Credit for this idea goes to Kyle Mcgrew – he owns ST Sedan #005 and just this week fitted Cup Spoilers to it, but felt that something else was needed to really bring the front end together. He had a damaged Maxton front lip laying around and came up with a very simple but effective solution…

Of course I also have Cup Spoilers on my sedan and normally would have our custom E-Glove splitter accompanying them, but for the last couple of months it has been off as I’ve been wanting to come up with something new instead. I had thought of making up a smaller piece to replace it – more of a trim piece this time around – but thanks to Kyle I no longer need to!

In building Ketchup, Mario had kept the exterior modifications simple and understated but one piece that he had was a front lip from – guess who – Maxton Design. It was on the car at the time of the collision but as it happened it wasn’t completely destroyed…

Along with the Maxton lip Mario also had a custom metal front splitter and while it did get bent it actually held up fairly well, and managed to keep a decent chunk of the lip together. Both ends were broken off and as you can see the driver’s side was very badly cracked but the section that I ended up needing for this – the middle – was almost untouched. Without the splitter, I’m sure that the lip would have been in many more pieces.

I quickly unbolted the remains of the lip and got started. A quick mockup showed me how much of the middle I’d need for this little project so I then grabbed a saw and quickly cut the damaged sides off to get them out of the way. I purposely left the middle piece bigger than I needed to start with and from there kept fine-tuning it, taking a bit more off with a dremel before mocking it up again. I repeated this until it was the right size and then it was time to bolt it on.

Originally I had grabbed the leftover nuts and bolts from the E-Glove splitter and used them but decided to get some fresh pieces and throw some locknuts into the mix for extra security too. It had started as a free mod but at the end was still just a $5 change. I won’t complain!

And now, you see where this was going. The cut-down Maxton lip fits right in between the Cups and fills in the area between them. Three holes had to be drilled in the underside of the bumper to utilize the mounting points in that section of the lip, but that was quick and easy.

Is the lip perfect as it is? No, clearly not. It is a little warped due to being fastened to a bent splitter for the last few months and there’s still a small crack to fix on the driver’s side (which you can easily see here) but this initial fitting has allowed me to see what I think of it and I can say I definitely like having it there.

It’ll remain on the car for now until I get the materials and a chance to repair it fully, at which point I’ll take care of that cracked corner and also give it a coat of paint to freshen it up. For now though, I’m happy.

I like how the design of the Maxton lip sees it come forward just as it approaches the Cups – it ties in well while not protruding too far so it shouldn’t scrape much, if at all. The three mounting points that Maxton built in also line up with the vertical strakes in the lower grille, and overall I think the whole package looks pretty cohesive.

For very little time and money I’m very pleased with how this turned out and hopefully this gives some ideas to other owners out there. Thank you to Kyle once again for the great idea and not being upset when I immediately said I wanted to copy it! Haha

-Bill