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Skid Plates


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So Ill be making a custom skid plate out of aluminum shortly and was curious if any of you guys that lower your cars would want to buy one? I would try to keep the price very cheap and make it either 2 piece or 1 piece. I plan for it to go from very front of car to around the trans mount maybe a bit further depending on bolt locations. Im just gauging interest to see if I should be making a template. It would be made from T6 aluminum at 3/16th, prices would be around 200ish but that is just a guess based on cost of the metal. Again this is just seeing if I should make a template so gauging interest.

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i would. i was wondering about fabbing up one for my 610. But that might take sometime.

But since you brought it up........are you only fabbing up a 510 skid plate?

 

will it have hole access to d oil plug like d diagrams below?

Classyskid1.jpg

7602646034_363b4c06c2_z.jpg

 

my suggestion is to make it into 2-piece as shipping a large 1piece would be pricey

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I might be interested. I was actually just talking to someone about a skid plate today. Ive been thinking about building one for some time now. My plan was to use the mounting holes for the radiator splash shield. It would then be able to use OEM mounting holes so you wouldnt have to drill your own. 

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Tristin.

 

If you use the OEM mounting holes for the skid plate, a word of caution.

 

Dependent on the angle of the front of the plate, a reasonable hit will bend the bottom of the rail and possibly break the nuts inside the rail.

 

The captive nuts inside the rail are only spot welded in and tend to let go fairly easily.

 

The best way to do this, although it negates using the OEM nuts is to drill a full length hole through the rail and weld in a tubular sleeve.

 

Then you can use a longer bolt allowing for more horizontal mounting strength.

 

The same can be said for using the OEM holes on the cross member although they are a bit more resilient. Further, if you mount the plate off the cross member, it's prudent to have some sort of block welded to the underside of the skid plate to protect the bolt head from wearing down on those invariable scrapes.

 

The resilience of your plate and it's mounting points depends on a number of variables including how low your car is, on or off road use, material grade of mounting bolts, skid plate material etc

 

I've added a (very) rough hand drawn diagram of the above explanation, hope it helps.

 

05993daabc33c58fb415be77090dde2c_zps1179

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Wow... thats waaaaaay more work than I wanted to do for this project. Fuck. I guess Im going back to stock height. Or I could have a new oil pan milled out of billet aluminum. Make it stout enough to hit a bump... it would be its own skid plate. 

 

As always, your details doodles are very knowledgable, thanks Jason. 

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Maybe that will be a future project... thats pretty involved. Luckily I have no clearance issues right now. We will see when NissanFest comes around as Im going to drop the front maybe another 1.5in and hopefully drop the rear like 4in. We shall see. 

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for bolt protection, you can make your skid plate look like this...

46ad1634-5359-dfea.jpg

 

Notice how its bolted on? for better bolt head protection. it'll hit d skidplate 1st before it can hit d bolt

The yellow paint streak is a nice touch...

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i feel like $200 is kinda steep...

but then again youre the sole source (that i know of)

for skid plates. i understand material cost, design, labor, shipping,

but compared to the other skid plates ive bought, price is a lil high.

 

definitely not trying to knock on you or your product.

 

ive been meaning to make one myself as well (for my 620) but still

havent gotten around to it.

 

i had a previous generation of power shop max/powered by max's t6 skid plate for my

s14.

1324599100_2_FT0_dsc03541.jpg

($120 + shipping)

i ended up selling it because i just didnt FEEL that it offered enough protection for me.

 

the s14 has been sitting for 2 years, but i plan i getting

Xcessive Manufacturing's steel, 2.5mil, plated skid plate (89 +shipping)

N-240-FSP1.JPG

 

again, not trying to knock/slander/etc, but if youre able to help on the price, it

might help you move more products :)

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He did say depending on d metal cost so i doubt that will be d actual price. It might be lower........or higher as he also stated that it would run from front & past d tranny.

He should make it 2 or 3 piece to give d buyers d option on purchasing d complete set or just a oil pan skidplate. If he makes it into 1giant piece, d shipping would be a killer & thus turn away potential customer(s).

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Wow didnt think It would get this much attention! About the price its a total shot in the dark each one would have to be hand made since I have little in the way of machining so I went higher then lower. Who knows I might be able to do it for 200 shipped or maybe lower still no real ballpark until I have mine made. As a note these would not be super awesome skid plates like some of the first ones pictured, I could add holes ect but it would more a less be a well thought out sheet cut to spec and properly bent. My goal is to make it cover as much area as securely as possible and be cheap most of you guys dont see the bottom side so I figured it would be a good match. Anybody that wants to help in development like "hey Cal this is a super weak spot I busted it when I tried this" Id be willing to give a discount on the plate. As far as the multi pieces I will try to make it so they link together. Im drafting a few designs to keep it from getting caught and ripping off or  sacrificing coverage of critical areas.This is what I suspect them to look like but much more in the way of connecting points. So some of you would only want oil pan coverage? So maybe I can make a 3 piece, with 2 pieces covering engine bay split long ways so there is some overlap in the middle to make it a stronger spot to help protect oil pan then a 3rd piece to extend to tranny protection.

 

N-240-FSP1.JPG

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Also since I have no access to anything other then a 510 currently thats all I can do. If after the first go at it, and things go well maybe I can get someone to bring me a 610 and Ill make a template. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just an update the skid plate making has been slowed down due to a mysterious electrical gremlin thats got me going crazy. In the mean time what do you think of these flares.

303012_459162197504910_2137233620_n.jpg

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I like your skid plate idea and had another thought that hadn't been posted (or I missed it) on how to protect the bolts. You could try flat head allen key style bolts. It may or may not be more work to countersink a bunch of holes, but that could work as well. My R/C cars all have the screws going through the bottom done like this. Granted the get scraped up pretty good but I've never had a problem getting my allen heads in there to take them off when needed.

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The allen bolts are genius. Ill see if I can make those work. On the flares Ill post a closer pic once my buddy gives me the photos he took when we were on the road. They are indeed off a jeep Cherokee. They are the back ones and I can get them for about 4 bucks each so if you want some dont pay too much. You can try and make the front ones work but they need some cutting and look a bit off. You do have to bend and drill some holes but all in all since my car is so ratty in the first place I think its a upgrade. The front set on my car are slopped back too and I think it looks a bit goofy but better then level like the back. Next upgrade too after the skidplate is wheel well liners so Ill post a pic of those. Ill be using old plastic 55 gallon barrels.

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