Long story short, my air dam has been barely hanging on by the wood screws that my car's PO had used to hold it in place. The screws had started to come free and the air dam was damaged to the point where it just needed to be pulled.

Unfortunately, almost every single mount has been broken off, long before I removed the few remaining screws holding it in place.

How essential is the air dam overall? I know it's designed to help cool the engine bay, so I was wondering if not having it would make my car more prone to overheating to the point where I should limit my driving?

Also, I can't imagine that I'm the only guy who has ever had this happen, so is there a good way to attach and install a replacement air dam without any of the original mounting tabs? I haven't looked at it too closely since removing the old one, but I couldn't see any overly obvious way to mount a new one without drilling holes in the bumper cover or something, but I want to make sure that it's secure and won't start coming loose like the first one did.

 

It is UTTERLY essential. The cooling system cannot do its job without it.

Not sure how each year and model of Firebird was equipped; there's ALOT of variation in them, unlike Camaro, which was largely the same throughout the production run; but it's fairly easy to take something stiff but flexible, like a 18-wheeler mud flap, and make something that will perform the function, and be more durable than the old plastic thing.

It doesn't attach to the bumper cover except maybe at the ends. Its most important part is right below the radiator, screwed to the bottom of the core support.

 

I stuck my head under the car for a few minutes before heading to work today and took a second look. I see now that there was a secondary part like you mentioned where the original air dam was mounted that had those tabs on it.

I like the idea of the semi mud flap a lot better than a plastic part, just in that it has a lot more flex if it encounters a bump in the road or has to go up a driveway at a sharper angle. I guess my biggest question would be that since I no longer have the original mounting tabs, how to mount any replacement part securely that won't rip out like the wood screws that the PO used did.

I included a photo of the air dam from someone else's car, just to help as a visual aid (and maybe make a passive-aggressive dig at my car's PO). At least one of the bumper cover mounts did break off, although if I recall correctly the outermost one was still hanging on by some miracle. I'll have to crawl under my car tonight and take a look for any alternative mounting options for a replacement, but I'm open to suggestions in the meantime.

 

Oh that...

That's not the air dam. That's the chin spoiler. Something else altogether. Just a piece of trim, not involved with cooling at all.

That particular car doesn't even have an air dam; and worse yet, looks like somebody deliberately closed off the cooling air duct. Glad that's not my car.

 

No sir, that's the early firebird air dam. It looks like it's further forward, but if you look it's got a stub bolted to the rad support, and the lower air dam bolts to that stub. The front bumper cover and chin spoiler is about a foot further forward.

Later Firebirds went to a much simpler air dam similar to the Camaro setup, with a single center piece bolted to the rad support, and a side piece on either side bolted to the GFX or filler panels. GM made a retrofit 3 piece kit for 85-90 Firebirds that was available "recently". By recently I mean 15 years ago.

 

Goes to show what I know about Firebirds.

 

Still more than a lot of people that own them.

 

So a change in perspective greatly helped. I incorrectly remembered how my underside looked, and I actually had a lot more material to work with when mounting a new air dam. Following the advice of sofakingdom, I bought a HD truck mud flap from my local NAPA and cut a piece that was 5 1/2 inches long. The lip of the old air dam mount was 2 inches, which left me with a solid 3 1/2 inches of material hanging below to act as my air dam, which looks like about the same amount as the factory air dam had hanging below it. Some bolts and lock washers are holding it in place, and with the stiffness of the rubber, I think this will last me a long time - not to mention, I have enough material left over to make at least 2 more air dams if necessary. Thanks to everyone for their replies to this thread!

 

My 84 has that huge one piece like that. Later models had a smaller version like the camaros. Got to have it, car can't be cooled without out.