Beach Photos Featuring Front and Rear Skid Plates

[vt_maverick]

Recently acquired a set of front and rear skid plates from John (rowhard) and had him paint both in Foxfire. The front plate is from Ron / VXC while the rear is from John's new fiberglass rear plate mold. I took a TON of pictures from multiple angles in varying lighting conditions so that you guys can see and judge for yourself as to whether the paint-match plates look good. I don't care who you are, the rear plate is sick in Foxfire. The front is a little more polarizing I think, and certainly in direct sunlight it's pretty bold. But in the right lighting (see sunset pics) I think it looks awesome too. Not for everyone of course, but hey, how would you know if someone didn't try it?

[vt_maverick]

Continued...























And finally a few without the VX...

[VXjunky]

great color match on the front...cant really make that call on the rear...not the right light or angle

[vt_maverick]

Yeah I had some better ones of the rear that I took on day one of the trip, they were actually really cool because we were on this HUGE flat white sand beach, looked very much like the salt flats in the original VX commercials. Unfortunately I discovered afterwards that the camera resolution setting was still set to "VGA" from a class project my wife was working on, so all the pictures are pretty small. I'll take a look at them again tonight and see if any are worth posting.

I'll post some new pics of the rear when it's bright enough to see better. Otherwise I have to find a hill to scale backwards into the sun.

[VX KAT]

Paint match is certainly spot on. Beautiful!

just an FYI on the camera setting...when shooting white snow (or sand), you want to over expose the shot 2-3 stops to trick the auto-focus camera and over-riding it's attempt to make those brights a neutral gray, instead of the bright white it is.

[Buffy]

So is this your mechanical version of T & A???

[vt_maverick]

So is this your mechanical version of T & A???

Lol... well it is still too cold down there for the real thing.

[Grif]

Looks awesome Vt_mav!

[surf-life]

looks great

[Dmitrikr]

great!

[Riff Raff]

VT--- Nice pictures of the sunset!!!

I really like the fitment of the skid plates, ROWHARD does great work. However, the matching Foxfire color of the plates seems to disappear into the cladding background and is not very pronounced. It seems one has to specifically be looking for the plates to even notice that they are there, instead of the plates saying "Hey, look at me" with some pizazz and pop.

In analysis of your Foxfire color layout theme; you have a Silvertone roof rack, and matching Silvertone Borbet wheels. In keeping with that same color layout theme on your VX, it is my opinion that the front & rear skid plates would look much better in matching Silvertone color (not Foxfire). In Silvertone, the skids would compliment both the roof rack and wheels and bring the whole package together in union. Plus, the Silvertone colored skidplates would really "pop" against the cladding background instead of being somewhat subdued.

Personally, I think matching OEM colored skids work best on the brighter colored VX's like Proton, Ironman, Astral/Kaiser. On the darker VX colors like Dragon, Foxfire, and of course Ebony, the matching OEM colored skids seem to be too subdued and disappear amongst the cladding background. IMHO.

[Grif]

I think you u have a point there Riff, but it still looks awesome IMHO.

Frankly I don't like any of the Thule racks on anything but an Astral or Ironman as it just not fit the color scheme of anything else. But opinions are like ********, everyone has one, and they all stink.

Sweet pics and sweet ride mav.

[Anita]

Its beautiful. The paint match is about as close as you can get without having the original paint. I think the skids draw the eye down and brings more attention to the grill, hatch and cladding. Its hard to determine really how the back skid looks but IMHO it totally compliments the truck. Good job.

[RickOKC]

Wow, that looks terrific!

[LittleBeast]

Now you just need to powder coat the wheels and roof rack either dark grey/black to match the cladding and side view mirrors, or firefox to match the skids and body color. Well that is what I would do :-) I like 1 or 2 color schemes on vehicles, but when it is 3 different colors it just looks a little too busy. That is why I have gone with 2 different shades of black and a little chrome. Looks great so far though!!!!! But get smoked clear corners for the front turns and front side markers already! ;-) I really like those skids, great job.