I’ve decided to run a front splitter on the B34TER.  And I managed to convince Mauncho to do the same on his E36.  It was easy, it took one text.   Now that that decision is made, we need to figure out how to actually building them.

We’ve chosen to go with the popular grassroots option of plywood.   Before you consider that to be ghetto fab or doing it wrong.  I assure you, any track day or time attack event will have a multitude of amateur and semi-professionally prepared vehicles sporting plywood splitters.

This Evo for example sports a great wood splitter.  DIY thread link.

Birch wood provides the right combination of flexibility, rigidity, and strength.  It is also very cost effective as it can be purchased at any Home Depot or Lowe’s.  If money is no object, you have the options to use carbon fiber, alumilite or Tegris (NASCAR splitters).  Slightly cheaper options include ABS plastic. For our purpose, of providing mostly aesthetics and the possibility of some track time, the use of plywood made sense.  Moreover, the addition of a splitter could improve your mileage.  Hence I’ve dumped the idea of canards attached to the bumper.  Instead I will have canards/winglets on the splitter near the sides to direct the air around the car. Repeated layers of urethane and sanding and a couple of coats of paint, will yield a finish on the plywood that will be very close if not identical to painted plastic.  Considering the cheap cost of plywood and urethane, I was slightly surprised by the cost of splitter supports.  The shock type supports seem to have extremely huge markups on ebay.  $60-80 a pair? No thanks.  I think a look through a McMaster-Carr catalogue will yield alternative solutions. I’ve also seen the use of steel cable and fittings used. We might have to resort to this if cheaper supports are not found. Since the e36 and e34 have relatively square bumpers.  I’m fairly certain both cars will have identically shaped splitters. Supports and bolt location will undoubtedly change however the templete used to cut out the splitter will hopefully be applied to both.  Allowing us to easily build a replacement splitter once they wear down.  And wear down, they undoubtedly will. Amir’s red E36 posted by Stanceworks has a great splitter design.  And it is one we will lend cues from.  It does not appear to be made of plywood but I digress.

Stanceworks Source.