Vaikhari 30mm Wide First Impressions and Ongoing Install
 

I preordered these fenders from Gotuning and they were delivered this past week. I started fitting them this weekend though this is still an ongoing process. I hope this thread can help people if they are considering these fenders for their own car.

Going to say right off the bat if you are expecting to take these out of the box slap them on the car and go you are in for a bad time.

Fender comparison
Since I have some OEM fenders, Downforce fenders and now these Vaikhari fenders I figured I would weigh each since everyone always asks about weight of parts.

OEM Fender 10lbs 10.5oz (going to retake this picture stupid glare)
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Vaikhari Fender 11lbs 2.8oz
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Downforce Fenders 6lb 10.8oz
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Ok on to fitting them. The Vaikhari fender required a good amount of trimming to get it to fit onto the car.

Towards the door I had to trim pretty much this entire inner lip down. This way it would sit flat into the rocker panel and so it wouldn't scratch up the door when it was opened (ended up with some scratches on the front door edge :( ) . This was trimmed on both fenders.
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On the passengers side I had to trim this area due to it hitting the headlight and lot letting the fender sit flat. This is the area that sits right above the headlight.
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Drivers side bolted down (Note the bumper is not bolts down in these pictures)
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Passenger side (this still need more adjustments today. it was getting late yesterday but its not bad right now).
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Overall
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Current Problem Area: On the top of the fender where it meets the door and windshield these fenders sort of drop down a little. I was trying to look at this area and figure out a solution but really not quite sure how to fix it. This may be something I have to have the body shop work on but it is hard to say. It is an issue with both fenders. If you have any ideas here let me know.
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So what can I say overall? I can't really say they fit well because it isn't as easy as take out of the box and put on the car. I can say that since the metal is far more flexible than FRP I could pull and adjust them more than I could the downforce fenders though the downforce fenders required less muscle to get them into place. Would I recommend these so far? Not if you don't want to put in some work to make them fit (or not if you aren't willing to pay someone to do that work). I bought these for the increased durability of the metal and they definitely deliver in that area. I'll keep updating this as I do more work and when I get them painted which probably wont be till the new year.

Thanks for the write up! I am also struggling through the install and am encountering many of the same issues.

I also chipped my door paint on the leading edge, there was so much extra material initially which can’t be seen with the fender in place. Got my panel gap looking decent, opened the door and crunch! :banghead:

Main problem areas seem to be around the headlights, the low upper corner where fender meets top of door, and even panel gaps overall. I ended up trimming a few of the same areas although you made it further than I did, I wasn’t able to get my headlights on.

Taking mine to a local body shop tomorrow to get fitted, quotes have all been really high to get these installed. They will be a great, durable solution once dialed in, but as you said these don’t slap on the car.

I’ll report back with final comments and photos for a second data point.

Yup same thing happened to me with the door. Even had tape on there to try and protect it. Nope. Oh well add it to the bill.

Those gaps at the top are ridiculous.

Ok spent some more time on it today. Got both fitting better.

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Nothing a little heat and prying couldn't fix.

Still looks a bit off.... so these fenders aren't oem quality for fitment? Seems like downforce has better fitment.

Yeah I wouldn't say they have OEM fit out of the box.. They are aftermarket and to be fair I have never tried to fit a new OEM fender to the car but I assume it would fit better out of the box. My downforce fenders did fit better right out of the box but they still need a fair amount of adjustment to get it spot on and it still wasn't perfect. On top of that with FRP you have very little flex compared to the metal. One area I will say fits better is around the headlight. Since the FRP is much thicker the metal fit around the headlight is far better with these once you get them into place.

Looking much better! How are the fender-door panel gaps after bringing up the corners?

Dropped my car off a couple days ago, eager to see how close to OE fit they can get! I’ll post a summary of work performed with photos once complete.

It looks ok. Still lots of fine adjustments to be made I think.

I like the novelty of a stamped steel wide fender, but for the price and material, these should fit much better. Granted, these are the first iterations, but they shouldn't fit this bad. Even the China rep oem replacements fit much better than these. Just saying, for the price I feel this is unacceptable. I can understand maybe a tiny bit of massaging and shimming, but I wouldn't be happy with these at all. End result will be nice, but for the fit I'd pay hundreds less lol.