When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Just a follow-up: some have expressed that they cannot get their protection plates to point straight ahead. I took another look at it for you to see which is the best side of the factory tie-down to use to get them to point straight, and found that when installed the way I show below they line up nicely. Hope this helps.
The ideal (or maybe just my idea of ideal) bracket would have a horizontal ski section added under the vertical, offering about the same height as the factory bracket, but extending far enough to the rear to protect past the junction between front belly pan and the engine tray. In that same ideal world, I'd attach a sacrificial and replaceable plastic or metal shoe.
My car sits at the bottom end of what many have defined as the allowable height range -- 173mm with half-worn tires. The protection I'm looking for is against the parking bumper or curb that I misjudge while parking, where I end up sacrificing a little black plastic. Driveway aprons are not usually a problem at this height, although a few in SoCal (my own) with deeper drainage at the bottom could rub if I drove it straight in.
My own concern then stretches to the parking bumper that I rub on and then drop over when the plastic spoiler goes past. Greg taught me a lesson on that one day when visiting his old shop, where a "special" bumper was a little further out than the others. I thought I was far enough back, but he saved me a bit of damage before I backed up and pulled some of the pieces off the car. Hence the desire for protection further back towards the tire.
Maybe I need to get a couple used brackets and mount some little skis on them. The skis would need to be strong enough to carry the nose higher and further than the brackets alone do now.
I faced this issue when I first fitted my plates. I experimented with the fitting and in the end concluded that they were best fitted inboard of the stock bracket. The rationale that drove my thinking was that it seemed that only in such position did the heel of the plates contact the stock bracket. I figured this was important as it restrains the overturning moment that would be induced by hard contact and if there is a gap between the plate and the bracket it would place a high shear load on the rear most bolt as the plate would try to pivot around the front bolt if there is no restraint at the rear. Looking at the photo you submitted for the driver's side, one can see what appears to be about half an inch of daylight- this [I suspect] is not good. Whether or not that gap would disappear if fitted inboard I have no idea and needless to say one cannot even see what the situation is on the passenger side.
I do take the comments constructively. No problem. Each time I have fitted a set of these to a 928, I have held them up to the stock tie-down bracket and tried to find the best one of the two sides to bolt them up to. And it isn't always the same! Sometimes the correct side to put the protection plate on is the inside of the stock bracket, and sometimes its the outside. It's very strange. But it is easy to see which side is the "right one" as the other side is so bad it makes no sense at all.
I do take the comments constructively. No problem. Each time I have fitted a set of these to a 928, I have held them up to the stock tie-down bracket and tried to find the best one of the two sides to bolt them up to. And it isn't always the same! Sometimes the correct side to put the protection plate on is the inside of the stock bracket, and sometimes its the outside. It's very strange. But it is easy to see which side is the "right one" as the other side is so bad it makes no sense at all.
Exactly what I found! Mine have had their money's worth and then some and nothing has broken to date. I run a bit on the low side but have stronger springs/dampers.
I installed a set on the Euro 89, it's lowered and the plates have already paid for themselves. The install was easy, less than 30 mins for both. I mounted both on the inside and had no issues.
Got a pair of PP's from 928MS when I first got my '83,,,The problem where I live isn't just driveway ramp angles, The 'Potholes' in Phila. can SWALLOW an SUV whole!!! I was driving around over there and dropped my front wheels in a "TRENCH' cut in the street to fix a buried pipe. It was only about 2 feet wide but deep enough that the car dropped full force on the plates. BANG!! I had NO DAMAGE, except to the plates themselves... Well worth the money...
I've got the 928MS ones on my S3 and like the lower hanging design. I can't get into my driveway without the front spoiler scraping etc. Not any more. Now I just have go out and silicone up the gouges in the end of the driveway every so often. Better than a broken spoiler.
10-26-2018, 12:13 PM
