OriginalSterm

A co-worker informed me this morning that my underpan was hanging on the ground. I went out and checked it, sure enough, the back of it is laying on the ground. Is it safe to drive to a friend house to climb underneath and check out the damage? What should I do?!?!?!?

Perry 951

I drilled 3 holes in mine, added some bolts with lock nuts, and attached it to the pan above it. The rivited brackes the factory used fall apart over time.

Unless you want to grind it all up, I would not drive around like that. Or, grab a coat hanger and strap it up in there until you get it to a place to work on.

OriginalSterm

I'm afraid it's probably ground up pretty good now. I only have to drive it another 2 miles to work on it. But I'm gonna take it easy and save it as much as I can now. Thanks

OriginalSterm

How awful would it be to remove that pan all together, not for good, just until I can fix it properly?

Perry 951

You can drive without it. There are a mess of phillips head screws holding it in place along the front lip.

I bet 50% of them will strip out.. so I would only take it off if you have to.

dave120

There are lots of people that run without them. It generally protects the bottom half of the engine from stuff flying up and improves aerodynamics under the car, so you may not wanna do 150 without it, but otherwise it should be fine without it for a while...

OriginalSterm

Thanks guys. If I were to get a front splitter from AIR or GT-Racing, would they have any relation to the underpan? ie. would the splitter replace the undertray?

Perry 951

Yes it does.

OriginalSterm

So I could follow many people's lead and say...
'When it breaks, upgrade!'

LP

I like the way you think .

LP 86'951
on the bus.... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

IceShark

Wait, which belly pan did you have let loose? There are 3 down there and I bet you lost the plastic center one if it is draging on ground (otherwise you really kissed a curb hard to break the front one loose). Splitter won't replace that middle one as it runs all the way back to the engine.

Running without that can cause a pile of crud in the engine bay besides the other issues, so fix it now rather than next winter. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

OriginalSterm

Yeah, I climbed under there after work. It's the center plastic one. 3 bolts and some tie wraps were holding it up. The tie wraps gave way finally. Took it off for now, going to put it back this weekend.

Still may get the splitter though...