Adding a 3rd gen rear spolier / air deflector
I've got a '99 Highlander 4Runner and I can always spot a '99 because they are missing a factory hitch and rear air deflector. When I bought mine it came with an after market Hidden Hitch but I have always wanted a deflector. Searching forums and CL here and there just to stumble upon one was harder than I imagined. A lot of sellers wanted to keep the rear hatch complete, or they wanted upwards of $100 for one so it was never a front burner kind of thing.
Recently I did a number on my rear bumper on a trail and I went looking for parts. During this search I found Death Cougar selling a couple of spoilers, packaged and ready to go. En route to Oregon a few weeks ago I bought it while on the road. I have the factory template and measurements but I needed the rivet nuts. I've used plenty of Riv-Nuts working in a ski and bike shop but they are really hard to come by locally. I have a gun but not the rivet nuts in the size I needed.
My local Ace Hardware had what they called Jack Nuts so I picked up a few, cracked a beer and drilled some holes. The jack nuts are easier to install with the Jack Nut handle so I bought one. In retrospect it wasn't needed but I did use the nut and bolt manual method to compress the nuts.
Nuts and wrench
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One my way to the correct size hole for the nut.
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Manually cranking it down. I ended up using a ratcheting wrench as the nuts compressed quite a bit. There were 6 Jack Nuts total and some required a socket on the bolt to keep the entire thing from spinning. The supplied handle didn't do much to resist the spinning but I wasn't really getting too far into it because I was standing on the bumper and didn't want to muff things up by rushing it.
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I've got about 4, 3rd gens within walking distance from my house so I glanced at them to figure out the correct placement. I didn't feel like doing all the measurements from the template so I eyeballed it which is easy since the brackets only fit on one spot. I was concerned about hiding the 3rd brake light but it seems like it is what it is as the neighbors were slightly blocked if you looked at it from the right angle.
I was able to use all the factory hardware, painted and sealed the holes and it's rock solid. There were some scuffs I couldn't get out so I hit it with bumper and trim paint and it turned out quite well. I look forward to not having so much dirt on my rear window from now on.
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