Just out of curiosity.. how many of you have a bodykit and drive during the winter?
I want a bodykit for my baby but im not sure how that would work during the winter so just wondering how that works for you guys?

Thanks

 

I've noticed some people here have kits. Depends on the type of material

 

I thought about removing mine during the winter(and have a spare bumper to do so) but got lazy and didnt go thru with it. As long as its high quality material and you sudden dont become a different type of drive during the change of the season you should be fine.
I know AltSpace switches out during the seasons, from oem to Mazdaspeed.

 

I have Mazda speed front end and aero package sides and mud guards, as they said if the material is good it will hold up. I slid into a ditch and i couldn't stick my finger under my car and they had to hook a cable in the front of my rear tire. No damage at all, sometimes im a RX8Snow plow with Mazda speed front end.

 

Avoid anything fiberglass. It'll shatter as soon as you touch it.

The MS kit is really your best option if you want to do this.

 

Completely and utterly false.

 

Come look at my front end and then say that. The tiniest tap will get you cracks. I've fixed it 3 times now (and no, not a hack job with bondo, with new fiberglass mat and resin) and it still barely holds up to taps when it's warm, forget about when it's cold.

I'll be selling the kit as soon as I have time to fix it up again.

 

I was always under the impression that FRP bumpers are more durable than the stock plastic bumpers? I have a hybrid FRP and haven't had any problems.

 

OEM Polyurethane bumpers will usually dent instead of cracking if you hit them. Yes it is still possible to crack them, but they are much more durable because they flex more than fiberglass does, so minor taps won't really do anything.

A good medium sized hit may dent an OEM bumper but can shatter a fiberglass bumper (and yes, I've hit both several times -- Autocross cones can hit pretty hard). I'm not saying polyurethane is crack-proof, far from it, but it'll take a lot more to crack it than fiberglass. At least, the OEM ones, there are cheaper polyurethane ones out there that are thinner and not as strong.

There's a thread somewhere in the racing section about this.

 

My AutoExe bumper is Fiberglass and it has with stood two curbs a full retread at 70mph and several small furry squirells as well as uncounted steep driveway entrances both pulling in and backing out, and not a single crack. The paint has all kinds of stress fractures, but the fiberglass does not, not to say that under the chin isnt ground down from the driveways. It all comes down to the quality of the part, garbage in, garbage out.

 

Im not going to get too much into the details but our bumpers arent even polyurethane, thier plastic injected parts and I cant recall off the top of my head what the actual compound is but like you said its much more tolerant of full on cracks than cheap "poly" parts

 

thanks for all the imput guys! I decided to go for the mazdaspeed kit but then when checking for prices and all that i read that is not in production anymore, is that true

 

it's still in production I believe. Just hard to find
Only problem is, it doesn't come painted, nor does it come with fog light mounting brackets (if you have them).
And it's pricey...

 

The MS kit is no longer in production, whatever kits any vendors have are it, so its gonna be hit or miss wether you can get it in the color you want, I believe Mazdatrix still has some.

 

Meh. An aftermarket kit is only as good as the materials used and the slap monkey they have building them (EX, get from a good shop and you get quality, by from a **** one and you get.. well.. what you paid for).

For the MS kits, there are still a few floating around in the US... but pretty much nothing left in Canada... and has been that way for eons. That being said, I'd buy it in the states anyways. For some reason as the CDN dollar increased, Mazda Canada decided to jack the prices of the MS kit to absolutely weeetaaadid prices.

 

Mazdaspeed.