How to remove FD stock spoiler?

[dandan]

Hi All,
I\'ve got my car back from Re:worx at last, so I can stick my spangly new carbon spoiler on.

Problem is, the stock spoiler turns out to be not as easy to remove as I had hoped.
Here\'s what I have done so far,
remove four phillips head screws from the outside two legs of the spoiler, take plastic panel off, remove wiper motor.
The next bit puzzles me, i used a socket to try and undo the nuts that look like they hold onto the two inside legs of the spoiler, but they just spin round.
Does this mean they are broken and i need to drill them out, or am I missing something?
Someone must have removed their stock spoiler in the past, can anyone give me any tips?

[MillSpeed]

The ones with the 10mm nuts on are bastards! I had to cut my spoiler apart to get it off in the end. The captive end of the thread is just sort of glued inside the wing, doesn\'t take much force at all to break it free.

[dandan]

dammit,
was hoping to keep the wing or maybe sell it. access isnt great for cutting or drilling the nuts out either.

thanks for the quick reply though millspeed:)

[MillSpeed]

No probs buddy. I had to cut through the plastic on the upper side of the spoiler (from the outside of the car) and then use an angle grinder to take the top off the captive bolt. Bit drastic I know but it looks like the only way to get it off. The spoilers aren\'t worth much second hand anyways.

[Steve Burnett]

What a pain in the arse that job is!!!!!!

I cut the bolts off, try getting a dremmel or something like that. Took me a while that way  :reallymad

[dandan]

Job done, well sort of.
I got the spoiler off by cutting it into four pieces (one per leg) and wrenching it off the boot after removing all bolts.
Now i\'m left with massive lumps of super tough rubbery sticky stuff which everyone failed to mention! Looks like ill be spending my saturday picking cr*p off my bootlid!

Plus due to the measures i had to resort to to get the spoiler off, i have lost some areas of paint which I will cover with vinyl for now but I\'m gonna have to respray the whole bootlid at some point! Nightmare.

[MillSpeed]

Super tough rubbery sticky stuff? Didn\'t have any of that on mine. Where was it, inbetween the spoiler and the bootlid? I wonder if someone\'s had your spoiler off before.

[ScuttleRX]

sounds nasty, I had the rubber bits but they werent quite as welded as yours sounds, left a gungey mouldy ring though which took a while to get off, all went quite well when I removed it apart from the 2 plastic bolts, had to snap them in the end

[tr1cky]

Sounds like a pain in the arse Dan

Post some pics when you get the new one on.

How the Graphics coming on?

[dandan]

Got the new spoiler on, it looks AMAZING   IMHO!
I had a serious amount of sticky silicon type stuff under the old wing legs, i resorted to a paint scraper and took half my paint off with it, it\'s covered with black vinyl for now but will need some attention soon.

I will get some pics of the new spoiler up on monday, or why not come down to matchems tomorrow, and see it in the flesh?

Graphics are on hold till i get more vinyl, i forgot to order it friday so it will be tuesday now.

[dandan]

Check out the mess I was left with on my bootlid!



This is what I had to do to the original spoiler;



But now it looks great!
Check out pics in 3rd Gen RX section under \'my new spoiler!\'

[ScuttleRX]

Was that spoiler joined on in 4 places, I think they may have changed after \'95 cos mine was only secured at the two inner places

[dandan]

yep, it was glued on solidly on all four legs. Nightmare

[robedwards99]

Does anyone else have any nasty spoiler stories??

Reason being is that mine is cracked and I have located a stock replacement in good nick but it needs a respray. As my car is going in soon to have some minor repair work done I am debating leaving it to them to fit the replacement spoiler or whether to tackle it myself...

I am pretty good on the spanners (you should see me clear my dinner plate!! ) and I do have a good selection of power tools for tricky moments!

On a 1-10 scale, how much of a pain in the arse is the job?? Is there much to remove from the inside of the bootlid??

My main concern is scratching the freshly painted spoiler putting it back on, is that an easy job??

Any comments are greatly appreciated

Rob.

[dandan]

from what i remember, as long as the removal isn\'t too bad and you don\'t end up with shed loads of gunk clinging to your lid like i did, putting a new spoiler on should be ok.
The only thing you remove from the inner lid is the plastic lining, then you should have pretty good access to all the bolts. I drilled new holes for my carbon spoiler so I had some problems with access because the lid has two skins.
If the old one is off, and the new one ready and painted, it should not be difficult to put it on without causing any damage. If you are really worried, just mask it up with bubble wrap or rags or something.