Up until now, all the aero mods have been very easy.
But there's one very important mod that I had to make, not just for aero reasons, but for protection. It's the
front skid plate - the vehicle came with one from the factory but it didn't have it when I bought it. Not only does it protect against rocks, sticks, sand, snow, etc. when off-roading, but I figure that it would also help tremendously with aerodynamics.
Here's what it looked like a few days ago:
Yeah that's a lot of dirty bits.
I could buy an aftermarket one, but I had just bought a MIG welder and a large amount of sheet metal and steel (for another project), so I figured I'd make it a project and build it myself.
First thing I did was make a scaffolding out of 1/8" steel.
Then I skinned it in 18 gauge sheet metal. This will not be thick enough to drag it along boulders, but it will protect agains sticks and snow and sand. Normal duty protection.
I make it sound easy, but it took all day Sunday to make. After the seam sealer and paint dried, I hung it up today.
There was still lot of exposed dirty bits under the truck, but I was too lazy to make more stuff out of steel. So I found a political add and got some more gaffing tape and did what I could.
[continued on next post]
