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Now that I’ve got the air dam nicely mounted below the bumper, I’ve found that the air dam’s brake duct holes (originally for fog lights) are too high. There is sheet metal behind the brake duct hole that interferes with the rear of the brake duct. Either I’m going to have to lower the whole air dam by 1.5-2" or I’m going to have to cut sheetmetal.
How the heck did you guys do this?
This is all early model.
You cut out the sheet metal that is in the way. It is also necessary to modify the fog light openings so the duct adapters fit in. If you weren’t so far away, I’d say for you to come get the front valence that is on the 96 car. Surprisingly it survived the wreck with no apparent damage.
Air dam is now installed. I cut sheetmetal to make room for the ducts. Had to move the transponder too.
The air dam is held to the bumper by 3X 12" ‘shelves’ that are fastened to the underside of the bumper. The top lip of the air dam slides into the shelves and gets held pretty tight. Some flex ties finish it up. Theoretically, if the air dam takes a hard hit, the flex ties will snap and it will come free without breaking apart.
Waiting on some plastic to arrive Monday before I press on with the splitter/undertray scheme.
Ranger wrote:
[quote] Theoretically, if the air dam takes a hard hit, the flex ties will snap and it will come free without breaking apart.
[/quote]
And then you’ll drive over it and finish it off.:laugh:
drumbeater wrote:
[quote]Ranger wrote:
[quote] Theoretically, if the air dam takes a hard hit, the flex ties will snap and it will come free without breaking apart.
[/quote]
And then you’ll drive over it and finish it off.:laugh:[/quote]
Am I the only one with any imagination around here for crying out loud?
Just go off backwards .
Seriously tho, it’s already happened. I had a trailer loading mishap when I was loading up for the dyno the other day. The air dam came off intact. The splitter and a brake duct was a little beat up tho. The splitter is getting tossed because I ran out of plastic before I came up with an idea that I liked.
After RA this weekend I’ll start in on the next splitter idea.
I have tried going off frontwards and backwards with the same result, third splitter!
In the picture below I made metal brackets instead of the plastic ones, at least it stayed on the car so I didn’t run it over!
“Rise from your grave.”
Okay, so, old thread. It answers one of the questions I had regarding cutting the sheet metal (which I was going to do anyway, but I wasn’t sure if others did it this way).
My other question is around how the duct opening is mounted/secured to the air dam. I have the BW kit with the trim-to-fit ducts. I was expecting that the flanges of the duct openings would be trimmed down so they sat over the fog light mounting holes. I guess that would have been too easy, and not much is easy on this car. 
Here’s a photo that describes what I’m looking at:
The duct is too big to fit in the green area – which is where I originally thought it would go. It fits perfectly into the red area, though – but that means the flanges of the duct extend over the actual air damn. Because of the curve in the dam below the red area, the flange won’t actually be able to extend below the opening, though.
So I guess my question is – how do people commonly secure the duct openings? I called BW and the guy was trying to be helpful but seemed unsure and mentioned something about zip ties. Then he put me on hold to ask someone else and came back with maybe using pop rivets.
From the photo you can tell that the dam is already roughed up, so it’s not like I’m all that concerned about looks. But I am. A bit. Seems like pop riveting the ducts over the holes is going to look super cheap. Plus, when I eventually give the whole thing a cheapie paint job I think it’ll look even weirder.
I’m not exactly sure where I’d use zip ties. I wouldn’t want to do it across the front – if I went that route I’d do the rivets before the zip ties. If I zip tie behind the flanges it sounds like that would leave the ducts kind of floating in the hole or tightly pressed to one side.
But if there’s really no other easy way, I guess I’ll pick one of those two options. I’m leaning towards 2 or 3 rivets on the left/right side and maybe 4 or 5 rivets across the top.
Som
Hi Som,
We make brake ducts that actually fit onto the backside of the valance and are riveted on from inside the valance opening, making for a very clean installed piece. The sheelmetal valance still needs to be cut and the flange at the back of the valance should be removed. They do come with screens that also fit around the back.
