Carrera GT

As a rule of thumb, the objective of installing the low hung aero bits is to have them as the "sacrificial" or expendable participant in any minor scuffle. By securing a chin splitter too strongly, it becomes the five cent fuse that is protected by the fifty thousand dollar electronic device ... better to lose a dozen splitters than crack the front bumper cover.

In short, by all means, install a different OEM splitter, just secure it with weak links, not bridge girder rivets.

Mikelly

I think a LOT is being made out of these rubber nuts. Guys, with the kind of sheer force we're talking with an off, you're going to have fiberglass failure and then the rubber rip off or the nuts will pull out. I would be seriously surprised with any damage to the front bumper cover beyond the mounting holes, which get stretched out over time with splitters getting ripped off the cars anyway... I have first hand experience destroying bumper covers, and know how durable they are and aren't.

Mike

Rovman

Bridge Girder Rivets!!!!! Ha ha ha

Thanks for posting the DIY Mike. Much appreciated. Like yours, my holes for the splitter mounts are all wallowed out as well. These rubber mounted nuts (bridge girder rivets) will work just fine for mounting my new splitters.

IanM

Thanks for the idea, Mike. My stock splitter fasteners were totally useless, the holes in my bumper cover had been stretched out, likely due to a previous owner having the splitter torn off. I ended up using 3/8" (hole diameter) well nut inserts (10-32 screw thread), with double-sided tape between each nut. After install I ran a strip of black electrical tape along the leading edge between the splitter and the bumper cover. Looks great and should hold well.

Nice bonus is that using these well nut fasteners makes installing the splitter much simpler, as it's easier to line up the holes with the inserts pre-installed loose into the splitter.

As per previous posts, the fiberglass splitter should tear itself to shreds before the bumper cover itself would be damaged if you hit a curb or have a track "off". I don't think the well nut inserts will endanger the bumper cover.

Mikelly

Looks a lot like how I did mine. Well done man! I agree with your assessment of the result post "incident". The rubber will rear and give way long before the bumper cover gets damaged.

Mike

88 Club Sport

This is on my list to do......once it gets warmer than the current 40 degrees in the dang garage! Like many of you, my stock holes are sloppy at best and just do not hold the lip on.

Mikelly

Been about a month and approximately 500 miles since I did this mod. So far so good. I whacked a large Oposum with zero impact on the splitter the other evening at well over 60MPH. The only noticable wear is from the occassional scraping on pavement entering lots or driveways at odd angles. You can see white specs at the lower edge where the gelcoat was ground off. I'll be doing "touchup" come spring.

Otherwise this thing is mounted well and doesn't seem to have loosened up one bit. Oh and I didn't "tear the bumper off" or damage it in the least. Guess the "bridge gerters" are doing their job without damaging the stock bits.
Mike

fbirch

Very nice to know; thanks for the update and DIY. Are you running a stock wing? Do you think an RS wing is necessary to balance out the extra down force on the front?

I saw this splitter on Stephen's (Rovman) car, and it looked perfect on his car - about as aggressive-looking as the stock splitter on a 997RS. Steve's car also has an RS wing, and two aero bits looked as if they came as part of a matched set from Porsche.

kk2

I would coat the entire thing with plasti-dip.

Would make touch-ups incredibly easy.

Mikelly

I'm running a stock wing with 8 degree shims. I actually think it was a little more stable for everyday driving with the 4 degree shims. My car really does need a scale session and an aggressive alignment. Otherwise I think it works well with the OEM stock wing.

Mike

Mikelly

Scratch that... I played around with some tire pressures and the car is handling MUCH better...

Go figure.
Mike

fbirch

Thanks Mike. So if the new splitter works best with 8-degree shims on the stock wing, then I suppose an RS wing would make a better pairing with it (ie, better balance with less angle on the rear wing).

PointBy

Mikelly - Great idea on the expansion nuts. However, can you check those rubber bushing sizes? I think you may have them posted wrong.

"These are 10X32 pitch inserts and are about 5/16th in diameter."

5/16 = .3125" or about 8mm. The 10x32 pitch inserts are more like 3/8" or 10mm. I picked up both, and the next smaller size is 5/16" and they fit into the OE holes without drilling out the bumper. I installed one and it appears like it's going to work perfectly. I'm going to pick up 14 more and try them out to reinstall my cup splitter this weekend.

Mikelly

I"ll check, but mine definitely required drilling the holes out. I bought all they had in stock and they were in the 5/16th box, but again, I have one or two left so I can check the diameter.

Mike

IanM

I used 3/8" inserts which incorporate 10-32 pitch threads. I initially bought 5/16" as per Mike's post (which I believe had 8-32 pitch threads) but they were too small a diameter for the enlarged holes in my bumper.