sniff test on spoiler

[Gutterboy]

looking for a subtle spoiler and am having a hard time ignoring this spoiler on ebay. but i'm a little worried on jumping on this bid in terms of whether it's legit since a typical TRD type of lip runs about $500 CDN.

as well it mentions the color galaxy blue and ultramarine where my car is ultramarine as a canadian car. would this still indeed match the E8H color code of my car? the last picture seems to show metal flake in the paint which i don't beleive the ultramarine cars have.

thoughts?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fit-For-13-1...FWHG78&vxp=mtr

[8R6]

it's a cheap price because it's just a replica.

as for the color, ultramarine is a metallic color so there are flakes in the light if you look closely. paint match worthiness really depends on who paints it. it's a hit or miss with ebay stuff. some got perfect matches, some got not so perfect matches.

[Gutterboy]

i think you just gave me more reasons to sit on the fence on this rather than pull the trigger lol.

thanks for the insight though.

Don't think i really care about knockoffs but i would care about paint match.

i think the biggest thing is i like the duckbill trunk lip look more than the oem spoiler look.

also confused at how the duckbill looking spoiler on this ebay page seems to be referred to as the TRD lip but its not actually offered from scion?

perhaps my facts are wrong on this?

[jvincent]

It is a replica of the real TRD spoiler from Japan. Which is about a trillion times better looking than the crap spoiler they offer here.

Unless things have changed, you can't get the official TRD spoiler from Scion/Subaru in North America.

[Gutterboy]

i really like the looks of the TRD lip/duckbill spoiler the more i look at it.

i just can't understand spoilers that don't match the lines of the car and the north american oem one seems to really fail on that and i don't care for how subtle the 5AD one is.

i think i am going to roll the dice on the knockoff on ebay and pray it doesn't come broken in shipping and that the paint is a close match.

if it all works out i can put this puppy on the trunk to hide my trunk damage and also pay someone else to put on my tomei UEL header and invidia overpipe/frontpipe/catback so i can get on to the octane 93 stage 2 map!

for all the advice and info and background on the spoiler picks.

[jvincent]

Let me know how this works out.

I've got an Ultramarine as well and have waffled on/off about getting this exact spoiler or a similar one.

[Gutterboy]

guess i'm the guinea pig

i'll let you know how it all works out and send pics for your sake.

was hoping i would catch someone else's 2 cents on already doing this, but at the price it's listed on ebay i guess i'll forge the way.

the cheaper price on this forges the appointment for getting my tomei/invidia stock getting installed so i can throw on the new stage 2 octane 93 map.

[RickyBobby]

This is a long shot, but if interested, FIVE:AD may still have some painted or unpainted rear spoilers left on clearance. Email them and ask. http://www.fivead.net/
I got mine back in August painted for $225. shipped.

[Gutterboy]

So even though the cdn dollar has now become a peso I jumped on the knockoff trd spoiler cause I had work in the states and could capitalize on free shipping and have to pay 45 U. S. for shipping to Canada plus the hit on tax and duty and even though it didn't come with double sided 3m tape it came with some type of glue that I am not overly thrilled with using. However what I thought was an excellent touch was that the spoiler comes with embedded nuts for a bolted mount. Just have to find the hardware and create a paper template to ensure perfect holes to line up with the spoilers nuts.

Pics for those who are curious about the eBay trd knockoffs.

[swarb]

@Gutterboy which vendor did you purchase from?

[Gutterboy]

oemdirect out rowland heights california.

i think they operate under several different aliases as the same company on ebay as there are multiple auctions that are quite similar.

One thing i am just noticing after searching for a template that doesn't seemt o exist on the forums here; appears the REAL TRD spoiler has gasketing on it and mine doesn't.

I still have yet to check fitment after reading horror stories about the STIVO ones so i will report back on that soon.

Not sure if i need the gasket but i am thinking of premounting the two bolt positions first to ensure final fitment then remove and apply the glue compound as a film on all contact surface to create a seal from water entry underneath the spoiler, then finalize installation by securing bolts again.

any thoughts are welcome before i begin the point of no return.

[weederr33]

You shouldn't need a gasket. Unless you already have holes, in which case, cover them.

[Gutterboy]

First of all thanks for the tip on the gasket.

Thought I would just get a quick car wash to get all the mud and salt off and check fitment of the spoiler.

Fitment of the replica is absolutely perfect and color match looks dead on to me.

Ended up indulging my sense of anticipation with mounting the spoiler and drove to work to get some plotter paper to begin adlib'ing the install.

I'm kind of thread jacking the topic with the following diy I ended up making up on the fly but I figured I could get away with that since I originated the thread.

So what I did was first tape the paper down to the car to allow a reference with taping a vertical tape line down the middle of the trunk and marking the template and the vertical tape line. This was to ensure future alignment when realigning the template.

Now that the template is secured, I traced out the outline of the spoiler once positioning it equally side to side. Luckily the lip balances on the trunk hands free so you can step back and line it up to your liking. The lip also kicks up over the recess for the license so aligning the space on each side from that recess does a great deal on visually centring the lip.

After centering and tracing the spoiler, now you need to tape the template to the spoiler while maintaining alignment of the spoiler on the trace lines and holding it down in place. Once the template is taped to the spoiler you have to remove the tape from the template to the car. You can then remove the spoiler with the template formed to all the curves of the back end of the car.

Turn the spoiler over and find the two end embedded nut holes and punch them through with a pen and bingo your template is complete.

Now place the template and spoiler back on the car and recenter as per your vertical tape line reference with the pen mark. Double check side to side to ensure no mistake on alignment by some freak chance it's off. Then retape the template back to the car extensively and remove the tape from template to spoiler and now you have your drill holes. Should be an inch and a quarter from your spoiler pen trace lines at a horizontal measurement.

Be sure to use a punch and a quick tap from a hammer so that your drill doesn't wander from your template hole point. (I failed on this point and had to make my hole a tiny bit bigger ) DO NOT TAP TO HARD YOU WILL CREASE YOUR TRUNK BAD THE SAME WAY I RUINED MINE AFTER BARELY TOUCHING MY TRUNK WITH A GROCERY BAG OF PEACHES. The sheet metal is paper thin on the trunk, very easy to screw it up.

After trial and error the bolts needed on this Taiwanese replica are m6 x 30mm with recommendation of m6 flat and lock washers. Note: the spoiler can only take about 4 threads equal to the height of the nut, if you don't washer the bolt properly and tighten too much into the embedded nut I gaurantee you that you will crack the lip on the side that is supposed to be seen on the top of the trunk which could really ruin your day.

Hope the pictures help explain my on the fly diy I attempted here. I'll be finishing my install tomorrow after I get the right length of bolts. The 40mm's are much too long and require enough washers to embarrass a person every time you opened your trunk.

Cheers.

[Gutterboy]

Soooooo... Rest of the install didn't go as easy as planned. Should have looked at the nut on the spoiler and noticed that the plane of the nut is tangential to the curve of the spoiler. Meaning that it was a mistake to drill straight down as I had to cheese Swiss the inside of my trunk to get the m6 bolts to line up. Pictures show the final required angle. All in all I love the look as well as the fact that it's completely removeable so I can reuse the spoiler when I get around to replacing my trunk that fell victim to the peaches. I used a tiny paintbrush to treat the holes with some anti rust primer before mounting the spoiler.

Hope this helps someone.