Before...

...and after.

This is a step-by-step guide on fitting the rear Nova GSi tailgate spoiler to any model of Nova. However, this guide was carried out on a Nova GTE, which already had a spoiler fitted, hence the four bolt holes were already in place, making the job a lot easier. For Nova models without a spoiler when made, will have to make four additional holes in their tailgate. How this is done is up to you, but if the holes are drilled in the wrong place, it makes fitting the spoiler difficult as the location is critical.

Also removing the old SR/GTE style spoiler is quite tough, in that you don't want to damage the paintwork underneath. This Nova was going into a paint shop anyway, hence the lack of looking careful on the tailgate paintwork. A good method would be to warm up the spoiler first (or leave it out in a hot day) and use a paint scrapper to get underneath. A lot of pulling is required.

This particular kit came with an additional water jet nozzle. The original nozzle on the tailgate can be remove. But when replacing, keep a tight grip on the water tube, as Vauxhall seems to have given no slack what so ever on the tube. Hence it can be easily be lost in the tailgate.

The next difficult task is the wiring, or rather feeding it around parts of the car. A long 'pick-up grabber' was obtained, which makes life a lot easier and also a long flexible cable tie seems to be only answer at times. The actual wiring is easy, circuit diagrams are provided in the guide. Remember to test the circuit as you progress, the last thing you want is a fault when you've put everything in place, only to take it all apart again.

• The spoiler came from Superspeed in Scotland. Price includes P&P and 5% PNG discount.
• The Pick-up Grabber Toll came from Maplins, order code BN98G.

General Notes:

Just before you start, make sure you note the following:

• If you don't have one, buy a Haynes manual for your car and have this is front of you. You'll may need this on how to remove the spoiler and trim etc.
• Before fitting the spoiler to the car, test the brake light out first. The brake light on this unit was an LED array which works on 12v. Any lower and the intensity of the light produced is reduced. You can not damage the LED's by reversing the power (unless it's a higher voltage), just swap the connections around. Generally Red is positive and Black is negative (earth).
• The spoiler kit came supplied with bolts, but these are not long enough to protrude out the other end of the tailgate. Hence longer self tapping screws were obtained. These simply dug into the spoiler when fitted to the car.
• Removing the water jet nozzle can be tricky. A flat blade screw driver is required to push back the plastic lugs underneath. A pair of pliers may also help. Remember NOT to loose grip of the water pipe in the tailgate, as there is virtually no slack given.
• When the old spoiler is removed (if you have one), the paint work can be restored a bit by using T-Cut, as it's bound to be dirty and dull when the spoiler was on top of it.
• An extra pair of hands may be required when fitting the spoiler on, as it is difficult to keep the spoiler in position and screw it down at the same time.

OK, got all the above? Then follow the steps below (remember to click on the pics for a bigger view):

General Notes:

Just before you start, make sure you note the following:

• If you don't have one, buy a Haynes manual for your car and have this is front of you. You'll may need this on how to remove the spoiler and trim etc.
• Fit the supplied wire in the order shown, because it has to be fed through several items in a particular order. Failure to do this will almost result in removing all the wire again and re-feeding it (= hassle, these are the words from experience ;-).
• Feeding the wire through the car can be very stressful. This make take most of the time up, because you can sometimes never 'quite' get the wire through the holes in the tailgate etc. The combination use of the long plastic cable ties and the Pick-Up Grabber tool came in VERY useful.

There are two ways to the wire up the brake light on the spoiler. Either way will work, but one method will work better than the other. The two choices are 'serial connection' (bad) and 'parallel connection' (good). The two diagrams on the left show the two possibilities.

The serial connection is bad because it takes 50% (6v) of the volt drop away from the original stop lamp. This makes it appear to be half bright when viewed from the rear. Because the other 50% (6v) of the voltage is now across the new brake spoiler lamp.

The best way is to connect the brake light up in parallel in the circuit. This way both lamps get 12v across them. Hence the intensity of the light emitted is not affected. See the Y adapters in use here.

• The wire and colour coding in this guide were for a Nova GTE 1989. Vauxhall may have changed the colouring code on some models and year, check first in the Haynes manual before proceeding. Otherwise you could cut the wrong wire (again words here from experience).
• Some of the pictures taken of the wiring to the multi-connector show several bullet plug connections. This is because the Euro Light conversion was previously carried out on this car. Hence the mass of wires.

OK, got all the above? Then follow the steps below (remember to click on the pics for a bigger view):