GT-R style spoiler and the sheer effort of it all!

Well now, a GTS-25T actually comes with a pretty good and stylish spoiler. So why change it? I'm not sure really and suspect that peer pressure had a lot to do with it. Although it was one of those things that also just presented itself to me and said 'take me, I'm yours'. So not being one to argue I said, sure, fine!

What are the differences between a GT-R and GTST spoiler? Well basically a GT-R spoiler has an adjustable blade, whereas the GTS Style does not.
This changes how it actually fits to the car, as the GT-R style needs to 'support' the adjustable blade, it actually runs with a lip over the back edge of the boot, all the way along the boots width.

Standard GTS-25T as fitted at factory

Here we have a picture of something similar to what I have fitted (is easier to get a stock image in white as black does not show any detail!). Although this photo is of a nasty GRP (Glass R-enforced Plastic or fibreglass to you and me!) You can tell these when fitted to a car as they have the two screws on the end caps and where they are made by some China man in a shed from a worn out mold. The flat surfaces are usually a bit.. wobbly. There is also no high level brake light on this (which is just rubbish!).



Cheap and nasty GT-R replica to give an idea



The other problem with GRP parts is that they take a lot of finishing to do well. For instance the surface usually must be lovingly primed sanded and beautified. Or you will end up with a shiney version of the crap that is already there! Additionally many paint shops use heat to cure their paint, this can cause the gel coating to lift and bubble up, which would be a disaster. Always good to tell the paint shop in advance not to do this as you will not accept a bad finish! Put's the ball in their court then!

I did get one of the better 'copy' spoilers, but soon abandoned the idea as a bad one, thinking I wouldn't get the finish I wanted. However as soon as I thought this (you will see this happen a lot in my blog) a nice genuine one appeared and was offered to me for a whopping £300 (351 EUR or $484 USD).

So I grabbed it whilst the going was good!

Fitting.



Fitting the thing to the car is a bit of a pain. Although the legs that stick out are the same as the original fitted as standard, there are more bolts along the 'joining part' of the spoiler in the middle section. This means that to fit it well, you should really be prepared to drill the boot lid. If I were to do this again, I think for the same kind of money I could have purchased a spoiler with a boot attached from a GTR. This would then have been a direct and simple fit in place of my own.

Not fancying fitting or painting myself, I found a body shop in West Sussex called M-Tech and although they are about a two hour drive from me, they do an excellent job. The actual cost of which only set me back £100 (about  117 EUR or161 USD)

Although this was very much a 'mates rate' and I would think that it would easily cost you £250 usually (plus taxes!)

Okay so that went smooth didn't it?

The easy answer is no! The spoiler came with GT-R carbon end caps that cover the adjusting brackets. Alas the painter thought these rather good and left them on. However personally I can't stand carbon on a car, it may cost much, but in my opinion looks cheap, nasty and a bit common!

Carbon Effect end caps

These end caps are quite simply stuck into place and it wasn't too hard to remove them with a hair dryer. As these are uber rare items, I put them on ebay and at the time of writing they seem to be doing well! 

After removing the Carbon 'sticker' I found underneath that the cover has the logo of GT-R embossed in the plastic. So a little job here for me and I filled the letters in with car filler. What you see in the picture is my second attempt, this is because I could just make out slightly 'ghosted' letters on the first. It was a judgement call I wish I never made as getting all of the old paint off was a pain in the butt and a waste of time!  



Carbon removed and logo filled



Although not yet finished this is how the car looked with carbon on it. If I ever get any followers on here maybe they can compare and say if carbon was better to the painted versions!







The look - This is how I first picked up the car with the carbon end caps in place.