802Projects
I love the way the TRD Type-S spoiler looks on a supra. It was an OEM part that has long been discontinued. You won't find one, or if you do; it will be very pricey. At the time of writing this article, eBay actually has an one new in box for the low low price of.... $6500. This is just too much cheddar for me. But I did save the pictures from the listing and I'm sharing them below. Plus even if I could afford an original one, they are entirely fiberglass, and I prefer a carbon center. This means I'm going with a replica.
Now there are several companies that make replicas of it, and they are not all created equal. You will also find different opinions online as far as the best fitment, but that can vary on who is doing the review. Now I haven't tried every wing out there, but I've tried enough to know what makes a good spoiler. In this article I'm going to go over my spoiler decision.
I found this thread (https://www.supraforums.com/threads/trd-rmm-carbon-wing.1033745/ on the SupraForums very helpful. Someone actually tried 3 different spoilers. They were not happy with the RMR (Rhys Millen Racing) replica or the MVP Motorsports replicas. They ended up returning both. They were happy with the Whifbitz full carbon replica from the UK, so that is what I initially ordered.
What arrived was complete garbage. I didn't know it at the time, but Whifbitz had recently changed suppliers. What I got was from their new supplier. Here are some disturbing photos.
The edge of the blade did not sit flush against the sides. You can see it touches in the front and back, and leaves a gap in the middle.
The side pieces also did not sit flush on the trunk lid. They wanted to touch in the front and back which left a big gap in the middle.
And when you stepped away from the car you realized how bad it really was. The uprights caused the blade to have a lean to it. You can see how the spoiler looks like it is falling to the left.
Fortunately Paul from Whifbitz was easy to work with. He agreed the fitment was awful and said he would work with his new supplier. He took the spoiler back and sent me one he had left over from the original supplier. This would have been the same supplier as the guy who gave it two thumbs up in the Supraforum review. The new spoiler came and while it fit a lot better than the previous one; it still had issues. It still had some gaps in the same places, just not as bad.
The carbon blade also had an imperfection in the weave. It's almost like it got snagged on something. You'd think they would have tried to hide it on the bottom where it wasn't visible.
I talked to Paul about it. I do realize that I am a fussy person and that I probably wouldn't be happy with any replica. I decided I would make this one work and keep it. Paul had a few extra blades from the original supplier so he sold me one at discount and let me keep what I had. I had him inspect it before shipping as anything coming accross the pond isn't cheap. I figured I'd paint the one with the imperfection and clear the other one. Then I could switch up the look if I ever felt like it.
I spent hours making the spoiler fit to my liking. I had to sand some areas to get it to fit flush. I even ended up sanding through the bottom edge of one of the side pieces. But that is what it took to get it to contour correctly. I filled the area with some fiberglass cloth and resin.
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of pictures of the process, but I did take 2 videos. The first is an in progress video and the second is after I rattle canned the sides white. I decided to not have it professional painted and to just run it as-is while I contemplated trying out a new spoiler that came to market.
I ended up pulling the trigger on very expensive (~$1700) replica sold by IBS in Russia. They can be found on Instagram as trd3000gt_r and they are also on the SupraForums as "Amigos". The spoilers are made to order. Mine took almost 5 months to arrive. This is by far the best fitting spoiler. Right out of the box it fit just as good as the Whifbitz one that I spent countless hours on. It's also made a lot better and it uses stainless plates and studs just like the original TRD spoiler. I made this video review of it.
So that concludes my spoiler adventure. The IBS spoiler is about twice the price as other replicas, but in my opinion it is well worth it. It checks off all the boxes for me and that is saying something. I plan on having the IBS spoiler painted later this year.