http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/stavesacre21/WeekendPlans.jpg

looks like i've got my weekend tied up.

any guess how long all this is gonna take to install?

I find it hard to believe that it was actaully LESS to get the appearance pkg afterwards than to get it as an option. :eek:

nice! make sure you get some double sided tape as well! good luck, post picks when your done.

There are indicators on the back of the front bumper...so remove the bumper and lay it down...you'll see "x" in the plastic...just line a drill up and you'll be fine. The sides and rear sill take you a little longer, just make sure you use the templates and you'll be fine. Should take you about 4-6 hours for everything is my guess.

Same deal on the back bumper - there is a "drill here" mark INSIDE the rear bumper, makes putting those aero bits on MUCH easier!

S

I'm just thinking about doing the same thing to my blue 8s. take picture of the process and post as a DYI. I might need your help in a few week.

It looks like your car is parked upstairs in your house :cool:

Good luck with the install.

ok...step one is now complete. Logged right around 3 hours on the front bumper. I will admit that i didn't have 1/2 the supplies when i started so some time was taken on retrieving those from the basement. I also took my time, as i'd rather do it right and be precise than rush for no reason.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/stavesacre21/Front.jpg

Intial concern when I put it back together was the gap between the bumper and the hood...i thought it looked bigger, however, i think a lot of that is in my head. Compared to the previous picture, i LOVE the look of the dam! :ylsuper:

Has anyone else who's performed this had any trouble unsnapping the side signals?! OMG. Almost as bad as the A/C controls when doing anything with the audio deck. I swear, i spent a good 20-30 minutes on those ALONE.

Didn't take any DIY instructions/pictures along the way, because the current DIY on the front bumper is almost perfect. ONE error i found though...there are TEN screws on the underside of the bumper, NOT 8. It took me a good while to realize that this was the main reason that i couldn't get it to budge intially. That was a frusterating realization.

I was rather surprised how relatively simple the bumper went back on. After some of the pains encounted taking it off, it just slide RIGHT back on, easy as pie. Easiest front bumper i've EVER worked with!

As for the actaul install, it was pretty smooth and straight forward. I was under the impression that this air dam slid over the existing one...not so. The stock air dam (if you dare call it that) is a narrow peice that comes off easily. When I first saw where the drill x's were, I couldn't comprehend WHY you would drill through actual bumper PAINT that was showing. Obviously i didn't grasp the concept that the new air dam actually covers a part of the far right and left remaining front bumper. More than i thought it would anyway.

Also worthy of mentioning...rotary accent. Another good 15-20 minutes were spent on peelin that sucker off the old dam. Ha...and to think that I questioned if it were on there solid enough. Not to mention taking the time to reapply the extra double-side adhesive that I LUCKILY had saved from the intial install. If you currenty have the rotary accent on, plan on arm wrestling that sucker off. It WILL take you a few minutes.

TIP - before you take the bumper off, line the inner sides of the HEADLIGHTS with some kinda thick tape, probably electric tape would do nicely. Pushing the bumper back on dug the semi-sharp corners of the bumper into my drivers side headlight, creating a nice permanent scar on the headlight casing.

More to come as i inch along... :)

Yeah, the AP is subtle yet makes a good improvement. Congrats on the install.. or 1/3 of it.

Good job! For me the biggest PITA taking the front bumper off was unhooking the fog lights.

yea, the fogs were somewhat of a pain too, but I found that i was able to pull the bumper out a good amount before I had to unplug um. By that time, I could reach behind pretty easily and fit my hands in there.

The hardest part about ANY harness is finding out how it releases. Ugh...some squeeze from the side, some from top...bottom....latch...lever...twist. Man I can't stand all the variety. I found the fog harnesses to release very easliy.

well done!

Just an FYI, this is probably the easiest of the pieces to install. Lets see the progress on the other pieces.....

I'll be attacking the rear flares (and bumper removal) tomorrow and then the side flares on Monday.

On a depressing note, i just realized that the front mad flaps had a REALLY shotty clearcoat job, and it looks like there was either water or condensation on the paint between the paint and clearcoat jobs. It looks horrendous.

Rosenthal Mazda has been notified about it and the new ones should be here late next week. Kind of a bummer cause i was gonna hit those up tomorrow as well.

