pusha

iTrader: (5)

All I know is that JDM stuff is usually not very durable and the quality can be questionable. When my buddy bought a TopSecret bodykit for his Supra, it was the biggest pile of **** I'd ever seen, both fitment wise and looks.

thasac

iTrader: (3)

My GV lip is authentic and taken a beating (curbs, cones, etc.). I literally had the lip folded under the car at one point when I caught it on some grass pulling onto lawn at a local cruise night - nothin'.

I think the broken GV paranoia is the result of a couple things:

1. Urethane molding has come along way since GV first started making those lips. In my field of work we make a lot of prototypes for validation testing (FDA ****) and for years the urethane molded parts were known to be very brittle (like SLAs), however, the newer urethanes are very tough and depending on the formula, can be made to handle flexing/twisting quite well. I think the newer GV lips are far tougher than the ones from 10+ years ago.

2. They don't like cold weather.

3. UV will break down most plastics and urethane is one of them. You can formulate some plastics to be more tolerant, however, I'm not sure if urethanes can.

-Zach

thasac

iTrader: (3)

Might I also add:

My GV lip was impeccably molded - limited to no flash, no warping, no bubbles/void and perfect fitment.

The Tough Run lip is an absolute POS in comparison - tons of flashing, tons of warping (if it's a thermoset plastic, that is to be expected) and questionable fitment.


I'm no JDM fanboy - just a happy consumer who thinks these have gotten an unfairly biased reputation.

-Zach

kotomile

iTrader: (24)

My TR looks exactly like my GV did, sounds like you got one from a shitty batch.

I mean, I didn't even run my GV into anything, it cracked from the "stress" of climbing into my driveway, at an angle, and barely even scraping the bottom of it. Then again, maybe there were good and bad batches of the real McCoy, too. If so, I got a GV from a shitty batch and my TR from a good one.

Oh and no UV, since my GV was painted. Not much thermal cycling stress either, being mostly a FL/GA car during its time with GV lip. Shitty batch.

thasac

iTrader: (3)

Perhaps the 'TR' I got wasn't a TR at all - it surely isn't urethane though.

In all fairness, the one part I left out in previous posts was the fact that my front bumper isn't well constrained. All ducting is attached to the unibody, not the bumper, so it's just sort of floating aside from two bolts near the parking lights and the two studs in the fender. I'd assume any impacts I had with manhole covers, potholes, etc. have been mostly absorbed by the bumper as it is going to deform before the lip.

-Zach

thirdgen

iTrader: (26)

I drove 1 hour away cause I found that exact bumper on e-bay. I was told it was a GV knockoff. It's fiberglass, and I have to drill the holes out to mount it, and it's obviously unpainted. The ad said "will not ship, pick up only". Starting bid was $1. Nobody bid on it, so I did with like 5 seconds to spare. Therefore, I bought it for One Dollar.