BURNEDORANGE620 Posted December 8, 2015 Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 I made a template of the shape of the bottom edge of the valance using cardboard I bought a steel strip 1" wide by 1/8th" thick and 6 feet long from Lowe's. (~$10) I bent the strip (I used my hands) over a round radius (I used a closet rail about 1 3/8" in diameter) to match the shape of the template. A hammer helped too... Got this... I made 6 mounting tabs from extra material not used for the spoiler mounting bracket Then, I drilled holes every 3-4 inches in the lower half of the steel strip and then threaded (tapped) the holes... Alternatively, you could drill through and use nuts and bolts. Meanwhile, I drilled holes (1/4") in the tabs and bent them to allow the steel strip to be positioned perfectly vertical when mounted to the lower valance on the 620... Then I welded the tabs onto the steel strip in 6 places. Alternatively, you could drill holes and use nuts and bolts. Here the tabs are done and welding completed. You could alternatively drill holes through tabs and mounting strip and use nuts and bolts, instead. Mounting strip was trial-fitted and attached. It will be removed one more time for finish painting and attachment of 4 inch rubber spoiler lip. License plate also removed temporarily to help with drilling holes into the valance and installation of brackets. You have to look carefully, but the mounting strip is attached to the bottom of the valance- you can see the 4 screw heads - they will eventually be painted to match the body color. Here I have taken some masking tape and punched holes to align with the holes in the metal strip. Then, I peeled off the tape and transferred it to the rubber spoiler lip. The rubber (not vinyl) is 4" black flooring baseboard from Lowe's. Unfortunately, it is only sold in 4 ft lengths (not long enough for our purposes) and a 120 ft roll. So, I still have about 100 ft left and can provide members with 6 ft lengths, if you are interested. I then used a leather hole punch to punch out the marked spots...you could drill the holes, as well... You can see I elected to put the curved lip of the baseboard on the underside of the valance or the upper side of spoiler instead of at the bottom edge. This is the way I attached the mounting tabs to the back side of the valance. Using the thick nylon washer allowed me to mount the strip without altering the 1/4 inch bent lip of the lower valance edge. Here I'm attaching the rubber lip to the mounting strip. I guess I could have mounted the rubber lip to the strip and then installed the whole assembly to the valance. I used a heat gun to warm the rubber baseboard to help conform it around the corners of the valance... BEFORE: AFTER: VOILA! A cool looking spoiler for your Datsun for under $30 bucks! (And a fun one-day project!) 4 Quote Link to comment
Pacific coast Datsun Posted December 8, 2015 Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 Nice mod..looks clean ! Good writeup & pix too. 1 Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted December 8, 2015 Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 Will the backboard be 'stiff' enough for the air it dams up in front of it? I have some backboard but it seems kind of soft. BTW... look great! 1 Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted December 8, 2015 Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 looked better stock just lower it more but very nice truck 1 Quote Link to comment
BURNEDORANGE620 Posted December 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 Will the backboard be 'stiff' enough for the air it dams up in front of it? I have some backboard but it seems kind of soft. BTW... look great! 1 Quote Link to comment
BURNEDORANGE620 Posted December 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 Datzenmike, the baseboard I used is a thick, heavy, commercial grade rubber one - it is stiff enough to hold its shape. The spoiler "wraps" from the front of the truck to the wheel wells and that bend helps stiffen it up too. As mentioned, I had to use a heat gun to get it to wrap nicely around the bends. The temps are cool now, I'm hoping it won't sag in the hot SoCal summers. But, I think it'll be fine. For guys with super low vehicles, it's nice that it's flexible... 1 Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted December 8, 2015 Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 Mine is very soft, good to know about the thicker kind. Yes I saw the bends would help just like the curve in a dam. I have some 1/4" or maybe 5/16" black conveyor belt I was thinking of using. My concern was TOO stiff. If I bump a parking curb it may push the body in or up. 1 Quote Link to comment
BURNEDORANGE620 Posted December 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 I could send you a sample and you could check it out and see if you think it'll work for your application... New to the forums, don't know exactly how to exchange comm info.... 1 Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted December 8, 2015 Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 Thanks for the offer but "rubber (not vinyl) is 4" black flooring baseboard from Lowe's" is good enough info for me to start looking. I had about 30' of this 6" soft 'mouldable' glue on baseboard protector (maybe it's vinyl) I stripped from a job I was on. Used some along the bathtub. Haven't really looked at the conveyor belt yet but feels kind of stiff. 1 Quote Link to comment
bk whitest Posted December 10, 2015 Report Share Posted December 10, 2015 Simple and clean i like it ! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: keep us updated on how it holds up. 2 Quote Link to comment
BURNEDORANGE620 Posted December 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Sure! Will do! 1 Quote Link to comment
5t341tH Posted December 13, 2015 Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 very nice mod. nice 620 as well! Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.