I've only had my car about 8 months and already i've had THREE run-ins with Mazda's cheap paint quality. I'm honestly not all that surprised anymore :mad:

The saga continues...

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/stavesacre21/untitled2.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/stavesacre21/left.jpg


Moving along, i've logged exactly 3 hours (again). Once again, this was really taking my time and trying to be a perfectionist. However, the first hour or so was probably trying to understand how the sides of the rear bumper wrapped around and attached (via clips) to the side. No collateral damage this time around.

I was a little baffled as to HOW MUCH WORK went into installing such SMALL parts. This almost parralled the air dam in time, most likely because of all the precautions i took.

Also, the slit that goes in the side...kind of a pain in the butt. I thought i'd use my dremel for it...simple right? Not quite...no matter what angle you turn the bumper (front OR back) you can't find a good angle to dremel in.

I ended up using the dremel to create a faint baseline, then drilled numerous small holes on the lines and and used the drill bit almost as a router. Worked out good enough for the cause.

Intially getting the bumper back on was kind of a pain in the butt, but once you got one side going you were in good shape. Just as with the front, it all popped back into place nicely. The mud guards on the backside created some caution for alignment when snapping the bumper back in place.

I did set myself back a little by removing the WRONG set of screws in the wheel well intially. The one you are supposed to be after is tucked under the mudguard which you have to pull out. I removed the one in the far back corner of the well. LoL. Not a bad setback though.

Minor note - the cargo net is SO friggin retarded. I can't even try to begin to explain how STUPIDLY this thing was designed. Anyone who has installed it knows the frusterations abroad.

All in all, i'm just glad to have it done now. Looks completely flush and smooth. :) maybe just a hair cleaner too! (and yes, i washed up before installing...just not before pics :Eyecrazy:

Next...the infamous side aero flares. who-rah. Any tips would be good to hear!

Try searching in the DIY section of this website for hints/clues/pictures for removing/installing this stuff.

STUPIDLY

Seriously?

you wouldn't believe how complicated 2 of the 4 pieces of installation are to use. Apparently i'm not the only one, according to some of the other posts i found.

I've never seen anything designed so horribly...and that doesn't go just for cars.

Another 5 hours logged in, and I'm done with the side flares. By far, the most involved and teedious of all the stuff i've done thus far.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/stavesacre21/leftAB.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/stavesacre21/rightAB.jpg

Oddly enough, the largest frusteration that arose was figuring out how to get the clips of the stone guard to release. The first one i released was almost completely mauled by the time i got it out. The illustration did NOT do a very good job of pointing out that you come in from teh SIDE with the screwdriver...NOT front-to-back like they claimed. That was a pain.

First one took me 3 hours, second one took 2. As funny as it may sound, my first one actually turned out flawless, and my other one didn't quite pan out as smooth. I too am now victim to the "front gap" on one of the side flares.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/stavesacre21/error.jpg

I still haven't the slightest how it occured or which step i slightly botched up...but somewhere I was slightly off. No such problem on the other side. Anyone have a good remedy to close that gap up? I was half temped to just line the inside part of it with super glue and brace it over night, but thought i'd check here for some ideas first.

I'm not too concerned about the whole glue-on-paint deal, because those holes you had to bore out were as big as your friggin finger...so i'd have bigger problems then glue residue if I ever wanted to take them off

SOOOO

for the stock aero package, I spent 11 hours of labor. However, i'm not done yet, and still have to install the front mud guards, which should be a laugh compared to these other items. Also, I don't believe they are part of the stock aero package, so i don't know if anyone considers that the end of the labor total for stock.

All thoughts, comments and suggestions are always appriciated.

Alright, last step has FINALLY been completed! The last step was ironically by FAR the shortest of all of um. The front splash guards took a while 45 minutes to installed both.

No pics at the moment, as i'm going to wait to get a few pics of it all outside once it gets a little nicer (for a before/after type shot).

If anyone is thinking about doing this, I know can say that I completed ALL of the work myself, and logged JUST under 12 hours. However, if you have experience working with the body of this car, you can probably cut off a decent amount of that. I took my royal time with every step and didn't rush in anyway...not to mention it was in a garage about 50 degrees the whole time.

As long as you consider yoruself somewhat mechanically inclined, i would definetely say go for it if you'd like!

wow bet u feel good about urself doin all that hard work :)

looks awesome!!

