Homemade vented nose panel

[VII]

Has anyone made their own vented nose panel? I realize the real purpose is to get air to the turbo, S or whatever model has the airbox under the nose panel or to the intercooler but It couldnt hurt to get fresh airflow to the filter and engine. I am currently painting my car semi gloss black and removed the bumper pads and thought I would also chop up the nose panel. I cut a fairly large hole in the nose panel, and using my favorite filler (bondo glass) I smoothed the nose panel front to the bottom nose support then made filler panels for the side of the nose support and put a layer of filler over that. The nose panel needs a little more work before it goes on but I should have it painted within the next day or so and some sort of grill put in to keep junk out. You can see that I'm also repairing some other issues with the nose panel. Anyway, easy project I was wondering if anyone else did themselves as well. I'll post pics tomorrow.

[BART'S 911 SC]

Can't wait for the pictures.I want to do it myself.$300 for fiberglass one is little steep for me...

[drift a 944]

Here is my car, the vents in the nose panel are the previous owner's work.

[1985porsche944]

I like the colored wheels.

[VII]

Did a quick layer of paint and it looks pretty good. It is silly to pay such a crazy amount for an easy project. I was going to glass a functional scoop to the hood as well but accidentally destroyed the scoop when I dropped the front bumper on it while moving it about my garage. I'm not saying the vent will look professional or blow anyones socks off but for a $7 garage project it is more than worth the couple hours of labor it took to make. Pics to be posted after a good nights sleep.

[VII]

Heres a couple pics. In bad garage light and in black it is hard to make out details.

Test fitment, prior to paint and cleaning.



angle shot.




closeup of the vented portion. Looking in the vent you can easily see the filter and top front of engine, this should reallly help with cooling and fresh filter air.


Cameria is not the best and the lens is dirty. Still need to finish sanding and painting but you get the idea. A polished grill and good lighting will really let the nose stand out. Grab yourself a grinder and some fiberglass or whatever and give it a go.

[ideola]

Wonder what that does for pressure differential under the hood and through the engine compartment?

[Dwright944s]

It should help with cooling, but I don't think your air filter will get any benifit unless you re-route the intake point to under the nose panel.

[flash968]

i wondered about the pressure differential too - more air is not always good

i have been working hard on DECREASING the amount of air getting into the engine bay, and directing all of that air to the rear - this has resulted in better radiator cooling, lower under hood temps, and an increase in front end down force

if you are going to add vents like this, they should be enclosed by a plenum, and direct all of the air into the airbox

[VII]

Sure there are always issues to be addressed when you modify the stock components that the factory spent so much time perfecting. The car has a cone filter now and it sits within the path of airflow so fresh air is definately a good thing as the cone filters are notoriious for sucking in warm engine compartment air. In the 3rd picture you can see a black plastic piece just behind the vent which is a cover for the radiator and what I'm thinking is the A/C cooler. The top couple inches of the radiator is more in the path of the vent than anything else so I would imagine it should help to cool the radiator some as well if I were to removed the cover (which I'm debating). I understand what you mean by pressure differential and the point is not lost with me but I'll stick with my experiment for now. I have an extra nose panel and will be measuring under hood temperatures on various engine components with the changes that are being made (vented nose, wrapped headers, hood scoop and maybe an under engine wind deflector to force more air up). We'll see how it turns out.

[drift a 944]

Looks like it came out awesome. You definitely spent a lot more time and effort on the vent than the person who did the one on my car! Great job!

Just one thing... if you put a mesh grill inside the vent, please paint it black, do not leave it polished. Unless of course you want it to look flashy or tacky. With the black painted grill, you will still get plenty of comments and compliments about the vent, if not more... and it would be a nice subtle finishing touch.

[VII]

Thanks for the comment drift. I started out going with 3 seperate vents similar to your setup but rounding the edges on all and keeping everything even became irritating quickly. The jury is still out on the grill as well but I was thinking of polishing it as it would bring out the polished lip of the wheels and the door handles I'm thinking of eventually doing. I've always been a big fan of the rat rod type look with the low/no gloss black and some chrome here and there.

Though you have not seen my car (as it is still at least a month away from being a daily driver) and in your personal opinion, do you think I should stick with the car entirely semigloss with only the polished lip of the 18" black wheels and the red calipers as color (the lights will all be tinted black) or to go with the polished lip wheels, handles and grill? I'm a big fan of the "murdered out" look which is likely where I will end up (it's easier as well) but just thought I'd ask your opinion there drift and whoever else gives a poo.

