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Has anyone ever fabricated an improved type of air dam? I'm thinking to use something like galvanized sheet metal and give it a bit of a bend to accomplish not only a more of a "ram air" effect into the radiator, but also so I can gain more surface area while still maintaining the same ground clearance.
Stock air dam just points straight down at the ground. I actually had trouble sleeping last night tossing the idea and design around in my head.
Anyone ever done something like this and if so, what results did you notice?
I've thought about it over the years.
themain worry of mine would be that the stock plastic air dam has some give/flex to it.. so when (not if.. when) you hit a speed bump or dip in the road.. I imagine it flexing as it scrapes. A sheetmetal one would probably break, especially if slanted forward to catch more air underneath. Sure, I could be wrong.. and would love to see if someone has made a good one, but I never decided to build one myself despite thinking of it.
It shouldn't be much trouble to make. If you're short on tools you could just buy a piece of the 90* galvanized steel with all of the holes and slots in it from a hardware store. Set it on its ends with the angle pointed up. Put a 2x4 on top and hammer the 2x4 to open the angle up. Bolt that to the lower core support. Buy a piece of Plexi glass and cut it to the desired length and width and paint it and bolt it to the other end of the angle. Use Plexi glass or ABS plastic, not metal or aluminum or fiberglass. You want the Plexi glass to be the weak link so it doesn't break or bent the lower core support.
There are other things you can to to improve airflow. Remove the air filter ducting if your car has it. Remove the stock grill. Use a tubular front bumper instead of the big stamped steel piece. Cut out the area of the front bumper that the plate bolted to. Box off the sides and top of the space between the radiator and bumper. Use a dual core aluminum radiator. Have the fans turn on earlier. List goes on.
I've thought about it over the years.
themain worry of mine would be that the stock plastic air dam has some give/flex to it.. so when (not if.. when) you hit a speed bump or dip in the road.. I imagine it flexing as it scrapes. A sheetmetal one would probably break, especially if slanted forward to catch more air underneath. Sure, I could be wrong.. and would love to see if someone has made a good one, but I never decided to build one myself despite thinking of it.
Easiest thing I know of to make one out of, is truck (18-wheeler) stone guard material.
They're pretty expensive though... some people around here might have trouble affording such a thing, and of course you don't get very much... only about enough for a parking lot full of these cars. http://www.ryderfleetproducts.com/mud-flaps-c-8342 for example.
A piece of aluminum angle bolted to the car, then bolt a strip of the flap to that... the angle would be the weak point.
I've done something like this before. I started with the redesigned version that GM used to sell (3 piece, bigger and stiffer than an original firebird one), added some aluminum reinforcement and then "fins" coming forward matching the opening in the bottom of the nose in a Trans Am.
I used button head screws and rivets to hold it together making it look really racecar (looked a lot like racecar tinwork), it worked well (unless the car was just sitting not moving I didn't need the fans even on a 95* day) but got torn up really quickly on the street, even though I never ran it into a parking lot stop or curb.
Originally Posted by sofakingdom
Easiest thing I know of to make one out of, is truck (18-wheeler) stone guard material.
They're pretty expensive though... some people around here might have trouble affording such a thing, and of course you don't get very much... only about enough for a parking lot full of these cars. http://www.ryderfleetproducts.com/mud-flaps-c-8342 for example.
A piece of aluminum angle bolted to the car, then bolt a strip of the flap to that... the angle would be the weak point.
That's actually a really good source for something like that, I've tried to find something on and off and the stuff really is expensive from an industrial supply.
Prolly so; I guess if that $6 for new ones is an insurmountable obstacle... and of course if you can avoid getting shot while ... ummmm ... "harvesting" them
I came up with cheap 90* zinc steel from home depot with plexi a few years ago so if it contacted the plexi would break and it worked a few times. Problem was replacing the plexi or when it broke it would crack all the way though and you might loose a chunk. This eventually lead to trimming back all overhanging plexi so it wouldn't touch anything thus reducing the air dam height and airflow. Saturday I was at home depot and thought wat could i use to increase the air dam height (lower to the ground but soft enough that it would flex and come back without breaking anything or itself.
Boom figured it out! $13 Door sill gap filler. Basically 36" of aluminum with a large rubber flap on the bottom thats stiff but still flexible and soft. They are even nice enough to drill holes for you and provide screws if you need them lol. Anyway I cut mine to length and mounted it to my air dam so the rubber overhung only past the point of where my original air dam ended. I basically gained 1 3/8" of air dam via the soft rubber which will deform and flex anytime I scrape it. IT should work well but haven't been able to test due to all the rain in NJ!