Looks good, worth the hard work. I am planning on putting the front air dam on mine this weekend. Did you have any problem sticking the air dam to the bumper before you fasten it up? If you get it in the wrong spot can be hard to realign.

Well,

I can say that you have motivated me to pull out the parts I have purchased over the months (used) from various forum members and try this soon. Looks like you bought your parts new, and that they came complete with all mounting hardware and instructions.

The biggest reason (besides weather) that I've delayed doing the work on mine is that I don't have all the mounting hardware, templates, or instructions. I know the instructions can in most cases, be had online. The templates are a complete other story. I can't get those, and in many cases, can't get the mounting hardware.

I've been told by some very patient forum members that the aero package can be applied without the clips (just with 2 sided tape). I have 2 rolls of 3M that stare at me every morning on my bathroom sink, just waiting to be used. I'm just not ready to pull the trigger on all of it yet. Still chicken? Probably.

Is there any way you might be able to send me your templates to borrow/copy so I can have a better idea how these are supposed to line up? I'd be happy to pay you to do so and I can return them when I'm done with them.

Once again, great job. I think I'll be like you, and go really slow. I have no experience with this sort of thing. But I need to do it myself, and save the $ (as evidenced by the fact that I am using used parts in the first place!)

Michael :)

good job! i had no idea that the side aero flares were so hard to install! i'm actaully considering picking up a pair.. but i don't know anymore!

Looks good, worth the hard work. I am planning on putting the front air dam on mine this weekend. Did you have any problem sticking the air dam to the bumper before you fasten it up? If you get it in the wrong spot can be hard to realign.
I've done the install on two 8's...no way to misalign, as the rear of the front bumper has locations for the drill holes. The drill holes are positioned in a way that the bumper can only go on one way, the correct way.

Wash Your Car

Thanks Kwescott. I could just envision that sticky tape going to one location then when you tighten it up with the nuts it needing to be in another. Will probably see it when I get it a taken apart. Thanks for the reassurance.

The templates are a complete other story. I can't get those, and in many cases, can't get the mounting hardware.

The only part of the car that even requires the templates is the side flares, and sadly, i didn't keep them. The front dam and rear flares both simply have spots marked in the front and rear bumpers to drill. Very simple.

As for the hardware, all I can say is good luck. I don't think i could even dare to try and tackle it without ALL the hardware. Guess that's why i thought it was worth paying for new. However, I do have something for you. g18 k51 sj3. that's the part number for those rivits if you really want them. You should be able to order them at mazda, and if not, i could point you out to some mazda bodypart retailers that sell them.

However, I will mention that after taking the right side flare off to reattach it, it broke 2 of the 4 rivits when I pulled it off. Just using 2 of them and the tape as well as the bottom attachments, its more than secure.


Wash Your Car

Sure thing...come scrape the ice layers off for me first.

Hey, good to hear back from you. Bummer you don't have the template still. Thanks for the part # for the rivets. I'm still working the guts up to try all of this without having all the pieces. (Can you blame me?) :) :chicken:

Also still need to score a front air dam in Winning Blue. I saw a thread today re: some folks that have just painted their OEM front bumper (and rear too). Very interesting concept. Looked really good to me.

So, I guess I'm still trying to figure out what the game plan ought to be. I want the aero bits to all hit at the same general height, and without something body colored on the front, doing the rest now (assuming I could pull it off without all the hardware) doesn't make sense.

Thanks again! Have a great weekend.

Michael

I just did mine about a month ago... everything was easy for me... all the marks on the inside of the bumpers made things very simple to drill and line up.. as for the sides I tried to do the simple double sided tape and the scews and bottom clips without drilling the holes.. but I ended up with the front gap thingy too... So I had to take everything off and drill the holes I have a very slight gap but thats it... My whole install took only 4 hours... ???? I wasnt rushing...but I sort of have alot of hands on with kits... I think my V1 kit took a little longer... But after all was said and done... I was very happy with the kit and the installl...

I put on the air dam, RB oil cooler and AC screens, and fogs Friday night. Took about 5 hours all together. Didn't fool with unhooking the side marker plug ins just pulled the bulb out and stuck it back through a hole when taking the bumper off. The RB AC condenser screen brackets didn't line up with the screen holes and had to bend them to make it right. RB also left out the bolts to fasten the screen to the brackets but fortunately the OE screen had some in it that just barely worked. Bumper removal was not as bad as I thought it would be.
Thanks to everyone that has posted information to help us do it yourselfers!

glad to hear your install went ok bud!

