Bumper / Fender reinforcement

[Lunas Destiny]

Hello all, I have a 19 gt. I have carbon fiber front fenders and an mp concepts front bumper. I am rather disappointed in the structural strength of the edge that mounts to the fender. They sent me info about repair procedures and recommended fixes. One of those being a support bracket that eliminates this issue, and other customers adding a bolt and using that to tie things in better. Are there any good recommendations that you guys know about or any other solutions that are good enough for reliable stability and strength?
As pictured below i have made a custom plywood splitter that the bumper sits on to eliminate any "sag" that wants to shear the mounts.

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[SHOdaddy68]

We've used a couple different methods on racecars. both are fairly easy to install and allow easy removal of the bumper.

 

[Lunas Destiny]

We've used a couple different methods on racecars. both are fairly easy to install and allow easy removal of the bumper.

While I love the look, I dont want to find out how much force it takes to break the fiberglass molded fender. Ive seen mentions of "support brackets" but haven't found much on my own about it. Just talk about them. I want to maybe fabric up a bracket that extends from "somewhere" thats solid but haven't come up with too many ideas other than a DIY chassis mounted splitter to handle some abuse.

 

[GTP]

@Lunas Destiny , cool fenders and hood.

Any more info or photos of your plywood splitter? How thick is it? Weight?

 

[Lunas Destiny]

@Lunas Destiny , cool fenders and hood.

Any more info or photos of your plywood splitter? How thick is it? Weight?

I used 3/4" plywood, i didn't weigh it but its about 15-20 lbs. That includes some metal to reinforce the mounting areas with angle iron and grade 8 bolts. I traced the OEM belly pan and went a tad outside of the perimeter of the belly pan to give it the "splitter look" of extending towards the front past the lip of the bumper. I used latex based primer and double layered before applying lead paint rated for grills and high heat applications. I used a regular old paint roller and went to town on all of the brackets and plywood. When I redo it I will likely be using either a thinner piece of metal or redesign the splitter a bit as it was rigged up on a budget and total cost was like 250 bucks for everything.

Also I created like a slot for the splitter to seat into towards the rear of the motor. In pics 3 and 4 there are pressed threads in the subframe OEM that I used all thread in. I think it was 3/8" but its been a few weeks since I did all this. I found square tubing from home depot, cut 2 pieces to just past the spacing of the 2 holes and then cut 2 pieces a couple holes in the tubing longer than the last and put those up under the car creating a slot for the splitter to rest in. Basically to ensure I dont drop the rear end unless I back up caught on something (which happened at the car wash which brought me to the bumper issues )

 

[Lunas Destiny]

Also if anyone uses these pictures as a reference, all of the angle iron was not in the right spot and pushed too much on the bumper. I had to move the center front bracket back about an inch and a half from its original for my gt500 style bumper. Idk abiut others but the space may be greater if the bumper tucks like oem gt bumpers. The side brackets are also a bit too far forward and outside. I moved them back and center about 2 inches for both direction, moving it closer to the center of the car. I used flat steel underneath to make sure the bolts clamp properly to the metal pieces and spread clamping over a larger area. I used locking nuts and lock washers to ensure any vibrations dont work anything loose.

The front cables are bolted to the bumpbar(not great but an impact will force the cables flat and lock them in place. And the side cables go to the bottom bolts on the very end of the bump bar.

When using wire cable like I did, DO NOT use it as they advertise, you must have at least 3 cable wire runs going through the clamps as these mods will make considerable downforce especially the closer you get to the ground. I had them work loose during a 130 mph run and how I designed it, it requires over 3 points of failure to hurt me or the car. I kept slack on the wire runs and used the extra lines from the end clamps and added a third in the middle of the run as a safety to the clamps at either end of the cable wires.

 

[Lunas Destiny]

The final issue I've been dealing with is the wheel wells. They no longer have a way to be secured to the splitter and it will require some ingenuity to develop a bracket to hold them but if youre going this far, what's a nother bracket?

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