Modifications to Tatjana

		Mazda Front Air Dam (a.k.a. Front Lip Spoiler) I always liked the way the front air damn completed the nose of the M1. This is more apparent to me on lighter colored cars where the black sides of the car don't have a complement in the front. With a Yellow car, there was no question about the color of my front air dam: it was to remain black. Many folks choose to paint their air dams. For darker colors (black, green, blue) I tend to agree, but not for yellow. I have even seen a yellow M1 with a painted air dam (and rear skirt for that matter) and it just was not me. Contrary to net.rumors, the front air dam is not yet discontinued as an OEM part from Mazda. I confirmed this with Marshall at Roebuck Mazda when I ordered my air Dam in October. The Rear Spoiler was discontinued, which somehow got translated to spoiler, which then got twisted to front spoiler. Nope. Not to say it won't happen someday, but not right now. Installation Although a bit pricey for a little hunk of molded plastic (about $150 with shipping from Roebuck) the factory air dam fits very well. Due to an unfortunate driving incident, I had my car in the shop for a new front nose and other painting, so when I installed the air dam, it was on a front nose that had just been painted and bolted up. This facilitated installation as several of the small 10mm bolts used to secure the front nose can rust over time and cause some grief when installing the air dam on a car with an untouched front nose piece. The instructions are strait forward, although I have my own variation on one aspect that I believe is a better way to do things. The kit came with a bunch of 10mm M6 bolts and fasteners, clips, a few spares, and 4 self tapping screws. Tools needed are: Medium Phillips head screwdriver Drill (cordless is fine) with 1/4" Bit 10mm 6 point socket with 8-12" extension and ratchet 10mm combination wrench Vice Grips (at least 2) Begin by jacking up the front of the car and putting it on jack stands. Do the rear if you feel safer (its not a bad idea as I usually do it that way, but its not entirely necessary. If you just have front ramps that will suffice for this particular installation). The instructions have you attach the the air dam first, using the two bolts on the ends of the front bumber cover (nose). The front bumber is connected to the frame by a piece of metal, attached by 2 10mm bolts. These are the suckers that can rust, so be careful when taking these off! I have seen them snap (one did on my car when they were putting my new nose on). A new M6 bolt is used to attach the air dam to the bumber cover as the old ones are not long enough. The instructions now have you use the clips to hold the air dam against the front nose while you adjust it to begin to drill holes. You need to adjust it as the nose will not perfectly fit the curve of the air damn. 1/4 of play back and forth is needed. These clips to me are useless for this. A better solution is vice grips, or any other locking/fastening tool. I used 2 regular sized vice grips and one smaller pair for a total of 3. This allowed me to push on the front of the air dam and move it back a bit to where it was aligned with the front nose, then clamp down hard on from the inside. The air dam would not budge when all 3 of these were on, which made drilling in the next step easy. Here is a view of my vice grip utilization After you have the air dam secured against the lower part of the front nose, and aligned to your satisfaction, its time to drill. This takes about 1 minute as the 6 holes go directly through 1/4" of plastic, which is not a difficult task even for the weakest of drills out there. Wear some eye protection as the flakes of plastic will hit you if you don't :) With the holes drilled, feed in 6 of the M6 bolts from the top, and start the fastening nuts by hand. Unlike many bolt/nut combinations, these go in a bit tight so I was unable to tighten them by hand. I simply started all 6, and used the combination wrench on the top to hold the bolt in place, and worked the ratchet for a bit. Eventually I got all 6 nice and tight against air dam. No torque spec is listed, but considering its a 10mm M6, anything more then 25 lb-ft is silly. With all 6 10mm bolts securing the air dam to the bumper cover, the vice grips can be safely removed. Notice how the air dam does not move. This is good. The final task it to secure the brake ducts to the splash guard. 2 self tapping screws are used for this as you are simply screwing into plastic. You could use a drill I suppose to start it, but working a phillips head with a bit of oomph proved each one got started in less then 1 minute. The side edges of the air dam also call for 2 self tapping screws into the bumper cover. This would require either rotating the wheels or removing them to install these. Looking at how my air dam was secured, I saw little value using these two at the edges. It looked fine to me, and I was in no mood to rip off the wheels at this point :) That's all there is too it! Lower the car, and begin admire. Driving Impression I was very, very pleased with the way the black air dam accents the front of Tatjana. Pictures don't really do the contrast justice. It was a bit difficult for me to give a very good driving impression as Tatjana was in the body shop for 3+ weeks before I installed the air dam, so I forgot a bit how light the front end would get above 70 MPH, but driving 100 miles on the highway I experienced no feeling of a light front end. Scraping is inevidable with this modification on lowered cars, but so far so good. Hit a few mean speed bumps without any noise. Tatjana is only slightly lowered right now for the winter. The GC's will come down a bit in the spring.

