I feel that the reactions to this so far have been at the very ends of the spectrum: either of great surprise or absolutely none at all. Some have been shocked that of all people it was my mother who had ordered the third set of SS Tuning flares, but those that know her – and how active she is in the community with her own vehicles and clubs – have more or less just reacted with “well of course she did”.

For this round of SS Tuning unboxing/mockup I decided to switch to video since I hadn’t done so for either Sriracha’s or Mustard’s flare test fits, so we start off with that today. Given that it had been quite a while since the hatch’s last proper appearance on the site I also provided a bit of a recap slash introduction to the car for those unfamiliar with it:

To be fair there were a couple of items that had been on the hatch’s to-do list for a few years – in terms of appearance – and as plans were formulated for this season’s projects it was decided that the 5-door (now officially dubbed Dijon) would finally receive its long-awaited mini-makeover. Or at least, a makeover that originally was intended to be mini but perhaps has expanded in scope just a wee bit. Either way it was time to get those items addressed.

The first was to refinish its 57DRs which were not just looking a little tired but were also a few shades too dark for my mother’s liking. She wanted them in a lighter hue to brighten up the car a bit more and so ordered some powdercoat samples to look through.

She selected a much brighter metallic silver, and earlier this season we ran them up to Airdrie (along with my Tarmacs) to receive their new coating.

Along with the refinish came a tire change as well with the now-silver 57DRs being wrapped in my Tarmacs’ old winter tires. Since the Wintermacs were going back to summer duty I wouldn’t need the tires, and as it happened the 57DRs were now going to be her winters and so the all-seasons they had were no longer suitable.

With the wheels addressed (for now) the next step was to gather the new body parts and other odds and ends. The focal point of this makeover was to be a full set of flares from SS Tuning and they finally arrived in the mail the other week. Hand-made body parts (from around the world no less) always take a while to receive and so this order was placed well ahead of the planned debut of iMSS 2019 – which is now two and a half weeks away. Yes, this will be tight!

This is getting to be a familiar sight for us now, but no less exciting.

Once they were unwrapped I of course couldn’t resist mocking up the rear flares on Mustard just to get an idea of what it’d look like had I opted for the full set myself. As mentioned in the video, given her particular setup we will be able to install these as SS Tuning originally intended – without any cutting – and so there was no reason to not go with the full set. Since Mario and I both wanted to keep our quarters intact we have the reverse-stagger setup with only front flares.

The other difference with her setup is that she chose the original V1 flares which feature slightly different styling to Mustard’s V2s. The biggest change though is the revision in the mounting surfaces behind the panels, also highlighted in the video.

Anyway, as you saw all of the pieces (less the rear spats/finishers) were mocked up to verify their fitment and get a teaser of the hatch’s new look.

A couple of days after that late night mockup I loaded all of the pieces up and dropped them off at Speedy Collision; the team reassures us that everything can be painted in time for an install before iMSS so fingers are crossed that we can pull this off. Given there’s no cutting this will be the easiest install yet for SS Flares, and the other panels – a replacement rear bumper/valance as well as OEM ST/RS side skirts – will all be a piece of cake to fit as well. For once it’s not Mustard, Sriracha, or now Selsun that’ll still be in pieces days or hours before Sunday School, but my mother’s car instead.

-Bill