Replacing bumper driving lamps with air ducts

[stevespic]

After giving up really early on my main beam failure in the bumper drivers light i have decided to go a head with plan B which was an idea i was planning any how...Im going to remove the bumper driving lights and replace with a smaller lamp about half the size and also fit air ducts for the front brakes...I don't know if any of you guys have done this conversion before but i will ask the questions anyway! Where the best place to buy the parts ( lamps and air ducts) i would prefer to buy parts that fit straight in if there's any such thing, i know gpr do a good range of ducts but there not really close to the size i need. Any ideas would be help full.

 

[edh]

Try merlin motorsports for ducts & pipework

what car is this going on? - IIRC, Peter Empson said that the routing for ducts in a Lux style front end is difficult.

 

[zcacogp]

It's always struck me that front air ducts would be very easy to make with a vac-form machine, and some time spent making a suitable mould to form around. I did quite a lot of vac-forming as part of a DT qualification I did some time ago, and it is very easy.

If you could make some moulds (left and right handed), you could turn out those ducts very easily, and there may be a market for 'em ...


Oli.

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: zcacogp

......If you could make some moulds (left and right handed), you could turn out those ducts very easily.......

Quite. But it is making the moulds that is the issue. Considering the shape, fairly narrow but with a deep extension to get a good hose interface, I doubt ABS sheet would pull that far so GRP would perhaps be better - but you need moulds again. Because only the inside of the duct needs to be smooth GRP would work well.

Vac forming is ridiculously cheap (once you have the tooling) where as GRP is more labour intensive. In the case of the latter you would want a company that lays up a lot of GRP so they could do it along side another job.

While it seems like a good idea the likely market makes the mould cost prohibitive. You would probably be better off starting with a GRP race bumper (ie once that doesn't have light recesses) and cutting ducts/lights into the flat front.

 

[zcacogp]

Ahhh .... there speaks a man who knows much more than me ...

I did wonder about the depth issue, and using ABS. Having said that, I have had some pretty good results with this sort of thing before, and would be giving it a go myself ... and if it didn't work, you could use the same mould for the GRP instead.

(GRP is labour-intensive, but not at all difficult, and you could certainly do it at home with only a few materials. Certainly a viable option for short runs.)


Oli.

ETA: Moulds would need to be made, but a wood lathe would allow you to make an elegant cone, with some good curved sides, which could then be cut down to give the shape you need. Needn't take more than an hour or so.

This whole discussion assumes that you have a wood lathe and a vac-form machine, neither of which are found in most people's kitchens IYSWIM.

 

[sawood12]

Yes but you don't have to make it in one piece. You could vac form the front piece that fits in the bumper and transitions between the rectangular shape to a circular shape and use flexible ducting for the rest. You could make the transition in four or five inches which should be easily vac form-able. I've vac formed deep shapes before much deeper than that with a similar l/d ratio. However for a one off GRP is by far the easiest.

 

[edh]

surely something off here could be cut to fit?

http://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/AIR-DUCTING-Air-Intake-Ducts/c18_291/index.html

 

[TTM]

Mine are made by a company in the south of France, either in fiberglass or carbon fiber.

 

[stevespic]

Thanks for all of the above but i want ducts that will fit in with a smaller lamp so i can still use the fogs and side lights..Whats VAC ,GRP im just a mere mortal human that buys thing from shops ...Any how the ducts are going on to a 944 s2, JS you know the one...Dose any one know the dimensions of the lamps in the front bumper of a 944 without the s2 or turbo front bumper ?

 

[TTM]

The side light issue can be solved by fitting clear indicator glasses and drilling holes in indicator frames to fit bulbs.
Another possibility is to use US globes that feature indicator lights (they call it "driving" lights). I'm working on this one.
Of course in both cases the harness has to be slightly modified.

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: spic01

..... im just a mere mortal human that buys thing from shops

I think you may struggle there then as I don't believe such a thing exists. You could pay someone to do it for you but be prepared for a bill of £100's if not more.

The side light issue can be solved by fitting clear indicator glasses and drilling holes in indicator frames to fit bulbs.

That's what Fen did with the Land Glider. It looked very cool.

 

[zcacogp]

ORIGINAL: spic01

Thanks for all of the above but i want ducts that will fit in with a smaller lamp so i can still use the fogs and side lights..Whats VAC ,GRP im just a mere mortal human that buys thing from shops ...Any how the ducts are going on to a 944 s2, JS you know the one...Dose any one know the dimensions of the lamps in the front bumper of a 944 without the s2 or turbo front bumper ?

Spic,

Vac-forming is a manufacturing process which forms things out of sheets of plastic. The idea being that you make a mould of the shape you want, then lay a sheet of hot (soft) plastic over the mould, and apply a vacuum to the bottom of the sheet. This sucks the soft plastic down over the mould, forming the shape. When the plastic has cooled and hardened then you can take the mould out of the plastic and away you go. You can re-use the mould as many times as you like - thus making lots of the plastic shapes.

Blister-packaging is all made by vac-forming. And you could do something similar to make an air inlet duct, making a mould of the shape you want the duct to be, then vac-forming over the top. (Obviously you would use thicker plastic than is used for blister-packaging, but the principle is the same.)

GRP is Glass Reinforced Plastic - or fibreglass. If you have a mould of the shape you want to make you can use it to produce something in fibreglass. The principle is the same as above, but instead of using hot plastic and sucking it down over the mould, you build the final object up from layers of fibreglass matting and epoxy resin. It's slower, and more effort-intensive, but the end result is similar.


Oli.

 

[stevespic]

AH Ha now its all come clear,thanks...the vac process sounds good but i was looking to start job and finish within a day ... i went GPR in siverstone on thursday where they have a large selection of ducts in all sizes and they have the size i need(with a little trimming) so all i need to find now is a set of fog/driving lamps to fit the left over space in the hole which is 130mm x 100mm . once or should i say if i find them, i will fit the fog light bulb and then drill a small hole for the side light bulb...i think my task for saturday is to go round asda car park checking out fog light sizes [] .

 

[sawood12]

I'm sure i've seen what you're after on photo's but i've never seen them for sale anywhere. Just thinking but if you were going to make something up then wouldn't the bumper fog/spot light off a lux be the right size and proportions?

 

[stevespic]

I was thinking the same thing but Havant seen one to measure it yet unless some kind person on this forum could do it for me if they happen to own one...hint hint...I think i will be out looking for some small vw motors tomorrow to see what size they tend to use up front...

 

[944turboS]

Is this what your after

www.paragon-products.com/porsche_924_944_968_brake_kits_s/312.htm

 

[stevespic]

Thanks for the link,Just dropped them an email to see if they might sell a duct and light kit, i did think of checking them out but last time i looked at there site i was put off by the prices of there cooling kits...[:'(]

 

[John Sims]

That looks like a nice solution - assuming the vents are auxiliary light shaped not just a generic vent. I look forward to seeing the pictures of the vents fitted.

I was delighted to see they don't do back plates for Big Blacks or I might have wanted some. [&:]