JE Rear Fill Plate and Clear Turns...LONG

["Shannon Fenton" <sfenton@amazon.com>]

Well a car free weekend was not to be. I got my parts on friday which I
didnt exptct till monday and I couldnt have new car parts just sitting
around. I got a JE Design rear fill plate and a set of clear turn signals. I
was hesitant buying more JE Design stuff after being very disappointed in
the fit and finish of the Maske grill I already put on. But I got it for a
song and I liked the look it provides. Well the plate attaches in stock
mounting points in between the taillights and the mounting point on the
plate consists of two hex screws per side with nut-serts in a resin of some
kind. The outside finish of the plate was for the most part better then the
grill except however for one blemish so bad it will require filling it with
putty to make it smooth, its so deep into the fibre glass the gel kote didnt
even fill it completely. I see things like this and wonder "how the hell
could you let a part like this go out the door", and for the prices they
charge no less. But oh well, Cramer and I are thinking of  making the rear
fill plates out of Lexan..more on that later. Anyhow, the alignment for the
mounting plate is so far off it is impossible to secure it to the car with
both the upper and lower bolts on either side. So I was able to get the the
bottom bolts on both sides and it seems solid enough. The big challenge was
getting a light for the rear license plate since it is mounted below the
rear bumper and being a Euro-bumper there is almost no space between it and
the body. There is just barely a fingers width. I didnt want a lighted plate
bracket (thank god we didnt find one at Schucks), so that left us with
wiring a light above the plate without screwing up the bumper. Cramer in all
his infinite resourcefulness found a generic light (looks like a clearance
light for a trailer) and it was barely and inch wide. The metal frame of the
euro bumper leaves a 1/4 inch or so of just plastic cover before it mounts
flush with the body at the top and leaves 1/8 inch of space at the bottom.
We mounted the light to the inner part of the metal bracket (of course the
bumper has to be removed) and since there is slight indentation of the body
here we didnt have any clearance problems with bumper mounted normally
flush. Cramer tapped the parking lights for power and the switch grounded
itself due to the bumper grounding to the body. Anyways..we mounted the
license plate using a the stock mounting points for the rear valance. Plenty
of light hits the plate to keep the law happy so Im happy.
The clear turns were simple and I decided to remove the amber inserts, well
actually while futzing around with one it snapped free inside the lense. But
the only reason I wanted to leave them was for legal requirements. But to my
surprise running amber bulbs with the lights turned on there is NO
difference then with amber lenses. I couldnt believe it, Cramer is removing
his as we speak! During the day with the lights off there are only certain
angles where you can tell the bulb is amber, mostly from the side. In a
perfect (Honda) world I would run clear bulbs but alas..I need no trouble
from the fuzz. Removing the insert is a pain, Ive heard of people using heat
guns but decided to do the4 first one with just a pair of side cutters and
needle nose pliers (i was at home on the couch didnt want to go to the
garage to get tools), this sucked royally. After an hour and 3 beers with a
bleeding thumb I was able to break the insert into small enough pieces to
get it out. On the second signal I decided to use the dremel with the flex
shaft attachment. I cut perforations in the insert then popped it into the
lenses and removed the pieces with  pliers...worked like a charm. Well pics
are up in the New Mods section of www.scirocco.16v.com....


Thank you for your time.
Shannon Fenton
Telecom Resource Management
Amazon.com
206.266.6736
sfenton@amazon.com


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