Mazda Front Air Dam (a.k.a. Front Lip Spoiler)

I always liked the way the front air damn completed the nose of the M1. This is more apparent to me on lighter colored cars where the black sides of the car don't have a complement in the front. With a Yellow car, there was no question about the color of my front air dam: it was to remain black. Many folks choose to paint their air dams. For darker colors (black, green, blue) I tend to agree, but not for yellow. I have even seen a yellow M1 with a painted air dam (and rear skirt for that matter) and it just was not me.

Contrary to net.rumors, the front air dam is not yet discontinued as an OEM part from Mazda. I confirmed this with Marshall at Roebuck Mazda when I ordered my air Dam in October. The Rear Spoiler was discontinued, which somehow got translated to spoiler, which then got twisted to front spoiler. Nope. Not to say it won't happen someday, but not right now.

Installation

Although a bit pricey for a little hunk of molded plastic (about $150 with shipping from Roebuck) the factory air dam fits very well. Due to an unfortunate driving incident, I had my car in the shop for a new front nose and other painting, so when I installed the air dam, it was on a front nose that had just been painted and bolted up. This facilitated installation as several of the small 10mm bolts used to secure the front nose can rust over time and cause some grief when installing the air dam on a car with an untouched front nose piece.

The instructions are strait forward, although I have my own variation on one aspect that I believe is a better way to do things. The kit came with a bunch of 10mm M6 bolts and fasteners, clips, a few spares, and 4 self tapping screws. Tools needed are:

Medium Phillips head screwdriver
Drill (cordless is fine) with 1/4" Bit
10mm 6 point socket with 8-12" extension and ratchet
10mm combination wrench
Vice Grips (at least 2)

Begin by jacking up the front of the car and putting it on jack stands. Do the rear if you feel safer (its not a bad idea as I usually do it that way, but its not entirely necessary. If you just have front ramps that will suffice for this particular installation). The instructions have you attach the the air dam first, using the two bolts on the ends of the front bumber cover (nose). The front bumber is connected to the frame by a piece of metal, attached by 2 10mm bolts. These are the suckers that can rust, so be careful when taking these off! I have seen them snap (one did on my car when they were putting my new nose on). A *new* M6 bolt is used to attach the air dam to the bumber cover as the old ones are not long enough.

The instructions now have you use the clips to hold the air dam against the front nose while you adjust it to begin to drill holes. You need to adjust it as the nose will not perfectly fit the curve of the air damn. 1/4 of play back and forth is needed. These clips to me are useless for this. A better solution is vice grips, or any other locking/fastening tool. I used 2 regular sized vice grips and one smaller pair for a total of 3. This allowed me to push on the front of the air dam and move it back a bit to where it was aligned with the front nose, then clamp down hard on from the inside. The air dam would not budge when all 3 of these were on, which made drilling in the next step easy.

Here is a view of my vice grip utilization After you have the air dam secured against the lower part of the front nose, and aligned to your satisfaction, its time to drill. This takes about 1 minute as the 6 holes go directly through 1/4" of plastic, which is not a difficult task even for the weakest of drills out there. Wear some eye protection as the flakes of plastic will hit you if you don't :) With the holes drilled, feed in 6 of the M6 bolts from the top, and start the fastening nuts by hand. Unlike many bolt/nut combinations, these go in a bit tight so I was unable to tighten them by hand. I simply started all 6, and used the combination wrench on the top to hold the bolt in place, and worked the ratchet for a bit. Eventually I got all 6 nice and tight against air dam. No torque spec is listed, but considering its a 10mm M6, anything more then 25 lb-ft is silly.

With all 6 10mm bolts securing the air dam to the bumper cover, the vice grips can be safely removed. Notice how the air dam does not move. This is good. The final task it to secure the brake ducts to the splash guard. 2 self tapping screws are used for this as you are simply screwing into plastic. You could use a drill I suppose to start it, but working a phillips head with a bit of oomph proved each one got started in less then 1 minute. The side edges of the air dam also call for 2 self tapping screws into the bumper cover. This would require either rotating the wheels or removing them to install these. Looking at how my air dam was secured, I saw little value using these two at the edges. It looked fine to me, and I was in no mood to rip off the wheels at this point :)

That's all there is too it! Lower the car, and begin admire.

Driving Impression

I was very, very pleased with the way the black air dam accents the front of Tatjana. Pictures don't really do the contrast justice. It was a bit difficult for me to give a very good driving impression as Tatjana was in the body shop for 3+ weeks before I installed the air dam, so I forgot a bit how light the front end would get above 70 MPH, but driving 100 miles on the highway I experienced no feeling of a light front end. Scraping is inevidable with this modification on lowered cars, but so far so good. Hit a few mean speed bumps without any noise. Tatjana is only slightly lowered right now for the winter. The GC's will come down a bit in the spring.

http://www.eclipse.net/~magnum/miata/air_dam.html
Last updated: Mon Nov 29 11:33:18 1999
bvl - bvl@attglobal.net