Z/28 Brake Duct Kit Installed on a 2013 1LE - Lots of Pics!!

[Nick S]

For a while now I've been looking at pictures of 2014 SS's and Z/28's trying to determine if I would take the chance and try and adapt the Z/28 brake duct kit to my 2013 1LE. Now I know it's not as good as a Quantum kit that directs the air right to the rotor but since I won't be living on road course but rather just participating in a few HPDE's I figured this kit might make more sense for me and offer something that would be better than nothing.

First off I looked at a local 2015 1LE fender liner to see what differences I could notice. It looked pretty similar to my stock fender liner with a few differences with one of them being the extra material and hole cutout for the brake ducts. So I ordered a LH and RH fender liner along with the Z/28 brake duct kit from Maureen at Rodger's.

Part Numbers:
Fender Liner, RH: 22829468
Fender Liner, LH: 22829469
Z/28 Brake Duct Kit: 23252398


When the parts arrived I took some comparison pics of the RH fender liners and was surprised at the number of differences (See pics below). In the first pic the stock 2010-2013 fender liner is the top one and the 2014+ fender liner is the bottom one.

I also had to figure out a way of attaching the brake duct bases to the bumper cover at the grill opening. The 2014+ lower grills have tabs integrated into them that make them bolt on ready for the brake duct kit. My 2013 lower grill did not have these tabs integrated so I made due with some good ole fashion zip ties.

The new fender liners also had a little more material on the outer edge that I had to trim off so I used my stock fender liners and some masking tape to create a template using the holes as a guide. Then I transferred the masking tape over to the new fender liners using the bottom hole and the top hole as a guide to place the template. Then I trimmed the new fender liner to match the template profile and had to drill a new middle hole and drill a new hole for the top hole a little lower than where the 2014+ fender liner top hole is located.

What I've done so far required a lot of test fitting, mocking up, masking tape to mark locations of the duct bases while the bumper cover was installed, etc... Lots of "measuring 3 times", cutting once.

Well there are some pics below showing my progress so far. I have a little more work to do on the fender liners to finish it up and will post some final pics when it's completed.

[Nick S]

Some more Pics and there will be more to follow once I finish modifying the 2014+ fender liners and get everything all buttoned up.

Edit:
Finished pictures uploaded. They are not all in order from start to finish. Just lots of pics to look at so hopefully any angle or detail someone wants to see can be seen.

Thanks.

[Nick S]

All finished pictures are uploaded now in Post #2. If anyone has any questions let me know. I didn't post the pictures necessarily in order from start to finish but in general they are in that order.

Enjoy!

[olblue75]

Man that's bad ass making it all work like that.

[Ventmaster]

Nicely done Nick! Yankee ingenuity lives!!

[Burt]

Looks great! I'll be keeping an eye on this, I'd like to do it on my 2012 at some point.

[Nick S]

Originally Posted by Burt

Looks great! I'll be keeping an eye on this, I'd like to do it on my 2012 at some point.

I'm hoping to finish it up tonight but we'll see how much time I have. I'm going to the Continental Tire Race at Road America tomorrow so I'll need to pack stuff for that and get to bed at a decent time too. If I get it finished tonight I'll try to post more pics then.

[Red2014SS]

Looks great! Can I ask you how much the parts cost you? I'd be interested in using your mod if it's affordable. Thanks!

[Nick S]

Originally Posted by Red2014SS

Looks great! Can I ask you how much the parts cost you? I'd be interested in using your mod if it's affordable. Thanks!

The fender liners are ~$60 each
Brake Duct Kit is ~$240.

So about $360 total for parts (not including the cost of zip ties).

[Red2014SS]

Originally Posted by Nick S

The fender liners are ~$60 each
Brake Duct Kit is ~$240.

So about $360 total for parts (not including the cost of zip ties).

Excellent! Looking forward to reading your reviews of how it performs.

[JDP Sales]

Nice write up and pictures! Looking forward to the finished product.

Kind regards,

-Adrian
888.308.6007

[Nick S]

Originally Posted by Red2014SS

Excellent! Looking forward to reading your reviews of how it performs.

I won't have any experience on road courses without them to compare to though. I'm trying to prevent the possibility of Brake Fade when I go to my first HPDE at Road America on Sept 26th. All I have done this far is Autocross but you never really get the brakes that hot during autocross.

I do have a high powered leaf blower (Stihl BR600) I can direct at the lower grill though and possibly see how much of that air makes it thru to the wheel well dump point.

[h018871]

Glad to see this! Looking forward to the final pics
Now I have no excuse not to do mine

Sub'd

[Nick S]

Finished pictures uploaded in Post#2. Turned out pretty good.

One final installation note:
I know that the front bottom of the 2014 Fender Liner is supposed go on the outside of the bumper covers but with the 2010-2013 bumper covers there is a "Lip" on the edge and the outer corner of the 2014 fender line didn't quite match up and fully cover the bumper cover on my car. So to try and make sure the fender liner wasn't catching air under it I decided to put the bottom flap of the fender liner inside the bumper cover.

It really wasn't that bad to do and only required a few holes to be drilled into the bottom of my bumper cover (which is required regardless since the instructions tell you to drill holes in the bottom of 2014+ bumper covers). For me the most difficult part was just final fitting the 2014 fender liners to the 2010-2013 bumper cover.

Enjoy the pictures!