Unlimited Products Installing Grabber Spoiler Some of you were probably following the discussion under the general thread so I've started this one under technical. I gambled right at $100 and bought a Grabber style rear spoiler from Unlimited Products since there were no particular issues discussed in previous threads. I approached this objectively hoping we could learn the issues with their product. It's a shame they are so close to making this work. It's probably about 95% to being right but those last 5% of things will make it necessary for some pretty involved work on the buyer's part. The overall dimensions, curves, and contours of the pieces I bought almost mirrored a genuine grabber spoiler. Sure, it was a bit rough in some places with the gelcoat but those problems were looked at as the least of my concerns going into this. The first picture shows this. It also shows the excess material that had to be removed to get it close to flush and lining up with the seams on the corner piece. Overall, the bulk of problems on the one I got are having to deal with excess material. Too much out on the edge of the wing, too much in the "elbow" section of the wing, and too much in the lower part of the corner pieces that overlap the lower valance (although one section was really easy to simply cut out). You can see in one of the photos how much difference it made removing the material from the ends of the wing. I actually ended up taking off a little too much, but I still couldn't get it to come up to the line where it would line up with the seam where the corner piece attaches to the quarter panel. Exact alignment would probably require adding 1/4" of material along that entire edge. Those corner pieces are a complex parts. Even after removing the excess material on the bottom, I could not get it to fit flush against the quarter panel. It might be possible to add material here or do some appropriate sanding along the seam to get it closer. Final verdict. Close but no cigar unless you are willing to take on some fabrication and corrective action yourself. As stated earlier, they get you to the five yard line but you've got to take it from there. It's not a bolt-on and go undertaking by any means. Just a little more detail work in their shop with their molds and finishing process would get us there. I'll take it upon myself to let them know what our concerns are and send them the pics. I'd venture to guess that if they got it right, our group of owners would have spoilers flying off the shelf for them. More photos on the next thread showing other detail.
Thanks for doing this. If they pay attention and fix the problems, they just might make a lot of sales off this board and we'll finally have a source for Grabber spoilers other than the scarce stock of used ones! If it works, somebody oughta do this with one of UP's hoods...
Excelant report! Pics are worth 1000 words too. It looks like they need to throw away the molds and make new ones. Maybe they used the molds for too many. I used to make fiberglass parts using molds and they were only good for so many. OR they been bad from the start. Either way, I wouldn't be buying one without being pissed and wanting my money back. Are you happy with it even after all the work? No final pics?
No pictures of the final result---as luck would have it, I ran across a genuine grabber spoiler I picked up for $130 the day after Unlimited's arrived! If I could have made UP's spoiler work, I would have re-sold the genuine article but there's just too much work involved. Ain't OEM great! So now I'm out $260 for a spoiler on the back of my car but that's about where we are these days on those things! I felt I needed to tackle the project though and see what would happen so we'd have some good hard info and photos.
Sounds like unlimited is the same old company. Nothing has changed. I had heard there were new owners a while back and they were trying to turn things around. I was willing to wait and see what the chances were that this piece would prove it.
Thanks for your efforts and pics. That product is terrible. They should be ashamed to sell it. My guess is if you let them know the fit issues they wont care. Any company that lets a product like that out the door likely wont care much about your suggestions.
I bought mine from Maverick Man. It was a Carbon Fiber one. it was around 250.00 or so but it fit nice and Io had to do very little extra work. Mine was the first batch and I think he tweaked them even more..... I assume he is still selling them!!!!! Worth every penny
Not trying to defend Unlimited here .... looks like a lot of tweaking involved ... but, I think some of the problems you faced with the corner pieces are because you are trying to adapt them to a 73 car with the extended rear bumper. They might be a lot closer to fitting if using the earlier filler pieces with the bumper tucked in. Will the OEM spoiler pieces fit on those corners OK? Never tried this personally, so I don't know if the factory corners were changed going from 72-73. I do know that 74 and later are completely different on the lower edge.
1973 lower quarter extensions will fit a spolier set-up. Any factory spoiler set-up will bolt on to a 1970-1973 car with no modifications whatsoever.
Makes me glad I have a lifetime supply of factory spoilers. I think I'm even removing the one one my latest car...
Answering Captain Comet's question and confirming what Craig said---the OEM corner pieces fit perfect on my 73.
