Front spoiler broke.... Almost $hit my pants today

[MYBAD79]

9AM .... I thought what a great Saturday morning it is: sunny and not a single cloud in the sky... perfect day to take the '79 out :yahoo:

Got a coffee (Marck, my stainless steel cupholders are awesome) ... drove a few miles to get out of the city and get the engine and oil warm. Engine temperature was good and it's been a while since I heard the 383 screaming thru the Hookers so I floored it .... acceleration and sound was truly amazing

And then it happened :crutches:

Suddenly there was this very loud noise coming from the front. Oh shit, are my Rodsnocking ??? At the same time the front started vibrating and shaking... that's where I almost stained the red leather seats..... pressed the clutch, hit the brakes, turned ignition off.... pulled over with a weird feeling in stomach

There I was: 9:45AM on a Saturday in the middle of the central Florida swamp (east of Orlando it's either swamp or beach) crawling under the car. I was looking for missing control arm bolts, holes in the oil pan, snakes and alligators :sweat: and then found this:



Obviously I took the photo after I got back home.

Amazing how much noise this makes.... the bolts that were ripped out and the missing fiberglass pieces hit the floorpans and sidepipe headers on their way towards the back of the car....


.

This is the second time this happened and this time I am sure that I did not hit anything. Fortunately I cut the spoiler in three pieces like the OEM pace car spoiler so only the center section needs to be fixed... it's under the car and nobody can see it - the corner pieces are still like new

Apparently this is not designed to withstand wind speeds of >100mph. Maybe it would be fine if I had not cut it... anyways... it will be repaired and reinforced with aluminum. :devil:

I started taking stuff apart and couldn't help the "while I'm at it" syndrome ... suddenly the '79 gave birth:



this thing weighs a ton



It will be replaced with something smaller and lighter.



What a nice Saturday it was today.... :bomb:

 

[big2bird]

I would imagine you could duplicate that in aluminium.:goodevil:

 

[MYBAD79]

I would imagine you could duplicate that in aluminium.:goodevil:

Nah, I'll just use some smaller pipe and smaller brackets but that thing in aluminum would be sweet....

What is that vacuum can good for anyways ??? How many times a year do I use the headlights ? How many times do I use them without engine vacuum ???

I did notice how flimsy the front is without all this steel bolted up tight.... I'll definitely add enough steel to prevent catastrophic front end damage in case I hit something.... Yellow73SB came up up with his own brackets I think....

 

[mrvette]

only 55f in the sun, and windy as hell here, a t shirt and two sweatshirts on all day....weather sux....vette acting up too, something very elusive, and electrical, so I still messing with it....very strange symptoms....VERY strange...

never seem to get anything consistent either...

:flash:

 

[phantomjock]

An Internal Bumper?

Sorta somthin' from the NASCAR curicut?
I'll Find a pic and post tomorrow...

I'm gonna off mine too - its in the pile of bits gonng to the recycler!

Cheers - jim

 

[brngrhd]

only 55f in the sun, and windy as hell here, a t shirt and two sweatshirts on all day....weather sux....vette acting up too, something very elusive, and electrical, so I still messing with it....very strange symptoms....VERY strange...

never seem to get anything consistent either...

:flash:

only 55 in the sun LOL it was a high of like 13 or something here today

 

[phantomjock]

Yeah - cold for me too - so I bought brake fittings! Tommorrow bend lines...

Heres an idea for the internal replacenemts:


sorta an over view above, and another:



That inculdes a splitter!
:
and



Catalog link there !

Cheers - Jim

 

[Twin_Turbo]

I still think you hit something, that stuff doesn't just crack like that.

I agree that without the lower spoiler the car becomes light and twitchy in the front, after I removed my front spoiler on a speed bump (many moons ago when car was still running LOL) I did a high speed 120+ mph run some time after and the car was scary at high speeds.

 

[brngrhd]

I still think you hit something, that stuff doesn't just crack like that.

I agree that without the lower spoiler the car becomes light and twitchy in the front, after I removed my front spoiler on a speed bump (many moons ago when car was still running LOL) I did a high speed 120+ mph run some time after and the car was scary at high speeds.

i have a 69 and am looking for anything that will get more air in to cool and or make it more stable at higher speeds (drag racing) 130+mph but don't want anything that will slow the car down much. recomendations

 

[73 Mike]

I started taking stuff apart and couldn't help the "while I'm at it" syndrome ... suddenly the '79 gave birth:

What the heck, it needed painting anyways :lol:

I'm kind of with Marck. I'm not sure just speed is enough to tear this off. These things also hang up on just about everything in any given parking lot. If you do make it out of aluminum, make sure that you either bolt it on with something that can break away, like push pins. Otherwise, next time you hit a crossing alligator, you might do some real damage.

