Just so that people are aware, I have never used a dremmel in anger before (apart from my simple rear clam & my side scoop mods) or attempted anything like this before!
...The VX is a great car. When it first came out, it looked fresh & interesting. However, I have always found the lower front & lower rear more than a little bit boring & now appears dated.
Over the years I have seen numerous peoples VX conversions & major body modifications. Very few have to my eye looked like an improvement. Minor vent additions have made the best additions.
That said, I'm about to throw my hat in ring & leave myself open to ridicule & people saying 'Nope, that doesn't work either.'
That's Ok, I'm thick skinned & it's my car. If it looks Sh!t, I will hold my hands up & just fit a new VX clam with 'Robin' vents.
I wanted the extensive changes to sit comfortably with the VX design theme & dare I say it, hopefully, bring it up-to-date without making it a Frankenstein freak. Not easy to do and at the moment, I don't know if I will achieve my goals.
I looked at many cars that I liked but had to obviously choose one that I thought would work well with the overall VX design & that was readily available
I wanted to ensure that the conversion was cheap, so second-hand parts are being used. I also wanted the conversion to be relatively easy to do by anyone wishing to do the same, although the first (mine) will be the most time-consuming & now that I have started, far more involved than I thought. I can, if there is interest, make a master mould of the major frontal part. The upper clam will require changes as I'm using headlights that are a totally different shape. Firstly, because I don't have any VX headlights now & secondly because they are fetching stupid money now. If the original headlights are retained though, then this conversion will be very straightforward indeed. (That's if you like it!!!)
I really didn't want to affect the crash box structure in any way. I also wanted to retain all the original front clam fixings if possible. I've always disliked my front grill opening. the VX looks far better with the V logo, than without IMHO. Another addition I wanted was to have front air vents.
SO, what am I doing?
Ok, I have purposely retained the original front wheel arches including the all-important arch reinforcement structure & fixing points. more on this later.
All Radiator housing fixings & crash box fixings will be retained I will also be fitting new brackets & additional fixings to my new front end, which will use many of these fixing points.
What have I done so far? And, what car did I base the new front end on? Any guesses?
I will post up additional photos soon of progress thus far, It will look a little 'Heath Robinson' at the moment, as I can't make most of the changes as I am awaiting the headlights, which is preventing me from making the correct critical cuts. But, it will leave you in no doubt as to which car I have chosen.
Oh, and my rear conversion is even madder than the front and comes from a TOTALLY different car, which I'm sure NO ONE will guess correctly!
