Grand Am GT skirts on Alero
 

When i bought my car it had rust behind the door and back. Its been driving me crazy so i stopped the rust and filled the holes to stop it from getting worse. I bought the side skirts of a grand am that someone i knew was junking. They should fit and cover the rust, has anyone else done this before? What are your thoughts?

Yeah someone on here awhile back posted a photo of them having SE grand am side skirts on there alero, imo doesnt flow but hey, to each their own.

There's been a couple guys with full body kits that have used the grand am gt side panels... looks ok but still out of place on the alero...
pretty sure it was crazy taxi with the aed kit and fisdad with the razzi kit...

Nope, both used razzi sides for the razzi kits they had.

Yeah im really iffy on it. I've done alot of work making everything cleaner and under the hood I've spent alot of time. I just hate seeing that damn rust... such am eye sore and its a pretty big section i don't want to try bondo and skirts look like the better option.

If i do go through with the skirts i might change out the front bumper with the Razzi one. (i believe that's who makes it)

Even better, take it to a shop to cut out the bad, replace with good metal, and seal the area for rust prevention, thats what i would do.

Do you have a coupe or sedan?

I read your sig. You have a honda with a fart can so nobody asked you, go away ricer :p

Really though this is probably the best bet if you want the car to last.

You can thank oldsnut for that sig, im to lazy to change it. Lol

I have a coupe. Its got the 2 ribs not the tight 3 like some of earlier grand ams. I was debating fiberglassing it after sanding out the ribs so it would be smooth on the sides almost like a grand prix's but im not sure how well everything would work with the plastic. I bought the car for 500 and rebuilt the engine and dropped a different tranny in but haven't done body work. I just would really like to clean up the outside so its not just under the hood that looks nice

If you're going to fiberglass the skirts you might as well just fiberglass the car... it'll come out much cleaner and more smooth than with the gt panel... especially if you don't have the piece to go on the door.... sand down as much rust as you can and use POR15 then fiberglass... if you're not taking it to a shop this will last for a while... mine lasted like that for 3 years before the rust came back out lol

true. Some old lady owned the car before and the rust really didnt look bad when i bought but this last winter just destroyed it. It was like chunks coming off lol the repair i did was pretty redneck but it stopped the rust and mainly stopped snow and salt getting in. Ill post the pictures on here. Nothing pretty just a temporary fix.

Trust me i know redneck fixes... i cut the rust from my rocker and put in some gutter mesh then slapped it with fiberglass and Bondo.. nothing pretty but it held for 3 years... if the pictures still show check my thread titled tequila... lol

Not something pretty but from a distance you cant see it and its better than big gaping holes of rust.

I'd sand off the foam and just fiberglass right over the mesh... looks like mine but i didn't use foam lol...

Yeah the foam was mainly just a step along the way of my original plan to put the skirts on. Stop the rust, then cover lol In no way does it look good but it was getting so bad and the rust holes were just growing bigger and bigger. The rust has stopped at least for now and hopefully it prevents build up this winter. Its my daily driver

I just got home and checked and saw they were no longer there... I copied them from facebook... here ya go!




and how it was 3 years later...



I had never attempted body work before this car... I got the car for a bottle of tequila, so I figured I could practise on this car... I learned afterwards there was much more sanding etc that should have been done to smooth it out before paint, and that I probably shouldn't have used tape to tape off the area for paint, but just to overspray to blend it... lots of useful learning on this car...

Looking back, I should have removed the skirt and taken the mesh right down under and fiberglassed all the way under then reattached the skirt... rather than just blending it halfway lol... the mesh went halfway in the door as you can see from the rough glass picture above... goes right up under the rubber trim... but it held... unfortunately the rest of the car didn't... by the time she was scrapped, I blew a brake line and we had to use a 4ft 2x4 on the jack so it didn't go right through the floor hahaha!

Was the fiberglass weak? Like did any holes go through? Maybe I'm just paranoid but i was very worried about it cracking or getting holes easy because its hollow behind it. I wish mine was black man. I've never done fiberglassing or bondo but I've done alot of painting. I feel like if i can get the surface smooth and to flow with the body i could blend the paint well. Btw im curious about your grand am interior swap. I was curious about trying that with the interior of the GT i got alot of parts from i just never went through with it.

FYI that foam is a bad idea, its like a sponge....

Tim did you actually use fibreglass first or just long/short strand bondo?

cut/weld is the way to go!
my truck last winter




needed to do both sides :( lol

I'd love to have the skills and tools to use a welder... i used the pre mix fiberglass Bondo... I'm taking my car to someone who can weld the new metal for my good car

As for the interior the only issue i can think of was the gauges... the alero cluster has an extra wire than what the grand am harness does... you'll need the connector for the gauges as they're different just get about 6"of wires to slice together... also you have to re run the trac off switch as with the alero it's by the shifter and the grand am is above the radio beside the hazard switch.. also need to use an aftermarket radio but you need the alero wire harness and a grand am mounting kit... all said and done it took me 3 weeks to do but only about 6 hrs work time lol.... you Need to do the full interior as the pieces are not compatible so you cannot combine alero and grand am interiors...i also swapped the duct work for the vents... the alero line up but given the centre vent is a half moon vs 3 circles my semi ocd kicked in and i had to change it lol
I'll try to add some of the pictures with description tonight when i get home...

I sealed it before i painted it so it should be good. I see what you did with the fenders. My brother did something similair with a Blazer he dropped a V8 in. If i do the fiber glass ill do something to reinforce it.

And Tw0123 that sounds sick man. Ive always been curious about that and am stoked to see

I thought it looked pretty good. It was really just the front bumper that it doesn't mesh with very well. This is mine. Crazytaxi also did it with the AED kit sleepy. The AED kit was version 1, razzi version 2 and then the current osv/razzi is version 3.



Here is a coupe in black that was done. I thought that it looked great!

http://www.aleromod.com/forums/showt...=side+skirt s

Here is Crazytaxi's original and one of my all time favorite cars.

Why on earth did he switch to the razzi kit? Still looks good but the AED pulls those off great. might also mention that the one's on crazytaxi are the sc/t skirt. factory alero body with them slapped on though is just... just awful.

Sorry it has taken me so long to get these up...







Like I mentioned before, the whole swap took me about 6 working hours to complete...

Damn dude i like the swap! Was this just in your Tequila alero? If i can find a GT i would like to swap the seats to leather. It looks like it was alot of work but it was worth it. I actually just ordered a set of GAGT mirrors off ebay for 35 bucks! Powered too. Cant wait to start doing other shit and not just under the hood mods.

Yeah it was just in my tequila alero... i have cloth gt seats in my 5 speed and if i keep that car it'll get the full interior swap as well but right now I'm not sure... as for the gt leathers i didn't find them to be as comfortable as the alero leather but the gt cloth seats are more sporty for spirited driving ;)

Eitherway man, still looked good and even if i had black cloth id be happy. I don't mind the interior of the Alero but i prefer the GA. If i do any interior mods ill post pics. I'm going to try and mess with my 4-2-1 header today and see if i can come up with a fix. This forum is sick. I'm glad i got on it

I've never seen a black cloth just the dark grey...

Hopefully you can get a good seal on those headers... I've heard some just bolt them right up with no gaskets...

I'd be trying to get the rust fixed before winter hits before doing the interior stuff though... ;)