As promised...

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/stavesacre21/sideaction.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/stavesacre21/realside.jpg

everything seems to be retaining to the body nicely. Even the part of the side flare that hasn't closed up completely seems fairly camoflaged by touchup paint. :)

is there a DIY for this? i can't find it :dunno:

for which part?

according to your signature, you wouldn't have much use for a DIY for the aero kit anyway...you already have it.

i have it.. i actually just got it. but i don't have it installed yet. i'm looking for the DIY for the side and rear aero flares.

did you buy them new or used? and which parts are you looking to install?

I found that although the illustrations rather suck in the manual, they suffice just as well as most of the DIY. Also, i wouldn't dare drill into the side of my car without the side aero templates. Heck, even with them i was a little shakey.

looks great!

i bought them used separately off two different people. i don't have the manual.. and i don't know what the side aero templates are lol. oh mannn.. i'm not looking forward into installing this.

http://www.finishlineperformance.com/instructions/rx8/Flares_Side_Aero.pdf

http://www.finishlineperformance.com/instructions/rx8/Front_Air_Dam.pdf

http://www.finishlineperformance.com/instructions/rx8/Flares_Rear_Aero.pdf


No tempates, but at least puts you in the right direction!

hmm.. thanks :]

I still do find it hard to believe that they couldn't find a less "flimsy" way of marking the drill holes. It really did baffle my mind at the time that i was gonna be boring 3/8" holes in the side of my $30K car without any prior knowledge of if/and or how the holes were gonna line up. I have to say that the final moment when i attached the first side had to be one of the most nerve racking moments i've ever experienced. You just don't know what o expect and PRAY they line up. :eek:

Just make sure that when you do get the templates, you hold the peices TAUT...cause ANY wrinkles, crinkles or otherwise in the paper will mess up your hole locations.

Just a lil tip for ya. Good luck with the installs bro. :)

wait, the template is made of paper? i know i'm gonna mess up! :banghead:

but do you know where i can get it?

Your install looks awesome! Mind if I ask where you bought your appearance package?

wait, the template is made of paper? i know i'm gonna mess up! :banghead:

but do you know where i can get it?

i wish so badly that i'd made copies of that template now. I've had at least 4 people ask/PM me about getting a copy. Your best bet would be one of 2 things.

1) Post a post up in either RX-8 discussion or in the Appearance section asking anyone who is getting ready to install or JUST recieved their appearance kit to make you a copy of the templates. They would have to be mailed, because sending them over the net means they have to scan them, which can very easily change their ratio and/or size. Obviously it almost goes without saying that original size/shape is VERY important here.

2) Head up to Mazda and ask about it. I believe that others have said that you have to order the skirts themselves to receieve the template but i just find it so hard to believe thats the case. They might be able to contact Mazda NA and get a copy of it for you.

I know this wasn't the immediate answer you probably wanted, but it's the best i can do from my side. Don't forget either...the install hardware is just as important as the templates, as they're nto exactly everyday peices you have just lying around the house.



Your install looks awesome! Mind if I ask where you bought your appearance package?

No problem. purchased from rosenthal mazda for $970 shipped. This included the front dam, rear and side skirts, front splash guards and cargo net.

Enjoy!

Caaahhlvinn,

I was one of those 4 people that PM'd asking for the template. I have OEM side flares with no hardware and no template, and I just haven't taken the plunge to try the install at least without the templates.

I'm also trying to get a WB air dam, so until I take care of that, I guess I'm in no hurry to do the rest of the AP.

Anyway, if you end up finding any source at all for the template, please let me know! I've already offered to pay someone to send a copy to me. Nobody kept theirs after their install.

Hope things work out well for you!

Michael

hmm. thanks stavesacre21. i'll try that in a few days..

and michael's8. i'll definitely let you know if i get my hands on templates..

if anyone has templates please let us know ! :ylsuper:

Excellent. Thanks very much.

And I'll reach out to you if I get my hands on some.

Hope it all works out for you!

Michael

wow this really helps me out. ive never done any body work before (just like some of you guys) and ive had my kit for a while now. i just dont like to drill holes in my $30,000 car.. but now i can at least install the front air dam my self. and maybe the side sills if i get those templates