Nothing beats the feeling of liberation when you drive a sports car with an open-air.
However, when you drive on a freeway at high speed, the inside gets really windy and noisy. You need a wind deflector to fight against incoming air.
Unfortunately whoever is the original owner of the car didn’t afford to put this must-have option for any convertible car. If I bring the car to the shop, it will cost me about a grand ($1K), so I was looking for a knock-off wind deflector online and found one on ebay at $135.
Now my DIY project is on. The installation requires drilling holes in the bar behind the seat.
The steel (?) bar behind the seat is the target location to make a hole.
This bar feels really solid. I guess the bar was made in an extra strong material to provide a protection in case of a roll-over.
Since I had no prior experience in drilling holes in hard metal. I went online and read some articles about drilling a metal. It seemed easy enough, then I ordered the followings on Amazon.com.
What you need
#1: Power Drill
I think any power drill will do. You don’t need a speed for drilling a hole in Metal, all you need is patience. I used one that I had for more than 10 years. If you are buying one, get one with battery, so you don’t have to worry about the power-plug near by.
#2: Drill Bits
I got two 1/8 inch drill bits. They are cheap ($2/bit), so make sure you buy a spare, because they brake quite often.
#3: Center Punch
You need a center punch to make a dimple, creating a starting point that prevents drills from wandering. You can use a hammer and nail/screw to make a dimple if you want to save $5 bucks.
#4: Lubricants oil
When you drill a hole in a metal. The area of drilling gets extremely high temperature, resulting damage on the bits and the target area. This oil keeps it cool. I think any oil will do the job, so you can probably get one from your kitchen and AVOID MUDA.
Installation
With proper preparation, tools, and knowledge, there is nothing to fear.
Got a power code for the power drill.
Dimple, apply oil, start drilling, clean the surface. Repeat. After 10 mins… finally there is a 1/8 inch hole ;-)
After the drilling, the installation was simple. I got a transparent cylindrical bumpers for eliminating the vibration between wind deflector and the bar.
A sticker for the final touch and the installation was completed as planned.
Feeling a bit of satisfaction.
I should hit a road to test it out. The weekend is not over yet.
Thank you,
-Tack T.
The next DIY project:
Installing aftermarket dual dash cams for the parking surveillance.
Eventually, with the help of IoT technology, I want to bring the vehicle fully online, tracking the location of the vehicle, monitoring condition, capture footage and safeguard while driving and parking, day and night.
I got the connectivity part figured out (thanks to SORACOM) , now looking for the integration options with the dash cams. Let me know if someone has already done similar things.
