Most body kits consist of replacement front and rear bumpers and a pair of sideskirts.

Bumper Installation

First unfasten your factory bumper. For most cars, this will require removal of the headlights and tail lights. You will find the factory bumper bolts and clips located in these areas: under the headlights and tail lights, near the hood and trunk latches, inside the fender wells, and in many cases in hard-to-reach places likes on a flange deep on the underside of the bumper on a flange connecting to the fenders. Make sure to keep all the hardware, because it will need to be used to bolt the body kit bumpers back on.

After the bumper is off, then first ‘dry fit’ the body kit bumper. Do this just to be sure you got the right one, to be sure it looks like it’s going to fit ok, and also to mark with a pen all the mounting points on the bumper. This is done because most body kits do not come pre-drilled, meaning you have to drill your own holes in the body kit. With most body kits you are expected to mount the body kit bumpers to the same place the factory bumpers are mounted, so mark the bumper at all locations where a hole will need to be drilled in order to bolt it up to the factory mounting points.

Next drill the holes as marked. Then, using the bolts and clips from your factory bumper that you saved, bolt up the body kit bumpers using all the same mounting points as the factory bumpers. Voila, the body kit bumpers are on.

Sideskirts Installation

First do a ‘dry fit’ of the sideskirts, fitting them up to your car. Most sideskirts are made to fit over the top of your factory rocker panels. Most sideskirts have a ‘lip’ that goes beneath the doors of your car but on top of the rocker panel on the door jam. That is a mounting lip. Do the dry fit in order to ensure that you got the right product, to ensure the product fits appropriately, and to mark your planned mounting points.

Sideskirts should be mounted inside each fender well using pop rivets. They should also, when possible, be mounted in the door jam on the lip of the sideskirt for extra adherance (also using pop rivets). After you pop rivet both sideskirts on, you’re all done with the installation!

Tools:
Philip’s screw driver Needle nose pliers (optional)
Flathead screw driver Glass cleaner (optional)

Step one:
Remove the Philip’s screw from the plastic roof latch cover and remove the cover. Also remove the two rubber stoppers that hold the roof in place. Pry off the four factory push clips out of the rear trunk lining and lay the lining over into the trunk (may need to use a flathead screw driver or pliers to pry the clips off).

Step two:
Remove the four nuts that are holding each tail light in place with an 8 mm wrench from the inside of the trunk. Disconnect the tail light harness clip (a small flathead screw driver may be necessary). Hold the tail light in place while doing this so that it doesn’t fall out.

Step three:
Gently push the tail lights outwards from the inside of the trunk. Make sure the foam guard comes out with the tail light. It is not necessary to keep this foam guard as long as there is a new one included with the aftermarket tail lights.

Step four:
Remove the four bulbs from the tail light housing. Turn them approximately ninety degrees and pull straight back as to not crack the bulbs. Check all bulbs before installing them into the new housings to ensure they are not cracked or burnt out. Replace any bulbs if necessary.

Step five:
Replace the bulbs into the new tail light housings. The location of the bulbs may be slightly different in the new housings so be sure to note which bulb is used for signalling, reversing and braking.

Step six:
Once all the bulbs are securely in place, put the new tail light back onto the car and line up all the threads into the existing holes. Replace the 8 mm nuts and only tighten until they are snug. Over tightening will cause cracking and/or damage of the new tail light. Plug the harness clip back in.

Step seven:
Check all the lights to make sure they are functioning properly. Another person is necessary for this task.

Step seven:
Place the trunk lining back together and replace the factory push clips, the rubber stoppers and the roof latch cover and tighten the Philips screw.

Step eight:
Wipe off any fingerprints on the tail lights and the installation is complete.

The new, silver 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8 received a one-of-a-kind paint scheme design by PPG master painter and instructor Paul Stoll and was painted by renowned street rod painter Charley Hutton of Charley Hutton Color Studio. Hutton recently partnered with PPG and is best known for his appearances on the American Hot Rod television show. The paint treatment, a bold combination of blue and Hemi orange, uses PPG’s environmentally-friendly EnvirobaseR High Performance waterborne coatings.

“This is one fabulous car,” said Kurt Busch, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger for Penske Racing. “The design is genuinely spectacular and the finish is absolutely great-looking. I’m delighted with what PPG has done and how they’ve helped the foundation. They’ve done a stand-out job on this car. Someone is going to be very happy driving this amazing Dodge around town.”

“I really enjoyed this project. Knowing that I was painting the car for such a good cause made it all very special and rewarding,” said Hutton. “Plus, Envirobase HP is a phenomenal product. It is easy to spray and lays down perfectly. This car is an award looking car.”

The charity car raffle commences today, and will go through September 29, 2009. The winner will be announced at www.kurtbusch.com on September 30th.

Purchase tickets for $100.00 each.

All proceeds will go to the foundation and will benefit The Kurt Busch Superdome which is an indoor, climate controlled, sports facility located at The Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman, NC.

Two of the most common modifications you can add to a car are a high performance intake and upgrades to the exhaust system. It could be headers, high flow catalytic converters or a cat-back exhaust system. There are a couple of different option when it comes to aftermarket intake systems you have cold air and also short ram intakes. Each of them with pros and cons but research is always good before you purchase one, taking on count the look of it and also the performance should be always key components on deciding which brand to go with. There are a variety of reviews and even dyno testing in the most commonly known name brands, it’s always good to check out those dyno results because they provide actual information on performance.

Another very common upgrade to gain a bit more performance out of your engine is a cat back exhaust system; they are less restrictive and also add a nice tone to the car. In purchasing a cat-back personally I have always shopped around based on horsepower gain and also sound. In my opinion sound is essential to either “make” or “break” your car, if your car looks “clean” you probably will want to get an exhaust that will go with the look and also will perform both in power and sound up to quality of the rest of the car.