westpak
09-04-2003, 10:27 PM
Well, I have been through 3 Nismo replica wings and have to say I wish I had spent the money on the real Nismo wing at the beginning, at this point I have spent more than the real one costs, and now that the US version is coming and is 300 I really wish I had waited.
I ordered the first one from Bavaria painted when they did their group buy earlier this year. When I received it the paint color matched very well but once I went to install it I noticed the fit was not perfect, there were gaps between the wing and the base, there were also a couple of bubbles on the base, I was already into it so I went ahead and put it on. As time went by the top of the wing started to get wavy and really bad you could see the fiberglass through the paint. The paint shop that fixed the car thought that maybe it hadn't cured before they sent it and with the heat of being outside it had caused the waviness. It also started to crack when I screwed it in place.
Then I got rear ended and the hatch had to be repainted so I talked to Bavaria and the offered to send me another one at a reduced price of 195 so now I am up to 600, close to the real Nismo, when I received the spoiler it was damaged, the quality seemed much better but I had had it with Bavaria so I returned it and still waiting for refund, it cost me 37 bucks to ship back to Canada.
So I went with Gruppe-S which is a great vendor and I have ordered other things from them and I ordered another spoiler, now I am up to 900, hopefully 700 if Bavaria ever refunds me. When received the spoiler it was just like the second one I got from Bavaria, they seem to be using the same vendor now.
I took it to the shop that was fixing the car and they said it looked good. Luckily the guy that painted it decided to prep it even thought the spoiler came primed and ready for painting, because he said he found a lot of voids when he sanded it and had to fill it, but even then when he put it in the oven to bake the paint a couple of bubbles came up, luckily they are on the pedestals so not too visible, he said he baked it at a lower temp based on the experience I had with the first one and bubbles still came up.
So far it is still looking good but I think it was from the prepping they did and not the better quality of the spoiler. Luckily the shop felt bad about some problems they had with the repair of the car that they did not charge me for the spoiler paint and install.
None of this is directed as a bad statement towards Gruppe-S, they have been great in all dealings and offered to reimburse me for the prep work done on the spoiler, Bavaria on the other hand has been very disappointing from offering the replacement at 195 when they should have replaced it for shipping costs only in my opinion, I paid it because 195 looked better than 295 or 775 and now I am still waiting to get refund.
My warning is to know what you are getting with the Nismo replica spoilers, you get what you pay for, this is my first time with aero parts so I learned the hard way that the manufacturing process makes a huge difference in the quality and the cost.
I might be into it for more because I might go for the Nismo US spoiler if this replica starts to deteriorate, time will tell.
I ordered the first one from Bavaria painted when they did their group buy earlier this year. When I received it the paint color matched very well but once I went to install it I noticed the fit was not perfect, there were gaps between the wing and the base, there were also a couple of bubbles on the base, I was already into it so I went ahead and put it on. As time went by the top of the wing started to get wavy and really bad you could see the fiberglass through the paint. The paint shop that fixed the car thought that maybe it hadn't cured before they sent it and with the heat of being outside it had caused the waviness. It also started to crack when I screwed it in place.
Then I got rear ended and the hatch had to be repainted so I talked to Bavaria and the offered to send me another one at a reduced price of 195 so now I am up to 600, close to the real Nismo, when I received the spoiler it was damaged, the quality seemed much better but I had had it with Bavaria so I returned it and still waiting for refund, it cost me 37 bucks to ship back to Canada.
So I went with Gruppe-S which is a great vendor and I have ordered other things from them and I ordered another spoiler, now I am up to 900, hopefully 700 if Bavaria ever refunds me. When received the spoiler it was just like the second one I got from Bavaria, they seem to be using the same vendor now.
I took it to the shop that was fixing the car and they said it looked good. Luckily the guy that painted it decided to prep it even thought the spoiler came primed and ready for painting, because he said he found a lot of voids when he sanded it and had to fill it, but even then when he put it in the oven to bake the paint a couple of bubbles came up, luckily they are on the pedestals so not too visible, he said he baked it at a lower temp based on the experience I had with the first one and bubbles still came up.
So far it is still looking good but I think it was from the prepping they did and not the better quality of the spoiler. Luckily the shop felt bad about some problems they had with the repair of the car that they did not charge me for the spoiler paint and install.
None of this is directed as a bad statement towards Gruppe-S, they have been great in all dealings and offered to reimburse me for the prep work done on the spoiler, Bavaria on the other hand has been very disappointing from offering the replacement at 195 when they should have replaced it for shipping costs only in my opinion, I paid it because 195 looked better than 295 or 775 and now I am still waiting to get refund.
My warning is to know what you are getting with the Nismo replica spoilers, you get what you pay for, this is my first time with aero parts so I learned the hard way that the manufacturing process makes a huge difference in the quality and the cost.
I might be into it for more because I might go for the Nismo US spoiler if this replica starts to deteriorate, time will tell.