Daytona Air deflectors
 

One decision that has to be made in building a Daytona is the air deflectors on the sides of the windshield. These were added to the cars to direct air to the rear brake intakes beside the side window. They are made of 3/16th plexiglass. They have a molded in curve and as such, plexiglass has to be used rather than Lexan. Lexan does not lend itself well to at home molding.
The deflectors are attached to the body and the roof of the car. I remember when I flew out R&D Design car to see their first completed demo car. It had the deflectors attached to the doors which was incorrect. If you look at the present issue of Kit Car Builders, the NAF car pictured on the cover has the deflectors mounted to high on the roof. Also, if you look at the picture of the side window, it has one of those round aircraft air inlets. These were not original but addresses the point of this correspondence. If you decide to do your car as an original and go to these deflectors, know this: they work very well to redirect the air back to the brake inlets. There draw back is this: the air they direct back is air that has come through the radiator opening. This air is warm to hot. If you put your hand out the window opening, you can feel a layer of air about 2 inches in depth that is hot and then the cooler ambiant temperature air. One reason Daytonas run warm inside the car is that the car is continually covered in radiator exhaust air. The windshield air deflectors help increase covering the car with even more warm air. If you are not familiar with these deflectors look at the photo in my gallery and enlarge it until you can see them by the windshield.

I'll be building a coupe very shortly. I don't have to have it totally "period authentic" so, would it be better to just leave off those deflectors? It's bad enough they run hot on the inside without introducing more hot air.
btw, car will be street driven 99% of the time.

Your thoughts?

I haven't installed them yet, but I have a set from Russ Thompson that attach
to the pillars instead of the doors. He has pictures of them on his car on his build site.

tfalk,

You need to upload a few pics of your coupe in your gallery. Would love to see what you did to it. Not many coupe guys around.....we need to stick together !!...lol

Got a link to Russ' build site?

Hi Guys,

You can see them on my Coupe...pics in the gallery.

These came from Russ T....the best pic of them is of Carroll Shelby signing the dash in my coupe --- he had to crawl inside and is not as flexible as he has been in years gone by.

Tony R.

FiaCobra,

I know you live in New York so heat maybe not that much of an issue. Any car, I build that is enclosed is air conditioned. I actually like the look of the coupe without the deflectors. But it makes the brake ducts useless if you do not have them. Most people do not setup the rear duct system as a working system so the front air deflectors are not needed. It's a matter of taste and function, everyone has their own views.

Thanks FiaCobra! These were taken at a show last weekend... still have a LONG way to go...

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4...7/DSC00091.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4...7/DSC00090.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4...7/DSC00027.jpg

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i5...n/IMG_0248.jpg

I agree with your approach bkozlow and I had tryed to do it as close as the original to maintain the legend of these deflectors origine. However, as it was not easy to curve it, I had installed a flat sheet of plexiglass :rolleyes:

Molding
 

Nanard289

The easiest way, I have found for making these is to bend a sheet of some 1/16th aluminium in a curve. Cut into two pieces about 15 inches long by 4 inches. Take a piece of plexi-glass about the same size and place it on one of the curved aluminium pieces in, yes, your home oven at about 280--300 degrees until it starts to drop over the aluminium. Put the other aluminium piece over the plexi-glass making an alum-plexi-glass--aluminium sandwich.

Pull out of the oven and clamp with those $1.00 squeeze clamps from Home Depot. The clamping force keeps the curved shape as the plexi-glass cools.
Trim to desired length and width. It may take a few trys. The aluminium and the plexi-glass must be CLEAN or you will get marring. As this smells a little in the house best to do when the wife is out. Lexan should not be used as it does not work well and requires after molding a baking operation to remove moisture from it or it will cloud over.

I use a fiber glass male and female mold instead of the aluminium but the aluminium works fine if you just want to make a couple.

Anyway, that's how I do it.

Bill K

Hi Bill,
Many thanks for your information. Il will try next time to do this special sandwitch ;)

I know this is an old thread, but are these deflectors available from any of the forum suppliers?

Cheers
Greg

Greg,
I checked a few places and there seems to be no supplier for the deflectors. I have found it impossible to post pictures on this site, probably my fault. So, send me at wkozlow@aol.com your E-mail address and I will take some photos and send them to you. You will see that when done correctly they are very nice additions. I checked the NAF site and you don't want to do like the car they have pictured, their placement is incorrect. The top of the deflector should be even with the window frame, not like the NAF car. If you contact me and I have time, I will make up some drawings of how they should look with some pictures. Also, since you say you have a NAF car, I noticed that the rear spoiler in also incorrect, The sides of the spoiler have no overhang and the NAF car looks to have at least 2" on each side used with the 3 attaching screws to secure it. The originals came down flush and were attached only on the two width edges of the spoiler. I do have some pictures of that attachment already, as I had someone else wanted info on that, if you want it.

Bill K

Hi Bill K. I am actually helping a friend on his Factory Five Gen 1 Daytona coupe.

I have a NAF 427 Cobra configured as a street roadster.

I will e-mail you.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers
Greg

I made custom curved air deflectors for #51. Made a curved buck and formed the Lexan. You can use either a female of male buck to form the Lexan and go from there. I'd up load a photo but there appears to be a problem with the site's firewall. You can go to my post re SPC051 retro mods to see the deflectors.