jon928se

Has anybody who has fitted these experienced the issue I am having.

The front lower A arm bracket (The steel bracket that sits below the Aluminium saddle) has a definite taper it in narrow at the front and wider at the rear. When you bolt the straight alu spoiler protection plate to it the protection plate tries to straighten the steel oem bracket

Photos below

Bracket and plate with gap visible where bracket Tapers out


Installed and bolts snugged up

largecar379

Carl's product?

I would suggest checking with him?

--Russ

jon928se

10 minutes in the shop press and they now fit properly

This is what they ought to look like


and installed - much better

j.kenzie@sbcglobal.net

I had this happen. Carl told me that the spring tension of the bending plate acted like a lock washer and kept things tight, and besides simplifying fabrication it caused no other harm.

jon928se

I think the alu plate is stiffer than the relatively thin bracket on the frame rail to which this all attaches - installing the plates "straight" I could see the frame rail bracket bending.

Fabio421

I have them. They didn't fit well. My new spoiler that was installed at the same time as the plates is now split.

Yoakim Larson

Fabio
Maybe get Jon to reingineer them? This is not the only 928 ms product that I have heard of that has had fitment issues, my friends 928 had problems with the rear bushings for the anti roll bar, the engine mounts needed modifying too, vendors should sort their products before selling them to us.

jon928se

For anyone that wants to send them all the way to Australia I'll bend them to the correct shape for free - you pay postage both ways. It's such a simple quick and cheap thing to do I don't understand why it wasn't done when they were made.

Fabio421

Yoakim, Jon, Thanks guys, but I made them work. They needed a little trimming too.

BTW, as for my spoiler splitting. It is split right next to the plate, on the outboard side. To me it looks like the spoiler was scubbed at the corner. If you only bottomed out head on the plates would probably protect you nicely.

jon928se

I discovered something else last evening. Refitting the new 928Intl undertray (which fitted perfectly) I discovered that the rear bolt on the skid plate now obscures the front fitting for the undertray (the one that goes vertically upwards into the frame rail.

I solved the problem by swapping the skid plates to the outside which makes getting the nuts back on the bolts a b$tch. A proper solution would be to countersink the rear hole and provide countersunk bolts instead. So that the skid plate can be mounted onn the inside and the bolt not obscure the underttray fitting.

drnick

yoakim - i had problems getting the bushings to fit on the rear antiroll bar i got from carl, however the bar was so nice in every other respect that i didnt worry about it.

fraggle

The rear bushings are a PITA no matter what you do, from what I've seen. Wacky design.

Carl Fausett

I'm sorry I did not see this thread sooner.

I have those very protection plates on cars with and without engine belly pans (including my own) and they have not interfered with the mounting of the engine belly pan. That one I don't understand.

However, I do understand they do not conform to the taper of the OEM unit. That is not accidental, as we decided bending them would weeken them and add to their cost. They are better straight, we decided. Perhaps, if what you are concerned about is the steel OEM part bending to form to the new aluminum part, what I should supply is a spacer that goes between the two? This way the alluminumplate could remain straight and the steel piece remain unbent also.

At least the customer would know that it was not an oversight, it was designed that way.

Or, I could look into forming them to the angle like Jon did, and see what that would do to the price.

Your thoughts?

jon928se

Carl,

I should probably apologise for airing my frustrations at the time publicly. Work pressures, father ill - it all gets to you.

I can't imagine introducing the bend would cost a huge amount - It took me about 10 minutes for the pair and I used a shop press and piece of 2" steel angle to form the straight line bend and did it incrementally until it fitted. A fab shop with a press brake would set it up once and do one in seconds although I appreciate this may mean a different shop to the one that does the cutting.

Re the undertray - Did you check on a 928 or S or S2 versus an S4+. Not having a pre S4 I am speculating that earlier cars undertray doesn't have the vertical tabs with a horizontal bend at the top that attach with a hex head, self tapper, vertically upwards into the frame rail that S4+ has. By introducing the skid plate on the inside of the original mount the rear bolt head is moved inwards enough to make it impossible to get the self tapper screwed in.

This can be resolved by mounting the skid plate on the outside so the bolt head is where it normally is, but this makes the nut a b£$%*h to get on.

The solution would be to countersink the rear hole in the skid plate, provide a countersunk bolt which would then allow the plates to be mounted on the inside without obscuring the undertray mount.

I must admit that the undertray mount issue would never have become apparent to me had I not been fitting a new undertray. Most S4 undertrays I have seen have lost the front vertical mounting tabs probably early in life.

dr bob

Carl--

I fab'd an aluminum piece that duplicates the profile of the original undertray "arms" that attach to the frame rails. Like many others, my undertray arms were failing, and the tray was just hanging from the nose piece and the little spring-steel straps from the lower radiator support. I used 1.5" wide Al from Home Depot for convenience, but 1" would do the trick I suspect. Holes for the tray have threaded inserts for machine screws instead of the sheet-metal tinnerman-style speed nuts, in five positions.

I'm not in the manufacturing biz, but you are. It's a handy piece that will help folks get some extra life out of their original trays. Plus, it holds the tray up a bit so that there is less chance of bottoming the tray. Fringe benefit is that you can use it with your protectors as they are, since it stays in place when the tray is dropped.

I can probably get pic's for you when I'm at home for more than a few days.