FTO AUSTRALIA

Alright, so I recieved my surround today in the mail, helpfully sent to "scarecrow", albiet scrawled illegably so the Post Office had it under the name schydlo or something, and wanted ID with that name on it.

Because i'm a hottie and let the chick think she might have a chance of sleeping with me if she just gave me my package; I managed to get away without having to produce "Mr Schydlo" ID.

Before I go any further, this was my cabin as of a week ago:


Here's a couple of quick pics; the quality is acceptable, but very far from perfect. The CF was cut out roughly, then not cleaned before being sprayed and my spray surface is pockmarked, scratched, and has one run on it. Not really impressed, but hey, the price was right.




Alright, onto the fitting. Anyone with a modified gear boot (like my thick leather one) will need to make some adjustments... a) to keep the plastic surround to which the bootie is attached still, and b) to allw the surround to come down further over the bootie and sit flush with the larger surrounds surface.

The pictures are pretty self explanitory, however i'll provide a quick overview. You make a small hole as pictured and then screw down the bootie (not through the bootie, but rather use the screw to pin down the plastic underpart), to hold it steadier I added a metal extension to the screw, this was in the form of a mecano piece trimmed down so it would fit flush inside the surround rebate.




You also need to trim down the upper tab shown in the pictures with the white arrows, this tab is what stops the surround coming down further around the bootie and sitting flush. Leave the larger lower tab, this is the tab which the above screw/metal extension pins down.






Mine sits flush with the surface, but not actually "inside" the rebate. It does not need any further fixing down, the surround while not budge from its position, even when aggressively changing gears (the screw stops the bootie from swinging up and down and dislodging the surround).




Here's my CF cup holder, be very jealous, cause it's teh sechs.


And some install pictures -






On to the glamour shots -












Cheers,
Joel

The final shot looks okay Joel. Looks a bit out of place with the other trims still standard.

I dunno if it's been mentioned already, but a mob called Aquadip will take your factory plastic trims and 'dye' them to look like one of their patterns (eg a colour, carbon fibre, woodgrain etc). But it's still ABS plastic.

I've seen a few people use it and the results are pretty good. Bit exxy though when I checked.

Alternative is to get a custom trim piece made up.

Looking good, & i guess you might have some fun with a postie tonight hhahahaha

Cool! Even for Ben"Death to all that is bling"noz, that looks tidy

hmmz. a bubble mark i c on the surface of the surround

damn it. imma gonna get my supplier to change panel beaters- whoeva that does the plastic coating for em...

as for the rest of the surround, i agree its not perfect or anything... but hey... it still looks $$ once u got it all on there.

nonetheless, i will relay all the feedback back to my supplier.

good job in installing it though... like u, my gear boot is thicker than stock so looks like i might be following this guide when i eventually come to installing mine...

ill c if i can find a way to sit the thing so its not somewhat bulging out towards the bottom part?

and the name scarecrow - now i know thats actually joel lol, sounds like u had some fun down at the postie. i didnt get your rl name when i sent the list off to my supplier... doh lol
- Ken

i also ahve a few inperfections on mine...one was self inflected.

I have some leds under the suuround and it can see blue light through small holes....anyway overall its a good first effort.

KJ

The surround is by no means bad, for the price it is definetly a great result. With a little bit more time and care it could have been damn near perfect but. And if you can I would recommend telling your supplier to change painters, that's what really let my piece down.

Overall however I am extremely pleased!

The photo's don't really do it justice though, because of the way the camera captures light off the fibres it looks much more out of place in the pictures then it does in the car (where it appears a little less shiny, and much darker like the surrounding plastics).

To get the surround to sit perfectly within it's rebate then you will need to procure a tiptronic gear surround and attach the leather bootie to that. I posted up a picture of this within the original group buy thread, somewhere around the 5th or 6th page.

i have spoken to my supplier and have recommended to him that a change of panel beater that does the coating is required.

i am headng down to see my supplier later this week and will discuss the matter further, as well as getting the cf door cups on the way.

thanx for the feedback guys.

enjoy your surrounds

- Ken

looks great

Here's a couple of quick pics; the quality is acceptable, but very far from perfect. The CF was cut out roughly, then not cleaned before being sprayed and my spray surface is pockmarked, scratched, and has one run on it. Not really impressed, but hey, the price was right.

Hmmmmm..................Looks like I got the dodgiest one of the bunch.

I ended up sending mine back, hopefully a replacement will be on it's way shortly.

Thanks for the guide, I was still toying with a few different ideas on fitting mine. Have been browsing the 3m catalouge.............

Cheers

Chris