splitter material

[962porsche]

finding the right material is not all that ez .
i have built splitters with every product from A to Z .

carbon fiber is a good material but cost . to buy a sheet the size to build most splitters is about 700 dollars and to make it your self your looking at a material cost of about 400 plus labor so in the end the cost of a sheet is about the same . it takes a hit good and you can repair it . weight is light so it's a plus too .

honeycomb sign board : durable it's not ! but cheap in cost at 100 dollars . most aluminum products are like that if you have an off at the track and it bends your splitter it's now worthless . but the cost of the product is good . and the weight is good .

aluminum sheeting : well that too is no diferent than the sign board with the same good and bad about it .

fiberglass : i have built so many splitters from that material it's not funny !
now the cost of the material is not to bad as it's about 175 dollars .
you can repair it when it gets damaged .
weight is ok but not the best .
to keep the weight down i have used many different cores to build them .
the 1/8" wood press board works the best as a core but the WEIGHT is the highest using it . the part with that core can take a big hit and you will have little to no damage .

i have also used balsa core that too is ok but the part is not as rigid untill you lay up more layers of fiberglass over it . that brings the weight up .

foam core lighter than the other two and still repairable when damaged . down side is no one in my area sells sheets in the size to build a splitter so it has to be truck shipped in brings the cost way up to truck ship .

plastic : i have used very thin sheets and lay fiberglass over the top to add strenght . i have also used it all by it's self in thicker sheets . the down side is cost as the 4'X8' sheets have to also be truck shipped to me .
the down side to plastic is it's not a ez product to repair when damaged .

now what i need is a light weight product large size sheets 4'X8' is best . low in cost as not to kill the customer .
durable . repairable . and ez to get with out have to have it truck shipped . it can be a product i can just cut and install or it could be a thin product i can mold fiberglass over .
any ideas ?

[dradernh]

now what i need is

a light weight product
large size sheets 4'X8'
low in cost
durable
repairable
ez to get
with out have to have it truck shipped
it can be a product i can just cut and install or it could be a thin product i can mold fiberglass over
any ideas ?

Tough to hit all of those bullet points, so I skipped light weight and went with MDO. If I were going for light weight, I'd skip low-in-cost and no truck shipping and go with something from Powerstream Industries (http://www.powerstreamindustries.com/aero-splitters.asp).

[Grippy]

what about fiberglass over the corrugated signboard? Will the fiberglass add enough strength?

I have had pretty gooduck with the solid plastic core sign material (econolite?) if you treat it as disposable.

[962porsche]

when a splitter is designed it has to be designed with many things in mind . ride hight of the car , frontal mass , shape of the nose and so on all tell you just who many square inches the spliter needs to be . so buying generic splitters from places is totaly out !

i found a 1/8" kevlar honeycomb core that is light and strong as hell at a good price 65 dollars for a 4'X8' sheet i may try that ?

[dradernh]

when a splitter is designed it has to be designed with many things in mind . ride hight of the car , frontal mass , shape of the nose and so on all tell you just who many square inches the spliter needs to be . so buying generic splitters from places is totaly out !

i found a 1/8" kevlar honeycomb core that is light and strong as hell at a good price 65 dollars for a 4'X8' sheet i may try that ?

Yup, all true, which is why PI is my choice for this kind of piece if you want someone else to cut to your specification; otherwise, just get the Tegris (or whatever) and shape it yourself. I'd be one of the last members to suggest a single off-the-shelf car part if a custom piece would be better. Which is why if I was going to continue and finish my splitter properly, it would have been with Tegris - cut by PI, or by us, to the same shape as the finished-and-working-well MDO piece. As it is, the MDO splitter works well, the weight is not an issue, and I'm going to be out of the car soon anyway.

Just curious, how do you radius the leading edge of a piece of 1/8" kevlar?

[Grippy]

The Kevlar sounds like it fits the bill, strong, light, and cheap, pick 3.

[962porsche]

you cut the kevlar with a cut off wheel .
clamp it between two sheets of wood the shape you need by doing that you don't pull the cloth and you can cut it .

i think because i have to build the spliter 1st than make the mold from that to make more splitters for the NC miatas . i will build this one out if the fiberglass and the kevlar core . so then we can just see what the true end cost of using kevlar is .
all the materials are in may area so there is no trucking shipping needed .
the cost is just a little more than it is per yard of a roll of fiber glass .

[nhsilversti]

i used stuff called plascore, it is about $300 (iirc) for a 4x8 sheet. it is shipped via truck freight so the more sheets you order the cheaper it is per sheet/shipping.

this stuff is all aluminum construction with a honeycomb center. think alumalite but without the plastic and is super light/strong. i do not know yet what an off is going to do to it. what i have is roughly .050 sheet on the top and bottom with a core of .250 honeycomb hole size and wall of .010, it is overall .250" thick. and idea of weight with all hardware used to mount it and bumper cover attached is 25# that also includes the weight of the naca ducts with more rivets than home depot normally stocks.

[962porsche]

i have used it before . the thing about any aluminum product is when you hit it it just bends then being a honeycomb you can't repair it .
i have many sheets of all type of materials from plastic sheeting to aluminum to honeycomb type sign board .
again it has to be truck shipped at adds to the cost to the end user (customer) .
i'm trying the kevlar now it has a very tght weav to it in the honeycomb so it does not like to just soak up resin very well so i'm not sure about the bonding of the top and bottom halfs of the splitter .
it could delam ? i should have used a vacuum forming bag on the splitter but again it adds to the end cost .

this is just the splitter i have to build to then make a mold of and then make the ones i will sell .
i may just let Gordon try it to see if and how it holds up under use .

[962porsche]

so tonight i was working on the splitter it was some were around 11pm i doing the work right out side of the over head door to the shop and i hear a noise behind me so i turn around and theres a coyote about 20 feet away then a minute later another one walks out from the weeds .
i 'm just standing there like what the hell they have no fear of me at all . i hear them all the time behind the shop and see them from time to time but never like that . this is a city it's not like were my house is in the woods .
we have a shit load of dear around here as there is no hunting in this area .