Need to remove? duckbill and repair armrest
 

Hi guys,

I'm the 2nd owner of my 2013 Scion FR-S. First owner was a huge TRD fan and did a lot of TRD-based cosmetic mods. Unfortunately they're starting to fall apart after a few years.

First off is the duckbill spoiler. As you can see in the picture, the paint is showing quite a bit of sun damage. Is there any way to tell if the spoiler has been installed via adhesive or bolts? I've included a few pics behind the liner in the trunk. Ideally this thing is attached via adhesive and I can just heat gun/fish line it off - I'm not sure what I should do with it if it's attached via bolts other than replace it ($$$ :/)

Sun damage:

https://i.imgur.com/zaZZmwp.jpg

Pics behind the trunklid liner, looking toward the top of the trunklid where the bolts might be:

https://i.imgur.com/kOTgr91.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/SYdgG48.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XdQ7Jel.jpg

The second issue is with the armrest - it's completely broken off from the bottom portion at both the latch and the hinge. If I wanted to replace it, would it be pretty straightforward to just unscrew the bottom portion and then screw it back in? Or if I say screw the armrest, would another option be to just put some plastic plugs in the holes that were drilled?

Armrest pic, broken off top on the left:

https://i.imgur.com/qwfZ6M0.jpg

Thanks for any and all help! Looking forward to restoring this thing to its former glory!

those spoilers are all adhesive type installs. at least, i haven't noticed any that were bolt-on. i have one specifically to cover over the oem subaru spoiler holes...

as far as the armrest, i have one of those as well. one of the best interior mods i've made.

the armrest kit uses expandable rubber plugs. you drill the holes per the template, set the plugs loosely in the holes, line up the arm rest over the top, and screw it into the rubber plugs which expand and keep the arm rest from going anywhere.

i believe the official manufacturer theory is that rubber plugs are removable, and you simply unscrew the faster, the plug contracts, and the plug is removed.

my reality is 1 of 2 scenario's:
1. i unscrew the fastener too far and the rubber plug dislodges itself into the depths of vehicular recesses that are large enough for it to roll around, but small enough that i'll never reach it, where it will forever torment me by making noise rolling around.

2. the rubber never fully contracts, holding all or part of it's compressed shape, and i damage the surrounding material irreversibly attempting to get the rubber piece out.

my recommendation is to replace only the top section of the arm rest if possible. but if you must replace the bottom section and/or seek to remove the bracket, i encourage you to remove the center console so that the rubber plugs can become dislodged somewhere on your workbench where they can cause no greater harm than the other hundreds of misplaced screws, bolts, and tools that reside in vicinity of any work bench.

I am just curious as to what the hell was in his console that he felt the need to photoshop it out?

Yes, the duckbill is most likely held on with 2 sided tape so you'll have to use some heat and fishing line to get it off.

As for the arm rest, I agree with soundman...best mod ever. Fix it if you can.
Mine has "broken" several times where the lid part come off of the base part like yours. On mine, there is a silver hinge pin inside the top piece that gets out of place allowing the top to come off.

You can separate the top piece into 2 halves, the screws are located under 6 (I think) plastic plugs. Once it is apart, position the bottom half where it is supposed to be (in the closed position) and slide the silver pin back in place then use a bit of JB-Kwik to hold it from sliding back out again.

Not sure if yours is broken in this manner or not but worth the attempt to fix it.

Maybe his drug stash - :iono:


humfrz

I'm guessing a giant dildo.

Very happy to hear that the duckbill is likely held on by adhesive. I'll be attempting to remove it ASAP.

I'll probably end up replacing the armrest as well - I unscrewed the bottom frame hoping that I could just throw in some plastic plugs/caps, but I think that might look pretty trashy given the number of holes and differing hole sizes.

Hmm, I'd have to check but I know for sure that the latch on the driver side is also broken. I might be able to live with that though (rather than spend $200), if I'm able to do the fix that you've described - thanks for the suggestion!

A partially unwrapped coin wrapper, some sunglasses, and some other trash. It just looked bad and detracted from the question :/ I think you can even see the broken latch(es) from the armrest. But more than happy to satisfy your curiosity :P

https://i.imgur.com/uunsDeC.jpg

cleaner than mine!

Sadly there are some nasty holes for some unknown reason underneath:

https://i.imgur.com/XOM91Yi.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/sPiGn3f.jpg

and the old duckbill:

https://i.imgur.com/eNzpiwI.jpg

You guys think I should just buy a new duckbill, sand and repaint the current one, or try to patch the holes?

those are oddly shaped holes... they dont look like they line up with any OE wing... are there 3 square holes in the center back of the trunk?


(hates it when guys cheap out and cover holes with duckbills aka: welded up his own trunk before mounting a different wing)

Nope only those 2 holes. I was able to remove the duckbill with the heat gun/floss method, but upon removal there were some screws barely peeking out of the top of the holes - so I don't think they were screwed into the duckbill itself.

It's metallic paint. You'll be lucky to even come close to matching it. Better to buy a new one

To give you a rough estimate.

if you where to have the holes filled and had the thing sanded down and paint matched

no blending to the car, its about 500 bucks.

a new truck unpainted is about 469.95 if the part number is right (57509CA1709P)

now what i would recommend is either direction here.

1) filling in the holes with either your own weld or epoxy, body primer over it and then some sort of base and then put the wing back on after a paint match ( again its not going to match the car perfectly but blending is also money)

2) trying ebay for a good suitable replacement trunk and having it painted to match the car. no blending

either way its about a 400+ expense.

3) Look at scrap yards for a trunk with no holes in your paint colour.