My order came in today. I got my side and rear aero flares from UPS today. All wrapped nicey nice. Going to have a friend help me put them on this weekend. It came with instructions and drill templates which I intend to follow. Anyone thats put these on before have any tips or hints not mentioned in the instructions? Thanks.

 

Where did you order them from, if you mind me asking ? And for how much ?

 

I bought them from ebay for $100 each plus shipping. The seller was azpartsexpressonline and here is a link to all his Mazda items. http://stores.ebay.com/ARIZONAWHEELC...57440?_nkw=rx8

This seller came reccomended from another user on this forum, can't remember his name though.

Got them in just under 10 days with no problems. I even called the sellers phone number and talked to him directly just to make sure I got the color I wanted. But what he told me is if you buy something from him and want it in a certain color, make sure you message him over ebay and ask him if your color is in stock and then when your ordering it leave him a message on your order stating the color you want.

Not a bad deal either, other sources I've checked have these same parts for around $300 range

 

if you look underneath the car where you're going to drill, you'll find that that the area is already marked for you back there.. saves a lot of time measuring. I believe Zoom was the one who found that out for us

 

isnt azparts express the one that paints the lightning yellow parts and after awhile the parts begin to chip and the yellow shows through?

correct me if im wrong....

 

yep, people have had it happen

 

EEK! Seriously? Hmm, well I guess I will be finding out. Everything looks mint, if he did paint them he did a perfect job. I inspected all the parts thoroughly all over, not a spec. I guess worse case I'll have to get a small thing of touch up paint if it becomes a problem.

 

Can you pm me the guys number. Not sure he is getting my emails.

Thanks,

 

I got mine at the same place. Have been on the car for a month+ now. No chips or problems of any sort.

Tip: When drilling into the rocker panel apply very little pressure. The rocker panel is a very thin gauge of metal and if you apply to much pressure you will dimple the areas and have a bitch of a time getting the anchoring tabs to seat properly in the holes that were drilled.

 

Unless they changed their paint process then expect chipping. Just because it took longer or less time then someone else is mostly irrelevant. Unless you personally know the person then you have no idea how they drive, their road condition or any other reason which could attribute to the paint chipping.

 

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...express&page=2

here is the link read through that thread.....

 

In reading the thread it seems like some people got repainted parts and others did not. Honestly mine do not appear to be repainted,. They have been on a couple months now and no issues thus far. I hope it remains that way.

 

Sorry don't have it handy, but it's right on his ebay page I believe.

 

My parts came sealed and looked brand new. They were sold to me as brand new. I hope your parts do not chip but I expect at some point they will.

 

I think it is only certain colors. I haven't read about anyone that had VR parts chip to reveal another color. When I got mine I scratched the backside with a knife, just black plastic.

 

Thanks for the heads up bro. So all the holes that need to be drilled are already there? Because I think you can get the full appearence package from the factory if you bought the car new? Which include the aero flares? So therefore the holes exist already incase you chose that package? Is this true?

 

the holes dont exist but they are already marked for where you have to drill not on the outside obviously though

 

You don't really need to drill the larger holes for the side skirts. I skipped that step because in time I may take them off and did not want large hole down there. Had mine on for over 2 years with no problems. Purchased mine through Mazda.

I too posted about the issues with azparts express. Was highly disappointed, but hey you may luck out.

 

Update! Installed left and right aero flares to my 04 GT MT. Took frigging forever. Mostly because it was hot and very muggy and working in the sun made it terrible. Had a few problems with the template lining up right. Tapping the centers for a starting point to drill on the rocker panel did dimple it a little bit and but posed no problem until popping the last tab into the drilled hole. It just wouldn't pop in, pressing on it and tapping it was not working and the tab was getting mangled after a while. Argh. Ended up having to go to auto store and get more 3M tape to hold that side on. And thats assuming all the others successfully popped into their holes, you can't really see the inner ones once it's on. So now we had to wedge double sided tape into that space so it will hold. Seems fine so far other than seeing a little of the tape hanging out which is bothering me a little. I'll post some pictures of the spot I'm talking about so you guys can see.

After drilling the holes we did apply a little paint where we drillied, what we didn't do is file the drilled holes which I'm realizing now would make it easier for the tabs to pop into their holes. Argh. So my question is, since these aero flares aren't 100% sealed how big of a deal is it for water getting behind it? What if water gets into the rocker panel?

 

Also got mine from azparts (rear flares only, $75), they were brand new, but the paint job isn't the best ever. Either way, that's not noticeable at the bottom of the car. The 2-way tape on the flares just wasn't good quality, so I used a sealant in addition to it.

 

Sealant? Mind if I ask which kind? I ask only because one of my side flares needs to be sealed a little better. I was wondering if there was some kind of caulk tube sort of thing I can run a nice even bead down and smooth it in.

 

anybody have pictures of these installed on their car?? really want to buy these; they add a lot of appeal I think. thanks guys

 

I used a polyurethane rubber sealer for my rear flares, quite flexible stuff. Got some from a buddy at a panel shop. It's the same sort of stuff the guys here use when fitting a windshield.

 

You used that stuff to hold it on or just ran it along the edge where it meets the car?

 

Just ran it along the edge, where the 2-way tape was. It's held on quite well.