Questions about customizing

Quite a task you're planning on. Assuming the wheelbase is the same for both cars, minimally, you'd have to do the following:

1. Recribe the doors to make them shorter and move the door handle forward.  

2. Move the B pillar forward.

3. Cut the roof and rebuild it to the higher 4 door configuration.

4. Scribe the rear doors/door handles

5. Add a C pillar.

6. Re build the D pillar

7. Create a correct rear window

8. Probably rework the 5th door to match yours.

9. Build up the area behind the back seats.

10. Another thing that may be different, but I can't tell. Is the angle of the windscreen the same? If not, thet would mean rebuilding the A pillar and windshield as well.

11. Unless the kit comes with a stock bumper fascia, you will still not have a good represntatio of your car.

 

From what I can tell comparing my real car to real 3-door models, its all the same shape/legnth/etc.  The interior matches really well (except for the fact the model has a manual gearshift and mine is automatic) too. 

Yeah, its a 2 in 1 kit, so you can build it as the wild version on the front or the stock factory version.  I know it'd have to move the B pillars forward between an 1/2~1 inch on the kit, and I could use the B pillars off the badly done kit, cut down, to make the ones for the rear doors.  My main thing right now is how to fill in the original door and sunroof lines and making that look smooth so I could cutout new door shapes without it looking like it has three tiny doors.  And also, the way the doorhandles are made, it has an indent to fit your hand as you grip it, which is very visible.  I have the old kit for spare handles, but the plastic isn't thick enough to cut out an indent for the rear doors.

Actually in addition to needing some styrene and putty to convert to stock body, you will also need it to turn it into a 5 door.  The 5 is actually longer then the 3.  Not a while lot, but on a model it would cause some issues trying to scribe in new panel lines.  Of course getting another focus kit and combining the two wouldn't be a bad idea.  Use your own car as a source for measurements.  Measure your wheel base, and maybe overall length, then scale it down to the same as the kit, then measure the kit after doing say a white glue mockup of the suspension.  This would probably be your best bet.

Well, to be honest, if you're still at the point of brush painting your models, I would respectfully venture to recommend that this project might be a little beyond your abilities right now. You will probably wind up ruining the kit, and IMO, you'd be better off to just wait and see if you can find a model of the "civilian version".

Either that, ir just build the two-door with some new tires and eliminate the big spoiler, and be happy with that.

I don't brush them anymore, I've started using spray cans.  I wanna get an airbrush system but the *good* ones (non-can propelled) are way outta my budget for right now.  I do still use brushes for the small parts that I want to be really detailed though.  I am relatively new to the hobby, like I've said before I've built kits off and on for half my life but I didn't get serious and enjoy them nearly as much until the past 5 months or so. 

Here are pictures though of the first one I built of this kit.  You can see the brush lines really plainly, and there ended up being a lot of stray glue/painting/etc.  I know it looks bad, but I just thought I'd post what I did before to show it can be done as stock, keep in mind though, this one was done around this time last year, when I first got my car.

And yeah, it may be beyond my abilities, I dunno really since I've never tried any heavy modifying, but I can definately say that being here has helped me get better even in a short time.