Manga_Spawn

So got around to some of the stuff I have been putting off this weekend.

Bye bye air pump. God engine bay is dirty. Need to clean it.


New Valve cover was tired of the black one. Waiting for my plug cover to come back from getting the copper plating redone.


Also installed some new Osram nightbreaker headlight bulbs and an oil change butttttt no pictures. Still have to install my diff mounts and Ap1 clutch slave and spoon clutch line. Maybe this coming weekend.

The biggest update is actually for my garage and not the car.

Before



After



New garage door with a high lift track and side mount opener. Super happy with how it turned out and the extra headroom gets me one step closer to installing a 4 post lift. Next I have to insulate and finish the walls and then its lift time.

s2000Junky

Hell yeah look forward to checking out this weekend

Manga_Spawn

Got things back from copper plating

Manga_Spawn

I preordered these fenders from Gotuning and they were delivered this past week. I started fitting them this weekend though this is still an ongoing process. I hope this thread can help people if they are considering these fenders for their own car.

Going to say right off the bat if you are expecting to take these out of the box slap them on the car and go you are in for a bad time.

Fender comparison
Since I have some OEM fenders, Downforce fenders and now these Vaikhari fenders I figured I would weigh each since everyone always asks about weight of parts.

OEM Fender 10lbs 10.5oz (going to retake this picture stupid glare)
Attachment 144757

Vaikhari Fender 11lbs 2.8oz
Attachment 144758

Downforce Fenders 6lb 10.8oz
Attachment 144759

Ok on to fitting them. The Vaikhari fender required a good amount of trimming to get it to fit onto the car.

Towards the door I had to trim pretty much this entire inner lip down. This way it would sit flat into the rocker panel and so it wouldn't scratch up the door when it was opened (ended up with some scratches on the front door edge ) . This was trimmed on both fenders.
Attachment 144760
Attachment 144761

On the passengers side I had to trim this area due to it hitting the headlight and lot letting the fender sit flat. This is the area that sits right above the headlight.
Attachment 144762

Drivers side bolted down (Note the bumper is not bolts down in these pictures)
Attachment 144763
Attachment 144764
Attachment 144765
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Attachment 144767

Passenger side (this still need more adjustments today. it was getting late yesterday but its not bad right now).
Attachment 144768
Attachment 144769

Overall
Attachment 144770
Attachment 144771
Attachment 144772

Current Problem Area: On the top of the fender where it meets the door and windshield these fenders sort of drop down a little. I was trying to look at this area and figure out a solution but really not quite sure how to fix it. This may be something I have to have the body shop work on but it is hard to say. It is an issue with both fenders. If you have any ideas here let me know.
Attachment 144773
Attachment 144774

So what can I say overall? I can't really say they fit well because it isn't as easy as take out of the box and put on the car. I can say that since the metal is far more flexible than FRP I could pull and adjust them more than I could the downforce fenders though the downforce fenders required less muscle to get them into place. Would I recommend these so far? Not if you don't want to put in some work to make them fit (or not if you aren't willing to pay someone to do that work). I bought these for the increased durability of the metal and they definitely deliver in that area. I'll keep updating this as I do more work and when I get them painted which probably wont be till the new year.

s2000Junky

Too late to return them and put your lighter better fitting DF fenders back on?

Those corners where they meet the windshield/door are going to be a problem. Anything possible depending on how much bondo or structural/welding and manipulating work do you want to invest in this endeavor. Then you still have to paint/match them.

Manga_Spawn

Yup all things I am aware of.

Manga_Spawn

Ok spent some more time on it today. Got both fitting better.

Attachment 144750
Attachment 144751
Attachment 144752

Nothing a little heat and prying couldn't fix.

s2000Junky

Wow good job!

Feezy

That made a huge difference.

Glad you've gotten them to fit that well, but I'd be pretty pissed with how those fit out of the box.

Manga_Spawn

Yeah I wasn't thrilled but I figured I had 2 options. 1 go through the pain in the ass of trying to return them or figure it out. To my knowledge these are the first metal fenders offered for the car (other than OEM of coarse) and so there is a bit of early adopter hurdles to be expected. There is also the element of being able able to actually make these changes myself somewhat unlike FRP fenders. If I had to drop them off and have a body shop do all of this I probably would have returned them. Still going to be interesting to see what the cost is to have paint work done but I am once again looking to have the entire front of the car painted so it matches and to address some imperfections with the prior paint work. So this is still a work in progress and maybe this will help others when making their decision on what fenders to buy.