New Front Air Dam w/ Pictures

[GeekGuyAndy]

Just refilled with an almost 35mpg run (225mi). It was a 2mpg increase! Now I have to actually use P&G techniques since I've barely been doing that.

I found a sheet of metal at Home Depot for $5. It was about 3 feet longer than what I needed, and I might use the extra as a grill block. Brackets were just right angle and everything mounted with small bolts. The pictures are a little misleading, but there's 4.5 inches of room underneath the front. I need to fold up the sides a little since there's less clearance there.

Here's the pics of the airdam (yet to be tested):

[MnFocus]

Not bad! When's the test ?

[Rick Rae]

Congrats on the MPG increase; what have you done to get that?

I hope that air dam holds up for you; it'd get shredded on my car! I have no fewer than three spots on a weekly route that nearly bottom out the VW even when using extreme care (one of them is my driveway entrance!) It's not just lousy driving on my part; you can see a gazillion gouges in the asphalt at one location where others have bottomed out big time. I can avoid that by taking it at a very sharp angle, but the plastic under-parts still scrape. So, whatever I add will need to be flexible so it can be bent/crushed and then bounce back.

Please keep us posted!

Rick

[boofighter]

i was thinking that same thing, i hope it holds up. i would spray paint it black so it does not stand out as much. it should work well, for as long as it stays on the car.

[brucepick]

Cool!
I love those lunch money mod projects. Some of mine, many days of lunch money, eating a can of soup instead. Sometimes just a few bits from somewhere and off you go!

[GeekGuyAndy]

I was trying to find good flexible material, and the only plastic seems too oddly shaped for an air dam. This is fairly thin metal and bends well, so when I do hit something I think it won't kill it. I drove around a dirt road and only hit in one spot which just dented a small area in. The brackets seem to be on there so tight that the metal will bend and work as planned. There are a few speedbumps around my college that I'll have to test out sometime. This metal is actually really easy to shorten (folds on the lines and snaps off after bending it all the way in each direction a bunch of times) so if I come across a lot of problems I can take off an inch at a time.

I took a few more measurements:
Ranges 3.5-4 inches off the ground (corners are lowest)
Height is 5.5 inches from the bottom of the bumper

I don't drive all that much, but next time I do I'll report back on the clearances and any modifications to the air dam. In a month or so I might have a fill on the tank and get a mpg reading since I don't have a scangauge.

I hope you all like the license plate too It's real!

[dieselbenz]

Very nice. I would do something at the sides of the air dam to help guide the air around out and around the front tires.

[GeekGuyAndy]

Rick Rae, I did more EOC coasting, and worked harder on DWL. I still need to do P&G a lot more

tjts1, I looked at that a bit. I only put the brackets where there was already holes. I might make some new holes which would solve that problem and help move the air around the front wheels.

I've got some spray paint that's roughly the same color as my car, but I was afraid it might just chip off easily. I guess I could try it on a patch there.

The leftover material got cut to make a grill block last night

[brucepick]

If paint doesn't stick try some black duct tape or some "Mystik Tape". Mystik tape comes in a bunch of colors but I don't know if it's weather-tolerant.

3.5"-4" off the ground looks really tight to me. I'd take off an inch before taking it out driving anywhere IMHO.

Mine is about 7" off the ground. I'm temporarily using a 6" clearance temporary version air dam and it scraped a few times before I learned. My car has a longer front overhang than yours (maybe 30" from air dam front to axles) but yikes that looks like nearly anything will bend it up.

[dieselbenz]

Originally Posted by GeekGuyAndy

I've got some spray paint that's roughly the same color as my car, but I was afraid it might just chip off easily. I guess I could try it on a patch there.

Sand it down first with 600 grit first. It'll make the paint stick a lot better.