APR Rear Carbon Fiber Spats DIY
 

n my mad rush to get as much as I can done in time for the UTI Torque meet I have been working on the car at a frantic pace. Last night I installed my APR Rear Spats. They came with no instructions but I figured, hey how hard could this be?

http://www.jadecrew.com/wp-content/g...r-spats-01.jpg

Well they go under the rear bumper. Under there the bumper is held to the inner splash guard via two pop tabs. I figured you pop these out and use them to attach the APR pieces. I figured wrong. The pop tabs, which are a huge pain to get out, are too big to fit in the holes in the CF APR piece. In the package with the CF pieces there was a bag of blots, washers and lock nuts. The problem is there is no physical way to get the bolt through the bumper splash guard and cf piece and have access to it to tighten it.

http://www.jadecrew.com/wp-content/g...r-spats-02.jpg
http://www.jadecrew.com/wp-content/g...r-spats-03.jpg

After scratching my head for a while and contemplating developing a phase shift mechanism so I could put a wrench trough the splash guard I gave up and called APR. APR said that they recommend putting the car up on a lift, taking the rear wheels off, removing the top of the fender liner and attaching everything through the top. They said that this is the most stable way to attach them and they don’t trust the pop tabs.

http://www.jadecrew.com/wp-content/g...r-spats-04.jpg


That just seemed like overkill to me. I made a quick stop at harbor freight to pick up a unibit and then stopped by autozone to pick up some 3M automotive double sided tape. When I got home I threw some painters tape over the CF and drilled the holes out. Then I crawled under the car, pulled the pop tabs out and cleaned the bumper with some denatured alcohol.

http://www.jadecrew.com/wp-content/g...r-spats-05.jpg

I cleaned the CF with the same denatured alcohol and applied the 3m tape. I then climbed back under the car, lined up the holes in the CF, bumper and splash. I popped the tabs back in and pushed hard on the piece to firmly attach the tape.

http://www.jadecrew.com/wp-content/g...r-spats-06.jpg

They seem very solid and those pop tabs are super strong in there. I see no issue with attaching it this way.

Those are nice!! I might also get these eventually :D

Where did you get yours from?

This and more pictures !

Nice, clean, and simple exterior mod. I likes!

I was gonna ask how this install has held up but it looks like OP hasn't been online in a few months. Anyone have a good way to install the APR spats? I tried popping out the fender liner so I could get in there from the front but still couldn't get enough access to get to the front bolt hole to get the nut started. Might have been able to get a socket with an extension on the nut once it was started but couldn't get that far along. Not sure if I would have been able to reach to get the nut in there for the middle bolt, though the rear seemed to be accessible enough.

Also, on a side note, that little pocket the spats bolt onto seems to collect quite a bit of stuff inside it. The one on my right side was completely full, though the one on the left was empty. Must be the tree I have to park under at home. This entire pile was in the right side (painters tape for scale).