widening an air dam

i need to widen the black plastic air dam from an 80's s10 a couple of inches for the duster im working on. this piece is slightly textured, and is a molded piece.

what i was thinking was getting another from the salvage yard, cutting the needed extra length from it, and adding it into the middle of the good one im lengthening.

my questions are: 1. how do i attach it all back together? 2. will i need to reinforce the spliced area? 3. how to get the texture back in ot? 4. what products to use? 4. any other experience/things im missing?

ive never really done much with plastic before, so im somewhat lost. i dont even know what KIND of platic these are made from. so i can googlke how to work with it.

trhanks for nay help you can throw my way, or directions you can point me in.

All I can add is that you can buy plastic welders (they shoot high temp air) from Harbor freight, and the mag had an article recently that showed the team fixing a busted plastic chin spoiler on an E30 if Im not mistaken. I cant remember all the details though.

If it only needs to be functional and not pretty, pop rivet a sheet metal patch behind the pieces.

Hell, Pop-rivet it anyway...rivets look badass!!

Zip ties

the duster is a show car quality resto. so zip ties and pop rivits are out of the question.

any more on the e30 spoiler article?

michael

Are there any marking on the back of the dam? There might be something there to identify the type of plastic it's made out of.

One of my paint & body work buddies uses a urethane bumper skin repair kit to fix some of the less common plastic air dams. Depending on the damage he'll bond in some screening in the back to give it support.

For something like you are doing, you might want to consider bonding something like a piece of aluminum to the back to give it some extra structural support. If there is a flange at the top where it would have attached to the S10, maybe pop rivet some angle aluminum under there with the rivets hidden in the flange area.

Keeping the grain is going to be next to impossible. Depending on how you section it, you might be able to make the seam lines look like they belong there as part of the design.

Depending on the type of plastic, I don't know how well paint would adhere to it. I've had success using some textured paints on parts of the Barracuda. If paint won't stick and you want a textured one-piece look to the whole thing, maybe use the fabricated/spliced one as a plug for a fiberglass mold. Then cast a 'glass one.

Dusterbd13 wrote: the duster is a show car quality resto ...

Dusters came with S10 air dams?

umm....

limited edition. 1970 only option package included: 17 inch wheels 240 treadwear tires upgraded steering and suspension fiberglass hood 18 way adjustable leather seats big stereo with cd player solid roller cam aluminum heads 3 inch exhaust front spoiler

just an incredible factory option list. just need to replicat the factory air dam for my resto, so it all like it was when it left the factory again.

in all honesty, the s10 air dam had the right contours, heigth, and look. just not wide enough.

michael

Dusterbd13 wrote: umm.... limited edition. 1970 only option package included: 17 inch wheels 240 treadwear tires upgraded steering and suspension fiberglass hood 18 way adjustable leather seats big stereo with cd player solid roller cam aluminum heads 3 inch exhaust front spoiler just an incredible factory option list. just need to replicat the factory air dam for my resto, so it all like it was when it left the factory again. in all honesty, the s10 air dam had the right contours, heigth, and look. just not wide enough. michael

Yep, those Plymouth stylists that gave the Valiant a facelift for '70 were some pretty advanced thinking guys.

By the way, I have a cut down '94-ish Ram spoiler under the radiator of my Barracuda.

... and here I was looking at the aluminum spoiler on the back of my Suburban, as a potential chin spoiler for the Valiant ...

Well the Ram spoiler was free and on hand when I wanted to help redirect some air.

I am totally confused by the restoration which includes power leather seats, but whatever.

I would make it like you want, stick it together with some glue and an aluminum sheet behind it and then wrap it in fiberglass. Heck, if you were clever, you could remove the air dam afterwards and leave just fiberglass. Even if you don't do that, the fiberglass, even a layer or two, will give tons of strength. Works for RC airplane wings.

the car was my daily through high school and college. after school, i restored it to stock. and got bored with it. modified it to a low 12 sec street/strip car. hated it on the street. now its going true street machine. detuned a little, better steering and suspension, litttle more comfort. more manners.

except for a couple of holes, and the shaved sidemarkers, it could go back to stock in a week. it wont, as stock is worth NOTHING with this car (orig 318 stripper car).

so its a resto turned street/autocross machine.

hope that helps.

and rob, have any pictures of the ram spoiler?

Dusterbd13 wrote: the car was my daily through high school and college. after school, i restored it to stock. and got bored with it. modified it to a low 12 sec street/strip car. hated it on the street. now its going true street machine. detuned a little, better steering and suspension, litttle more comfort. more manners. except for a couple of holes, and the shaved sidemarkers, it could go back to stock in a week. it wont, as stock is worth NOTHING with this car (orig 318 stripper car). so its a resto turned street/autocross machine. hope that helps. and rob, have any pictures of the ram spoiler?

Sorry, this is the best I have right now. The car is still in TN for the 5-speed swap or I would go snap a few tonight.

If you look closely you can see it in this pic:

What I did is a little different from what I think you are planning. I was looking to make something that was the width of the radiator to help direct air through it at highway speeds. I also needed something to protect the bottom edge of the radiator since the one that's in there now sits below the original core support opening. That's a long story in itself...

The basic shape I went for was modeled after a GM design (gasp!). It's similar to what the '78-up Malibu used, and I think something similar was used on the early 3rd gen F-bodies. Some of the Chrysler M-bodies had something similar, but the shape wouldn't work with the Barracuda's valance.

The only reason I used the Ram one was because somebody gave it to me for free ("Hey, you're a Mopar guy, want this?") and I had it on the shelf in the basement. It was one of the plain ones used on the chrome bumpered trucks.