|
Fitting an alloy undertray
Having bought an unused alloy under tray from Pablo (thanks Pablo) I fitted it last night. It was very straight forward to fit so here is some info if you are thinking of doing the same.
The 156 GTA alloy tray is the same as the one for the GT 3.2 (and I presume for the 147 GTA).
Tools required: 10mm socket for 4 No. bolts onto subframe and wheel enclosure, T30 Torx (or star) bit for 5 No. bolts along u/s of bumper. Copper grease to apply to bolt threads when refitting (stops threads rusting and seizing). 2mm pilot drill bit and approx 8mm drill bit for repositioning holes.
I raised the car by driving the front wheels onto car ramps, but needed to use some flag stones under the front wheels to raise the car high enough for the front bumper to clear the ramps. The front edges of the ramps were also placed onto the flags so the car didn't drop before going up the ramps. Then try to ignore the smell of burning clutch when working under the car!!
The original tray is easily removed after undoing the 9 bolts. Then the alloy tray can be slid into place. I found that when aligning the rear holes onto the subframe, 3 of the holes to the front bumper (centre & n/s) lined up fine, but the 2 o/s holes needed fresh holes drill into the tray. You will be left with the 2 bolts that fixed the OEM tray to the wheel enclosures, these are not needed for the alloy tray.
OEM tray lowest point: 93mm (centre, between wheels)
New alloy tray lowest point: 110mm (centre, between wheels)
Although the new tray only gives 17mm additional clearance towards the back of the tray, the front section is 40mm higher meaning improved clearance going up rams and low curbs (see PDF sketch below)
I also weighed the OEM and alloy trays to see if there was a difference (thanks to the wifes electronic kitchen scales...):
OEM tray (plus the left over bolts!!!): 4.37 kg
Alloy tray: 4.34 kg
So an extra 17mm of ground clearance and a weight saving of 0.03 kg…result!
I also checked if there is enough clearance to fit a front subframe brace and it seemed fine, a few spacers or washers maybe required to drop the tray slightly.
|