Building front spoiler/lip

[dRebel]

I'm sure I'm not alone on this one, but after much searching for a good clean 85/86 front valance/spoiler Ive finally given up on finding one. I looked for after market options, but its always a matter of which one I dislike the least
I personally like the shape of the original pre-facelift front end, I like the flat bumper, and I prefer the way in over hangs the spoiler, to me this just suites the car and ara best.
So the only solution is to make my own! It won't look exactly stock, but hopefully the dimensions And general shape will fool the untrained eye, or at least not look too aftermarket and tacky

Ok, so yesterday I removed my horribly rusty stock valance, no pics of it but I'm sure you seen similar ones a hundred times lol. Next I busted out the card board and started my template. Im going to make it out of steel sheet metal mainly for ease of bending and potential welding if need be down the road. In the pic you will see my second teMplate I made, the first was a bit lower to the ground, so I did another shaped more like the stock sheet metal. Good ground clearance is an important part of this build. Im still undecided on wether to run the stock rubber lip, or build an aluminum lip( painted black so it doesn't stick out too much)
I'll be working on this over the weekend, and I'll update with more pics as I go. I want to know what you folks think about how it's shapin up so far, am I onto something here? Or do you think it's going to look tacky?

[dRebel]

And another from an angle, it was hard to get the cardboard to stay straigh, so disregard the wave around the lisence plate.

[dRebel]

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[PearlWhiteMR2]

I really like it! It would give the car a little more aggressive stance and appears lower to the ground, keep it up!

[dRebel]

This was the first rough template I made, this one sits slightly lower than the stock lip. though I like this one in some ways, I feared I would end up smashin it on things and i was a bit worried it may look too custom/"racer" so I made another( 1st two pictures) Can't deside what I lake better now, I may just split the difference between the two I made.
I'm about to go grab the materials in a few so I kinda have to make up my mind!
More clearance for a bit of rally, or a bit lower for more of a road set up....

[dRebel]

Taking a work brake here, I just finished cutting the preices out. I gotta say, considering I used a jigsaw, This thing is turning out not too shabby The place I planned on getting the materials ended up being closed today! so I improvised and grabbed a 2" x3" sheet of 22ga sheet metal for body repairs from crappytire. $36 I believe. Because of this I had to change it into a two piece design. the lisence plate will hide the seem and mounting hardware anyway, so I can live with it.

I have a lot of ideas i wish I could incorporate into this, but have to focus on the original goal, and that was to make a "SIMPLE" valance and splitter so my car doesn't look so scabby with the front end almost falling off. After the rest of the car is ship shape, and I'm at a point to attack the rest of the body, I will most deffenitly be building the one I really want to make. so this is going to be the quick and dirty trial run
Anway, I gotta go bend the tabs! I'll put the pics up when I get to a real computer, can't seem to make it work with my iPhone...?

[dRebel]

Here it is installed! I bent the the ends where it bolts to the bumper in a vice with a couple pcs of flat bar pinching it, this worked out really easy due to the lite gauge of steel. I bent the actual curve into it by by hand a by eye, my buddy's all laughed at my technique of laying on my back using my stomach as the surface to press against. They weren't laughing a few minutes later when they saw the result! haha.

Now I just need to make my splitter, which will also be the mounting point for the lower rad plastics. but that will have to wait until Monday when I can get the materials, so this is where she sits now. I used only stock mounting holes, and did zero welding, so hopefully this will inspire someone else to make their own! took me the better part of a day(most of which was spent figuring how I wanted to do it), and cost about $40 up to what you see here, including the stainless steel mounting hardware.

[dh4ever]

you can also shape it with your thigh as well, I like using my thigh for metal shaping. my suggestion for painting is a red-oxide primer, it works well to protect bare metal, and lessen damage from chips. give it a week inside the house to fully cure, then paint it with body paint of your choice. it will become rock hard and really lessen any changes of chips then rust potential. its what I use on my jeep and works well