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valence pieces/parts fab
Hello boys & girls. I usually just contribute wit, charm, sarcasm, & humor
 . I'm not very good at documentation, (just ask my boss). Anyway, I'm installing a european lower front valence and splitter on the Carrera as a winter project. I figured I'd share it with the BB as I've gotten so much from it. I'm sure there are better & lighter ways of doing all this. But I have the IQ of a house plant & the mechanical apptitude of said plant so take it all with a grain of salt. The fit of the valence was great, (GT Racing). Just held the valence to the body with two floor jacks and drilled holes. I'm using 8mm buttonhead fasteners. The splitter was fabricated from a piece of fiberglass sheet also from GT Racing. I covered it in a high quality carbon fiber 3D vinyl. A bit of bling. The first job was someway of attaching the grill to the valence. I went to West Marine and purchased a couple of those epoxy sticks to make bosses. The grill will be fastened to the valence with screws into these bosses...   Next was a way of attaching the foglights to the valence. I went to Ace Hardware and purchased a peice of 6"x18"x 1/16" sheetmetal to fabricate brackets. A bit of a job since all I have is handtools. I used a jigsaw borrowed from my brother. He's a carpenter & gets a chuckle out me trying to do anything with power tools. And I still have all my fingers & toes! They are 1 1/2" wide. (First pic is an action photo)    Everything snugged together...  After the final fit of the brackets I disassembled everything & coated them with a light coat of 20W50 Valoline racing oil until they are painted. I'm going to take them to a customer of mine to zinc phosphate & electrocoat. The brackets will be coated using a cationic epoxy. That is the most corrosion resistance electrocoat. Hopefully they will let me take a few pics of the process and I can post. Next will be preparing the valence for painting.
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01-04-2009, 08:44 AM
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Since this thread has so much interest
 I'll submit more pictures.The brackets were cleaned & zinc phosphated in a 7 stage immersion system. Parts are cleaned, rinsed, conditioned, phosphated, rinsed, then a sealer. Yes that's only 6 stages. The customer has a stage for pickling parts if there is surface rust.    I then took the brackets over to be electrocoated. The Ecoat system does have it's own pre-treatment but it is iron not zinc phosphate and zinc provides better corrosion resistance. Parts entering then exiting...    And the final product...  Next up is priming the valence...
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01-10-2009, 07:58 AM
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AutoBahned
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re house plant IQ and mechanical abilities -- have you seen Little Shop of Horrors?
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01-10-2009, 10:41 AM
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Location: Charlotte, NC
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Could you add some pics of the splitter. Looks good in the first post pic, but hard to see how it was fab'd attached.
Todd
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01-10-2009, 10:49 AM
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Quote:
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01-11-2009, 08:17 AM
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Here are a few pics of the splitter. I reinforced the botton with a 2nd layer of fiberglass. Epoxied it to the first. It will be attached to the valence with 8mm buttonhead bolts, 12 in all, using fender washers for a little more bearing area.
 
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01-11-2009, 05:46 PM
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