Be careful when you take off the bumper to make sure this is released off the stock bumper



Starting with the right side:

Pretty nice even lines



Nice line up with the sidemarker too





Onto the left side

Good lines too



Left sidemarker



First obstacle



There is a peice of the reinforement bar exposed. This will need to be cut/trimmed to install the ducts.

In order for us to test fit the duct, we temporarily took off the support bar.

 

At first, I was a little worried on how the ducts will fit as I've heard from talking to Misha, Precision porsche and other owners who have done the TA front that people do not bother with the ducts b/c it requires a lot of trimming, fitting, etc. I have utmost confidence in my body man so I decided to get the ducts regardless.

First thing to note (obviously), the ducts will not bolt right on. It took my bodyman about an hour of trimming, test fitting, trimming some more, test fitting, etc to get both the ducts mounted. The OEM ducts are mounted by two screws on the front and is secured by tabs in the back. The TA ducts WILL NOT reach the back tabs. Both sides come short (sorry I didn't take a pic of this but can once I get the ducts back from prep and paint) so you will need to use the screws to hold them down. Once you screw them in and put the bumper on, the ducts will not move so the rear tabs are not that important.

Here are some pics of the actual "trimming that needs to be done.









I am pretty confident any competent body shop that cares about your business can make these work so don't be afraid to get them installed!

Here are the installed pics

left side



For those wondering how the TA front looks with OEM ducts... here you go...right side (with the man of the hour)





One problem here

You can see in this pic that the lower splitter angles a little too much toward the front of the car. We will be breaking that off and remolding it to sit right.

 

Finished view of the ducts/bumper





Here's the biggest problem: the front air intake

The intake when mounted on the bumper is poor at best. Check out the pics. You can see how uneven the slates are.

Can you tell what I'm talking about?



Look closely





Bad trimming job



The fitment of the front air intake is a joke (along with the small lower lip) and will need the most work. If my bodyman wasn't adamant that he can fix it, I'd prob ask Misha to send me another one.

Overall, here's my opinion on the parts:

Bumper: actually fits very well. No complaints there. As with all fiberglass parts, it will need to be sanded down, prepped and trimmed, etc but that's a given

Large lip: Small crack when I recevied it. Fits well but will need to be reinforced b/c it's too flimsy.

Small lip: bad fitment. Will need to make it work

RAdiator ducts: Surprising a decent fit. Not that hard to make work but will need patience. I think it's worth it imo

Top air intake: very bad fitment and will need a lot of work

That's it for now. Will post more pics when I get my parts fixed and painted.

Sorry for the long post. Hope it was helpful.

Have a good night everyone

Edwin

 

Edwin

My guys spent a lot of time on the front upper grill as well.

The other thing to consider is the thickness of the tab for the side markers. Make sure they are correct before paint. Mine were too thick as they were and needed sanding to be the right thickness. I had issues with my passenger side duct as well.

Good luck! Great write up

 

The initial measurements on a stock bumper is:

4 1/4" on the side








5 1/4" on the corner



Approx: 4 3/4" in the middle



Will post the after measurements when the kit is painted and installed.

Edwin

 

Great point. I forgot to mention that. Yes the side marker will need to be trimmed (and make sure to take into account paint thickness after it's painted)


Edwin

 

This is a great write up! Thanks for sharing and taking your time doing this.

 

damn man, thank you so much for taking the time to take pictures and explains everything, that is so nice.

And thanks for taking the measurment of the bumper, that is going to help a lot, now if only someone could do the same with a GT2 bumper...

 

The car looks great but it seems that it took A LOT of extra work and additional adjustments to deal with fit issues to make it look right. If I was buying this I would expect that all would need to do is paint and mount - is that an unrealistic expectation? I was really considering doing this but after seeing this thread I am afraid that it may look crappy unless I have an amazing guy working on it....

 

Sorry to say but if you expect to buy a kit that you just paint and bolt on, that's not going to happen. During my research, I've read that people with actual Techart peices still had to do some work.

"A lot of extra work"... I'm not sure it's that much more. The only thing that needs to be fixed is primarily the grill and one of the slats and the small lip. Fitting the actual bumper took us 30 min. Fitting the ducts was another hour. You can spend a couple thousand more to get the real deal and have a little less time fitting or have a competent shop do the work.

With that said, I'm very fortunate to have my bodyman as a good friend that makes house calls He hooks me up every time he does work for me.

You can always try precision porsche's kit. They might fit better

Edwin

 

It doesn't matter what the aftermarket bumper is, it will require some fitting. This is actually true of an OEM bumper as variation exists in everything. Just make sure (as the OP has) to fit it before you finish and paint. Great write-up.

Follow-up question...did you have to cut some of the original "bracket" (reinforement bar as you called it)?

 

Do you mean this peice? If so, yes we will be trimming the edges so it will clear the bumper



Edwin

 

Yeah, that's it. We just had to trim the passenger side.

 

Hmm...interesting. I'll have to double check. Btw, is yours MISHA as well? If so, how was the fitment of the top grill and the lips?

Edwin

 

No mine is a real TechArt...got a great deal on it years ago. I don't have any issues with the splitters on top.