VegasJen

so last month at buttonwillow i got air over 'magic mountain' and folded my air dam under the car. the drive back ground a nice big hole in the thing. i want to fix it this winter but i'm not sure what it's made of. it doesn't look like fiberglass, more like just some kind of plastic (rubbermaid?). so is there some way to patch this thing? i don't want to buy a whole new one because i never know when i might end up doing that again. i'm not even really concerned with how it looks, i'm just going to shoot some krylon over it when i'm done anyway. (i can hear some of you gasp from here!)

Enad

Ouch!
Mine had some pretty large cracks in it. I used epoxy
fiberglass. It has held up for a about a year now. I
cleaned and then roughed up the mating surface pretty
well before applying the glass/mat. You can mix color
in the glass if you want it black.

Vettesic

When I was in the process of bodywork stage, my lower damper was also screwed-up. I thought it might have been aftermarket. Mine was also the rubbermaid like material you speak of. I guess GM made them that way incase of the front of shark bottoming out. In your case you just ground it away. I replace mine with a used part. If you don't want to go that route, try the stuff used to repair the urethene bumpers. It may work. Good Luck. L8TER, Paul.

PB82CE

Hey Vettesic, is that Merrick road I see??

Vettesic

You know it. Corner of Merrick and Forrest Ave. Massepequa to be exact.


[Modified by Vettesic, 1:33 PM 12/15/2002]

PB82CE

Yep, me ol' stompin grounds (as they say)
Thought it looked familiar...
Are those State Troopers still around on the SS PKWY with the SS CAMARO
and the one on 135 with the Vette??
Sneaky little critters they are...
:yesnod:

Vettesic

Yea..Still see the Trooper Camaro on the SS pkwy. Never saw a NYS Trooper Vette on 135 or anywhere. Sounds cool though.

Stevo81

You could grind another hole on the other side and call it "computer designed aerodynamic alteration"... sell it on e-bay...

VegasJen

:lol: stevo, :rolleyes:
i think i'll try the eurothane patch stuff. i have another question though. do any of you guys with the cherry cars (vettesic) have a digital camera that can take a picture of the way the bracket is supposed to look? i broke mine a while back and i've broken the bracket i fabricated to replace that. now i'd like to fix it kinda, sorta right. :smash:

paintdaddy

That is made of the same stuff as your bumper .They sell repair kits at your local paint store.Its a two part epoxy. :seeya :yesnod:

BSeery

OUCH!!

Vettesic

Clutchdust....I'm not sure what bracket you are referring to? Do you mean the brackets that secures your damaged lower air damper? If so there is one on either side made of, again a pliable material. Mine were completely gone. Did the used parts ting to get them and are a bitch to get on. I'll see what I can dig up. Not sure if a pic on the car would help but let me see if I can crawl under Vette....Again. Like we never did that before! PS...Thanks for the cherry compliment. (Always the highest form of compliment comming from another fellow Vette owner). L8TER, Paul.

VegasJen

paul, actually i was talking about the bracket in the very center behind the license plate holder. you know, the one you (all of us) run up on those damn parking lot stop block thingies. mine is mutilated and i'd like to know what they're supposed to look like.

Vettesic

Here's a Pic from the 80 assembly manual. To change the bracket I think you are talking about would mean to remove front bumper, honey combed impactor, ect. A real pain in the A**. Let me know if that's it.



[Modified by Vettesic, 10:29 AM 12/16/2002]

UKPaul

Can't help you out with the bracket as mine is also mutilated. The air dam thing on mine had a huge hole in it so, rather than messing about trying to patch it up, I bought one made in fibreglass & got it painted. Result is excellent - with only the bolts at the rear & side it's rigid & has survived a summer without the front bracket being attached to it. Another bonus is that the spoilers bolt to it nice & solid & the whole lot doesn't bounce about. The price of it was a fraction of what the polyurethane (or whatever it is) one would have cost me.
:cheers:

classicguy

I took mying off it was so battered from the car being lowered that fixing it seemed a little usless. I do plan to replace it one day I dont know if i should go with polly or fiberglass. I have driven the car in and sat in traffic with out any overheating problem that i was informed that would happen. :smash:

UKPaul

I read that the 80 - 82 front ends flowed 50% more air through the rad when moving due to the air dam. After also reading that C3's were renowned for overheating I kept a close watch on my temp gauge & even with a badly clogged radiator & a useless air dam that was split & had a hole in it, the temp never got above 220 deg (180 stat). Now I've got the rad re-cored & a new air dam the temp hasn't got above 190 deg. I don't have any of the seals around the rad frame to stop air passing around the rad instead of through it & the hottest weather it's been driven in was the low 90's. Earlier C3 owners here have mentioned running hot, but mine never has any problems. Maybe there's more to the re-designed front end than the air dam that keeps it cool?
The only downside I can think of with a fibreglass dam is that a large object will probably smash it to pieces, but looking at the state of my poly one, they can break as well.
:cheers: