Help with constructing front splitter

[rousespointer]

I am fabricating a simple front splitter for my race car. Can someone help with identifying those support brackets that attach from the leading edge of the splitter to the frame/front of the car? They look something like thin, long springs. Are they just for support (no spring ability)? Where do you find them? Thanks.

[Mick]

I think you're looking for Splitter Support Rods. Depending on your application, they're usually overkill.

[nateh]

But they are so cool - how can you resist?

[6PAK72]

I had great success with 1/4" threaded rod, nuts and LockTite. They actually did help in setting the splitter level to the ground.

The splitter did seem to have some affect on the back straight at WGI.

[dradernh]

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[dradernh]

They're for support; the idea is that the splitter be as fixed in place as possible so that it doesn't flex at speed. No one wants to look in their mirror & see a splitter flopping around on the car coming up on them. A team manager told me that you should be able to stand on your splitter without it deflecting, and you should be able to push your car by its wing without the uprights or mounts showing any signs of movement.

[breakaway500]

"..stand on your splitter without it deflecting.." Mine won't deflect. It will snap right off!

[rousespointer]

Ahhhh....you guys have come through with the answers !! I think I will try to fabricate some homemade ones using the threaded rod suggestion. I am using sheet aluminum or steel to construct the splitter...whichever I can get for free.

[nateh]

Another construction is to start with plywood or hardboard and apply a fiberglass surface to it. This is how David Boutelle does it, and I used the same technique to build mine.

[WillM]

Turn buckles. Either the expensive specialty type or the cheaper ones available at places like Home Depot and McMaster-Carr (love that freakin' place).

Choose your chassis/body mounting points carefully, and don't over do it. You want the splitter to come off of the car without taking 1/2 of your front end with it. Agricultural driving or even running over a cone that a car in front of you kicked up has the potential to cause lots of expensive damage to your car. Ideally you want a solution that can support lots of weight on top of it, but break free on direct impact.

Consider the tracks you run at, and how you get your car to/from the track. The uphill & downhill transitions at NHMS are brutal to splitters. Equally brutal would be creating the best splitter in the world then realizing that it takes a hour to remove and re-install, and that you can't get your car onto the trailer or tie it down with the splitter in place.

The turnbuckles are the easy part...

[nateh]

Words of wisdom from our Will, as always.

[6PAK72]

Attach the splitter to the air dam with nylon nuts and bolts. When you hit something - and you will - the bolts shear, leave your splitter on the ground and your air dam in one piece.

I made my splitter out of a laminated plastic/aluminum material called DiBond or Alucobond. This material cuts really nicely with a fine tooth jigsaw, it files and sands, takes paint well, holds drill holes really well and is flat and rigid. Also it can be rolled if you want to do a wing.

Go to your local sign shop, they will have a bunch of scrap, or tell me to bring some scrap to NHMS. I have around 1000 pounds of it in the recycle bin at the shop.

[boltonite]

I too used DiBond (similar to alumaboard but thiner w/ a dense core) for a splitter. It is attached to a flimsy fiberglass bumper cover/spoiler. The bottom of the splitter is zip tied to the bottom of the bumper cover and to the bumper hangers/brackets on the frame rails, the two "stanchions" are thin rods w/ a hole drilled thru at one end with a thin gauge wire (you could use a zip tie) to secure the stanchion to a clip permanently glued onto the splitter -- if the splitter is forced up/down too much the wire will break but allows the splitter to flex, this has happened a few times when loading/unloading the car off the trailer. If (when) the car goes offtrack the zip ties and wire will (hopefully) fail before it damages bumper, oil cooler, radiator etc. I can remove the bumper cover w/ splitter as one assembly by cutting the 2 zip ties to the frame rail brackets, it has survived one season and works almost too well, I was getting too tail happy at WOT in the esses at WGI, I've since added a gurney flap to my wing (yes, I'm a wuss).