86 Saleen Air Dam Install ?

[TopGear85]

I'm a day or two away from being ready to install the air dam on my 85. I'm going with the 86 air dam until I can get my 85 (holy grail) air dam repaired (it has a couple tears) and painted. My questions are:

Is there anything special I need to do in order to install the 86 air dam? Do I leave the fender extension on or do those have to be removed? I plan on using some body shop grade double sided tape (which I bought from an automotive paint store, along with some liquid "ultra Bond tape adhesion promoter"), as well as two rivets on each side (inside the wheel well, in the fender extension area)-. Is this what everyone has done? Is this what Saleen did or did they simply rely on the tape?

I've never installed an air dam before so if anyone has any tips I would appreciate the advice. I'm super excited about this because I just installed the spats and with those and the air dam, it will finally look like a Saleen. I justo want the air dam to be secure so I don't have to worry about sagging, or God forbid...it falling off.

Please help Saleen guys.

[wraithracing]

I have never installed the 86 style Saleen air dam, so I may be incorrect.

In my experience all of the wrap around front air dam/spoilers require removal of the fender extensions. I would assume the same is true for the Saleen air dam, but a simple test fit of the air dam should verify it for you.

The double sided tape should do the trick for the front, although I do know that some of the Saleen air dams used screws or rivets on the front for additional holding strength. I would also assume that some screws and J nuts or U nuts inside the front wheel well area would work as well as rivets and yet be easier to remove if needed and that would be my recommendation.

I am sure a more experienced Saleen owner will post up more/better information to help you out.

Good Luck!

Trey

[BaconB8]

I don't think the rivets are the way to go, for an 86 anyways. There should be a couple of screws in the wheelwell, 2-3, and tape all around the top edge of the airdam. The front extensions stay on the car.

I found to get the airdam lined up properly it was easier to make a cut in the plastic that goes on the backside of the tape near the center of the front bumper, then line up the dam, and then remove the backing. So you'd be having two tabs of the plastic backing sticking out just a bit near the center of the bumper, where the licence plate goes. This way you can get the part centered and level in relation to the lower edge of the beltline trim on the bumper cover.

[BaconB8]

Does your car have an LX bumper cover or a GT cover?

[TopGear85]

It should have a GT, but someone put an LX on sometime before I got the car. Im not sure if it was Saleen or a previous owner, but the car is a GT.

[TopGear85]

Thanks for the help guys, I guess screws are the way to go. Do I use J or U nuts with those screws?

[83gtstang]

Hey Top Gear, this is an old post, but the pictures could be of help,


never mind post was deleted, I'll keep looking.

http://shop.saleen.com/86_Front_Air_Dam_p/033-015.htm

Wonder what their install kit consists of....

[BaconB8]

Mine are screwed straight into the fiberglass extension.

[TopGear85]

BaconB8, does your 85 have it's original air dam or are you running an 86?

[BaconB8]

I run the 86 front. I don't want to damage the unreplaceable 85 urethane one.

I actually have both 85 versions. Urethane and Fiberglass.

[TopGear85]

Which is correct for your car? I completely understand not wanting to run either of the hard to find air dams. I've been lucky and come across two of the urethane ones in the last couple of years. For me, finding the alarm or steering wheel has been a much harder task.

[BaconB8]

I have 2 85's.

Both would be correct with a 85 urethane dam, and both have 86 airdams installed at present. I have one urethane 85 dam for each of the cars stored in the attic.

As for the fiberglass front, I found it on craigslist awhile back. I nearly passed out in my computer chair when I saw it listed semi-locally.

I've never seen another Wolf steering wheel for sale, and the alarms have shown up NOS from time to time.

[BaconB8]

I'll be installing this in place of the worn out stocker soon. The stocker will be stored until the cars are worth restoring.

[TopGear85]

That's awesome Bacon...well all of it...having two urethane air dams, two 85 Saleens, and that killer motor. Are there threads about your 85's on here so I can see some pics? I wonder how many 85's are left?

[BaconB8]

There's some stuff around here. I haven't been on lately, so not much activity overall.

Foxchassis has some pics on his site. They're 85-0001 and 85-0090.

[TopGear85]

I thought you were the owner of 85-0001, but you have a different name here than you do on the Saleen sites. That's such an awesome pick up...congrats on that and thanks for your help.

I was wondering...if you get a chance can you help me with the placement of the lower rocker graphics? I need to figure out where exactly they go (I know where they go, I'm talking more about measurement and placement)?

[2002-168]

for help with the graphics call Mark at Performance Autosports in Richmond,VA. He gave us some great tips when we were restoring 86-64

[BaconB8]

Mark is the best source for this information.

My only experience installing stripes is putting an incorrect 87-88 set of slightly damaged stripes on 85-0090. It wasn't correct, but I wanted to have stripes re-applied so it would at least look more like a Saleen and not just a kit.

[TopGear85]

Can one of you 86 Saleen owners ( or an 85 Saleen owner that's running the 86 air dam) please post a couple pics of the inside of the front wheel wells...where the air dam mounts to the fender extensions? I'm having a hard time getting everything to fit, so much so that I assumed the fender extensions must come off in order for the air dam to fit. I know that isn't supposed to happen, so I need to figure out if something's wrong or if I'm trying to mount this the wrong way. I just need to see how Saleen (or you) did it so I can copy that.

Thanks!

[TopGear85]

Are you supposed to see that much of the fender extension?

[1986Saleen]

Apologies in advance for the crappy lighting and dirty fender wells...

[TopGear85]

That is exactly what I needed to see. Once again your beautiful Saleen has helped me with my crappy one.