Just a heads up, I got a buddys splitter from him while he's out of town, gonna make a mold and make my own then wrap with carbon fiber for looks. Will be putting info up and pictures and all while I do this for your viewing pleasure. If anyone wants one I can make it happen for a nominal fee of course! I will have to figure out costs and all associated with it. Just figured I would let everyone know so if they are intrested they can check in from time to time.
I might be interested. I have an mtech e36 sitting in my garage that I haven't driven in a year or two...maybe it will give me a reason to take 'er out...
Well it may take me a little bit, mold making is not my specialty so I have to relay on videos online to get schooled. I will post up with updates and plenty of pictures as I work through this thing. It is going to be a replica of the lightweight splitter. It appears they used a mixture of fiberglass, glass fibers, and body filler. It weighs quite a bit for being for the light weight car, but go figure. I was planning to cover this thing in carbon fiber, there are also alot of variety of carbon and kevlar mixes that may look cool. Any one intrested search around for fabrics and let me know what you would like on yours so I can try and base buying material off that.
^ easiest way to make a mold....
wrap the original part in aluminum foil lay down a coat of resin, put some fiberglass matting on it, more resin, more fiberglass, continue for a total of about 4 times.
when making the final piece wrap the mold in aluminum foil then do the same process. the aluminum foil acts as a barrierand non stick surface between the 2 parts. its alot easier then having to paint it then do the fiberglass mold and then throwing the part on the floor so they seperate lol
^
good idea, don't wanna coat my buddys splitter in fiberglass resin incase it seeps through the seams of the aluminum foil. That certainly is an easy way of doing it and I would need to build up atleast an inch of fiberglass mat and resin to match the thickness of the factory splitter. I was going to try to make a mold I could pour the material into and then take it out as 1 piece but that sounds like I would be over engineering the hell out of the thing. I'm gonna give thought to what you said and see what I can do with it.
Thanks for the input!
no problem!
lol im in the process of making fiberglass door panels that are carbon fiber wrapped for my car. i did the aluminum foil thing and theres no resin on the panels. but if you want to be safe wrap it vertically first then horizontally.
Got the mold made last night, still have to break the original out of the mold and make it pretty but figured I would let everyone know it's underway. Just for the record and mainly so I can rember the stock splitter weighs 10lbs with out brackets or hardware. I'm shooting to make this thing lighter and have picked up some fiber glass with a foam core that is 1/4'' thick, the splitter measures to about 1/2'' thick so I think I can get away with 2 layers of this material and then wrap it in carbon fiber or the carbon kevlar mix and have a great looking piece with less weight. I will get some pictures up here later today with the progress so far.
I will get some pics together so you all can actually see the progress...
I have my new LTW splitter out of the mold and trimmed and ready for some finishing work to prep it fo rthe carbon fiber wrap. Came out surprisingly good. When I get the pics on here I will also post the weight but contrary to previous post of trying to go lighter, it dosen't seem like thats gonna happen. Anyway I will get the pics up tonight as I play with finishing off the front edge so it's nice and pretty.
You can send that prototype to me for the DD thanks!
I think I'm gonna hang onto this one but I have the material to make a few more if you really would like one. The main things I have to do is finish the splitter itself so it pretty, then make brackets....BMW wants around 600 for the hardware I think I can make my own for about 150, plus I like a good challenge. Once I get around to finishing it I will have picks and build costs and all the other goodies along with it. but don't hold your breath....
I think I'm gonna hang onto this one but I have the material to make a few more if you really would like one. The main things I have to do is finish the splitter itself so it pretty, then make brackets....BMW wants around 600 for the hardware I think I can make my own for about 150, plus I like a good challenge. Once I get around to finishing it I will have picks and build costs and all the other goodies along with it. but don't hold your breath....
OMG I was blue in the face until I got to your last sentence!! Well let me know how it goes, I bet I could source or make my own hard wear too if someone was to send me a splitter already.
I'll get the pictures up and I have a note that has all the measure ments... didn't take an angle measure ment for the bends but I was gonna do the eye ball method when I made them but maybe you could figure it out.... I'll get the pics up sooner than later