Quote:
Originally Posted by leicaboss
Awesome reply! Just curious, what are some good ways to make sure a mounted splitter (well, in turn the bumper) can be secure? I realize the splitter provides downforce, but how can I make sure the bumper doesn't just decide to pop out from its clips (under the headlights)?
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Thanks!
Because I have yet to acquire my twin, I don't really know how owners are going to be supporting these assemblies. I'm certain, however, that an assembly with a splitter of any length is going to need to be firmly affixed to the bumper beam (or its equivalent) as well as to another strong set of mounting points on the underside of the car.
I can describe what was done on the M3:
1) The trailing edge of the splitter was well-supported (see the first photo below);
2) The bumper cover's OEM attachment points were retained, and are:
2a) Two tabs on the inside of the cover at the top trailing corners that were tied to the leading edges of the wheel wells with small sheet metal screws;
2b) Four bolts with 1" washers attached at the points in the photo in my first post where the turnbuckles are anchored through the cover and to the bumper beam; and,
3) Four screws ran from the bottom of the splitter and through the bottom of the bumper cover (these are the screws on the left in the first photo below) - IIRC, they screwed into something that held them fast that had been added to the inside of the bottom of the cover (I don't do my own work, so I'm a bit fuzzy on that part of the assembly).
This was for the first splitter we put on, and that's the one in the first photo below. It's 1/8" or 3/16" aluminum plate. The adjustable splitter came later, was added below the first splitter (a temporary arrangement during testing), and the turnbuckles were used to support it from above. The original aluminum splitter had no simlar support from above - it should have had, but it didn't.
The entire bumper cover/splitter assembly was removable in just a few minutes as the only screwed/bolted connections to the car were the screws and bolts listed in #2 above. Note that this implies that the brake ducts were not affixed to the bumper cover, which was the case; they were mounted in place in a fashion that allowed them to do their jobs without requiring any disassembly before removing the bumper cover/splitter assembly. This mounting arrangement can be seen in the second photo below.
You can see here that the trailing edge of the splitter is supported by a pair of massive tabs held in place by stand-offs bolted to the swaybar mounts. That was another temporary arrangement. Of course, almost everyone here is going to be buying off-the-shelf units that will have undercar support solutions baked into them, so this kind of one-off fabrication won't be necessary.
Brake Duct Mounting sans Attachment to the Bumper Cover
