Hate to be that guy but read the thread before you post matt, that’s already been suggested

 

If you could make a mold from the wood, you could use polyurethane foam, which would be lighter and still relatively cheap...

It would also break without damaging your bumper if you had a bad off (or run into a curb on the street).

 

looks really good. A little on the heavy side, but you'll figure it out. Maybe some nice varnish and a rubdown with some Pledge would be nice.

 

Props on simplicity. Good use of your brain.

 

 

Yeah, that's cute and all but....

It seems to highlight the differences between a "street" mentality and a "race" mentality. Street mentality puts the priority on looks over function. Sort of "Hey it looks cool in the parking lot". How many accessories have we seen that look good but don't do squat? OTOH, racers tend to warm up to functional items even if they're not quite as pretty as they could be. Polar opposites.

It's very satisfying to be able to get both out of the same product, but that usually comes at a price. I'll let the finished product speak for itself, but I can tell you that a) it WILL work; b) it WON'T be totally ugly; and c) it WILL be inexpensive.

The next time your at a NASA/SCCA event or similar, check out what normally passes for a splitter/airdam and let me know what you think. This one ain't so bad. You may even want me to sell you the templates!

 

Looking forward to the finished product, I am defiantly building something very similar to for myself. If your serious about selling the templates let me know

-Andrew

 

I too am looking at making my own splitter, but am thinking of making it with fiberglass and aluminum. Using 2 aluminum panels with a fwe layers of fiberglass sandwiched between the skeleton panels, and one layer over it all.

Although, I do like the idea of it breaking worse case scenario. I believe it should hold up about 1lb per square inch with out deflecting (bending). So it needs to be mounted to the car very well. Also, any air above the splitter cannot 'leak' between the bumper and the splitter itself.

 

Did you ever finish your splitter? any pics?

 

This is really a great idea. **** all you street kids, go back to watching F&F.

I dunno how much resin costs, but I personally would use thinner wood, w resin, or even FG + resin coating at least the under side of it.

You def. need to waterproof that badboy. If it does get wet it will swell up + then weigh you down even more. But I'm guessing you know about this.

So this replaces the stock undertray too? Or goes along with it?

 

Already working on v2 in my mind. I still want to finish v1, then I'll use it for a better template for v2. I'll be looking into thinner wood and hard foam for the pads. Then it can be trimmed and covered in resin.

The rules allow the splitter to extend only to the front of the wheel opening. This will not replace the undertray, but I won't be using it anyway.

UPDATE:

Haven't gone to paint with it yet, but I have pared the weight down to 17 lbs. Mounting brackets are finished, painted and installed. Holes for mounting are drilled. One more coat of resin (last coat was wavy - need to thin it out) and I'll shoot it at work. Pics to follow.

 

A little heavy to be going on a 'race car' don't you think?

 

thats not DOT Legal!!!!!!!

 

If you used a 4 or 8-pound expanding polyurethane foam, you could probably make 4-5 (that weigh quite a bit less) for the price of one wooden one if you consider the amount of time it took the make the wooden original...

Splitters are basically a disposable item, so using a mold and a liquid material makes more sense time-wise than cutting/sanding/painting a wooden one every time you crack it on the track.

Not to mention you could sell them in mass...lol

 

He said he started out with it weighing 26 lbs, so he's making good improvements with it.

 

Expanding foam is way too much mess, time, and effort. An easier way is to go to your local home improvement store and buy a 3/4" thick 4'x8' sheet of blue or pink wall foam. You can cut it with a knife or a razor blade. You can sand it if necessary. You can glue layers of it together with wood glue and be fine. You cut out the same shape as this one and then put 2 or 3 thin layers of fiberglass over it. You don't need to cut the fiberglas mat. This is a fairly simple way to get a light splitter than can be replaced easily. It weighs practically nothing too. If you are concerned with rigidity, install small metal rods through the foam before fiber glassing it. Simple. Expanding foam is crap.

 

That it pretty much the direction I'm heading in for v2. I want to evaluate a couple different foam types to see what is best to work with. Then I'll build another one - better and lighter still.

Project84, some people don't want to read the whole thread, just jump to the end and get in their shot. My motivations and guidelines for this endeavor are clearly laid out earlier in this thread. Why read when you can just flame?

Valkyrie, I don't want to have to rebuild or reinstall a new one every time it gets damaged. There are plenty of Southeast ITS RX7s running something very similar to what I've done and they've proven themselves up to the task. As I mentioned, even Speedsource didn't use fiberglass on the famous "70" car. So as far as longevity goes, I'll stick with what I have and keep trying to make it better. Don't forget, as of right now, I have my time and about $40 in materials invested in it.

 

I'm not suggesting it should break from you looking at it funny.

Simply that you don't want it so beefy that it damages your actual bumper from an off.

It's important to consider that 17 pounds for an aero part is extremely heavy for a race car (otoh, I think the stock spoiler weighs about 10...).

I would have to agree that fiberglass over foam boards is a really good idea, since you can buy the materials in local stores (including fiberglass).

Also, whether or not you break a lot of splitters depends on your ride height, I think.

 

Well, with the installation as I have done it, bumper damage shouldn't be a huge issue.

Yeah, for me the weight was less of a factor than the price. Future versions will be an improvement.

Not to mention your driving ability!!!

 

we got a thread going on zilvia with people who have done this check it out
http://www.zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=170769

 

It's ok, the weight's down low, helps lower the CG.

 

The weight is a problem.

The weight is at the extreme nose of the car, this increases the polar moment of the vehicle. This mass must be accelerated sideways for the car to rotate like it does at turn-in... further forward it is from the center of rotation the more it must be moved when changing directions.

A thin MDF might be lighter... either way if you're using wood you should carefully seal it so it doesnt swell and warp when it gets wet.

There are better solutions to this problem, you can make it from fiberglass exactly the same way if you like the simplicity of stacking flat sheets. Flat sheets of fiberglass, phenolic, or other composites can be purchased or made DIY between panes of glass or plywood in your garage.

Or like others have mentioned, a sheet of aluminum can be used as well. Another material worth considering is Lexan sheet, it's flexible and tolerant of scraping on the asphalt. The chapparal 2J used lexan sheets to seal it against the road surface for example.

Also make sure the brackets you come up with are capable of keeping 30 lbs attached to the car, don'f forget to consider the inertia of that thing when it gets smacked by something.

 

Started reading the Zilvia thread and stopped when I saw this:








BAck to the topic:

realistically, how much money are you saving by doing all this work? How often do you THINK you're going to be damaging it?

 

Daily Driver. Daily changes tires.

 

wood??? jeez since when is grabing a slap of foam core and slapin some fiberglass over it so hard?