Hi there all-

I hope everyone finds themselves healthy and sane.

I have been repairing certain bits of the chin spoiler while I finish off the work I've been doing on the PS pump and alternator and I have some questions.

Background: My car did not come with either of the belly pans so there are things that will not be attached for a while. That said, I've been trying to refurbish some of the original holes and fastener locations to get things back to the stock location. The PO had drilled/threaded some of the chin spoiler screws directly into the plastic. Not a huge issue to me, I'm just trying to rebuild things to quasi-original.

Now on to the questions:

1) There are these bars/brackets hanging down that are not attached to the chin spoiler. In the PET for my MY, they are not listed. I found a site (https://nemigaparts.com/cat_spares/p...928/16/802100/) that calls them out as retaining bars on the 92-95 MYs. Here's a picture of the situation in my car (I'm talking about the long L shaped bracket that hangs down behind the shiny bit in the picture and is not in focus):


That's a lot of open space there

There's a hole in the bodywork there but, given the space between the bumper and the bracket, I don't know that it's supposed to be attached. It doesn't look like it's been attached for a long time. What is the issue here, if any, and what do I need to be looking at to fix it, if necessary?

2) On my chin spoiler, I only have 2 of the 3 spoiler supports. Again, looking at PET, there's not anything called out for the '90, only the '89 (I think I'm reading that correctly). The '92-'95 PET has that part called out. Not a big deal, I've run into mistakes with PET before. However, the drawings are generally pretty true to life. Instead of what is shown in PET, I have this:


Say what now?

So even if I order a new support (which is way more expensive than I would have thought), I don't know that I'll get something that looks similar to what I have attached, and I don't really want to shell out close to $100 for a new set of 3. Can I get some guidance on whether or not these are what the supports are supposed to look like? If so, and I contact a vendor with the part number in PET, will I get one of these, or something else?

As always, any help and insight would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

 

We have them for much less http://shop.928intl.com/searchprods.asp

 

Sweet, I'll be contacting you about it. Are mine super weird, or is PET just not totally accurate in this case?

 

It gets attached through the hole in the cover via a trim screw through the 'corner' of the air dam:

 

Those supports along the trailing edge of the air dam are - supposed to be - riveted to the oil cooler.

 

Thanks Dave.

A couple of follow up questions:

On the bracket, do I just muscle up the bumper to close that gap to the bracket, once I get the chin spoiler back on? I need to take a look at what's going on with the top part of the bracket, too, so maybe that will clear things up a bit for why the gap is so big. I don't want to force things, so hopefully it will become clear with more inspection.

For the oil cooler, can I just re-rivet them myself? What should I be careful of? Any chance those oil cooler supports are available separately? (ETA: Never mind with that nonsense I wrote right before this. I just went out to look at the situation and there's no way I'm messing around with what's left of the rivets on the oil cooler. It looks like they rusted/oxidized through at some point and I won't be fixing that. That riveting looks like it was done prior to that bottom plate being welded to the radiator so I'm going to leave well enough alone for now, and ponder what else I might do for support in that area. Ideas are always welcome.) And if I read that correctly, it looks like I am missing all three of the chin spoiler supports. That's fun.

Many thanks for the info.

Cheers

 

First, I see a lot of these 'loose' brackets on '87+. However, *never* have I seen them loose on a 928 where I am confident that the air damn is untouched from the factory. In most 'loose' cases there's other evidence that the air dam has been 'off.' I have assumed that body shops, radar detector installers, etc. were just not interested in re-fastening them (and you'll find out why if you try.) On the other hand I have also seen '87+ air dams without the 'auxiliary' screw in the corners of the air dam. It's a bit of a mystery not unlike the painted-over Philips screw at the bottom of the rain gutter of the fender were it meets the bumper cover. (Some 928s have one on the left, or one on the right, or both right and left.)

So....

