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Background
I'd bought the car without spots and somehow thought
these were removed to allow for cooling for the brakes.
On closer inspection I found that there was no way air
could get through to the brakes as the wheel arch has a
plastic liner which goes against the chassis and under
the car too!
I did some research on the web and the only version I
could find of brake ducting was on the Scoobymania site.
This goes on the underside of the front spoiler and is
then attached to the body work running underneath the
car. As it is my car scrapes on some ramps so this
wouldn't last very long. In addition I wanted to utilise
the holes left by the spots.
I ended up buying some ducting from a local motorsport
shop. I looked at metal induction vents to perhaps
attach to the holes but was advised to just use cable
ties. As they'd be behind the grille anyway it made
sense and saved some money.
Process
Usual disclaimers apply ie. do this at your own risk! I
started on the right hand side.
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Turn steering wheel all the way to
the right.
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Remove spot covers.
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Remove bolts/screws holding wheel
arch plastic to the body. Note which came from
where!
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Feed ducting through the spot hole
cover.
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Where the plastic presses against
the engine block, put one hand through the now loose
plastic wheel arch in front of the tyre. Put your
other hand on the inside of the wheel arch.
Carefully feed the ducting through the narrow gap.
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When you have enough ducting,
cable tie it to the plastic (make small holes if
required).
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Move back to the front of the car
and giving yourself some slack, cut the ducting.
Your need a side cutter for the metal part.
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To tidy it up I put some edging on
the front end and cable tied the edges. I then put
cable ties through the holes in the area and through
the ducting itself.
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Reattach the screws removed
earlier.
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Final step was to put the cover
back on.
For the left hand side you basically follow the same
steps as above. Note that there is nil space on the left
hand side for the ducting so you're not able to reattach
the plastic wheel arch liner agains the body after you
put the ducting through. I used cable ties to reattach
it to the body towards the bottom.
Problems
A few things to look out for:
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The ducting tears very easily!
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Depending on the width of your
tyres, on full lock your tyres may scrape against
the plastic. (I've got 225x45x17's.
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I've found that this has further
compressed the ducting but there is still some
scraping on full lock.
What'd I'd do differently next time:
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Get wider ducting that totally
fills the hole in the front - compression and front
installation will probably be more difficult though.
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Strengthen central part of ducting
with duct tape prior to insertion.
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Flatten first half of ducting as
much as possible.
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Use the current ducting lengths as
a template then preattach the edging and make the
holes for the cable ties prior to installation.
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Have duct tape on hand! In the
absence of that I used insulation tape to wrap
around the areas where I tore the ducting.
Pictures
Some pictures of the final job
Tools you'll need: knife, edging, ducting, duct tape,
screw drivers, glue, side cutters, "hole" maker/pin.
Ducting in left wheel arch.
Ducting in right wheel arch. I did end
up putting another cable tie in place of the metal piece
you see due to the scraping on full lock.
Front with the cover off.
Front with the cover on.
I hope you find this useful and if
you've got any ideas on improving the routing in
particular or better ways/materials please let me know! |
