Right then, back to the story:
There is a crucial step to this process which must be done properly. That's finding the centreline of the spoiler. It sounds simple, but the curve of the moulding and the curved edges combine to make this tricky. There's an old saying about "measure twice & cut once". For this I measured and measured and measured and measured. Once I was happy with the centreline, I measured the distance between the outer edges of the overrider irons. The outer edge is flat in the vertical plane.The next step was to take a pair of scissors..... and start the carve-up of my 'lovely' pape mache spoiler. The irons are L shaped in cross section, so to allow the spoiler to slot on from below, I measured the width of the horizontal component, and made another two cuts. At the bottom of these slots, there has to be a short vertical slot - more easy to understand in the photos. The length of these cuts was trial & error. Short at first then slowly extending. At the same time I chopped each end off at a jaunty angle. This was a sort of guess. I knew that wheel clearance would be an issue on lock. More of that later. Finally in order that the spoiler would fit up around the 'hornbox', I removed a good inch or two along the top edge and removed the top of the oval intake hole. My objective was that the spoiler would sit just below the overriders. This trial fitting took a long time. It was an essential part of the process. Although had it not worked I could have started again with a new pape mache spoiler!!
This was the result. I had started to mask up the fibreglass spoiler.
This next photo shows the processed 'real thing'. I used a hacksaw where possible. Where access was impossible I used a hacksaw blade with a masking tape handle. The horizontal cuts were drilled in the style of a dotted line, snapped off and filed smooth.The rough edges were filed or sanded smooth. You can just see the centreline mark.
And next we have two coats of Halfords very best red plastic primer. This took a full can, doing both sides. At this stage I'd drilled the four mounting holes and araldited penny washers at the back. These were held in place with nuts & bolts which came in handy to hold it while the paint dried.
And when the primer had dried for a couple of days, the red went on. The first coats were Audi Flash Red, because I didn't want to run out of Halfords special mix Rosso Corsa at a crucial moment.
And here it is after three good coats of Rosso Corsa spread over a few days. The Halfords 'mix while you wait' cans come with a good spray head which gives a thin vertical paint pattern (it can be turned 90degrees). It's much better than the usual round spray pattern which gobs all the paint 'in the middle'.
