Front air dam progress.

[deathcomesarippin]

Well tomorrow Im going to start making my air dam. I figure it will help out alot since I dont want to lower my car (cost $80, cheap, but I like to keep my money in my bike) and its a mustang, it can be aerodynamic... but the parts of the front end that are lacking, are lacking badly.

Before I start this I just want to know what the little pieces at the bottom of the air dams the come out vertically are for? Should I try to fab one for mine or is that only for cars that are constantly going over 100?

[Gealii]

Originally Posted by deathcomesarippin

Well tomorrow Im going to start making my air dam. I figure it will help out alot since I dont want to lower my car (cost $80, cheap, but I like to keep my money in my bike) and its a mustang, it can be aerodynamic... but the parts of the front end that are lacking, are lacking badly.

Before I start this I just want to know what the little pieces at the bottom of the air dams the come out vertically are for? Should I try to fab one for mine or is that only for cars that are constantly going over 100?

if instead of vertically you mean horizontally beings air dams are already vertical. They are referred to as splitters and on 100+ mph cars they provide down force to keep the car from taking off. I am not sure if anything was said on whether or not it is good for FE yet but i would like to say a small 1 would be good to help the air from slipping below the air dam. If you decide to go with lawn edging some come with a basic small splitter already mounted on it.

I have this design on my air dam but i am about to shorten my dam to the height of my future belly pan

[deathcomesarippin]

yeah horizontally.. I get my confuse my english a lot haha. Im going to the hardware store tomorrow so ill see what they have. would you think the flex garden edge with the rounded edge that bulges out a little have this effect? Or would I need to find one with more protrusion at the bottom?

[Gealii]

I got the garden edging with a cylinder on top and an upside down lower case t on the bottom, no particular reason just seemed to be the stiffest. I'll attach a pic of mine

As you can see i originally had the circle on top I have problems keeping the screws into the circular part i need to make a new attachment at some point ( i never have time to do things anymore ) I then cut the rest of it off to make it easier to round on the edges to the original air dam that got ripped off in the middle. It also has a mini splitter on the bottom

[deathcomesarippin]

alright that's cool, ill try to find one with the T shape. that actually might make it easier to mount to. How much of a gain have you seen with it on?

[Gealii]

I cant say if i saw a gain i added the air dam shortly after i bought the car and the nut behind the wheel was quite loose...and i did no testing to see what it improved. I can tell you as a single mod i have seen the most out of is smooth coroplast wheel covers over my stock steel wheels. To be fair my underside is a lot cleaner than your stang as there is no drive shaft or rear axle causing drag

[deathcomesarippin]

looks good! yeah, I will say my undercarriage inst so clean. Drive shaft, rear end, trans. It could potentially help me more. I might go with some wheel covers soon. It would be really easy to do, the center cap just pops on and off. I could bolt the wheel covers to those, put id be afraid they might pop off at higher speeds!?

I'm getting a lot better I believe! I need to work on my inner city driving, but my interstate driving has improved a lot lately. I had a long drive today, and I hardly ever hit 65, and I (safely, I always check with the truck driver, and always the mirrors are visible to me) drafted most of the time.

[Gealii]

Originally Posted by deathcomesarippin

looks good! yeah, I will say my undercarriage inst so clean. Drive shaft, rear end, trans. It could potentially help me more. I might go with some wheel covers soon. It would be really easy to do, the center cap just pops on and off. I could bolt the wheel covers to those, put id be afraid they might pop off at higher speeds!?

I'm getting a lot better I believe! I need to work on my inner city driving, but my interstate driving has improved a lot lately. I had a long drive today, and I hardly ever hit 65, and I (safely, I always check with the truck driver, and always the mirrors are visible to me) drafted most of the time.

I'm with you on not wanting them to fly off i'm assuming you have the standard for pop in caps where the rims have an indent and the cap pops into it and not the outer over lug caps more on f150s i believe. I have seen a design with the outer over lug caps done on an s10.

I personally like zip ties for wheel covers there cheap and i haven't had a problem with them coming off on wheels. I just slid them through the circles on steel wheels could be done with alloy rims around another object. And the ties do come close to the brakes but do not make contact.

As far as driving on the highway as long as you stay far enough behind to see the semis mirrors they don't have a problem with drafters and people behind you will either pass or draft. In the city just forget about others, if they start to tail gate you don't worry just go at your own pace no point in rushing up to red lights.

[UltArc]

Splitters are crazy helpful. That stops the air that hits the air dam from sliding under the car. It takes the path of least resistance, to.the side of the car.

[deathcomesarippin]

Thanks for all the help guys!!! I think my next step will be the smooth wheel covers. Ill take a picture of my wheel caps. they are in smaller and just big enough to cover the lug nuts. It does take a good force to get them out.

Nice to know that about the splitters! I just bought and mounted my air dam tonight. Ill have to get pictures tomorrow its to dark, I tired. Mine has two splitters, ill trim off the one that sits higher. It looks better than the one Ford racing makes, and a whole lot cheaper! It looks really aggressive to.