Originally Posted by ShineProject

Since I am an insider in this particular industry, I will try my best to give you guys all the information you need to know.

Replica or Real thing ??

From my past working experience in the industry and what I've seen with my own two eyes, I would not buy replicas made from overseas manufacturers such as CHINA, Indonesia, Phillipines or Mexico. Simply because their standards for fiberglass quality is ,generally, very low. I've seen products from pretty much all the big players in this game and the quality is unnacceptable. Most of the big replica companies in this industry manufacture overseas because material and labor are cheap. That's why they can sell a full body kit for $300-600. They're usually thinking quantity, not quality. In the world of composites, most parts are hand-maid where the skill and attention of the applicator plays a huge role in the final quality of a part. Composites is not about an injection molding machine pumping out 100 parts a day. Every fiberglass bodykit is pretty much hand-crafted and if your mindset is "crank out as many parts as fast as i can", then your quality will diminish. If you're working with cheaper/inferior materials, your products will reflect that. Most of the time, these manufacturers in China for example, don't have our particular cars to test fit products before they make a mold or after their product is made. And you wonder why they can't get a product to fit. They didn't take necessary precautions and standard steps involved in producing quality composite parts. There are alot of steps involved in making sure a mold is right. This is where SKILLZ come in to play.

Take a look at this scenario:

Replica company Z has 50 bumpers of "X" style body kit arriving in a container from CHINA (1 month travel time perhaps), which they have no CLUE whatsoever to the quality of the fitment of the product. They sell the bumper to a customer. Customer tries it on. Guess what? Sh*t doesnt fit and is waay off. Now what? Customer tells company Z, "stuff doesnt fit." Now what? Is company Z going to send the parts back to China and restart on the project again (with no car to test fit in China), which could take several months and STILL not be gauranteed to fit? The answer is HELL NO. They're gonna sell you that sh*t KNOWING that it doesn't fit and get some money out of it. They're going to charge you a 25% restocking fee. 25% from retail price is already more than what they paid for the bumper. And to avoid further headaches, they're going to sell indirectly to you through a myriad of other companies (most of them are on ebay), so they don't have to hear you ***** and complain about the quality of their product. They're going to sucker you in with the low price. Well guess what...you get what you pay for. Some will even charge you a high price and STILL give you sh*tty product. This is why EBAY transactons are notorious for scams, poor customer service, and poor quality products.

If I did not see the replica bumper in person with my own two eyes, then I wouldn't buy it. If they have a reasonable refund policy, then sure... I would try it out. What do I have to lose? But the fact of the matter is, most don't have a full refund policy.

These are some of things I look at to determine the quality of a fiberglass body kit:

#1. Fitment. The damn thing better fit right without MAJOR body work.

#2. Construction. Is it light? Or is it heavy and brittle.

$3. Is everything symmetrical. The straight line better be straight and the curves better be nice mathematical curves.

#4. Gel coat finish. Is this bumper going to require alot of body work? U.S labor is not cheap. Body shops charge $35-$50 an hour. I deal alot with a well know bodyshop called DTMAUTOHAUS in El Monte, CA. Check them out. www.dtmautohaus.com. They tell me all the time that customers think they are getting a good deal when they purchase a cheap replica, only to find out that the work required from the body shop to make the parts look "decent" on the car would cost them almost as much as buying the real thing.

If the replica did not meet these criterias, I would not buy. Think about it guys. If you're going to spend $$$ hundreds of dollars on a paint job, why not spend it on a good product that holds respect, thus good "resale" value among the community?

I'm not too sure about this, but I believe Version Select is a Japanese replicating company whose line-up are usually Gp sports and Vertex replicas. I've seen their stuff in person and it looks like typical Japanese construction. Light-weight, clean construction........unlike stuff coming from China that's for sure. That is why a Version Select Vertex Full kit replica is $700-950 retail and a Chinese made replica of the same style is $400-$500. Make sense?

Now.....let me tell you guys a little something about what goes on in the Japanese aero-aftermarket industry. We have the rarest and most expensive "authentic" Japanese body kits move in and out of our warehouse everyday, so I believe I have the knowledge to explain to you guys about "authentic" body kits from Japan that you might not realize.