[flash968]

i've had all kinds of cars (over 40 in the last 30 some odd years), ranging all over the map from hot rods to GTs to sportscars, and they were all trimmed out differently - i've had chrome trimmed cars, all painted cars, even polished aluminum body cars (ok, just one) - there were things i liked about all of them - it's really very subjective, but each car lends itself easily to seeing to what looks right and what looks gaudy

for these cars, i realize the tendency is to do "something", but avoid the urge to do something just so that it's different - more often than not less is more - they aren't big hot rods - they aren't tiny sportscars - they are GT cars and should be treated as such - some sporty stuff is good, but too much and it just looks like a gangster with too much bling around his neck - tacky

i see a lot in this arena, and much of it is clearly related to the age group of the owners - fortunately the cars aren't expensive, and when it comes time to move on, it can just be disposed of, rather than trying to recoup the expense of an ill thought out mod or treatment - for example, you couldn't do that with say, a ferrari

i am definitely not a fan of bling or things non-functional - whatever it is must serve a function

carbon fiber look is out - carbon fiber replacement items (not overlay stuff) that are painted body color are fine

polished this that and the other should be tastefully limited - rim lips are ok, if it's the right style rim - all the small parts on a car are not so cool

loud multi-color paint schemes are for advertising cars - they look cartoonish on a street car - that stuff is fine in the movies, but in real life you can tell how old the owner is without ever seeing them

it's the same thing with product stickers on the car - if they aren't sponsors, they shouldn't be there

painted wheels are for kids, or old timers looking for that retro look - they aren't contemporary

it's easy to get caught up in something and be excited about it - but take a look at other cars and see what it looks like before you go to the time and expense of something that you may hate 6 months later - try photoshop if you can't find another car

try this for a rule of thumb or guide when thinking about what to do: do you want people to see the car and think more in terms of ferrari, or more in terms of suburu?

clearly i've become a cranky old fart, but give it some thought before you dive into something you may not be able to afford to correct if it turns out less than what you wanted

[drift a 944]

Nothing wrong with doing it different. It really doesn't matter what you do to your car, as long as you LIKE what you do to it. On my other 944 (non-turbo), I deliberately chose a color to paint the car that you would probably never see on another 944 or other Porsche model, for two reasons... 1 being that its very unique and different from any other Porsche, but 2 because I just really like the color. Same applies to the black/green theme on my 951, however the green is a factory Porsche color. I guess according to flash968 the green wheels makes me a kid though, or an old geezer. Gee maybe I should repaint the wheels silver, that way I could really stand out, and everybody would love me!
Anyway, personally I'd stay away from the chrome too, but I'm biased towards the 'blacked out' look since I have smoked side markers and tail lights myself. One of the coolest things about Porsche's in the 1980's was that there was almost NO chrome on the car (with the exception of the muffler tip and certain style rims) whereas other foreign and domestic manufactures all had chrome trim, bumpers, grills, etc out the ass on most of their models. So to me, keeping it that way is one of the coolest things I can compare my 944's with against the styling cues of similar cars. I love customizing things but adding chrome on these cars is just not right!!

[J1NX3D]

search for posts by NZ951 on the rennlist forums about the subject. He put 924 turbo vents into the badge panel of his 951 rather than using a 924 turbo badge panel which is a different shape. iirc he posted cad drawings with dimensions, etc.

[VII]

Originally Posted by flash968

clearly i've become a cranky old fart, but give it some thought before you dive into something you may not be able to afford to correct if it turns out less than what you wanted

I always dive into my projects and I'm never dissatisfied. I don't have to be an old fart to know what I like. About a month left and the car should be ready for a full body shot so we'll see how it turns out as even I don't yet know.

[thoen]

elliott,
i am 63 (not an old geeser) and mine is a speed yellow (repaint) and i wish i was daring enough to do something of a two tone like yours. yours looks like a racer!!!
very nice!!


my rennlist avatar photo

[s928s]

The next time you have the header panel off. There is a curved black plastic shiels that runs along the top of the rad. Its purpose is to route the air from the spoiler into the rad vents.
With you addion of the upper vent. When I added the 924turbo header to my 944, I flipped that pamel over so it would expose the new vented area to the radiator. Sorry i do not have a pic. to show you what i mean.

[flash968]

i completely agree that you can and should do anything you want to your own car - i wasn't suggesting otherwise for a minute

my point was that if you aren't planning on being buried with it, some things you might do and think cool at the time, can turn out to be things that prevent you from being able to sell the car, or at least lower the value to others, regardless of how much you spent or how much you liked it

as far as how far to go in most people's minds, there is a very useful term that applies to cars like this and mods some might do - it's called "gilding a lily" - keeping that in mind if you are ever considering selling the car might save you a world of headache

[VII]

Thoen: You vent looks similar to mine but cleaner. I like it.

s928s: I think I know the piece you're talking about. It should be the plastic shield in the 3rd picture as seen through the vent hole. I was considering removing it altogether to get more airflow to the radiator. Am I crazy or is this the piece?

flash: I understand what you mean by the troubles with selling the car later and I keep the thought somewhere in the back of my head. I figure I'll likely smash the car and kill myself so I should just go all out now while I have time. Thanks for the input fellas.