Ice Block Damage + New Skid Plate

[djhedges]

A few month ago I hit a big chunk of ice on the way up to the Mountain. Here was some of the damage.




Most of the plastic was covering the engine was damaged. Sometime later I got the bright idea to drive thru a flooded parking lot. Here's some of the results from that.




My poor car but I'm finally getting around to fixing her up. I had already replaced the belly pan once before and it was cracked before the giant block of ice. So I wasn't excited about ordering yet more plastic.

Instead I ordered a OEM skid plate from 1stvwparts.com along with the rivnuts and brackets. I dug up the part numbers from another post here and verified with the guys from the site. Some of the part numbers had been updated but otherwise they were spot on. I was worried that I wasn't going to be install it without a rivnut kit or instructions.

BOLT Make: Volkswagen N91031702 2 $1.71 $3.42
NUT Make: Volkswagen N90810602 7 $1.40 $9.80
PLATE Make: Volkswagen 1J0018930C 1 $157.64 $157.64
BRACKET Make: Volkswagen 1J0018885A 2 $50.14 $100.28
BOLT Make: Volkswagen N10070403 7 $1.83 $12.81
BUMPER Make: Volkswagen 1J0018977A 3 $3.36 $10.08
BRACKET Make: Volkswagen 1J0018967A 3 $10.07 $30.21

The total was $360.19 with shipping. Shipping is usually free but the skid plate is so heavy so they charged me $35.95 to ship everything. Compared to the OEM plate from ECS which is $439.42 including shipping. If you haven't checked 1stvwparts.com I highly recommend them. It's a VW dealership in Washington. I'm located in Oregon and my parts usually arrive a day after I order them.

Downside though is it doesn't come with any instructions or a rivnut tool. I went to Home Depot and True Value to pick up a bracket, stud, washer, tooth washer and a nut. Similar to the kit that comes with Diesel Geek's skid plate. I just drilled one of the holes until it fit the stud I bought. Buy 2 though because I stripped one stud while installing it.



Diesel Geek's instructions are spot on. The rivnuts are a pain in the ass. It helps if you can squeeze a wrench and the bracket together or figure out a way to bind the bracket so it doesn't spin. Just make sure it's butted up against the frame when your tightening. Go slow at first and eventually it'll hold itself up.
http://www.dieselgeek.com/v/install_...4PPinstall.pdf

I have a set of these wrenches which really helped. I wish I had some wobble extension for a couple of the rivnuts because it was almost impossible to get a wrench in there. I did find out that you can strip the rivnut by over tightening. I did it twice, each time with a rachet and an extension. They hold the long black brackets so I'm not terribly worried about them since it's held by 2 bolts. You can still tightened them but I couldn't torque them down to 30lbs.
http://www.gearwrench.com/catalog/wr...jsp?part=85888


It came out pretty well and I'm stoked with the results. Soon I'll get the skirts replaced and find someone to fix up my bumper. We'll maybe after it quits snowing on the mountain.

[huichox4]

ouch !!! the skidplate looks good man!!

[djhedges]

I forgot to mention one other thing I found during the install that I didn't prior. The OEM skid plate comes with rubber bumpers for the rear mount. The 3 bolts in the rear hold up a bracket which the skid plate sorta clips into. Sorry I don't have pictures.

[Slapbladder]

So what will happen next time is block of ice hits the skid plate pushing it up in to the sump cracking it and you don't see the oil leak until its to late

[MatadoR32]

So what will happen next time is block of ice hits the skid plate pushing it up in to the sump cracking it and you don't see the oil leak until its to late

Highly unlikely. I've seen pics from other people on the forums that took cinder blocks without issue with the OEM plate. Granted, their bumper, exhaust, sideskirt, or rear diff weren't happy but there's only so much you can do.