Hey guys. I've lined up a stock OEM spoiler for my car (mounting brackets and all). Here's the question. Has anyone actually installed one of these on their car? I know a lot of guys have had replicas installed, but I'm talking about installing the one that came from the factory. Is there a template to lay down to mount the brackets correctly? Also, the mounting hardware includes rivets. How in the heck do you attach those? Lastly, could someone with the stock spoiler (i.e., no 3rd brake light in the window) please post some pictures of the underside of their trunk? Does the mounting hardware (screws, bolts, rivets or whatever) show through on the underside of the trunk? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

e-man

 

not sure about all the questions, but i think there is a template that supposed to come with the spoiler to show where to drill holes, etc?

i think you should talk to carson toyota about it

 

Thanks Rom. I e-mailed Steve about this but haven't heard back yet. You would think there has to be a template. The only thing that concerns me is that the brackets for the stock spoiler are mounted at the factory using rivets. I wonder if I could use something other than rivets to mount the brackets? It seems to me that rivets may not go all the way through to the inside part of the trunk (the trunk actually has an inner metal liner, so there's a pocket between the trunk lid and the inner metal liner). If that's the case, then I would need to drill through the inner metal liner to get at the bolts that I would use to hold down the brackets. Anyway, this probably makes no sense.

Is there someone out there with the stock spoiler who would be willing to post pictures of the inside of their trunk lid (preferably with the liner removed)?

e-man

 

from what rmmgs4 and pandags430 told me, taking apart the lining and from the inside you won't see anything. so i would tend to think it doesn't go all the way?

 

That's what I was afraid of. So, if you don't see anything from the inside, how do you bolt the brackets onto the trunk lid from the outside? Do you know what a rivet is? When the rivet penetrates the trunk from the outside, what prevents it from popping out? Does it expand once it clears the hole? Is there a special tool used to attach a rivet?

 

hey e- I don't know if this would work or not in your situation or not, but instead of rivets would nuts and bolts work? If so, I would get nylon loc-nuts & washers so it stays tight.

otherwise you'll have to buy/borrow a rivet gun. and yes, rivets expand when the gun pops them in.

 

Riveting 101:
To attach a rivet you use a specific tool called a rivet gun. You drill a hole in the correct place and use the gun to pop the rivet into place, which holds down the spoiler bracket. The gun expands the rivet shaft from behind which is how it's secured. It only goes down less than a half inch behind the trunk lid. This is the least of your problems.

You will also need to cut out a 1/2 " square hole on each side of the trunk lid which allows you to install a threaded plug for a bolt. Finally, you need a third 1/2" diameter hole on the left side to run the electrical wire for the third brake light.

The brackets for the spoiler are mounted on both sides using the rivet, the threaded plastic plug which secures the bolt in place and lastly there is double stick tape.

As if the bolt and rivet weren't enough huh?

The mounting of these brackets is critical cause if they are off even a little bit, the spoiler won't fit or align properly at all. You absolutely need a template and ya gotta do it right the first time.

If you buy a used spoiler, it won't come with that template and the dealer might only provide a template if you buy the spoiler from them, since there wouldn't be any reason to offer the template by itself.

If you really want the factory spoiler, do what everyone else does and exchange the whole trunk lid with someone willing to trade.

 

Hey Chuck. I assume that nuts and bolts would work, but in order to use them, you would have to bore through the second metal layer of the trunk lid. I don't know if you've ever taken the carpeted lining off the underside of your trunk, but when you do, the metal sheet that you're looking at from the inside is not the same metal that makes up the outside of the trunk. There are actually two sheets of metal with some space in between. So, in order to use nuts and bolts, you would have to drill a fairly large hole through the inner metal layer in order to access the bolt that you would be inserting through the top of the trunk so that you could tighten the nut. Does this make sense?

 

This would be an excellent suggestion except look at the back side of the trunk lid where the bolts would need to go. There is another layer of sheetmetal in the way, so it's not like you just reach back there and attach the nut.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but it might be beyond the skill set of what some might think to be a simple DIY install.

 

eric-yah, that makes sense. It'd probably be stronger like that, but either way would probably work.

good luck

 

Wow. Thanks for the info. That really helps. The funny thing is that I already swapped trunk lids once because I didn't like the spoiler that was originally on the car (it looked similar to the stock OEM spoiler, but it sat lower and stopped abruptly at the sides/edges of the trunk lid). As for the install, now that you've explained it, it sounds really, really complicated, and I would probably just pay Lexus to do it so that I could look to them if any mistakes were made. How is it that everyone seems to be buying these OEM-replica spoilers on ebay and installing them themselves? Are the replicas that much easier to install? Can you tell the difference between a good replica and the real mccoy?

 

HAHA

looks like we're all on the same brain wave here.

If you wanna try it e-man go for it.

 

Most non-oem spoilers use double stick tape and that's it. I would think that the spoiler would have to be a lot lighter than stock to be able to hold on adequately. The factory builds a pretty hefty and strong wing, so no way would you not do more than use just double stick tape.

As far as how they look different from stock, I'd say yuou'll have to look to others with non-oem wings for that feedback. From what I heard, you can tell the difference and some think they look cheap.

 

Hey RMM. I seem to recall reviewing some old threads where you discussed the different types of "OEM" spoilers. Assuming I went with an "ebay special" (i.e., no brackets), would that be that much easier to install? It seems to me that without the brackets, you would still need to use nuts and bolts and would still need to drill through that second layer of metal. In fact, now that I think about it, on my previous trunk lid, I had fairly large holes inside my trunk that were drilled to access the nuts holding the bolts in place (the holes were plugged with these rubber caps). Unless you use rivets, wouldn't you have to drill into that inner metal layer with any aftermarket spoiler?

 

We're both "talking" at the same time. Do you really think non-OEM spoilers are held on with tape? I gotta believe that those wings are bolted on. They just have to be, and if they are, you have to drill through that inner metal layer.

Anyone out there with any personal hands-on experience that would like to weigh in here?