Airdam "sickness"

[NickelB NL]

I.m thinking of making my own airdam afther seeing als those nice airdams. But the material all you guys use for airdams isn.t availeble here. So i have to make doo.

My plan now is to get 2 2m pieces of flat steel. Some sturdy weather proof plastic and start working. The first strip of steel will be mounted at the under and backside of my bumper. This will be done with flat bolts. Afther that i will make the plastic on size and sandwich it between the flat steel. So it stays curved like the bumper and give it enough durability to withstand the air. And also some light scraping

Let the airdam begin. This weekend. I hope :-p

[MetroMPG]

Good luck, and subscribed! I love air dams.

(I've got the sickness too.)

[NickelB NL]

Thanks.

Yesterday i got 2 pieces of aluminium flat band. 30mm and 10 mm wide and 2mm thick. And some screws for 19€. The prices here in the hardware markets are realy high. But when searching for a nice flat plastic piece turned out bad. The best piece i found was 18€. And i had to cut alot of to get what i needed. So the searching continues

[aardvarcus]

NickelB NL,

Do you have any sort of farm supply store or industrial surplus store where you live? I used rubber conveyor belt material on my air dam, that product should be fairly universal to find in any country with farming (hay baler belts) or industry (conveyor belts).

[skyking]

What he said there. Think unconventional, surplus, anything but retail material. It would be possible to make a dam out of a retread cap from alongside the highway, if you found a really nice one

[NickelB NL]

I found a online shop for plastics. I emailed them and made my demands for what i wantend fot the plastic. But the sheets i.m interested in (around 2m x 1m and 2mm 3mm) thick are around 20 30 euros. Not a baad price for good quality.

[NickelB NL]

I.m thinking of ordering 2 or maybe 3 sheets to cut down on shipping costs. And because of that i.m thinking of som more mods to do.

Afther driving in the rain for a couple of days (we had a summer storm with alot of wind (force10) and rain) and stil had alot of spray on my rear window. So i was thinking of making a new kammback. And also a rear diffuser.

And the diffuser got my mind busy for the trip to work today. How to make it. Fasten it. And so on. My first idea is to buy angled strips to strengten the plastic sheet. Then fasten it so on my single beam rear axel that it is able to pivot. Then make a suspention on the rear to adjust the angle under load. And also make it to pivot and slide a little. So that the movement of the suspention doesn.t mess up the airflow. And that the sheet is flush on the beam .

[NickelB NL]

Here i have some pics of the car underside as is. You can see how i will attach the aluminium strip. I will drill some holes to put the bolts trough. You can clearly see the ssuspention sticking out. The rest is fairly flat in the middle. Up to the gas tank. So maybe i have to make a belly pan at that point in front of the rear axel. I think my exhaust will be the leading point on witch i can adust my diffuser. Will see if i can raise it up some.

[NickelB NL]

Fase one of the airdam is now ready. My first idea of fastening the aluminium strip would.nt work because of some extrusions on the inside of the bumper. So i tought of some new way.

I made a smal angled piece of alu to screw behind the bumper on 5 places. I made the one afther the other. So to place them nicely. I could get the alu piece nice and flush with the underside of the bumper edge. Then i cut them off at about 2/3 of the tire.
I now only have a small potion of the suspention sticking out under the airdam

At fase 2 (when i get my plastics) i will make a nice piece at the back of the alu strip. Witch will also fill up the space in front of the tire. I will let it down another 3 to 4 cm. To get a total of 6 to 7cm of airdam height.

At this point i really like the overal view. But the bumper, alu airdam strip and the grill block plus more of the car will be painted black. But i think i would look really nice then.

Now wait for the plastic to come in

[NickelB NL]

First drive today with the fase 1 airdam. It went good. With a force 2 side wind i made a 1:24.5 on the trip to the petting zoo. And 1:22 on the way back. These were lice numbers on the sc2 so no tank fillup. But it was somewhat easier to maintain these numbers. Tomorrow morning i wil use the cardboard to make a mockup of the plastic strip that will go on.