If the corners of the air damn fit up tight against the bottom of the bumper cover you can - I think - safely ignore the loose hangers. However, if the corners don't fit tight and you want them to fit tight then you can put a screw through the corner of the air dam (if one isn't already there) and fasten it to the speed nut on the bottom of the hanger.

What I have done is to get a 4.8mm Black Zinc Trim screw 25mm or 30mm (I forget which) in length and a 4.8mm Escutcheon washer to fasten the bracket. I only tighten the screw enough to make the corner flush and not so tight as to 'dimple' the air dam.

The 4.8mm Escutcheon washers are also the right size to use in the molded fastener wells of the air damn where the OE pan head screws have been 'pulled through' due to mechanical damage.

From the looks of your picture, for the other fastening points, the OE 4.8mm course thread speed nuts and self-tapping pan head screws have been replaced with machine thread speed nuts and (presumably) machine threaded fasteners.


Right. I have no advice for you. I've never had a situation where I had both an oil cooler and the (separated) brackets. In all previous cases the brackets were long gone. Since the oil cooler is - AFAIK - aluminum, attempting to spot weld the brackets back onto the cooler is risky - based upon the little I know about welding aluminum.

I have no idea if a metal epoxy like JB Weld or PC-7 (etc) would be strong enough to do any good.

 

Dave-

Thanks for the great, great reply. I'll take a close look at how things fit once I get the chin spoiler back on. There are some repairs I'm making to it, similar to what you can see in the pictures above, where I am using stainless steel strips to build back attachment points for the speed nuts. The new threaded fasteners are my work; I moved to the machine screws since I couldn't find the tapping screws in stainless and I'd like the repair and new parts to be a one and done thing. If I come to regret it, it's an easy thing to change back to what was originally intended to be there.

I started thinking about JB Weld on the way into work today as a path to refasten the radiator brackets. I've never really done any serious welding and everything I read says that aluminum is not the best place to start that journey so I'll give the epoxy a try. Worst case, I end up exactly where I am today. I'll wire brush and clean the surfaces as well as I can and then we'll see.

Many thanks again; stay healthy.

Cheers

 

I spent some more time with the hangers to try and be ready for the possibilities that Dave laid out, above.

I hadn't spent much time staring at PET for the hangers so when I started poking around, I discovered that the top hole in the hanger is oblong, to allow for vertical adjustability. I mean, of course it is, makes total sense, and I feel like a bit of a dummy for not looking more carefully at the documentation. Anyway, I loosened the top bolt (10mm, for those playing at home), dropped the hanger to meet the bumper cover, tightened things up back on the top of the hanger and Bob's your uncle. Both sides are ready once my other repairs to the chin spoiler clamps are done. Waiting on some new hardware and marine epoxy for the oil cooler brackets, and then we'll see how that goes.

Cheers

 

Here's some more fun, after spending some time up close and personal with my chin spoiler, building back the attachment points.

On the bumper cover, as shown above, you can count 5 attachment points:


4 screws, one hole

In the bottom left of the picture, you can see 2 screws in close proximity. The one with the larger washer connects to the bracket hanger.

On my chin spoiler, I have this:


4 holes

Up in the top left, I'd expect to see another hole in the chin spoiler, for adjustment and connection to the bracket hanger. What am I not understanding?

Thanks for any help

 

i dont have that hole circled in blue on my old spoiler...nor the new one i got from Roghaaaa...

 

 

That's part of the mystery. Why do some have those 'auxiliary' fasteners and some not? I expected new air dams to be without those holes. From what I can see - based upon the distribution of locations - they were hand made.

Do you have 'loose' hangers? Any reason to suspect your air dam isn't original?

Hence my advice: if the corner fits flush don't worry about it. If the corner doesn't sit flush and it bothers you then put in the extra screw(s) through to the hanger and adjust until you're satisfied.

 

See above. My *belief* is that those screws to the hangers were put in 'by hand.' (Like the screws for the front fenders - an 'adjustment' made by the factory when stuff didn't fit.)

 

from another recent thread....