Dzus fasteners secure front bumper, stealth mode

[Chuck Moreland]

Getting access to the bolts securing my fiberglass RS front bumpers was a real pain. Hard to reach, can't get a hand/wrench in there.

I've managed to find a surprising number of reasons to remove it, including fitment of a splitter, access to the rubber body strips, etc. Now I'm preparing to fit a new center mounted oil cooler so ready access to the cooler is a good thing. Plus there are splitter enhancements in the works, plus it would nice to be able to swap different front ends onto the car - street and track.

So I decided to remount the front end using quarter turn Dzus type fasteners, allowing quick R&R and even swapping front ends as needed.

I wouldn't mind having the fastener heads visible from the surface, but after a good bit of head-scratching, I decided the best way to install the fasteners was behind the bodywork. Completely invisible from the outside, the Dzus fasteners are in stealth mode.

I fashioned sheet metal plates and secured them to the existing fiberglass mounting plates. The fiber plates were always spaced too wide and required me to insert rubber spacers to close the gap to the front trunk. Since they weren't in the way, I decided to just leave the old fiberglass plates in place.

The Dzus springs are just pop-rivited to the plates.



This technique also affords some adjustability side to side. I can alter the spacing between the AL plates and the fiber plates.

On the other side of the plates, I glued some rubber washers. They are there to provide thickness for the rivit heads, prevent chaffing of the paint and avoid any vibration/noise.



Those plates slide up alongside the tub upfront, right where the original bumper mounts attached. I opened up the holes to accept the Dzus fasteners.

Two on each side, inside the trunk.



These are the fasteners I opted to used. I added nylon washers to the ones inside the trunk, again to prevent paint chaffing.



I also used one on each side, securing the bumper to the stock hangers.




Finished picture. Well not quite finished, I need to adjust the side-to-side just a bit. Easily done.



6 fasteners, quarter turn on - quarter turn off. They work great, I can get this on or off myself in just a couple minutes. Might even be worth it just for loading on the trailer to avoid scraping the splitter.

Now sitting back and looking at all, I can't help but think how ridiculous it is. I spent about 8 hours on this project between research, head scratching, and actual work. Plus about $50 on hardware, etc. All to save about 20 minutes each time take this off

[CBRacerX]

Nice job! I had the install from the outside Dzus on my RSR Replica and loved them.

You will need to go to many track events for this upgrade to fall into the "time saver" category. Get going

Chris

[jaydubya]

Nice!

Originally posted by Chuck Moreland

Now sitting back and looking at all, I can't help but think how ridiculous it is. I spent about 8 hours on this project between research, head scratching, and actual work. Plus about $50 on hardware, etc. All to save about 20 minutes each time take this off

How much is your time worth? Take it off twelve times and put it on twelve times and you are even.

[RickM]

Very nice job. Thanks for the tip.

[widebody911]

I like it. I did Dzus on the outside of my bumper and I love the convenience.

The 20 minutes you save will make all the difference when you're at the track and it's 105 outside and you need to get to something under there.

[Chuck Moreland]

Originally posted by widebody911
IThe 20 minutes you save will make all the difference when you're at the track and it's 105 outside and you need to get to something under there.

You got that right. Sometimes hours (days) of preperation is worth it to save minutes (seconds) at the critical moment.

My comment is dangerously close to breaking one of my rules-to-live-by: Time and dollars expended to prepare for the track should never, I repeat NEVER, be divided by the time spent actually driving on the track.

[Jim Garfield]

A nice well thought out upgrade. I have Dzus fasteners to attach the
bodywork on a racing kart and believe me the convience of being able to remove and reattach in seconds is worth the time involved to figure it out initially. I use nylon washers to take up any slack between the screw and the fitting too.... it's important to keep the connection tight or they will work themselves loose and fall off.

[greglepore]

Sweet, Chuck. I agree with all of the above, I routinely take the bumper off when loading the car, just in case.