4 Ways To Protect Your Front Splitter
When you have a front splitter on your car, it can be easy to scrape it on a driveway curb, parking block, speed bump, or something else. If the impact is bad enough, the front splitter may even break.
The good news is that there are ways to protect your splitter from scrapes and cracks.
1. Reinforce The Splitter
You can reinforce your splitter, so that if you bang it on something, it doesn’t break. This is what race teams typically do, actually. It doesn’t look super clean, but it works if implemented correctly.
The most common way to reinforce a front splitter is to buy an aftermarket splitter frame. They are typically made of composite. The frame installs behind the front splitter. This is a good solution if you don’t want your front splitter to bend or crack, but there still won’t be any protection against scrapes.
2. Install A Splitter Made From ABS Plastic
Splitters made from ABS plastic don’t look as nice as a metal or carbon fiber splitter. But, they’re extremely durable, as they can bend without breaking.
Keep in mind that this solution doesn’t offer any protection against scrapes or any other sort of cosmetic damage.
3. Cover The Entire Splitter In Transparent Film
You can take the 3M transparent film that’s used for protecting hoods and install it on your front splitter. Transparent film is time consuming to install and kind of expensive, but it will help prevent light scrapes and scratches. However, it won’t keep your front splitter from bending or cracking.
4. Add A Lightweight Protection Strip To The Splitter
You can add a protection strip like the Razor Lip to the underside of the splitter, and this may be a great solution. If the splitter isn’t too big (like the integrated splitter in a newer Mustang bumper), this will look great. But if you’ve got a more aggressive splitter, it will look odd.
You also don’t want to add some big and heavy protection strip to your splitter. It will change the look of the splitter and also kind of defeat the purpose of having one.
A lightweight protection strip will definitely protect your front splitter from scratches. A good one (like the Razor Lip) is designed to absorb some of the impact to help prevent bends or cracks.
Will Adding Something To The Splitter Affect Aerodynamics?
Technically, splitters are supposed to be aerodynamic parts that literally ‘split’ the air. There’s some debate about how effective splitters actually are on street cars. They probably have minimal effect on the performance of a regular car. But, someone could argue that it makes no aerodynamic sense to add anything to a splitter that would take away from its mission.
An Alternative To Consider
As you can see, splitter protection options are sort of limited.
Adding things to protect the splitter is a lot of work for little reward. Instead, consider removing the splitter and adding a bumper protection strip like the Razor Lip instead. The Razor Lip:
- Helps give vehicles a lowered look just like a front splitter would.
- Is easy to install.
- Doesn’t cost that much.
- Offers protection without requiring any sort of drilling or permanent changes to your vehicle.
Most importantly, a bumper protection lip protects your bumper from scrapes. It will not break or crack as it’s flexible, and will just fold back when it comes in contact with something.
Learn more about Razor Lip here.
