Since I bought my car off the showroom floor, I can not take credit for the wonderful options the car has. One option that is questionable is the painted lower panels, especially the front spoiler.

Pulling out of a parking lot I rubbed it really bad. Now it is a mess. The car is white and all the black is showing through and the paint above the damage is chipped off. With a standard black piece it might not have been such a problem. Now it looks terrible and I need to replace it. Next time I'll remember to leave at an angle.

I can't imagine how some of those aftermarket spoilers must look after a while.

 

Maybe just replace it with a black one - it's sure to get damaged again. In addition to leaving at an angle, try using Sport mode - I've found that with PASM on, the rebound/compression on the shocks is a little firmer and I don't scrape.

 

I thought of going black but it it won't look right with all the other lower panels painted. I never thought of using sport mode. I wish this car had that Enzo feature to raise the front.

 

you dont have to spend 1M on an Enzo to get a lift in the car, Gallardo's have a lift that puts the front end up 1.5 inches.

 

David

welcome to the 997tt fraternity.

sorry to hear about your mishap but it's easy to fix ... a bit of touchup paint and wet-dry sandpaper will "fix" the damage or it can be resprayed for about $120.

if you are respraying, you may want to have paint removed from the bottom 1/4" to allow for the "invisible" occassional scrape. use a strip of black electrical tape as a mockup to see if you like the look.

otherwise, be careful with speedbumps, raised driveways and potholes. using pasm will stiffen the suspension and reduce/slow the compression stroke of the stocks.

my tt has been lowered about 20mm and i haven't had any scraping (yet). however, this is a street car so i expect to get some road damage including paint chips, parking dings and chipped windshield.

 

While you're at it, you might want to invest in a backup lip. We've done a few locally, just for a few folks who decided what the hey, may as well while I'm at it....

Keep one on hand, painted and ready, the other bolted to the car and done. If it happens again, you have a fast fix ready to go, and the shop that does the work for you can work on a lip easier when it's off the car too.

 

I'd replace it with the stock black peice, takes licking.

 

One reason I didn't order the painted lip. I mean it does look killer, but as an everyday capable car, the black plastic is more practical. Heck Porsche doesn't even ship the 997 with the lip installed, they know how vulnerable it is.

 

I ordered a new one and will have it painted. I will then have my original repaired and have a spare. The nice thing is that it pops right off. Like I said, I did not order that car this way. It looks awesome but I really screwed it up. I was going super slow at the wrong angle. You could hear the damage as it was occuring. It was horrible!

 

Eric - how about getting a large supply of them and selling them to us at a better price?

I just paid $312.00 for it painted. Hook us up I am going to sand my other one down a little and just have it painted again for $90.00. I might use that one more often and put the good one on for pictures lol

 

someone should come up with a protective splitter to prevent damage to the painted lips....

 

The black one isn't noticeable. It's unavoidable at times...sorry it looks s shi^^y.

 

hmm you sure someone hasn't already?

Only thing on the next one I drill(splitter) is that I will counter sink the screw heads so they don't get filed down from hitting the bottom. I had a ***** of a time to get the speed nuts off.

 

I fixed mine by buying two back up black spoiler lips. I left the original on the car. Now I'll be damned, if I don't scrape anymore. Maybe I've scraped it enough that it fits my driveway. BTW the real danger is being forced to hurry your entry into a driveway or over a bump because of following traffic. Better to scrape than have some inattentive bozo rear end you.

 

It's just not worth having the painted lip. It does look better, but not by all that much. Not to mention, no matter how careful you are, you're going to scrape. On a regular basis. Do you really want the headache of keeping up that lip? The black looks fine and you never have to mess with it. It never seems like those painted lip spoilers look good for very long...