Cratecruncher
True Classic
I really like most of the things Fiat and Bertone did regarding the X1/9. I even like the way they stuffed the master cylinders into the pedal box for a bigger trunk space. But those flimsy plastic tabs the front spoiler mounts to have got to be one of the silliest things on the car. When I bought my '86 all the grille tabs were broken off and the front spoiler was attached to the lowest rung of the grille with a couple of bolts! Needless to say it didn't work and the grille was coming apart as rung after rung detached from what was left. I removed the spoiler, glued the grille back together with JBWeld and began thinking of a way to put everything back together.
Every spoiler gets dragged on driveways, snagged on objects in the road, even hits parking blocks occasionally. I wanted a mount that was simple, inexpensive, and wouldn't destroy the grille or radiator the first time it hit something.
For the bracket material I used a strip of 1/16x1/2x36" aluminum I bought at the orange boxstore and some bracket nuts and screws I had in the stash. The #10 upper grille screws were long enough to reuse with some bracket nuts you can buy at any auto supply. To attach the lower end to the spoiler I used #8's held in by the spoiler material itself. I trimmed the screws to be flush with the back of the spoiler. Don't want a holy radiator!
In the photo above I'm pushing up on the spoiler to show how it moves up independent of the grille. Sorry about focus. I needed four hands to get that shot!
Here the spoiler is suspended by the four brackets to help maintain it's convex shape. Some load is carried by the grille but much less than the plastic tab design.
Shiny new parts!
The black trim paint worked so well at hiding the brackets they were harder to install painted because I couldn't see the holes. Total cost of entire project $2.57 and an hour playing with my favorite car.
Every spoiler gets dragged on driveways, snagged on objects in the road, even hits parking blocks occasionally. I wanted a mount that was simple, inexpensive, and wouldn't destroy the grille or radiator the first time it hit something.
In the photo above I'm pushing up on the spoiler to show how it moves up independent of the grille. Sorry about focus. I needed four hands to get that shot!
Here the spoiler is suspended by the four brackets to help maintain it's convex shape. Some load is carried by the grille but much less than the plastic tab design.
The black trim paint worked so well at hiding the brackets they were harder to install painted because I couldn't see the holes. Total cost of entire project $2.57 and an hour playing with my favorite car.
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