So I had a run-in with a peice of large road debris on the highway and ripped the corner of my oil pan. Engine was fine, but after the tow and three weeks to collect parts and replace the pan I never wanted to do that again. So I had some steel laying around and decided to fab up a skid plate.
Original plan was to use round tube crossbar tying into the frame rails:
Unfortunatly I was out of round tube and only had square, but I figured I'd go ahead and try to hot bend to the radius I wanted:
I didn't work and buckled as I expected:
No worries, just had to miter it. Not as pretty but still very effective:
Cut flanges from 1/4" plate, two to weld to the frame, two to weld to the cross bar:
Flanges welded and crossbar testfitted:
I decided to add another set of gussets to the frame to help absorb impact loads, so another set of flanges made. This shows how I made them up, welded nuts to the backside, then notched the frame to make the plate fit flush, then weld up.
OK, now on the plate itself, 1/8" thick steel, rough cut to shape:
Welded main crossbar to plate:
To hold the back of the plate I welded two nuts into holes in the subframe:
Gusset bars welded to main bar, and holes being drilled for air slots:
All slots cut, and a quick sand and rattle can prime:
All bolted up:
Could be the strongest e30 skidplate ever!
Still two things to do, 1. paint (color suggestions?) 2. The bolts at teh back stick down a bit more than I like, so I'm going to get some carriage bolts, slot the heads and use a flathead to tighten, the rounded heads shouldn't get caught on anything and will have a lower profile.
Original plan was to use round tube crossbar tying into the frame rails:
Unfortunatly I was out of round tube and only had square, but I figured I'd go ahead and try to hot bend to the radius I wanted:
I didn't work and buckled as I expected:
No worries, just had to miter it. Not as pretty but still very effective:
Cut flanges from 1/4" plate, two to weld to the frame, two to weld to the cross bar:
Flanges welded and crossbar testfitted:
I decided to add another set of gussets to the frame to help absorb impact loads, so another set of flanges made. This shows how I made them up, welded nuts to the backside, then notched the frame to make the plate fit flush, then weld up.
OK, now on the plate itself, 1/8" thick steel, rough cut to shape:
Welded main crossbar to plate:
To hold the back of the plate I welded two nuts into holes in the subframe:
Gusset bars welded to main bar, and holes being drilled for air slots:
All slots cut, and a quick sand and rattle can prime:
All bolted up:
Could be the strongest e30 skidplate ever!
Still two things to do, 1. paint (color suggestions?) 2. The bolts at teh back stick down a bit more than I like, so I'm going to get some carriage bolts, slot the heads and use a flathead to tighten, the rounded heads shouldn't get caught on anything and will have a lower profile.
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