air dam material

[GasSavers_BEEF]

I am thinking of extending my air dam. my car is pretty low to the ground already but I figured, why not.

I have heard of people using landscape edging (the kind from lowes) and I bought some. I think the quality used to be higher. the stuff I got was horribly thin. it does have a pretty thick tube at the end of it. I am worried about it flapping in the wind if I put it on.

I have heard of people using old conveyor belts but new ones are expensive and I am not in a position where I can get any used.

any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I need it to be about 6 inches by 6 feet and no more than about a qtr inch thick.

I plan to put on the edging and give it a try if for no other reason than I already bought the stuff. if it flaps, I am going to take it off.

thanks for any suggestions

[Ratman667]

i noticed the same thing when i went to get some of that edging. i looked at about everything in lowes and home depot and couldnt find anything that i thought would work. but after going through some old pictures i found one of my old 71 f100 that had an abs plastic toolbox on the bed.

but anyway to get to the point. i have found these boxes on craigslist for as low as $25. i plan on buying one of these that is as wide as i need and just cut one solid strip out of it.

besides making an air dam i will have material to complete my grill block and part of the belly pan. enough to cover the gap at the rear bumper at least.

[lowbridescape]

I had used rubber kickboard, which is REALLY soft. It's too thick to flap, but I expected it to collapse at highway speeds. So I took big piece of high density polyethylene (actually a part from the rear bumper of the Caravan, cut it into smaller sections and backed up the dam so the strips of harder material keep the softer material in place.

Hard air dams set close to the ground get caught on parking blocks and other obstructions and break if you aren't real careful. My soft air dam folds back and then the rigid backing strips pushes it back into place. The stock Caravan air dam is prone to getting hooked over obstacles and then tearing the bumper off as you back up. My air dam now just lays back over the obstacle and lets the bumper slide off. This is good because as far as I can tell, it is otherwise ineffective.

[Jay2TheRescue]

I too looked at the edging and thought it would not hold up. I was planning on using coroplast, but then I saw other members using a second factory airdam flipped upside down and bolted to the existing one. I went to a junkyard and got another airdam off of a similar vehicle, then flipped it upside down and bolted it to the existing airdam. This may not be able to be done in your application. It sounds like your ground clearance is already pretty low.

-Jay

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

I came by a strip of that clear "cold curtain" stuff they use in walk in fridges and food plants etc etc. It's pretty thick but seems rather floppy... I'm considering it for an airdam, might need a couple of spring strips behind it though.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Maybe if you doubled it up?

-Jay

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

That could work, doubled over along it's length, would make a good shock absorber like that too probably, for if you reverse off a curb or something.

Not sure about front end mods at the moment, got a Bonneville SE front bumper I might mod to fit, which will drop a couple of inches lower than the one on there... then I'd need to re-duct the rad airflow from the bottom scoop so I'd be able to do a grille block... THEN I might see about an additional dam... but that stuff in a thinner strip, say 2 inches protruding, may make a decent rub strip on the bottom of all that.

[GasSavers_BEEF]

I found something at the hardware store. I thoght about it quite a bit. I used a RUBBER MAID trash can. I found one that was smoothe all the way around. most have ribbs or baffles to help keep it round.

I used some tin snips to cut it into a 6" strip. the material is at least twice as thick if not thicker than the landscaping edging. the one draw back was that it wasn't long enough to go all the way across. I cut two smaller pieces so the solid piece is in the middle.

I used interior panel retainers to attach it to the existing air dam which was only 2 1/2 -3 inches long. I purposefully drilled the holes too small so that it would fit snug. my thumbs hurt after that one. I also accidentally drilled into my finger (not too deep but deep enough to tick me off). I don't have a lift so I was doing this on the ground.

I have some pics and will try to put them into this post. I have a bad habbit of taking large (memory wise) pics and it won't let me upload them.

I hope this helps with FE. I took a "before" picture to show the difference

*edit* I think jay2therescue actually said something about doing this but for a grill block. I think he was talking about a smaller trash can but a similar concept.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Yes, I was talking about using a Rubbermaid trash can for grille block material. Its a shame you already cut the can. If you had cut the can in a large spiral you probably could have yielded the long piece you needed...

-Jay

[Jay2TheRescue]

After looking at your pics, the dam looks really good. I am reconsidering the trash can grille block, and I should be able to cut filler panels for fitting around my recovery hooks from the bottom.

From the looks of the front of your car it seems the gaps aren't all that consistent around your lights. Have you considered filling in the gaps around your lights with black RTV silicone?

-Jay