Sixpointtwoliter
Member
I own a '22 4V Blackwing without the carbon package. Ended up purchasing the front carbon splitter and carbon spoiler from Tapout, and have had nothing but problems with the spoiler.
I need advice on what to do, it's driving me insane. To the point I actively do not want to drive my car.
Want to say early that I don't think it's Tapout's fault. I've been to their shop three times now to fix this. Jorge and Michael have been responsive, but I don't know. It feels like it gets worse everytime.
Issue arose after I picked the car up a month ago and drove it home in a thunderstorm. Quick eye test picking it up, everything looked great. Next day I went to Costco, opened the trunk to put groceries in, and my trunk latch started leaking a consistent stream of water. I looked at the front of the wing, and the gasket was "wavy". It would seal at some parts of the deck, and was raised in others. Removed the deck lining, and the wing was leaking through every bolt when hit with a stream of water.
Brought it back to Tapout, and Jorge replaced it with a second wing. He showed me in the shop that the front of the wing was "touching", but it was poorly lit and I'm not the person to overly scrutinize someone's work in front of them, so I took him at his word. He also laid RTV around each bolt, and a quick inspection from the inside showed RTV pushing out from each washer. So I drove it home.
Next day in the sun, I went to look over the wing again and it was worse than the first. 75% of the front wing was raised off the deck. A water test showed it was still leaking into the trunk (Jorge would later solve that trapped water under the wing was walking forward and leaking from the backside of where he RTV'd). Tapout told me to bring it back again. Photo of that is below.
I go back to Tapout and the first thing they tell me is "by this point, we think it's your decklid." Which, I suppose is a possibility but I find it weird that the wings only got worse, and the entire right side of my deck where this wing lays is a mm off plumb. My stock spoiler fit fine. Now, the stock one sits further back and is glued into place, so maybe it was lifting the deck up, but call me skeptical.
Anyway, Jorge and Michael tell me they tried a third wing from their first order batch with a thicker gasket and it was the worst fitting wing of them all. So they put my second one back on and just filled the gaps with RTV. And in the moment I succumbed, accepted their fix and their answer it was my decklid, but... it looks awful.
The RTV is a completely different color shade to the gasket, along with being glossy to the matte gasket. And Jorge isn't a body guy, it's not like he has the skillset to lay this RTV in an appealing manner - I'm not blaming him or saying this end result was purposeful. It just genuinely looks like RTV was smashed under it, it smeared out, and was wiped away, which is what happened. Photo below.
The finish is terrible. It's not Jorge, Michael, or Tapout's fault, but I can't live with this on this car. I know it's there, and anyone who looks at it will find that it looks bad. I paid too much for this car and spoiler to let it go like this.
At this point, I'm at a loss. With Tapout claiming it's my deck lid, and saying they tried three wings, they aren't going to continue to work on this for me. And for me, I've thought of maybe putting a bead of something in front of the wing to give the gasket a uniform look, but the excess will never come off the paint or carbon wing, and it is just going to look like I beaded my wing like my bathtub. It won't look like a stock carbon wing.
I have no idea what to do, and am looking for advice.
Thanks.
I need advice on what to do, it's driving me insane. To the point I actively do not want to drive my car.
Want to say early that I don't think it's Tapout's fault. I've been to their shop three times now to fix this. Jorge and Michael have been responsive, but I don't know. It feels like it gets worse everytime.
Issue arose after I picked the car up a month ago and drove it home in a thunderstorm. Quick eye test picking it up, everything looked great. Next day I went to Costco, opened the trunk to put groceries in, and my trunk latch started leaking a consistent stream of water. I looked at the front of the wing, and the gasket was "wavy". It would seal at some parts of the deck, and was raised in others. Removed the deck lining, and the wing was leaking through every bolt when hit with a stream of water.
Brought it back to Tapout, and Jorge replaced it with a second wing. He showed me in the shop that the front of the wing was "touching", but it was poorly lit and I'm not the person to overly scrutinize someone's work in front of them, so I took him at his word. He also laid RTV around each bolt, and a quick inspection from the inside showed RTV pushing out from each washer. So I drove it home.
Next day in the sun, I went to look over the wing again and it was worse than the first. 75% of the front wing was raised off the deck. A water test showed it was still leaking into the trunk (Jorge would later solve that trapped water under the wing was walking forward and leaking from the backside of where he RTV'd). Tapout told me to bring it back again. Photo of that is below.
I go back to Tapout and the first thing they tell me is "by this point, we think it's your decklid." Which, I suppose is a possibility but I find it weird that the wings only got worse, and the entire right side of my deck where this wing lays is a mm off plumb. My stock spoiler fit fine. Now, the stock one sits further back and is glued into place, so maybe it was lifting the deck up, but call me skeptical.
Anyway, Jorge and Michael tell me they tried a third wing from their first order batch with a thicker gasket and it was the worst fitting wing of them all. So they put my second one back on and just filled the gaps with RTV. And in the moment I succumbed, accepted their fix and their answer it was my decklid, but... it looks awful.
The RTV is a completely different color shade to the gasket, along with being glossy to the matte gasket. And Jorge isn't a body guy, it's not like he has the skillset to lay this RTV in an appealing manner - I'm not blaming him or saying this end result was purposeful. It just genuinely looks like RTV was smashed under it, it smeared out, and was wiped away, which is what happened. Photo below.
The finish is terrible. It's not Jorge, Michael, or Tapout's fault, but I can't live with this on this car. I know it's there, and anyone who looks at it will find that it looks bad. I paid too much for this car and spoiler to let it go like this.
At this point, I'm at a loss. With Tapout claiming it's my deck lid, and saying they tried three wings, they aren't going to continue to work on this for me. And for me, I've thought of maybe putting a bead of something in front of the wing to give the gasket a uniform look, but the excess will never come off the paint or carbon wing, and it is just going to look like I beaded my wing like my bathtub. It won't look like a stock carbon wing.
I have no idea what to do, and am looking for advice.
Thanks.
