FG Ute, F6 Body Kit Install: The Journey

[bupalooga]

Hey guys

Ive recently (well in the last 12 months) put a Genuine F6 body kit on the front of my FG XR6T tonner Ute. After I had a little run in with a fence I decided an upgrade would be better than a repair.

   

So I thought Id document the journey and recorded parts & prices in case anyone else is interested in doing the same thing.

 

 

DECISION

When doing an FPV body kit there are 2 main routs you can take; Genuine or Fiberglass, each with their benefits & drawbacks.

-Basically going genuine will cost a hell of a lot more & you will probably have difficulty finding individual parts for an appropriate price. But it will fit 100% and be plastic meaning it will be more hardy if it catches or scrapes on gutters. The easiest option is to check in with FPV focused wreckers for complete body kits straight off the car.

 

-All after market kits are Fiberglass, which tends to (the internet told me this) crack and splinter more than plastic as it is not as Flexible. It will most likely need massaging & trimming to fit properly and a lot more prep-work for a good paint finish. However... with bumpers on ebay starting from $300 they are far cheaper, especially considering that they have the lower grill surround, upper grill surround & fog light surrounds already in the mold which genuine can cost $300 each & are very hard to find. There are also ones that are molded to suit the XR style headlights if you prefer to keep that look. I would genuinely recommend people go this rout if they have the time to prep the bumper or want to have a go painting it themselves.

 

I went the Genuine rout, mostly because this is a daily work & leisure ute that will certainly see gutters, and because I underestimated how many other parts there where to find, and the cost & difficulty in acquiring them. Just for the front end parts I spent over $2500 before paint.

 

 

SHOPPING LIST

Here is my receipt for the front end & side skirts. Purchasing the bumper in early August 2015 & finally getting my hands on a pair of fog light surrounds in mid January, it was a drawn out process that took a solid 6 Months on eBay, calling wreckers and shopping around. Collected parts from Sydney Special Vehicles, FTG AutoSalvage, Macarthur Auto Parts, eBay sellers: mr.fpv, ikeech, mrcarparts.59 and Gumtree

Genuine:

-FPV Bumper: $900

-FPV Upper Insert : $300

-FPV Upper insert rear molding: $205

-F6 Lower Insert: $250 (slight damage)

-FPV Fog Light surrounds & brackets: $270

-Stone/Splash Guard Extension lip: $100 (bargain)

-FPV Ute Side skirts + Brackets, cabin only: $680

Aftermarket:

-Upper Grill: $210

-Lower side Grills: $140

-F6 Headlights: $199

-Stainless bolts for stone guard: $15

-Short button head screws for grills: $5

 

 

BUMPER

Bumper was the first thing I picked up. Found it on Gumtree, new, never used, was in storage for project that never eventuated so $900 is a good price. All the parts are the same for F6 & GT until you talk about the lower grill area, that's the only difference.

 

Upper Insert & the Upper Insert rear molding. I didn't even know the rear molding existed until I tried to put it all together, It basically clips the front insert & bumper together & provides screw holes for the grill. Luckily the guy I bought the front piece from knew what I was on about because I have never actually seen one listed on eBay. Probably the parts I over-paid the most for.

 

F6 Lower Insert. Mine was missing the tow point cover and had some deep scratches in it that were bogged before painting, but the piece was still a bit pricey.

 

The single hardest part to find for a 'reasonable' price. Eventually came across them on my fortnightly wreckers ring around. There was 2 other pairs I saw previously on eBay but were asking $400+ Chrome plastic surround with metal brackets to mount the fog light.

 

The Splash Shield Extension lip was another part with little information that I only knew existed after asking another forum user. The FPV bumper is about 100mm longer and slightly lower (enough so that I now scrape when parking into gutters with stock suspension) I did however get a good deal on it. Was getting a new splash shield to replace my broken one so I messaged the eBayer about it who happened to have one and threw it in for an extra $100. Which is very good considering there's used lips on eBay atm for $300+. It bolts to the splash shield using existing screws. However mounting to the bumper is apparently done from factory with large plastic rivet thingys, so instead I got some stainless dome head bolts & lock nuts.

 

Here's the Stainless bolts I used for the splash shield, Button head screws for the grills and you'll most likely need extra Scrivits or Christmas tree plugs for re-mounting mud guards, as I got out the angry pliers to remove them.

 

For the Grills I went after market. They're stainless, cheaper, fit perfect, look the same and in the case of the Upper grill don't come with an F6 outline in them, which would look silly if you don't plan to put an F6 badge there. Find them on eBay. There's also the option of a central lower grill but I wanted the open Intercooler look. If going for a GT front the lower grill & insert will be different.

