Daytona lower air dam issue

Hi all:

I have a steep driveway and have to be very careful when backing my collectables out of it. Unfortunately, I was not so careful this weekend when driving it to a show.

I cracked the fiberglass air dam under the car (and cracked it well, thank you), which in turn cracked my left turn signal lens (euro version with the prancing horse in the circle).

A few questions....

has anyone removed this airdam before? Is it held in by screws or is it more difficult to remove.
Is there any risk to leaving it off (cooling or high speed stability)?
If I need to leave it on, does anyone have a solution or suggestion for it rubbing on step inclines or speed bumps (fiberglass repair is not that difficult but I would prefer to not do it frequently).
Does anyone know a source for a new lens?

Thanks.

Joe Seminetta

 

How about a picture?

I am not aware of any fiberglass air-dam on a Daytona. Yours must have been added later? How about a picture?

So if it is an add on, cant imagine you can't live without it. I have had my stock Daytona to 135-140 mph without any problems.

Lenses may be had from three sources I know of, all repros made by Squadra Nuvolari: Reoriginals, Lyle Tanner(Ferraripartsexchange.com) and Squadra itself.

I believe the best advertised price is at Reoriginals, but they never show any in stock, at least that I have seen.

 

I will try to get a photo. It is potentially plastic, not fiberglass. Do you believe this is correct?

Thanks.

jts

 

Not aware of ANY air dams on a Daytona, except a Comp Daytona, which did have an air dam down below the grille where there is an opening in the fascia on stock Daytonas.

Perhaps someone fabricated one for your car??

Best picture of the front of my car I can find at the moment is below. Below the grille, the fascia sweeps down and backward. There is the opening for air inlet, I guess. Further to the rear there is a removable shield that covers the area underneath the radiator and front of engine which attaches to the fascia and the frame. Hard to see this in the pic. I can get a better one tomorrow.
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Joe, Series production Daytona Coupes or Spyders did NOT come with any type of lower air dam assembly from the factory. They did however have a "filler" panel between the back edge of the lower front nose panel and the front x member. I have a coupe myself and have restored a number of these cars including the prototype spyder and I have never seen any sort of air dam, except of course on the factory comp. cars. It sounds like this is a custom fabricated air dam, possibly from some american muscle car, made to fit, or an aftermarket piece. Lower air dams were quite the rage especially in the 70s. Regards Mike Regalia / Regalia Concours Restorations

 

Hi
Indicator len's on e-bay at the moment for $2000 for a pair, link below, but there must be cheeper than that. a pair of unused sold in the UK this week for $1000, on e-bay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=012&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=220163737275&rd=1

love to see a pic. to see what it looks like.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of my lower front fascia (stock except for the dirt!). In the lower picture you can see the lower air inlet and further to the left the front edge of the removable bottom cover or shield.
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Sorry I have been out for awhile. I finally took some pictures of what I am talking about. I did not technically mean an air dam but I was not sure what to call it. It is the plastic (I believe I said fiberglass underbody panel in front of the car). I have included pictures below.

My questions are as follows:

I obviously need to repair or replace this plastic piece. Which is more cost effective?

Does is just unbolt or unscrew from the car?

Can I leave it off or will that effect cooling or downforce (ha, downforce in a 35 year old car)?
I am trying to fix my driveway but it might take awhile.

The ground clearance on my European spec Daytona is only 3 1/2 inches. That seems Enzo low....any thoughts? Perhpas my springs have sagged over time. I would love to know how much ground clearance others have on their Euro Daytonas.

Thanks for your help.

Joe Seminetta
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Ouch, not sure what the ground clearance on mine is, but I have never had any clearance issues even when bouncing through the car park at the Goodwood FOS.

I do try to avoid the larger speed humps that are so loved by just about every local council in my area.

If I get time I will see if I can measure the ground clearance over the weekend.

 

That's very interesting. I believe my lower valance on the daytona is made out of metal.

 

Sorry to a bearer of bad news, but what I can tell from Your pictures, it appears that the"front valance panel" in Your car is made of steel and as such, part of the front body section (= non-detachable).
The cracked pieces appear to be heavy layers of body filler (a.k.a. "bondo").

Timo

 

As for sagging springs (?), You should be able to find out from the service manual front suspension specs if Your "ride height" is correct or not by compering them to Your car.

Timo

 

Interesting on the Bondo. I will check that out this weekend. That might actually be good news as that is easy to fix.

 

I agree with TTR. On my Daytona the front lower valence is metal. It sure appears that yours is as well. From your photos, it appears that yours probably was either badly dented up or got rusty and when repairing it they used a ton of bondo. The rust probably continued under the bondo and thus lead to the bondo cracking out. Further bumping would also exacerbate this.


Don't worry too much. That section is a relatively simple section of metal and any decent body man should be able to fabricate and install a new piece using the old as a pattern. Because it is painted semi-gloss black the repainting of it after the repair should be simple.



Terry

 

Joe,

You can leave it off if you want. It's never caused a problem (leaving it off) for me. Most Daytonas I've seen have this piece missing. It's pretty easy to take off. I've had metal workers make new ones for me. It's pretty easy to do if you have one to copy.

As suggested in previous posts, Squadra Nuvolari, www.squadranuvolari.com, makes these. This is where Re-originals, Lyle Tanner, etc. get them. If you really can't find any, I'm sure I have several laying around. When you said you had the prancing horse in the reflector, do you had the all amber, or amber/clear, with the prancing horse? European cars, depending on destination, came both ways.

Steve