Fabricating and fitting the little spoiler under the car

[Ireland]

There's been several threads on here that have mentioned the little spoiler under the front of the car.

One of the things it does is helps keep the bonnet from lifting and rattling while driving.

My car didn't have one so I decided to make one and fit it.

I got a friend of mine to make it from an off-cut of sheeting.

He ended up using a bit of stainless but a bit of galvanised mild steel would do fine (he just happened to have an off-cut of stainless that suited).

The piece is 900mm x 100mm and it's bent along the centre at 30* (the inside angle is therefore 150*).

I fitted it using the holes that were there already and I put rivet-nuts into them.



I also put Gripfill on the metal where it touches the car to give it an extra bit of grip should the rivet-nuts ever work loose.

Here's what it looked like drilled and ready to fit on the car .....



And here's what it looks like on the car .....



I took it for a spin on a back road and on the motorway and it's a big improvement.

The only time the bonnet rattled was going over a very bumpy bit of the road but it was perfect on the motorway even close behind traffic.

It took less than an hour and cost next to nothing so I'm happy.

[M3John]

Nice write up JJ. Am going to fit mine soon enough too. Have had a very quick look under there ad it has the holes (albeit in a slightly different arrangement than yours) but what i wanted to ask if if those holes in the underside of the body were tapped holes or were they always designed for pop rivets (or alike) ?

[dirty boy]

it might not seem a lot, but it's very low

I ripped mine off the day it went on.

[Ireland]

M3John said:

...... if those holes in the underside of the body were tapped holes or were they always designed for pop rivets (or alike) ?

The holes are NOT tapped.

They are just holes in the fiberglass.

I forgot to say that I actually put a dab of polyurethane sealer on the rivet nuts before I inserted them to give them an extra bit of grip.

Also be careful with the bolts you use as if they are too long they could potentially touch the bottom of the rad and hole it.

I used stainless M6 x 12 bolts and had a washer on them so they only come vbarely above the fiberglass under the rad.


As for ripping it off, yeah, I can see how thet would happen.

The roads here are so bad that my car is set higher than normal to give it as much clearance as possible and it still touches under at the back on occassions.

I'll have to wait and see how long it lasts.

[M3John]

Sorry to ask again mate but what bolts exactly did you use. Are they a special type? What are these rivet nuts and how do they differ from the conventional pop rivet?

[greenm]

I did mine with long s/s pop rivets its saves you having to do nuts and bolts up plus willnot come loose also easy to remove just drill ou or grind off the top the Glasse is pretty thick there about half an inch on mine so long pop rivets about 5/8 will normally do. I also made mine to fit right across I think its about 33 inches but dont quote me on that and put it right at the very rear of the glass section in that way oits nearly level with the wheels and so when you go over a bump it does otherwise as a few have found I am sure it makes a very good bulldozer blade??

[Ireland]

Rivet nuts are basically a threaded insert that go in with a special tool quiet like a pip-rivet.

We have them in our workshop so it was easy for me to get my hands on them.

Here's some info on them ..... www.rivetnuts.com

A pop-rivet would do fine.

Edited by Ireland on Thursday 26th November 14:19

[M3John]

Ireland said:

Rivet nuts are basically a threaded insert that go in with a special tool quiet like a pip-rivet.

We have them in our workshop so it was easy for me to get my hands on them.

Here's some info on them ..... www.rivetnuts.com

A pop-rivet would do fine.

Edited by Ireland on Thursday 26th November 14:19

Ah i see. I know exactly what they are now. In work we use those but we call them `clench nuts`

Cheers for all the info lads. On a side note (and sorry for the thread hijack) i'm going to replace my clutch master cylinder very soon. Any tips / pointers for me or anything in particular that i may need to know?

[Tanguero]

[quote=M3JohnOn a side note (and sorry for the thread hijack) i'm going to replace my clutch master cylinder very soon. Any tips / pointers for me or anything in particular that i may need to know?


[/quote]

You need a second pair of hands to help undo the bolts from inside the footwell while you hold a spanner from inside the engine bay. Apart from that it is completely straightforward.