skid plates

[Coldshot]

does anyone know of any skid plates designed for our cars? my car is lowered, and i bottomed out on the highway the other day, almost cracked the housing on my transmission. im hoping someone has made something, otherwise im gonna have to fabricate something. my oil pan has a few dings in it too. i need to do something before something really bad happens.

[Alister_McRae]

As far as I know, no companies make a skid plate for our cars. I was thinking of doing the same thing. You could go down to the local home depot or lowes and buy thick sheets of metal, get your car up on a lift, measure the sides and back, and create your own. Just bolt it right into the body. I dont think it should be that hard. The only hard part would be obtaining a lift for your car, and some extra hands to help you lift the metal.

[VIO]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alister_McRae)</div><div class='quotemain'>As far as I know, no companies make a skid plate for our cars. I was thinking of doing the same thing. You could go down to the local home depot or lowes and buy thick sheets of metal, get your car up on a lift, measure the sides and back, and create your own. Just bolt it right into the body. I dont think it should be that hard. The only hard part would be obtaining a lift for your car, and some extra hands to help you lift the metal.</div>

that's a really good idea. i think, however, with the strength of sheet metal, you'll need to double up on the sheets for some real protection. that's just my opinion though. i could be wrong. cheers.

[Alister_McRae]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(VIO)</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alister_McRae)</div><div class='quotemain'>As far as I know, no companies make a skid plate for our cars. I was thinking of doing the same thing. You could go down to the local home depot or lowes and buy thick sheets of metal, get your car up on a lift, measure the sides and back, and create your own. Just bolt it right into the body. I dont think it should be that hard. The only hard part would be obtaining a lift for your car, and some extra hands to help you lift the metal.</div>

that's a really good idea. i think, however, with the strength of sheet metal, you'll need to double up on the sheets for some real protection. that's just my opinion though. i could be wrong. cheers.</div>

Watch Dennis Miller a lot? https://www.thegalantcenter.org/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif Anyway, yeah you have a good point, but you dont want to bog the car down with to many sheets, because it could become heavy really fast. Maybe try to obtain sheets of titanium, or a really light weight but strong metal. That might be his best bet.

[Wolfman]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alister_McRae)</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(VIO)</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alister_McRae)</div><div class='quotemain'>As far as I know, no companies make a skid plate for our cars. I was thinking of doing the same thing. You could go down to the local home depot or lowes and buy thick sheets of metal, get your car up on a lift, measure the sides and back, and create your own. Just bolt it right into the body. I dont think it should be that hard. The only hard part would be obtaining a lift for your car, and some extra hands to help you lift the metal.</div>

that's a really good idea. i think, however, with the strength of sheet metal, you'll need to double up on the sheets for some real protection. that's just my opinion though. i could be wrong. cheers.</div>

Watch Dennis Miller a lot? https://www.thegalantcenter.org/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif Anyway, yeah you have a good point, but you dont want to bog the car down with to many sheets, because it could become heavy really fast. Maybe try to obtain sheets of titanium, or a really light weight but strong metal. That might be his best bet.</div>

HAHA titanium. Looks like he'll be buying his car agin if thats the case :laughing:

[VIO]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE("Alister_McRae)</div><div class='quotemain'>Watch Dennis Miller a lot? Â*:lol: Â* Â* Anyway, yeah you have a good point, but you dont want to bog the car down with to many sheets, because it could become heavy really fast. Maybe try to obtain sheets of titanium, or a really light weight but strong metal. That might be his best bet.</div>

no, i don't really care for dennis miller. as for titanium, the chances of getting that stuff at a price that wouldn't be in the thousands are slim and none and slim's on his way out of town. that's if you cuold even find a place that you could buy it from and then find the tools to cut and drill it. cheers.

[Alister_McRae]

You can buy thin sheets of titanium for less than 100 bucks. My dad is in the semi-conductor business so he deals with these kinds of metals all the time. He sells these sheets of titanium to military weapons manufacter's for blast shields and what not for their tests facilities. An average sheet of titanium measures a little less than one inch in thinkness and is about 4 ft by 3 ft, and can be sold for less than $100 bucks. Granted, its thin, but you are just preventing it from scraping your under carage, unless you plan on doing rally race in your galant, a thin sheet of titanium should do the trick. Like VIO said, obtaining tools to cut this would be difficult, but titanium is not, and its not as expensive as they make it out to be.

[VIO]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alister_McRae)</div><div class='quotemain'>You can buy thin sheets of titanium for less than 100 bucks. My dad is in the semi-conductor business so he deals with these kinds of metals all the time. He sells these sheets of titanium to military weapons manufacter's for blast shields and what not for their tests facilities. An average sheet of titanium measures a little less than one inch in thinkness and is about 4 ft by 3 ft, and can be sold for less than $100 bucks. Granted, its thin, but you are just preventing it from scraping your under carage, unless you plan on doing rally race in your galant, a thin sheet of titanium should do the trick. Like VIO said, obtaining tools to cut this would be difficult, but titanium is not, and its not as expensive as they make it out to be.</div>


really? $100? that's all. wow, i thought it would be way more expensive then that. well, i was WAY off.

[Danger DANJ]

Forget a skid plate, just get the D3 chassis stiffening kit. I have that kit on my car and the front stiffening bar hangs down lower than anything else on the car. I bottom out once in a while on the highway as well, but with the chassis stiffening kit, the front bar hits the ground first. No problems except some scrapes on the front bar. My oil pan and transmission are now safe.

[Elwenil]

Oh and if you are going to do any sort of skid plate, you will have to go with at least 1/8" thick mild steel. Nothing else is suitable for skidplates. Aluminum is too flimsy unless it's real thick, and it is real soft. Titanium is interesting, but is too hard to work with and will crack under a blow. Steel is best, since it's hard, yet flexible enough to bend rather than crack and break. I've made many skid plates for 4x4's and with the weight of our cars something near an 1/8" is best for the underbody. Plus steel is easy as hell to work with, and is easy to bend into shape with a torch. You will need to bend a "ramp" on the front of the plate to keep it from digging in. Remember to make it a bolt on deal, as you wil need to remove it to access the underside of the engine/tranny to service or repair it.