Building a new front splitter - a work in progress...

Partly inspired by Stigs comment in another thread, "I still can't believe nobody makes a solid 1 piece fiberglass spoiler", and partly inspired by my need for same, I'm building one My fibreglassing experience thus far extends only to patching go kart bodywork, I've never actually built anything from scratch with the stuff, however after a bit of research via Google and YouTube, to quote that great modern philosopher Clarkson, how hard can it be? :hehe

SO, my splitter, like most of them, is looking pretty sad - the three pieces don't join together any more (though it seems previous owners have tried in vain to re-connect it all with varying combinations of self-tappers), and most of the fussy vertical bits in the middle section are busted. I'm going to paint it when I respray the body, so any imperfections or further bodgy repairs will really stand out. The best solution I feel is to use the old splitter as a template for building a new one. I'm going to fuse it into one piece, use that as a plug to build a fibreglass mould, then use the mould to make the new splitter

First up, here's what you'll need to build one:



First job is to join the three pieces of your old splitter solidly together. Make sure you do this while it is still bolted to the car, that way it stays rigid when you remove it and you know the new one you build will line up with your bumper and guards properly. I used Selleys Araldite two-part epoxy to bond everything together, but you can use whatever you prefer or have lying around. As I mentioned, whatever clips and tabs that Toyota used to join the bits together have long since been destroyed, so I needed to make a couple of temporary backing pieces to join each side to the middle. I used some heavy gauge cardboard for the backing, but once again you can use whatever you have lying around that is pliable enough to be pressed roughly into the shape of the back side of the splitter but still retain a reasonable amount of rigidity. It looks a bit dodgy (probably because it is :lachtot ), but remember this is just a template, your end product will contain no badly cut bits of cardboard :hehe . Epoxy the cardboard pieces to the back of the splitter (use plenty, you want to make sure the pieces won't move when you remove it as one piece), and clamp them in place with a couple of clothes pegs or whatever else you have that might be suitable. Let the epoxy cure for a few hours, then you can unbolt the splitter from the car. It will look something like this at the back:



Now fill in the gaps between the pieces with more epoxy. Don't be shy with it, use a lot, at this stage don't worry too much about it being messy, you want to make sure that sucker is one solid piece!



Next up, I decided I don't want to keep all those vertical struts (they'll be a PITA to re-mould and will probably only break again anyway), so I've gutted the centre section. I used a box-cutter with a brand new blade to cut them out and shave all of the mounting points down flush. Now it looks like this:



With no support it's very flexy in the middle, so the next job will be to build a single thick centre pillar. The finished product will have mesh inserts either side which should help with rigidity too.

That's as far as I got today. Once I've got that centre support made, I'll sand or shave off the excess epoxy from earlier as well as any other dags, then give the whole thing a light sand, a thin coat of body filler to give it a smooth uniform surface, then a good wax with the mould release wax, and that will be the plug for our mould finished. Stay tuned...

 

Sorry, I wan't paying attention to what section I put this in ops . Feel free to move it to the bodywork section though, I don't mind.

Simplicity is the aim of the game here my friend, so just one centre post it will be for now. I like your idea of making little boxes though, will use that :thumbsup: You're right, it doesn't need the airflow, I just think it'll look cool If, howver, it proves to be too weak then I'll add more supports or just make the whole thing one smooth piece.

Today sanded all the goops of epoxy down, and gave the whole thing a good sand so the body filler that will go on next will stick to it nicely. Not sure if I'm going to get any more done before Christmas though :cry

 

+1 for sanding first, otherwise the epoxy will lift off easily. Also make sure you clean everything thoroughly before you start, nothing is ever going to stick very well to 25-odd years worth of accumulated dirt, car wash detergent, tar and oil! I used a pressure-washer on mine, even though it looked fairly clean to start with, you should have seen the crap coming out of it!

 

:lol2 I have the same OCD, having just one side blocked off has always bugged me, but instead of blocking the other side off to match, I cut the blocked section out :thumbsup:

 

I very much doubt the splitter has any aerodynamic effect at the road-legal speeds we normally get about at, and at higher speeds I suspect it would actually produce lift instead of downforce. And as Stig noted earlier, the grill is plenty big enough to supply air to the radiator, also the gaps in the lower half of the front bumper would contribute to the cooling as well.

My money would be on two reasons why Toyota made it that way -
1) it's cheaper to manufacture when you replace about 40% of the plastic with holes
2) it was the 1980's, chintzy design details like asymmetrical vents and slats were fashionable

 

OK, update time. I abandoned my original idea of having a centre post as it was proving too fiddly to build, so now the centre section will be completely filled in, and will look remarkably like the one on Stig's white car, only all one piece.

I used a can of expanding foam to fill the gap. I covered the gap at the front of the spoiler with strips of duct tape to contain the foam when it expanded, then laid the foam in the cavity in the back. Leave it overnight to fully expand and cure, and it ends up looking like this:


Take the tape off the front and roughly trim and sand the foam into shape. It sands easy, so don't go too hard on it. Next you want to fill and smooth it. Here's a tip - fibreglass resin breaks down foam. I was tossing up whether to use body filler or resin, I went with resin thinking that as it would go on in more of a liquid state it'd pour and shape easier, and those things are actually true, but it also breaks the foam down and it's left rougher than it started. Sigh, rip it out and start again. Second time, after trimming and sanding the foam I covered it in bog. Much better. Sets faster too.

When you fill it, you want to make sure that you keep the profile of the splitter consistant the whole width of the piece. To do this, you'll need to make a buck to spread the filler with. To get the right shape, I laid a piece of cling-wrap over a part of the splitter that so far hasn't had any filling or sanding (and thus has retained it's original shape). Then I poured some body filler onto the cling wrap and held the corners up so the bog didn't just run everyehere. While it was still in that plasticine-like state just before setting, I cut a neat slice out of it, and hey presto, a piece of bog with the same contour of the splitter:


Next I traced the shape of the splitter profile onto a piece of ply, then cut it out with a jigsaw:


...and now I have a wooden buck which I used to spread the filler over the splitter and ensure it stayed the right shape:


So now, after a few more rounds of filling and sanding my splitter looks like this:


It's still not perfect, but should only need a tiny little bit more filler and a final sand and it will be ready to hit with some primer.


Remember, all this work so far is just to build the PLUG so I can make a mould and THEN i can make a new spltter :ack2 I have a newfound respect for people who build stuff out of fibreglass from scratch :bowdown