 

There are only 2 shapes of FG headlight; XR & non-XR. Meaning the base model lights are the same as FPV, which keeps the price down for us. I went with aftermarket Sydney Special Vehicles Headlights though because they're cheaper for the same look, you can feel the lacking build quality though. I didn't like the look of the DRL/ fairy light options & already had HID kits ready to attach.

 

Now the Wheel arch splash Guards have an ever so slightly different profile around the bottom of the bumper. You can spend the extra $500 or so on a full FPV set, or do what I did with some cutters to make them fit better & mount solid.

Remove the bottom section of the mud guard.    Cut off the outer screw point.     Then Cut along the back edge about yay far.

You can then remount with that tail part poking under the lip extension and secure in the same position but with only 2 bolts and some new Christmas tree plugs. Profile is still a little different but not $500 different

 

Removing the old bumper involves 2 bolts under the bonnet; either side of the upper grill & then 2 on each corner of the bumper, accessed by pulling back the wheel arch mud guards. There's then 2 small bolts at the back of the under bumper splash shield. Un-clip the corners of the bumper, unplug the fog lights & it should all come off. Swap out the headlights and your good to put on your new bumper. All mounting points line up perfectly so just bolt it all back up.

 

 

SIDE SKIRTS

Now the Side skirts I lost the photos of. (Phone went swimming) But they were Genuine, new & in blue. There is a Chrome insert at the front of each that clips in, which for the pair goes for around $100, however mine came included with them. They also require 4 aluminum brackets (2per side) which I also lost the photos for. The wrecker who quoted me the $680 didn't realize there were brackets at first but called me back once they found out and included the ford brackets new in packaging for me at the same price. (ftgautosalvage, would recommend, were very friendly & helpful even with my regular calls asking for the same parts) I then had the panel beater fit them as I was doing 12hr night shifts at the time, but you could make your own brackets or ghetto rig them up if you wanted.

 

 

PAINT

I had the bumper painted for cheap by a local shop (Not my first choice as they were too busy) when it first showed up. Found the paint code used on 50th turbo wheels and had the fangs painted to match, scratches in the lower insert bogged and painted gloss black black along with the FPV logo section of the bumper. The rest was painted 09 Lightning strike with a pair of indicator mirrors. Left the parts with them, $300 and took about 3 weeks. Result was not good they must have painted the whole thing in the darker colors then masked up & put the silver over top. They're lines & paint job were good but the silver didn't match at all.

So once the side skirts turned up I had them done at my preferred local shop. $800 Left the car with them for a few days. They blended the sides of the bumper into the quarter panels & bonnet. Took 7 blending coats but it turned out 90%, can only fault if your trying to find it at certain angles to the light. Painted & fitted side skirts which came out perfectly and didn't need any blending.

 

 

RESULT

Went from this:

 

To This: Along with a new Bonnet, PW Stage2 Intercooler, side mount number plate, Indicator mirrors, 50th Anniversary Badges, stickers & a Bobblehead!

 

TLDR: Genuine F6 bodykit, spent over $4000, should have bought an F6 to begin with...

I'm now even more scared of roos.

 

Looks F*cking Epic though!

[k31th]

Very nice build/instructions, bro!

[Krazy Kyle]

Great read, and result is mint. Would be very happy with it. Not a cheap ordeal but I think it looks tough.

[Ralph Wiggum]

You should convert yours to xr spec kyle

 

 

 

And chev badge it

[skidxr6t]

paint it lightning strike instead kyle, I hear that really pisses ralph off....

 

 

On 01/06/2016 at 7:51 PM, Ralph Wiggum said:

So much great work and they paint over the greatest colour ever with f'n primer.

 

10/10 ragequit 

 

[OZYWALKER]

Gotta be the best looking work ute ever.

[bupalooga]

Thanks Guys! Ive been meaning to do this write up for a while now, It just took a rainy weekend to keep me at my computer long enough.

Any chance someone could delete that picture at the end of the post? Must have miss clicked somewhere between the proof read & submit button.

[k31th]

3 minutes ago, bupalooga said:

Any chance someone could delete that picture at the end of the post? Must have miss clicked somewhere between the proof read & submit button.

Done

[Johny]

Hi there, 

 

I was just wondering if this items are still available:

-FPV Upper Insert

-FPV Upper insert rear molding

-F6 Lower Insert: (slight damage)

 

Many Thanks 

John Wells