tmontague
11-19-2015, 07:09 PM
I decided to make my own front splitter today for my front bumper. I got sick of how rounded the bumpers are on the Yaris and I'm not forking out an insane amount of money for a body kit.
Quick trip to Home Depot to pick up some garage door weather stripping. It's black foam with with a slight "L" curve in the middle of it.
Pro Tip* Skip the double sided tape and just buy a pack of 3/4 self tapping screws and washers. I use size "10" screws and washers with 8mm head on them.
You want to place the side of the stripping with no curved edge to be attached to the bumper. The side with the slight curved edge is the one that stick down in front of the bumper.
You want to start by test lining up the stripping with the bumper. You want the stripping to be flat with the bottom edge of the bumper. all the way throughout.
Pro Tips*
-Do not "stretch" the rubber, keep it in in natural length.
-Drill screws in close to the bent edge on the stripping so it stays tight and flush to the edge of the bumper.
You want to screw in the screws every 2 inches or so, I used a small drill set on the lowest torque setting. Do not over tighten these screws.
I cut my stripping a little short as I had originally stretched it out a bit when installing it with the tape. This cause it to slightly change shape around the passenger side corner. It looks good enough for me, especially since I have a dark and lowered car, it isn't really noticeable once the car is back on the ground.
If you are super anal and show your car then you may want to make sure it is perfectly uniform throughout.
In the end I was super pleased with the look, it turned out much better than I anticipated. It added some sharpness to the front bumper and it makes the car look lower in the front. It is a soft flexible material so if it happens to hit a speed bump it won't cause issues.
I ended up drilling way more holes than I needed to into my bumper as I originally installed the screw too far away from the bend in the stripping. This caused the stripping the slightly look like it was "falling away" from the bumper. No big deal, It's plastic and it's covered y the splitter anyways.
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/12227759_10153765648147743_40386613705341073_n.jpg ?oh=417f96d51dd8ffcdce2f43b2a6fa919e&oe=56B8C86D
You can see why I decided to not use the double sided tape...
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xla1/v/t1.0-9/11990627_10153765648347743_8897002832173825138_n.j pg?oh=4f0e32133d286d23fa31c462819127fb&oe=56F2882F
This is how I had originally installed the tape, but I ended up removing it all in the end
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/11990636_10153765648067743_7914369685249070582_n.j pg?oh=68b6a12e083550b2bc9d47ed2c30d5f1&oe=56AED927
Final result, sorry for the crappy quality but it got dark before I finished. If I remember I'll take one tomorrow in the daylight. It looks much better in person than in this picture.
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xat1/v/t1.0-9/12274394_10153765648457743_833843843518938018_n.jp g?oh=a1063d23b8b26beff9247c3df59c4750&oe=56F4FBF3
Quick trip to Home Depot to pick up some garage door weather stripping. It's black foam with with a slight "L" curve in the middle of it.
Pro Tip* Skip the double sided tape and just buy a pack of 3/4 self tapping screws and washers. I use size "10" screws and washers with 8mm head on them.
You want to place the side of the stripping with no curved edge to be attached to the bumper. The side with the slight curved edge is the one that stick down in front of the bumper.
You want to start by test lining up the stripping with the bumper. You want the stripping to be flat with the bottom edge of the bumper. all the way throughout.
Pro Tips*
-Do not "stretch" the rubber, keep it in in natural length.
-Drill screws in close to the bent edge on the stripping so it stays tight and flush to the edge of the bumper.
You want to screw in the screws every 2 inches or so, I used a small drill set on the lowest torque setting. Do not over tighten these screws.
I cut my stripping a little short as I had originally stretched it out a bit when installing it with the tape. This cause it to slightly change shape around the passenger side corner. It looks good enough for me, especially since I have a dark and lowered car, it isn't really noticeable once the car is back on the ground.
If you are super anal and show your car then you may want to make sure it is perfectly uniform throughout.
In the end I was super pleased with the look, it turned out much better than I anticipated. It added some sharpness to the front bumper and it makes the car look lower in the front. It is a soft flexible material so if it happens to hit a speed bump it won't cause issues.
I ended up drilling way more holes than I needed to into my bumper as I originally installed the screw too far away from the bend in the stripping. This caused the stripping the slightly look like it was "falling away" from the bumper. No big deal, It's plastic and it's covered y the splitter anyways.
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/12227759_10153765648147743_40386613705341073_n.jpg ?oh=417f96d51dd8ffcdce2f43b2a6fa919e&oe=56B8C86D
You can see why I decided to not use the double sided tape...
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xla1/v/t1.0-9/11990627_10153765648347743_8897002832173825138_n.j pg?oh=4f0e32133d286d23fa31c462819127fb&oe=56F2882F
This is how I had originally installed the tape, but I ended up removing it all in the end
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/11990636_10153765648067743_7914369685249070582_n.j pg?oh=68b6a12e083550b2bc9d47ed2c30d5f1&oe=56AED927
Final result, sorry for the crappy quality but it got dark before I finished. If I remember I'll take one tomorrow in the daylight. It looks much better in person than in this picture.
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xat1/v/t1.0-9/12274394_10153765648457743_833843843518938018_n.jp g?oh=a1063d23b8b26beff9247c3df59c4750&oe=56F4FBF3