--- The Stude's 2014 Changes Page 1 --- --- Front Air Dam Bracing --- |
With hopefully increasing speeds we wanted to strengthen the air dam and the front bodywork on the car.
Hooley made to heavy curved pieces to fit in behind the air dam and brought them with him when he came to Utah to work on the car in the spring of 2014 as we had left the car at my place over the winter. After he left I made the mounts you will see here that position and support the curved pieces he made.
I started by blocking the piece in place, left arrow, and clamped it to the air dam, prior to this picture. I also put 1/8 inch thick pieces of strap between the air dam and the bracing so there would be a slight gap so as to not interfere with putting the air dam on the front like we had been doing with dzus fasteners. Once there is air pressure enough to push the air dam back 1/8 inch it will then contact the bracing.
4 "L-shaped" pieces were made out of 3/16 X 1 1/4 strap. They were bolted together and the right two were welded to the front of the frame while the other two were tacked to the curved brace. Grade 8 bolts will be used during the final installation. The right two locate the curved piece and the area where they are welded to the frame prevents the piece from moving rearward under pressure.
Here the tabs have been final welded to the frame.
They are quite strong.
Once the piece was located to the frame and clamped in place the bottom brace was made and attached to another set of tabs, arrow, that were welded to the curved pieces. There again grade 8 bolts were used in the final assembly and the nuts were welded to the braces to ease installation.
The brace was locate on the car side with a tab welded to the frame there. Next I'll show how I made the braces themselves.
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