One of the things I really wanted to do in my Saab is to up the size of the skid plate. Why would I want to do that and why does my Saab need a skid plate from factory to begin with? Well, while other cars have an oil pan on the bottom of the engine, the old Saabs had the engine bolted to the top of the transmission. So, if you go over something you should not the first thing that would suffer is the transmission. Now, different from older oil pans, the Saab transmission is cast aluminum; if it gets hit, it will crack instead of bending. Why did I say
older oil pans? Because it seems many newer cars are now also using cast aluminum oil pans. Perhaps the car manufacturers want them to crack, so you lose the engine oil and have to get at least another engine, when they will just persuade you to get a nice new-smell car.
But, I digress. The point is that Saab put a skid plate to increase the chances the transmission will not meet an untimely death (I wonder how many people and things were met with a timely death...). It is a nice cute little piece of steel that is bolted to the front of the car, underneath the transmission:
For normal people doing normal driving, it is probably good enough and should do fine throughout the expected life of the car. Problem is I am not a normal bloke and sometimes, well, I do not drive the car the proper and sensible way. Also, I tend to keep cars longer than their expected 5 year life. And, on the top of that, I just wanted something more evil for the skid plate.
Someone at Saab Central was running a group buy on slightly more uncivilized skid plates. I jumped into the opportunity and grabbed me one. It is made of 1/4in thick aluminum. Here is a comparison of the factory skid plate and the one designed to run over Fred Flintstone:
The holes are designed to attach, on the rear to the bottom of the brace that goes under the engine, through the two large holes that are on the bottom of the brace as shown below. The original skid plate would be bolted on the rear to the two little studs on the front of the brace. So, the new skid plate would also protect this brace.
On the front, the new skid plate expects to be bolted to where a plastic strip just behind the front spoiler is bolted:
That strip is held by some machine screws which then are screwed into wimpy nut inserts. That just will not do it: the first bump and the skid plate will be ripped out of the car. And, let's be honest: I do not trust those screws holding such a heavy piece of aluminum in place for long.
I will have to come up with something a bit more clever. This may take some time but it worth doing.
That's right! The little oil cooler that comes in the turbo cars. Isn't it cute? What scares me is that it is on the bottom of the car. The rubber looking thing you are seeing on the bottom image is the rubber lip on the bottom of the nose. If something smashes into it, things can be rather exciting.
For normal people doing normal driving, it is probably good enough and should do fine throughout the expected life of the car. Problem is I am not a normal bloke and sometimes, well, I do not drive the car the proper and sensible way. Also, I tend to keep cars longer than their expected 5 year life. And, on the top of that, I just wanted something more evil for the skid plate.
On the front, the new skid plate expects to be bolted to where a plastic strip just behind the front spoiler is bolted:
That strip is held by some machine screws which then are screwed into wimpy nut inserts. That just will not do it: the first bump and the skid plate will be ripped out of the car. And, let's be honest: I do not trust those screws holding such a heavy piece of aluminum in place for long.
I will have to come up with something a bit more clever. This may take some time but it worth doing.
