easiest part to install. The instructions given by saleen for the entire kit don't quite match the current molds they must be using to make their parts, as some of the instructions weren't applicable, and other instructions that should have been there weren't. If you have some patience you'll be alright though.

Bumper Covers You must reuse the stock bumper cover brackets both front and rear. One thing I had to do to get proper fitment was cut roughly 1/4 inch off the top of the stock brackets (there's a little valley in the bracket on the upper edge, I cut right about the lower level of that valley.) This allows you to get the bumper covers lower on the body, as the bracket will now fit higher inside the piece. The bumper covers wanted to sit too high and interfere with the fender when using the stock bracket positions. The brackets attach to the new bumper covers with one 3/16" rivet for each bracket. I recommend getting some thin fender washers to put under the head of the rivets as they tended to pull through the oversized hole they were put into. The rest of the directions for the bumper covers were pretty accurate, no real problems aside from the brackets.

Side Skirts I just installed the side skirts and they have their own set of problems. They are a very small amount too short lengthwise, and so it requires some finesse getting them on the car. The parts are quite bendable, and I ended up using small plastic wedges to guide the piece around the fender well lips both front and back. The two small pieces of double sided tape at either end of the skit (the pieces that run driver to passenger, no the length of the car) aren't really necessary in my opinion, and reduce clearance somewhat when installing the piece. The skirt is secure enough with the sheet metal screws provided to thread into either end of the skirt.

Sidenote I would recommend giving the pieces a day or two of warmth to take shape and expand as the car puts stress on them in one direction or the other, then come back, re-evaluate the fitment, and adjust as necessary.

Hood The hood install was very easy, two people required of course, not much to screw up here. Cervini's stalker hood (mach ii hood to other manufacturers) fit very well, the paint guy had no problems with the quality such as wavy fiberglass or anything.

Side Scoops The side scoops are time consuming to say the least. Much double sided tape and removal of interior trim necessary. The body also has a slight curve to it where the scoops mount, and the scoops are molded pretty flat, so some clamps (wood clamps, body clamps, etc) are very helpful. Cover the ends of the clamps in some non abrasive material, and position them at the leading edge of the scoop to hold it in place while you tighten the bolts which are at the rear edge of the new scoop. This will ensure it is installed flat, and the double sided tape will have a good pressure applied to it to ensure it sticks. I used a 3M underbody coating and masking tape (as instructed) to cover the holes that will not be used with the new scoop. There are about a half dozen holes which were used to fasten the old scoop that are covered using this method. Some good poof can skills and a good amount of masking off the surrounding area provides for a good coat. I put a good base coat and two light coats over the course of a few days and it did a bang up job.

Spoiler The spoiler is the last piece I have to install. It turned out the best by far from the paint shop. Problems I forsee upon fitup are that the leading edge of the wing doesn't quite cover the old taillight hole (I removed the old third brakelight in order to wire up the new LED third brakelight) without some forward pressure to bend the wing some. This will put some unwanted pressure on the double sided tape used to hold a large part of the wing down. The double sided tape also provides the primary method of sealing out water and debris from under the wing, and therefore into my trunk. So do a good job making a nice tight boarder around the underside of the wing using the double sided tape.

Extra Parts Info Saleen doesn't provide enough double sided tape with the kit. But the local autozone carries a decent replacement 3m tape that I picked up and works well enough. You will have to buy 3m automotive adhesion promoter. I had to order it off ebay because the parts stores only stocked adhesion promoter for part-to-paint adhesion, not tape-to-part adhesion. This stuff will be necessary for a good long lasting adhesion, SO DON'T SKIP IT!

As is par for the course lots of time will be spent putting on all the black grill work in the ground effects, as well as much time spent cleaning mounting surfaces and surfaces under parts that haven't seen the light of day since the car was built.

Bottom line: take your time, have lots of patience, and be prepared for lots of trips to the hardware store for miscellaneous screws and solvents and whatnot.

Conclusion This kit is very expensive, the prep is equally as expensive, the installation is a pain, but I can't put a price on having a car that looks just the way I want it. So if you're planning on doing this mod, be prepared for lots of headache. You could pay a body guy to put the kit on, but what fun is that? Somehow I doubt he would have any easier time with these parts anyway. There's not much more he could do that you can't, but he's got the hours experience doing this stuff. So it's up to you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
  • Sponsors (?)