[njsteve]

Back to the body adjustments.

I spent the evening heating and molding the fender flares and front spoiler with the heat gun. It actually worked very well. My original repairs from over the winter were very close to the actual body lines without ever having touched the car during the repair process. I lucked out on that one!

Though the flares and front spoiler use a rubberized welting to mask the seam where they meet the body panels, there were still large gaps in some areas.

The front spoiler was the worst. Before I started there was a 3/4" gap between the spoiler and the valance. This was due in part to the factory misalignment when they glued the rear support section to the front spoiler section. I used the heat gun and softened the rear portion and moved it forward, which then reduced the gap to 3/8 inch. After that, it was heat the edge, push with a wooden paint stirrer and then hold til the plastic cooled, then repeat along the entire edge of the part.

The first photo is the spoiler after I fixed the rear support and started on the driver's side, reducing the gap. You can still see that the gap is larger on the left side of the photo.

And then the heat gun in action and the patented wooden paint stirrer tool holding the hot plastic til it cools:

And the finished front spoiler:

[njsteve]

Here's the left and right front flares. It took a bit of massaging to get them to flow properly into the spoiler. The factory transition leaves a lot to be desired, aestheticly.

[njsteve]

And the rear flares. Suprisingly, the majority of the screw holes in the flares actually lined up with the existing screw holes in the fenders and quarters. I only had to move and refill a couple, just so the flares wouldn't be under stress when they were bolted up.

[njsteve]

And the finished flares installed for final fitting: