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DG Motorsports air dam |
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Below are some fresh-from-the-body-shop shots of the DG Motorsports "GT F150" air dam.
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| I went with the DG dam because it looks to be way more aero than the stocker. It's flatter, lower, and wider. I also like the splitter on the bottom. With a 2-3" drop in the front, it pretty much hugs the pavement. |
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The brake duct flanges are standard circle track parts, inserted into cutouts in the fog light recesses. They will be painted black. Here is the stock shot from DG showing the fog lights:
The radiator grille will be replaced with a Grillcraft. As awesome as their customer service is, Grillcraft is not set up to make custom or one-off grilles. So I used a combination of material salvaged from my old Grillcraft grills and some additional scrap materials from Grillcraft to fab up heat exchanger and brake duct grilles. I was planning to make some spill plates to force the air through the heat exchanger. No need -- the DG dam fits like a glove. Just enough space to not create a high pressure zone. If anything, a little material may need to be trimmed where the dam meets the face of the HE. All in all, I think the looks and functionality are top notch. Some crappy daytime shots are below. The brake duct flanges have been Photoshopped black and the HE darkened to simulate the effect of the black grill. The turned wheels make the dam look off center, but it is not.
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Grilles:
Since it is way beyond my skills and tools to bend and weld a proper fit-in grille, I had to mount it from behind. But I wanted it to sit flush on all sides, so the HE intake inset needed to be cut down to give it some clearance from the HE, and shaped to fit the contour of the grill. Jerry at Grillcraft advised me against just trying to square off the heat exchanger opening and mount a flat grille behind. He cautioned that the grilles will bend and flex if not bowed. So he gave me a unknown scrap grill from from the redo bin (thanks, Jerry!). |
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tools of the trade are shown to the right. A straightedge,
carpenter's square, calipers with inside depth, tape, and an air
saw. |
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first thing to realize is that the HE opening may not be symmetrical in
its depth. So the first order of business is to square the
back edge up
with the front edge. I used tape as a guide, and then cut down
to the edge of the tape. |
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But since the grille is not flat
on any side, the opening has to be made concave on each side.
For the sides, I laid the grille in place, then traced the edges with
a sharpie onto the tape. Once the sides are done, the grill can lay in flush. I then moved it down to the bottom edge and traced the contour onto the air dam with a scribe. The same thing was done for the top.
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 I
first secured the grille to the bottom bracket (two screws in the
yellow highlight), then secured the grill at the sides. |
| There is no room on the top for L channels (would interfere with being able to reach the screws that hold the dam to the bumper). So I used thick bar stock, with the grille sewn in at the top with stainless safety wire, not to support the grille, but instead to keep the top of the opening tight against the grille. |
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The use of black buttonhead allen screws minimizes the visual impact of the bolt heads (show below before removal and repainting).
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| The brake duct grilles are simple circles cut from scrap Grillcraft material with a band saw and repainted gloss black to stop rust from forming around the edges. They are spaced out from the ducts with 1/4" hex threaded spacers, with bolts coming in from behind to secure the ducts, and from the front to secure the grilles. |
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Note that the
DG dam uses the standard F150 bumper (left), not the Lightning
bumper (right). So I had to procure a new bumper blade (1) and
upper cover (6).
The opening is not
completely straight, either. It tends to be wavy on its edges. So to kill two birds with one
stone, I used aluminum L channel along the sides and bottom.
The grille is bolted to the channels.