02+ Rear Valence Conversion "Scrunch"

[ryan1926]

I'm not sure if I am the only one who has experienced this problem after doing the 02+ Rear Valence conversion. I even purchased the correct 02+ rear stay for the valence and still experienced the rear valence bunching up in the middle. Anyway, I decided to fix the problem by buying a bolt that was 1/2" longer than the original as well as a 1/2" cylindrical spacer. The spacer fits in between the rear stay and the inside of the rear valence. I could only find the right M6 Black Oxide bolt from the from the McMaster-Carr catalog. All of the home improvement stores that I went to only had the bolts in silver and being anal I had to find the bolt in black. The only drawback was that I had to buy a box of 25 bolts. I picked up the spacer at Lowe's in one of the specialty "nuts/bolts" drawers.

If anyone else is experiencing this "scrunch" problem send me a PM and I will send you one of the 24 bolts remaining for free. However, you are on your own in buying the spacer as well as the outer washer (you can use your old one if you get creative). I uploaded some before/after pics in my gallery if you are interested in looking. Below is the bolt description from the McMaster-Carr catalog is anyone is interested.

Part # 91310 A342 - CLASS 10.9 BLACK-OXIDE STL HES HEAD CAP SCREW M6 SIZE, 40MM LENGTH, 1MM PITCH, FULLY THREADED. (If I had to do it all over again I would have bought the partially threaded bolts)

Here's a link to my gallery pics (specifically the Before 1&2 and After 1&2 pics)...

http://www.nsxprime.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=7737

 

[D'Ecosse]

Ryan - Your 'before' pics don't look normal - I suspect the 'new' stay was not really the correct one; yes, it looks like your 'before' pics when the wrong stay is used but with the correct one it already looks like your 'after' pics.
It really does not bunch up if the correct part is used.

 

[ryan1926]

Hi Ken,

Perhaps the bodyshop who installed my rear valence didn't install the correct one. I thought that might have been the problem until I saw a few other's with the conversion that also suffered from the same problem. Perhaps they used the wrong stay as well. Oh well, I have free bolts if anyone needs them. :biggrin:

 

[D'Ecosse]

You can tell by just looking at the bracket at the bottom of the stay - it should have a (sideways) "U" shape - looks like it was just an extension to the original stay welded on.
I have a pic posted on here somewhere illustrating that ....

Aaah - found it ..........

 

[ryan1926]

Ah ha! Thanks for the pic! Mine looks nothing like that. I ordered the 02+ valence from Niello Acura. So either Niello sent the body shop the wrong stay or the body shop used the old stay.

 

[T-Med]

Hey Ryan-

Sounds like you got it solved but when I saw "scrunch" in the title, I thought hey......

When I had the body shop paint it, I kept the new stay because I wanted to install it myself but when I went to pick up my car, the guy said "Hey, my dad put on your rear valance for you." And out popped this kind, old gentleman.

Nice gesture but he "scrunched" me and being somewhat "anal" my own self, I reinstalled it using some very well detailed instructions from Prime (probably written by D'Ecosse -- he rocks!!!) because, besides the scrunch, the fit was way off too! He didn't slide it correctly into place which is the key to a flush mount! It looks great now.

Just thought I'd chime in. Hope you love the look as much as I do!!!

All the best!
Terry
T-Med