air dam material

[wagonman76]

Looks great Geoff. I had to read the message to see what you did, it looks like a factory part of the car.

[geoff]

Originally Posted by wagonman76

Looks great Geoff. I had to read the message to see what you did, it looks like a factory part of the car.

Thanks, I am going to be painting the car black with the help of a friend that owns a body shop, I am interested to learn how to paint a car, ive already been trying some basic body work, filling dents on the car and holes left from removing the factory wing and badges on the back of the car, as well as the side door bump-gaurds and sanding down some paint bubles and minor surface rust. When the car is black it should really make this front lip blend in. The car has about has about 5 inches of clearance, the front lip reduces that to about 3 inches. The new springs I am looking at getting would lower the car by just over 1 inch. The lip is made out of pretty tough plastic, and the way its mounted it can spring back it it hits a curb or scrapes on a driveway.

The only thing I am not sure of is (as others have mentioned) how much the lip deflects in the wind at speed. Maybe i will have a chance to drive next to a friend on the highway and have them take a picture at various speeds (50, 60, 70 and 80) to see the effects. It I find it deflects to much to be useful I may try to fiberglass over it, and actualy moulding it into the bumper.

[elhigh]

Originally Posted by geoff

Ive heard that aerodynamics really only come into play with more modern cars above 55-60mph.

That's really not the case. Aerodynamic drag starts to become significant at the point where it requires more power to overcome the aero drag than it does to overcome the mechanical drag. There's not a lot of mechanical drag in your car, so I'd say the aero starts to land on the heavy side of the equation at just 20mph - less for some cars, more for others.