I came up with cheap 90* zinc steel from home depot with plexi a few years ago so if it contacted the plexi would break and it worked a few times. Problem was replacing the plexi or when it broke it would crack all the way though and you might loose a chunk. This eventually lead to trimming back all overhanging plexi so it wouldn't touch anything thus reducing the air dam height and airflow. Saturday I was at home depot and thought wat could i use to increase the air dam height (lower to the ground but soft enough that it would flex and come back without breaking anything or itself.
Boom figured it out! $13 Door sill gap filler. Basically 36" of aluminum with a large rubber flap on the bottom thats stiff but still flexible and soft. They are even nice enough to drill holes for you and provide screws if you need them lol. Anyway I cut mine to length and mounted it to my air dam so the rubber overhung only past the point of where my original air dam ended. I basically gained 1 3/8" of air dam via the soft rubber which will deform and flex anytime I scrape it. IT should work well but haven't been able to test due to all the rain in NJ!
Side not I took the car out for street driving 2 days and took it to work and then a car show. My driveway is a hill that meets the road at an angle (place to scrape most times) then I have speed bumps to get into work parking lot. The results are in! It survived very well actually. U can see scrapes on the rubber tip from hitting things/scraping on everything lol. The scrapes are the whole length of the rubber and it hasn't deformed.
Another thing to note is that my cooling has improved... But can't say for sure as the weather was abnormally cool yesterday. 77*F vs 90s.
Here's a pic of the marks and scrapes for visual proof!
Great idea. Can you post some pics further away showing your entire setup? I am building an f1 blow thru setup and want ideas. Thanks!
Further away? As in like the air dam? Or the engine bay lol.
Put like 40 miles on the setup and so far is working out well. A lot more scrapes on the rubber but it's doing what it's suppose to do and hasn't deformed, just more marks like in the first pic. The air dam is like 5-6" in front of the OEM location and my dad is lowered like 1.5" over stock and pushed forward. The air dam is pushed forward so it scoops air into the FMIC as well as the tranny cooler and rad. The rad basically gets sloppy 3rds after being heated by the IC and very large trans cooler before getting to the rad and I'm still getting 170-180*F engine temps most of the time.
Here's a distance shot of underneath and engine bay shot. I just removed my coil covers and going from the 4.5" cowl to stock hood I had to remove my custom engine cover but the stock look is growing on me.
Intercooler is nicely tucked in there! Some good stuff in this thread! Its been something thats been bugging me for a while, mines all bent up and i feel its almost not even doing anything
Being "tilted" doesn't matter. The air dam doesn't "scoop". That's simply not how it works, even though it might "seem" like that.
What it ACTUALLY does, is separate the area in front of itself (which is at high pressure) from the area behind it (MUCH lower pressure). The main concern being, air (or anything else) flows FROM an area of HIGH pressure, THROUGH whatever is in the way (rad, AC, etc.), TO an area of LOW pressure. The goal of the air dam therefore, is to MAXIMIZE the pressure DIFFERENCE between the area in front of the rad and the area behind it.
Which is why you want something as "tall" as possible; i.e. that comes as close as possible to scraping the ground. Which in turn means, you want to make it out of something that will bend out of the way and not get damaged when it DOES scrape, which is UNAVOIDABLE on a street-driven car.
It's all well and good to talk about "don't hit parking-lot curbs". Yeah right. Wish that in one hand and have a body function in the other and tell me which hand fills up faster. It's ALOT LOT LOT LOT better to design your car so that the INEVITABLE things that happen to it IN THE REAL WORLD as opposed to FANTASY WORLD like not hallucinating you're not going to hit parking lot curbs, damage it as little as possible.
Which is why a rubber truck mud flap is THE PERFECT material to use... it's stiff enough to hold its shape in the breeze, soft enough to bend out of the way without tearing up, it doesn't "scratch", and if it DOES get ruined somehow, it's CHEEEEEEEEEEP and EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZY to replace.
Does anyone know what size the screws are that mount the airdam to the body. I had a minor accident and ripped the airdam off. The screw where god only knows where. Thanks in advance.
Does anyone know what size the screws are that mount the airdam to the body. I had a minor accident and ripped the airdam off. The screw where god only knows where. Thanks in advance.
07-02-2016, 11:58 AM
