Help on attaching an air dam?

[RollinWOT]

I've got an '06 Altima sedan and I'm in the process of making a chloroplast air dam for the front bumper. I want to rivet it on, but my main thing is security. I need it to stay on during freeway speeds and my concern is, will the rivets be secure enough to hold the plastic air dam to the plastic bumper? or should i use a sheetmetal backing to secure the rivets? Any help is greatly appreciated. This is my first ecomodding project and I want it to be good looking and done right. Thanks!

[oldtamiyaphile]

Rivets will pull through bumper plastic in time. In fact, even just popping rivets into plastic might cause them to pull through. You could back them with a suitable array of washers though. Also, stainless rivets are a lot stronger than Alu, I can imagine alu rivets breaking after a short time.

[RollinWOT]

That's exactly what I was curious about. I was planning on using steel rivets. Do you think using a sheetmetal backing plate would stop the rivets from pulling through? If not, how would you suggest attaching it?

[oldtamiyaphile]

Really depends on what thickness sheet metal you're talking about, thin metal may not help much. Adding washers in addition to thin sheet metal is probably the ticket.

[Hyperaboutmpg]

Your alternative may be to just put some generic ez-lip on it, and call it a day. I've had air dams torn by curbs, rocks, snow, you name it! Great luck with your project.

[Daox]

I went with metal brackets for mine. Here is my thread:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tro-32101.html

[California98Civic]

I also did the lawn edging solution. But my attachment technique has always been inferior. I have wanted easy removal for towing. And I wanted to avoid ripples in the lawn edging plastic. So I attached under the bumper cover at the maximum arc the edging could take and used 6 or 8 screws and zip ties. The zip ties were for the end in front of the tow hook. My attachments have three times partially failed in 4 years of driving. The attachments, however, only fail one or two at a time. I hear a scrape or see a droop and repair. It does not come flying off. Not even close.

[2000mc]

Rivets will work, you just have to get appropriate exploding rivets Small Head 3/16 Inch Exploding Rivets - Speedway Motors, America's Oldest Speed Shop
Gm sends exploding rivets similar to this along with their front license plate brackets.
Online it seems like they run $0.08-$0.15ea and you're usually looking at buying 250, only ones I've seen in retail stores are around $1ea

[Sven7]

Originally Posted by RollinWOT

I've got an '06 Altima sedan and I'm in the process of making a chloroplast air dam for the front bumper. I want to rivet it on, but my main thing is security. I need it to stay on during freeway speeds and my concern is, will the rivets be secure enough to hold the plastic air dam to the plastic bumper? or should i use a sheetmetal backing to secure the rivets? Any help is greatly appreciated. This is my first ecomodding project and I want it to be good looking and done right. Thanks!

First off, common mistake, but it's coroplast, as in corrugated plastic. Not plant cells

I would back it with a strip of aluminum, and use some nice, wide washers to spread out the pressure. Those exploding rivets look pretty good, but I'd still use washers on the 'plast side to be sure.

Then again, I've always just used lawn edging, which works great. (Use lawn edging! nudge nudge )

[2000mc]

Originally Posted by Sven7

Those exploding rivets look pretty good, but I'd still use washers on the 'plast side to be sure.

they also have a large head version (5/8" head vs. 3/8 for the small) which would probably be more appropriate for coroplast