[hxs80]

I should have known better, having a pretty bad experience with ebay exterior parts, but I reluctantly pulled the trigger on this one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-E92-OEM-...ht_3349wt_1037


The one I ordered already came advertised pre-painted with Swchartz 668 Jet Black and it was $108 + Free Shipping. It's supposedly made out of the same OEM ABS plastic. Anyways, took about 2 weeks to get here and I must say packing was pretty decent. They even put a 'fragile' sticker on the box.

Here it is out of the box.



Two piece, plastic, and painted black. Paint actually looks pretty legit and clean. I tried looking online to see what the real one looks like underneath where "screws" go into but here's what this one looks like underneath. I really don't get what the deal is with all the holes, maybe someone with the real one can explain.



It didn't come with screws, 3m tape, or any type of adhesive. Instead, I got a tube of silicone??, no instructions and no clue how to put this on the "right" way so I ventured on.

I had some left over 3M tape from my ebay aero lip experience so I had enough for this project.

Here's my install procedure...

1) I put the lip against the car to see how the paint matched up and how it would look. No issues here. I knew it was going to be a challenge to get it centered and spaced out right.

2) I cleaned the inside edges where the two parts where going to meet and I used alcohol to remove all grease and stuff. (pre-glue prep work)

3) Having nothing else around the house for a job like this, I used Gorilla Glue to put the two pieces together. and I clamped them to get a good hold. I let it cure for about 2 to 3 hours.



4) After "merging" the pieces and making it a one piece, I put it against the bumper to get it in the right location. It took us about 45 minutes to get it just right. Some of the challenges were

- get it centered (looking from the rear, the mid post/ pillar had to line up with the rear rondel
- get the lower side rear to perfectly match the top of the bumper
- get the side to have the same spacing from the outer edges to the edge of the trunk/boot lid.

After getting it perfect (or so we think), I used painters tape to create some guidelines?, or mark up the location. Here is a pic.



Did the same thing to both sides and we place one piece of tape under where the mid post/pillar was and drew a line with a pencil to show the center mark (sorry forgot to take a picture of this part).

5) Being satisfied with the work so far, I took the spoiler off and went to get the 3M on it. This took a while as I hate peeling off the red portion of that tape. I had to use tweezers to peel it all off. As you an see from the pics that show the bottom, it has this "lip"/ indentation where one is supposed to use the Betalink or whatever to get the spoiler on. I just 3M the heck out of every nook and cranny I could. I even added an extra layer to the middle portion of the big/top piece on the sides, as one layer of tape does not reach the bottom.

6) Cleaned the trunk/boot really good and did all the usual pre-adhesion prep work with the alcohol.

7) Put the lip using the tape as a guide. (worked beautifully on the first shot) and pressed down firmly on all side to make sure the tape adhered well.

8) As an extra precaution we clamped it a bit to make sure it held. (Probably not needed)



9) Waited about 2 hours and then took it for a drive. All was good.

Today I detailed my car and took some pics of it installed.










Concerns:

- I don't know how good the clear coat on this thing was. There where a few parts where it seems like, in shipping, it made some marks on it. Don't know how to explain it but I was able to foolishly add another one by using the clamp on the last step. It's not too noticeable but it's kind of a small hazy mark.
**update, It was all the clamping that made marks. Even though my clamps have soft rubber footings, I would highly suggest padding this with something softer!** It still doesn't make sense that the clear coat would be that "soft", I didn't get the Hulk to clamp these down or anything.

- With the clear coat quality being questionable, I don't know how the paint is going to hold up to Florida heat. I'm waiting about a month to put some protecting wax on it. We'll see..
- Also, I'll be looking out for any cracks or chips or anything like that that might be due to poor paint


As of right now, it seems like a killer deal. It's lightweight, I didn't have to bother with it getting painted, I didn't have to deal with shipment deformation like I did with the PU lip, I was able to install it myself, free shipping, and it looks pretty decent (I wanted the OEM look). Not bad for $108.

For anyone out there with the real deck style spoiler, can you tell the difference looks wise?

I have a few more pics if anyone is interested I can add more. I'm open for questions as well. Good luck if you try this.

[Davide92]

Looks good! Oh and nice lexus by the way... 350?

[hxs80]

Originally Posted by Davide92

Looks good! Oh and nice lexus by the way... 350?

Nah, it's my friend's 250.. He's slowly working on it. That rear lip is also eBay bought hahaha.

[hasta la pasta 27]

can you update on the clear coat? Any peeling or discoloration?

[hxs80]

Clear coat on the spoiler is still good!