 

[mrvette]

I still think you hit something, that stuff doesn't just crack like that.

I agree that without the lower spoiler the car becomes light and twitchy in the front, after I removed my front spoiler on a speed bump (many moons ago when car was still running LOL) I did a high speed 120+ mph run some time after and the car was scary at high speeds.

i have a 69 and am looking for anything that will get more air in to cool and or make it more stable at higher speeds (drag racing) 130+mph but don't want anything that will slow the car down much. recomendations

I have a '89 F body aluminum plastic thing from a local outlet for 160 bux, it's a stock replacement for the T/A, etc....single row, and backed up with Dual Spals and ditched the stock shroud....I suspect a even swap for weight...

and it cools good even in hot Florida street traffic...with a/c running...:devil:

 

[Twin_Turbo]

The F body aluminum rad w/ plastic tanks is a real thin radiator. It's the one on the left:

 

[mrvette]

The F body aluminum rad w/ plastic tanks is a real thin radiator. It's the one on the left:

Yeh man, damn close, i'ts what I have...werks fine, with the Spals behind it....

which I have on my own mounts and made my own shroud arrangement for full core draw/coverage.....

cold as ice....

:crutches:

 

[brngrhd]

I have a dewitts radiator and these
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G4850/

i have nto had it running in the summer heat but in later summer and fall it did ok never got above 185 with a 180-185 stat going down the road and when sitting with both fans on it did ok too..... BUT id still like more air flow to try to get cooler air in there and if i get a twin turbo set up in there id like the cool air... and front end stability

 

[redvetracr]

I still think you hit something, that stuff doesn't just crack like that.

I agree that without the lower spoiler the car becomes light and twitchy in the front, after I removed my front spoiler on a speed bump (many moons ago when car was still running LOL) I did a high speed 120+ mph run some time after and the car was scary at high speeds.

I mounted the tiny factory 69 plastic spoiler to the nose of my racer and it made a huge difference down the back straight at Road America...

 

[mrvette]

I still think you hit something, that stuff doesn't just crack like that.

I agree that without the lower spoiler the car becomes light and twitchy in the front, after I removed my front spoiler on a speed bump (many moons ago when car was still running LOL) I did a high speed 120+ mph run some time after and the car was scary at high speeds.

I mounted the tiny factory 69 plastic spoiler to the nose of my racer and it made a huge difference down the back straight at Road America...

Please post your tire size/diameter/tread width, and the height of your car...fender arch or better yet frame height the way GM measures it...they have a letter designation for it, I can't remember....

:friends:

 

[Yellow73SB]

I just did this and bolted some of the stock brackets to this

I used the stock side brackets, they were pretty light.

It's not really fancy but it hold the front end decently

I'll take some pic tomorrow of it mounted, these are probably a good 3 years old :smash:

 

[MYBAD79]

I just did this and bolted some of the stock brackets to this

I used the stock side brackets, they were pretty light.

It's not really fancy but it hold the front end decently

I'll take some pic tomorrow of it mounted, these are probably a good 3 years old :smash:

If you could take a few pics that'd be great... I'm not quiet sure how I'm going to redesign this whole mess but I tend to overdesign stuff.... when I'm done it might not be a whole lot lighter than what I removed... :clobbered::rain:

 

[mrvette]

I just did this and bolted some of the stock brackets to this

I used the stock side brackets, they were pretty light.

It's not really fancy but it hold the front end decently

I'll take some pic tomorrow of it mounted, these are probably a good 3 years old :smash:

If you could take a few pics that'd be great... I'm not quiet sure how I'm going to redesign this whole mess but I tend to overdesign stuff.... when I'm done it might not be a whole lot lighter than what I removed... :clobbered::rain:

:devil::surrender: sounds familiar....

 

[MYBAD79]

:devil::surrender: sounds familiar....

doesn't it ???

It is really easy to replace 100lbs of steel with 100lbs of fiberglass ... looks like an improvement unitil you realize that it weighs the same...

LOL