[attachment=2083]IMG_0202.JPG[/attachment]
Hmmm… good to know. Though I already have these ducts and I’m more inclined to just using them than finding another set. That said, I’m sure I’ll have some kind of incident that’ll damage the damn thing at some point, so it’s good to know other options if I have to get new ducts in the future.
I actually think I’m leaning towards just double-stick taping the thing to the front of the air dam for now. It’ll be ugly, but the tape should be removable (and, as you can see from the photo, the paint is shit on the air dam as it is). That way, if I get lucky and the thing lasts long enough to the point when I actually go to repaint the whole car, I can come up with a more elegant solution without leaving holes in the damn.
Som
Last night I was installing brake ducts in my early model. Once again I had to cut away almost all of the valance in order to get a 3" hole for the hose to go thru. I kept thinking how much of a kludge it was. Would be nice to have a more elegant brake duct solution for early models.
On my early model with cow catcher i have to remove the air dam for trailering. Originally i had permanent ducts mounted to the valance behind the air dam and the fog openings just pressed up against them when the bumper was installed. Worked fine but was kinda annoying and when i mowed the grass at RA T1 it ripped the cowcatcher off along with the air ducts. Damn mess. After reading the rules i realized that it specifies that the ducts may penetrate the valance which also runs behind the bumper. I used the front hazard lights spots on the bumper (supposed to be there i guess but mine weren’t anyway) and installed small ducts in their place. No more worries. Feel free to protest but the trade off for less damage is smaller ducts so take your pick. Hope this helps. I don’t use the brakes anyway so i don’t really need them.
Now that’s a cool idea. Pics pls, especially the hose routing.
Where did you get the ducts of the right size for the parking lights?
I’ll try and get pics soon. My car is at Dad’s right now. Ordered the ducts below:
http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/category/s?keyword=SPA-D107
Had do do alot of trimming but i think i mounted it by basically wedging it in on one side and bolting a custom bracket (read: Lowes metal bar) to a stud that holds the bumper plastic. Can’t remember exactly but it does require bumper removal and a little half-assed inginuity. Also glued/wedged some mesh to the duct before install. It snakes into the engine bay then hangs from zipties attached to the subframe and a little stud in the wheel well then to some Harrison (Bimmerworld?) bracking plates:
http://www.harrisonmotorsports.com/e30-brake-cooling-backing-plates-pair-en.html
I guess another option (though not reversible) would be just cut out the entire fog light hole from the backside and then adhere the duct just behind the opening in the dam. Not sure how rigid this would be, though.
Som
[quote=“Ranger” post=80106][quote=“Hamster” post=80081]
Can you show more pics of this? Particularly how it clears the valance. Price?[/quote]
Not a Problem. They do require the sheetmetal valance to have large sections removed. The ducts are $30 for ducts and screen, plus shipping. We also make backing plates for the rotors. Since we’ve been making and using the duct and backing plates in our cars we haven’t had any rotors so much as get checked up, the plates we used in the past would only keep the back of the rotor from checking up, front were always checked. The backing plates are $200 a set.
[quote=“Hamster” post=80081]Hi Som,
We make brake ducts that actually fit onto the backside of the valance and are riveted on from inside the valance opening, making for a very clean installed piece. The sheelmetal valance still needs to be cut and the flange at the back of the valance should be removed. They do come with screens that also fit around the back.
[attachment=2083]IMG_0202.JPG[/attachment][/quote]
I just received a set of these Brake Duct from Mad Hamster, I am very impressed. It just what I was looking for, to complete my brake cooling.
I literally ordered some for Dad 6 hours before the posted this. May be returning them just to see…
I took pics of my setup. Now how do I upload them from my iPhone?
I just put the ducts in over the front of the inlet. Needless to say, it looks like ass. Doesn’t help that I didn’t get a clean cut around the edges of it. Plus, the duct is perfectly flat – where the air damn is curved. So it’s basically only attached with double-stick foam tape across the top. Sort of.
I’m kinda curious what BW means by “universal fit”…?
Are the Mad Hamster ones for 3" hoses? (I’m assuming that’s the width of the hoses that came with the BW kit)
Som
