What is a "Spook"

[ZwolleY]

I saw this on another site refering to racing Z's. What is it? Also-I bought my car, a '72, with a BRE air dam. What is its purpose? I took it off because I needed to have the car towed. Will the car drive better at freeway speeds with it on? Paul

[Royce]

Sounds like you might already have a good idea what it is. The "spook" is particular front airdam that BRE made that bolts onto the bottom of the front valance. I think you will find the car does drive better at 70+ speeds with it or any airdam installed!

[Dan]

An air dam is the best aero addon you can do to an early Z IMOP. That is if you want to drive at any speed that is fun. I noticed early on that at any speed above 75 my 240 began to get lite under the nose, it wasn't a good feeling. So i put on an MSA air dam and now the faster i go the more it sticks my car to the road.

[ZwolleY]

Thanks to both of you. I am not a fast driver and I like the looks of the car better without the air dam so will leave it off. Paul

[240znz]

Paul, I agree.

Some of dams available make a mess of the lines of the car. Some make it look great...but they all serve the purpose of fixing the light front end.

I myself will be swapping all the bushings out to poly as the old rubber ones are now 30 years old and are more than likely shot. After that, a brake, shock, spring, rim and tyre upgrade will all help reduce that front end lightness.

The front dam I like is a special that I have trying to track down if it is comercially available. Here it is (the blue Zed). As you can see, it's not really a dam but a little lip....and I doubt that it will make any diffrenece at all to the handling but everything is a compromise one way or another.

[240znz]

Opps...wouldn't load the pic I attached...here is the link. It is the blue Zed

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid18/pa0d8eaf358adbe8bd46ce2812ce13b3b/fdd2f6e0.jpg.orig.jpg

[mperdue]

Hey 240ZNZ, let us know how that spoiler works out. I was thinking that if I were to need one I'd go for the BRE style but that one is even less imposing. May also be less useful too though!

MIchael

[hmsports]

The little air dam on the blue car would help more for radiator cooling by creating a low pressure area behind the radiator - kind of like a lot of new cars have.

Anyway, if you want a less clunky looking air dam but still want the benefits, you can easily build one similar to the blue car's from some polyproplylene plastic sheet. It is inexpensive and it can be glued using special cement similar to PVC pipe glue. As in the comparison picture, extend it down a bit more and make sure to include a 1" wide horizontal lip forward - this is where the glueing comes in. This will force all air that hits the air dam around the sides of the car and not allow it to slip under.

Plus the plastic is fairly flexible and won't be so easy to crack.

[240znz]

Looking at the smaller lip again...I think that it might have been made by cutting down a bigger dam. That would be the easiest but not cheapest way to do it?

Moulding polyproplylene sheet and gluing sounds hard work to get the lines perfect.

[hmsports]

The official material is ABS plastic (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene). It is great because it is innexpensive, lightweight, flexible, easy to work with and solvent weldable.

Here's the steps to build an air dam for those who are into the do-it yourself thing...

Use corrugated cardboard to make a pattern for the horizontal lip. Lay under the front of the car and hold the cardboard from the bottom against the valance. Using a marker, from above, mark the along the valance on the cardboard. That will give you the arc. Make a 1" line (or wider for that super car look) for the lip. Cut out the pattern and transfer the shape to your ABS (1/8" thick - less than $50 for a 4x8 foot sheet - will make several dams). Next, determine the length and height of the dam and cut that from the ABS. Use a straight edge and a sharp utility knife or tin snips.

Place some of the solvent in a separate jar and mix in some shavings of the ABS. This will make a thicker glue - shake it every so often over a couple of days so it melts and mixes well.

Use masking tape to tape the dam to the lip (from the bottom) and run a bead of solvent along the seam. Once that cures go back with the thicker glue - make a nice fillet. Also get the back of the seam. Keep things square.

Using 1" wide aluminum straps and pop-rivets, mount it to your valance.

Last step, drive fast and have fun!

I will be building one soon - I'll take some photos of the process and the finished product.

[hmsports]

I took some shots of one of these custom built air dams...

Installed

Spare