Why hasn't someone built a skid plate out of aluminun? It seems to be strong enough for the off road trucks but the only ones we can get are heavy steel or stainless.I would think it would be plenty tough and much lighter and much less expensive than a composite. By the way, does that mean carbon fiber,kevlar, or fiberglass?

 

Any diff in weight between the stainless and black? I'd like to go stainless but if you can't see it what's the point?

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I put a small piece of wire mesh in front of the fan and attached it to the fan body with 3 rivets, works great!

 

exactly what i'm going to do, quite like industrial computer housing fan guards.
super job :smile:

 

Is the main concern with protecting the fan the fan itself? Or is it just to keep stuff from stopping the blades. If it's just about keeping the blades free of debris then that computer fan grill sounds like a good idea. For some reason I was under the impression that the whole fan, housing, needed to be protected because it was plastic.

 

>>Is the main concern with protecting the fan the fan itself? Or is it just to keep stuff from stopping the blades. If it's just about keeping the blades free of debris then that computer fan grill sounds like a good idea. For some reason I was under the impression that the whole fan, housing, needed to be protected because it was plastic. <<

I think it's probably best to protect the whole thing, not just the opening. I'm thinking about snow here - seems like if you're driving through 4 or 5 inches of snow, the opening of the power steering fan could clog up. As far as the durability of the whole plastic fan assembly if you run over a piece of debris or something, I have no idea...

 

Added the Moss powder-coated skid plate this week-end. fifteen minute one person job, weighs some 25 lbs or more though. Couldn't justify the additional $$ for stainless that will only be viewed for a split-second by road kill (before the fact). IMHO a worthwhile investment, especially when viewed with the plastic crap MINI uses for OE.

 

what about doing this. i did this to my vw. i took a metal skid plate. drilled a few holes in it about a inch big. i did 5 over the entire plate. this alloud for air to go in and nothing bigger than a inch. it had to be quite well placed for this to go through. nothing has gone in cept soem water and dust and the occasional mud. no more heat issues for that.