rs4-380

The belly pan on my car was long gone when I bought it. I wanted to replace it if only to keep the engine bay clean, but new ones were 225+ from the online retailers before shipping, and a skidplate (which I liked, although didn't really need the impact resistance) was about the same cost. Finding one in a junkyard here was an absolute no go, so after stewing around for a couple months, I just decided to attempt to make one on the cheap with what I had laying around.

Therefore, how to make a bellypan replacement using a light switch cover and bubblewrap.

I had a bunch of fiberglass laying around, as well as some epoxy, and had plenty of experience with it, so I decided to lay something up with that. I figured it was easy to make to any shape, could still be flexible, was lightweight, and could be easily repaired if ever broken.

I started out making a template from cardboard
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Traced it roughly out several times on some 6oz cloth alternating, the orientation for strength.


Then laid down some heavy plastic sheeting on the garage floor, and wet out my layers.


Another layer of heavy plastic sheeting was laid on top, then a scrap piece of plywood and some weight to spread the resin and keep any voids from developing.


After curing for a day, the edges were trimmed and the fiberglass was test fit again to make sure it cleared. Fiberglass is like sheet metal, it needs 3 dimensions to have rigidity, so at this point, with 4 layers of 6oz it was still pretty flimsy. To keep things simple, I didn't want to add curvature to the piece, so my other option was sandwiching a filler, which would then add the 3rd dimension and the necessary rigidity. You can really use anything, but ideally, you use something lightweight, as the filler itself does not provide much structural support. Closed cell foam is a great choice, but I couldn't find anything laying around the house that was thin enough, so after looking around I picked up some bubblewrap and used that. Sounds weird, but all I really needed to do was provide something for another layer of glass to sit on, bubblewrap worked fine for that. I only layed the bubblewrap and additional layers to about 8 inches within the front edge, as that needed to remain flexible to curve up and meet the valance. I also reinforced the rear edge (mounting) with a couple additional strips of scrap 'glass.


it ended up turning out better the expected. Fits great and is easy to get in and out. It uses the factory attachment points.



Last step was to coat it with some water barrier coating to keep the moisture from killing it.


It's been on the car now for 2 week and ~600 mile including sitting in 85+ degree weather in boston traffic and seems to be doing the trick without any issues.

Redneck Truck

that's pretty bad ***! put me down for a 4.2 one of those please!

massboykie

Excellent! I did a similar thing on my MKIII Jetta, but I bought a 2mm 4'x4' sheet of aluminium and fabbed it out of that. Fiberglass seems a lot easier!

Cheers
Massboykie

2.7Lturbo

new ones can be had for 150, and they have the three naca ducts that are supposed to be there to help transmission cooling

rs4-380

Not sure where you are seeing them for 150, but I was finding them closer to 200, plus shipping, plus the hardware kit, and we were quickly at 250.

Even if it was 150 shipping, that was about 100 bucks more then I wanted to spend. Considering I had everything laying around for my old boatbuilding days, my cost was about 8 bucks for some new fasteners.