Finally put mine on. Stoked!
Hey there guys, wanted to make a post about my experience putting on this spoiler. I ordered it At the beginning of august and I received it about a week later I think it was less actually. Jason was very transparent about what was happening. So, I then got the spoiler and it sat for 3 weeks because I was busy and also needed to make sure I had all the tools before I completed the job. Also I want to add Jason packs the spoilers very well I actually had trouble getting it out of the plastic lol. So, onto the important part. Installation. Since I have a lot of tools at home and I am mechanically inclined I decided to do it myself rather than take it to a body shop. So, I am going to be honest, the directions that are provided are not very helpful. Once you get the gist of how the spoiler mounts and how its going to work you won't be using the directions after. But, also, in the directions it is only stated that you need like a few tools. The unibit, a 1/8th drill bit and of course a drill. Actually installing the thing me and my dad ended up using WAY more tools than I would have thought. If you want to install it correctly you will need an assortment of different drill bits, and also different other things to make your life easier / make sure your doing it right. Thankfully my dad has a ton of tools at our disposal and machinist skills so we were able to pick up the pieces left by the directions. So basically what we did was use the white strips with the holes on them and tapes them to line with the spoiler holes and then from there we had our marks where to drill. Used a punch to mark and also for easier drilling. Then using a drill holder / guide we drilled thru all three layers to the inside of the liftgate. Then from the inside you use the unibit to open it up so you can get a socket in there. We ended up needing two size unibits since the size stated in the directions is too short and fat for getting thru both layers on the inside while not making to big of a hole. After drilling the first layer from the inside wide enough we had to use a 1/2 inch drill bit to get the second layer. For the top layer the part the screw goes thru I believe we needed to drill it to 1/4" of an inch since the original 1/8" hole is too small for the screw to fit through. After that we used a fancy drill bit to smooth out the rough and mangled edges that are created when you drill into it. I would say the hardest thing was to get the two layers from the inside of the hatch big enough for the socket clearance. The socket that the screws take is a 5/8's socket and it was about 1/2" needed to drill out for it to fit good. After you have everything drilled out its a breeze. With the drilling said and done it was actually medium hard amount of work. Totally doable, as long as you have the tools. Okay, so now for the wiring. In the instructions Jason says you have to tear off the boot on the hatch. That is not true at all. What I ended up doing which IMO is way better is just cutting off the halogen bulb connector for the 3rd brake light and then soldering the black & red from the spoiler to the wire to the black w/ white and white w/ green coming from the truck. All I did was drill the hole by the screw hole on the passenger side of the truck where the hole is for the brake wire on the spoiler and then after I put it in the hole and routed it to the right so I could then connect it to the brake wires. No messing around with the boot required. Also I would like to address, If you have LED's in your taillights when you do this job get a 8 ohm resistor. Led third brake lights with LED tails will make your ABS light come on your dash, and then you won't have abs all over a stupid LED! An 8 OHM resistor matches perfectly the resistance of the halogen bulb it had before so the abs light stays off. Also I would recommend you heat shrink the whole wire and also electrical tape it, the wire will be just bare otherwise. For the resistor all you have to do is wire one side on the positive and one side on the ground (negative) and attach it somewhere where it won't melt your wires, and the your good to go. When you are finally mounting the spoiler I would also recommend to put silicone around the inner part of the foam and also around the holes where the screw goes so no water at all can get in there. With that said. Overall I am VERY happy with my purchase. my 3rd gen 4runner didn't come with any spoiler and I've always thought it looked funny with nothing on it, and now with the Burtman spoiler I am so happy, it looks absolutely amazing! Personally even though it took more work than anticipated to install I found it to be a really fun project to do with my dad. Unfortunately my paint is absolutely awful so it doesn't quite match but even then I think it still looks awesome, matched or not. It also super cooler to have the LED strip for the third brake light too. Stoked! I am going to link a bunch of pictures that I took of it after I finished mounting it and also bits I explained above. If anyone wants all the exact tools I used let me know Ill get them all together and take pictures.
