Stoodo

iTrader: (4)

I ordered one of these (pre-painted) instead of getting mine repainted.

Anyone have experience with this seller by chance?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231501426854

pman6

it shouldn't cost more than that to get yours repainted.

you have no idea what quality of paint will be used on this ebay spoiler.

I need to repaint mine too. paint has failed big time.

avs20

iTrader: (2)

Not only paint quality..but also most aftermarket parts are not anywhere near the quality of OEM parts. If I were you I'd cancel the order, unbolt your stock spoiler, and drop it off at the body shop. Mine was only $100 to get repainted.

Sodium

I considered getting one of these prepainted spoilers when I got tired of seeing the faded spoiler paint every morning, but I ended up just wrapping It in carbon fiber vinyl because of the aforementioned quality concerns.

703

GS is much cleaner without the spoiler. I think the lip ruins the flow of the lines.

pman6

without the spoiler, the butt looks too big. The trunk lid is too high.



How much is a vinyl wrap?

All i see are the $5 wraps on amazon.

You got pics of your wrap? I wanna see what it looks like.
the corners seem like they're tricky to wrap cleanly.


still can't believe lexus didn't use automotive grade paint on the spoiler

Stoodo

iTrader: (4)

I'll roll the dice and see what happens. I'll report back.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

It seems like a crap shoot on these things, especially depending on the color. I would never order an ebay spoiler in the GFM for my GS, but i paid $68 for a painted black on my IS and it not only fit great, the paint quality was perfect. A shop might be able to repaint it for as little as a $100

Sodium

I called a couple reputable shops specializing in wraps – both said $250-280 for lip spoiler wraps is typical. Now I do hate doing cosmetic work, but $250 seemed a bit much for something that is purely aesthetic, especially as the job only required about $20-worth of vinyl.

So I got this kit on Amazon, which comes with 1' x 5' sheet of 3M vinyl, a felt squeegee, and a stick of adhesion promoter (to keep corners or other tricky spots from lifting). You'll also have to remove the OEM double-sided foam tape, so get a couple rolls of double-side tape to replace it, and some Goo-Gone helps with removing the tape residue. You'll also need a heat gun, and having an IR thermometer wouldn't hurt.

You can find some good instructional videos on youtube, and you can find a fairly thorough set of how-to videos here.

Here you go sir













And yes, I will be bathing her soon.

Yep, as you can see in the last two pictures, Lexus obviously didn't take ease of wrapping into account when they designed the spoiler (the fact that it was my first time using vinyl wrap may also have very slightly contributed to the wrinkles). I probably could've removed some of the wrinkles, especially in the right corner, but at that point I was a bit tired and the risk of tearing or stretching the vinyl outweighed the reward.

Honestly, if the paint starts fading after 4+ years, there are enough variables that can effect the paint that it's hard to point to poor quality as the cause – definitely is very annoying, but probably not completely Lexus's fault, and mild compared to what some other owners have to put up with after 4+ years! Based on the fact that 3GS paint problems seem to be limited to the upper surface of the spoiler, I would guess that after a while the paint, the spoiler plastic (ABS I think) and UV rays may play together in a way that the paint chemists didn't think of.

My understanding is that the designer who worked on the rear of the 3GS was a big fan of Kim Kardashian.

pman6

hey thanks for the honest pics!

I think I'm going to be holding off on the vinyl. I suck at precision work and would most likely F it up.

For a hamfist like me, I think I could do a better job spray painting, and finishing with several layers of 2k clear. Or if it doesn't cost much more, have a pro shop paint it. If I do it myself, I have to buy a respirator and materials.
I think I could find an indie shop to paint it for well under $100.

I just wish duplicolor made the 1g0 color. The closest they have is 1g3 color. So I have to spend more money going to an offbrand paint.

TS85

If you like the vinyl look, give it a shot, its actually pretty easy. I wrapped my interior trim and turned out fine, it takes some practice tho, and its only difficult on the corners but with practice you can get it perfect.

Sodium

No worries, glad to help!

Honestly, if you watch a few instructional videos to learn the basics, I'm sure you'd be able to do a good wrap job – the nice thing about vinyl is that if you F it up, you can just peel up the F'ed up bit and reapply it or reposition it as needed. I wouldn't say it's necessarily precision work, just requires good judgment, patience, and leaving yourself plenty of time (which is what I failed to do). Having said that, the combination of the curvature and the tapering ends of the 3GS spoiler made the job harder than I was led to believe by the instructional videos – the demo spoilers wrapped in the videos were flatter and non-tapering, like this one:




So getting some practice on flatter/less complex panels or trim pieces may not be a bad idea if you're into the look in general.

If you want to go the DIY paint route, PaintScratch sells 1G0 spray paint kits. Don't have any personal experience with their products, but I've heard that their tri-coat kits are very good, so their dual-coats will probably look good as well.

Here's the best advice I've ever seen for finding a paint shop:



Made me laugh so hard I had to take a screenshot!

Sodium

[/QUOTE]

Nice wrap job, especially the attention to detail of getting the striations of the different panels to line up!

TS85

thanks bro, I got lucky it lined up perfectly on the first attempt. The part that took the most time was cutting a perfect rectangular hole to wrap around that chrome piece on the ash tray cover.

+1 on the youtube videos, thats how i learned. And I recommend 3M 1080 black carbon fiber vinyl.

Sodium

You could also get a prepainted one from Lexus. They're a bit more pricey than the aftermarket ones ($439 on Lexuspartsnow), but the paint should match!