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I bought mine from a GM dealer in 1990 after noticing the spoiler extension on a 79 in 1989 while at a car show. I went to a local Chevy dealer parts department and ordered mine (which is still the GM one that I ordered today on the car), waited a week or so for it to come in, and went and picked it up. The parts guy told me at the time that the L-82's with Heavy Duty cooling only got the spoiler extension from the factory and years went by before I ever saw the spoiler extension on a non 79 C3. I originally was chasing a cooling issue with my L-82 and the reason I purchased the spoiler extension......It solved the heat issue at speed with my L-82. The 79 Only with this spoiler extension with the heavy duty GM cooling package also came from the factory with an electric fan mounted inside the lower mechanical fan shroud area inside the hood in the engine bay that came on only periodically for additional airflow when the car was not at speed. I recall paying $20 for the piece from GM in 1990! The spoiler extension was mounted by me in 1990 with aluminum bolts/nuts that I bought from a local hardware store and has never been touched by me since then...stainless screws and nuts were hard to come by in 1990 and I was looking for a light weight fastner that would not rust. You can see in this picture from 2017 that my diligence paid off...no rust!
This is a GM spoiler^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
100 Percent correct!
The extension was only original on 1979 cars with L-82, with HD cooling (which included the aux. cooling fan) and no pace car spoiler.
But it will attach to any of the ABS plastic spoilers from 1968-1979 without any issue.
We should have more stock early in the coming week, I just got an update on this Friday.
As shown on my picture above and in the Willcox renditions previously, the GM extension has a split midline to allow for this rubber piece to flex if it encountered any contact with road obstacles. It was never intended to be a "spoiler" in the true definition of the word reducing drag and lift. Remember that this piece was a 1 year ONLY option, 1979 L-82's with heavy duty cooling ONLY, that also came with the factory auxiliary electric cooling fan inside the mechanical fan shroud, for additional cooling for the L82's that ran right from the factory, very high coolant temps...normal temp for a 4 speed L-82 was 225 and with AC on a hot day, 1978 and 1979's without HD cooling could run 240 degrees. The 1978 L-82s heat issues were the reason for the 1979 only option of the rubber spoiler extension. Since this extension was used only in 1979 AND was NOT installed on many L-82's was probably the reason that it was pop riveted on as an afterthought...................there were very few 1979 L-82's that had this spoiler extension whose sole purpose was to increase the airflow directed to the radiator to reduce the coolant temps at normal highway speeds, not uber high speeds. This factory piece extension's objective ^^^^^^^^was to aid with cooling at speed, nothing more. Of course making it much more rigid can change its effect at speed but it really is not practical for street driving since you can see that the bottom of the extension is VERY close to the roadway and needs to be flexible.
Note-I have not once bottomed it while driving, just an occasional slight scrap with some driveways on my 78 that is about 2-3 inches lower in the front versus the factory ride height.........with the spoiler extension. Also, the GM spoiler extension on my car does NOT flex visually at 80-90 MPH...can't say above those speeds which I do not drive at with this car on the highway....
All I see is a black shadow where your spoiler supposedly is.
how rigid are they. Someone posted that they fold back at higher speeds (90mph).
They are reinforced rubber about 1/4 inch thick... I've never measured one myself to be honest.... What I'm curious about is how anyone would know they fold over at 90
I had one on my original 1979 car... and I had it over 90 plenty of times and the spoiler extension never caused any issue and the car never over-heated.
I guess maybe someone had a car at the track and someone saw it do this? Again I'm just curious...
We have two coming in tomorrow (I told the company that makes them for us to get me two asap since we already have 2 backorders and we'll have the complete order by the end of the week since we've sold more since I told them this), so I'll take a measurement on them when they arrive.
They are reinforced rubber about 1/4 inch thick... I've never measured one myself to be honest.... What I'm curious about is how anyone would know they fold over at 90
I had one on my original 1979 car... and I had it over 90 plenty of times and the spoiler extension never caused any issue and the car never over-heated.
I guess maybe someone had a car at the track and someone saw it do this? Again I'm just curious...
We have two coming in tomorrow (I told the company that makes them for us to get me two asap since we already have 2 backorders and we'll have the complete order by the end of the week since we've sold more since I told them this), so I'll take a measurement on them when they arrive.
Willcox
that would be great, thanks. They said they were on a rally trip and one of the other drivers noticed the spoiler folding back. It wasn't one of these but one like it.
What I'm curious about is how anyone would know they fold over at 90.
I guess maybe someone had a car at the track and someone saw it do this? Again I'm just curious.
Willcox
I was the person that wrote about that, but I never claimed that it was folding over. What I did say was that I had a buddy look at it for me from his car while we were driving about 90mph on a track, and he told me that it was being significantly bent by the air pressure. He told me that it was being bent back a little past perpendicular to the ground, and his exact words were “That thing is doing **** all for you as a spoiler”
The one I had on my car was bought from a doctor that rebuilds, and from your description, it was made of similar material.
Keep in mind I wasn’t looking for it to boost cooling, I was looking for more stability at higher speeds. This is why I switched to the pace car type spoiler, which I feel does a much better job at adding stability at elevated speeds.......especially since it gets a lot more of the front wheels out of the air stream.
The spoilers are 3/16 thick and the one you probably got was more than likely a NOS original. It was probably the same as the one we used to make the pattern for the current reproduction, to my knowledge I'm the only manufacturer making this part. And while we expected only 2 of these today, we now have plenty in stock.
03-17-2018, 03:08 PM
