Strakes easily sun damaged?
 

The strakes I bought from RX8Strakes.com are totally crapped out after only 3 months. :icon_no2:

It looks to me like it's sun damage, because the undersides are all fine. Take a look!

I expected a much longer life-span from these...was I wrong to expect that?

wow, ive never seen that, could it have been road debris that caused it?

I've had mine on for nearly a year from RX8strakes.com and it's still fine. I keep my car out in the sun all day since my garage is so full of crap.

I got the chromed plated ones so maybe that why it's still in great condition?

The damage is too even for that I think...the two that are worse were on the side fo the car that gets more sun...I wish I had just bought the Mazda ones.

I wanted the chrome plated ones too but they were out of production when I ordered these.

for some reason it kinda looks like what sandpaper would have done to it...Seems really odd to be sun damage to me

Well, what you can do is repaint it with silver spray paint. That's what a friend did with his strakes. They sent him the wrong color and he didn't want to hassle with returning it so he went out, bought a can of silver spray paint and sprayed it on. It actually looked really good and authentic (Forgot what brand paint he used).

You got me! I totally took sandpaper to them! :uhh:

Seriously though, even if it was my wash-mitt or something abrasive, why was one side much worse than the other?

Yeah, sounds like a feasible idea...I just ordered new wheels, so I might try to paint-match it to those...god knows how? but i'll try...what's involved in prepping them? should I sand down all the flaky paint and apply primer? me = n00b@paint

Well, my friend's strakes were brand new so he just painted it over the original paint. I think he also clearcoated it as well so it wouldn't chip.

In your case, since you have such an uneven surface due to the fading, I recommend you sanding it down first. Spray paint it, and if you want, clear coat it. All this should cost you about $10 or less. It's a cheap and easy way to fix it. :)

EDIT: Clear coating will also help prevent cracking of the paint.

I had the plastic ones as well but noticed they were fading after two winters so I got these chrome ones https://www.rx8club.com/group-buy-center-85/rotary13b1-com-aluminum-fender-strakes-group-buy-115746/

It will probably result in a ton of threads, but if you search by title for strakes you should find a few over the last year. There have been a few members w/flaked paint on the colored strakes (iirc - from rx8strakes.com) and I think they tried to make good on them.

Have you tried to contact them?

The painted ones are crap.
The OE strakes are billet and practically indestructible.

Wish I knew that before I bought them...I'm learning that going cheap is almost never the way to go...sucks for me!

I hope that you can get this resolved but those strakes really do look like crap

you cant beat the stainless steel ones on E-bay from UK .....
pretty hard to get them to fade :)

first i've heard of this. they do look like the paint has been chipped. a combination of probably heat and debris.

I did not have any chipping problems but they did faid over time. so im running no strakes. besides for the paint they are good strakes and fit well. But I bet if you had a shop repaint them they would last longer with no problems.

Just get some silver spray paint. That's what I'd do. Easy solution.

I have the stainless steal one , 1 and half year, no problem.

Your best bet is clean them up with sand paper and repaint them.
Make sure you get good paint , no cheapy stuff

Good Luck.