The front spoiler on my 86 has been droopy since the day I picked it up and has only gotten worse. Only the PS tab was still attached to the grill and the droop at the center finally got to the point that I could see the bottom edge of the rad above the top edge of the spoiler. :sigh:
Well, today it finally bugged me enough that I set out to do something about it. It was very warped from drooping, so I laid it out in the sun to warm it up and then massaged it gently back into shape. OK... I stood on the d*mn thing till it was in a somewhat better shape for remounting.
Next I grabbed a 4 foot piece of aluminum l-channel used for installing drop ceilings. I held it firmly to the spoiler and drilled a hole through the l-channel at the location of each original mounting hole. Then fastened the original screws through the l-channel into their mounting hole.
You can see it was too long, so I just used a tin snip to trim the l-channel at each end to the length of the top edge of the spoiler .
I figured this might give just enough rigidity to hold the top edge straight. I was almost right. It is sagging about one half inch below the base of the bottom grill slat. I pushed it up and it seems I could zip tie the l-channel to the bottom grill slat, but I figure that would just result in a broken bottom grill slat. And since you have to lay on the ground to see this 1/2" gap, who is going to notice really?
I took it out for a long cruise down I-70 and the air pressure did not bend it, so hopefully that little l-channel will keep it from drooping for a while. It isn't perfect, but it is sooo much better that I am calling it a success.:woot:
Well, today it finally bugged me enough that I set out to do something about it. It was very warped from drooping, so I laid it out in the sun to warm it up and then massaged it gently back into shape. OK... I stood on the d*mn thing till it was in a somewhat better shape for remounting.
Next I grabbed a 4 foot piece of aluminum l-channel used for installing drop ceilings. I held it firmly to the spoiler and drilled a hole through the l-channel at the location of each original mounting hole. Then fastened the original screws through the l-channel into their mounting hole.
You can see it was too long, so I just used a tin snip to trim the l-channel at each end to the length of the top edge of the spoiler .
I figured this might give just enough rigidity to hold the top edge straight. I was almost right. It is sagging about one half inch below the base of the bottom grill slat. I pushed it up and it seems I could zip tie the l-channel to the bottom grill slat, but I figure that would just result in a broken bottom grill slat. And since you have to lay on the ground to see this 1/2" gap, who is going to notice really?
I took it out for a long cruise down I-70 and the air pressure did not bend it, so hopefully that little l-channel will keep it from drooping for a while. It isn't perfect, but it is sooo much better that I am calling it a success.:woot:
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