I went to the chandlers and picked up the steel cables and turnbuckles as well as a selection of eyes. I then drilled the front chassis gusset and bolted on one of the eyes and strung the splitter as shown below.
Actually this is not quite 100% true. I originally had six cables supporting the splitter, one from each side to the centre extra, and no steel tubes. However I forgot that if the splitter was pushed up, by running a curb, the front would then be ripped off as the cables obviously only stop the splitter from dropping. The idea of the cables being that they do allow the EDGES of the splitter to rise up over curbs but in normal driving you don’t run curbs in the centre of the car. So I quickly knocked up the central steel tubes to hold the splitter down.
I then looked at the diffusers as the ‘blank’ carbon was picked up with a load of 935 bodywork, from the bodyshop. This actually has a kevlar weave also just to allow a little flex as carbon is so rigid and brittle that if there were any flex it explodes into a cloud of nasty splinters!
I had sort of planned the splitter, although what happens next you might not think so! So I cut out the slots in the wood for the diffusers, making sure to leave enough that the wood was not too flexible! (Read guessed here!!!)
Then it all went pear shaped, best laid plans and all… I had planned that the diffuser would go to the centre line of the wheels, beyond the wooden splitter. However the frame supporting the splitter had rising butt hinges connecting it to the chassis. These were fine until I thought quickly about assembly. To attach the frame to the chassis you have to offset it and then slide it across, to get the pin of the hinge to engage. However if the diffusers went past the splitter you couldn’t offset the assembly as they would be inside the chassis! So I either had to redesign the original hinges or the diffusers. I chose the hinges.
I quickly turned up two sets of these. Not exactly complicated I know but they do the job. The bar in contact with the head of the bolt has a clearance hole whereas the other is tapped. This will allow the splitter assembly to be placed directly in the correct place and then bolted on. Obviously if it rotated too much the bolts could come undone but the steel tubes should hold it all in place and the amount it would have to turn before it could rattle loose I dont think it really possible. That said I will keep an eye on it and modify if required.
So I cut off the rising butt hinges. Interestingly they were obviously riveted on and then welded or something?
It was then just a matter of tacking and welding on the new hinges.
Tags: Bodywork
