Newbie - Advice needed on Spoiler/Wing mount project please


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robjohnson
robjohnson
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Hi there, this is my first post - I am 33 years old Car enthusiast from South London, the car is a Mazda RX7 and my challenge is to fit the rear Spoiler. 

The mount needs to be exceptionally stiff and strong, the wing is 1710mm and I estimate it will create extreme forces at higher speeds, therefore its essential that the mounts are extremely sturdy.

I have been thinking and researching about how to fit this wing for over a year looking at examples on pro time attack cars and competition vehicles, most of the solutions I saw were either beyond my engineering skill or ability (CNC/cad etc) or just looked inferior, unprofessional or just plain ineffective. 

I decided on composite layup because of the uneven working surface and awkward angles involves, my plan is to lay up carbon by hand - in the photos the Carbon is represented by the Cardboard template I have made up. 

I will then release the structure from the car and trim to shape before attaching to the car in final form with bolts, as you can see in the pictures I have the wing uprights (these will be scrapped as the dragon design is a bit lame imo) positioned pretty much where I want them to be - I will use the alloy uprights in the pic as a mold effectively to get the shape of the mount - I plan to make new uprights in Carbon sheet as you can see on the picture of the white car. 

I need you guys to help me out with any tips please, I am anticipating a lot of overlap/mechanical locking problems which might stop me releasing the mount, I have no power at the Garage.

I also need some help with the shopping list please, this mount will be subject to downforce of maybe 200kilos but also twisting and tearing forces, my concern is that the resin will crack because of the constant flexing forces. 

I am not so bothered about finish as it will be hidden by the boot hatch and the wing upright which will be a carbon sheet made by Carbon mods so will look perfect from the outside - my main concern is strength so what is the shopping list please - do I need Kevlar? what type of CF sheet do I need please. 

I also need to move the carbon riveted mounts from the underside of the wing outwards as it was originally designed to mount to a steel boot hatch - my hatch is GRP skin so not at option, my concern is that these mounts are resin infused and therefore much stronger than the hand lay up techniques I have available (no power at the garage) - I dont want to make new mounts with hand lay up and have them shear off at high speed which could cause a hideous accident - tempted to bolt through from the very top of the wing which would be unsightly but possibly the strongest and safest option.  

Please review the pics and video and give me some tips, I fixed a bumper with fibreglass from Easy Composites once but that is the only experience I have and I might a right mess of it. 

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ajb100
ajb100
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You're facing a very similar problem to us with mounting the wing on the xf. I can't help much but thought is throw out our solution in case it works for you.

The CFD work had showed we were going to have circa 150kg at 100mph so needed a strong solid mounting. It couldn't be mounted to the boot as that needed to be easily removable for damper changes/adjustments. In reality when we went in the wind tunnel we'd removed the second element of the wing we were only around 100kg so the mount is more than strong enough. As you can see in some of the pics, we had a mishap at nurburgring and the mounts bent in the middle instead of at the car

The solution was to channel out the side of the boot opening and mount to the frame work around the edge of the boot. Due to the size if the opening in an rx7, the metal work around it will be very strong and should be able to hold it.




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