Lower Front Belly Pan - Shield for S197 Avanti's

[ronmanfredi]

As we start getting closer to the AOAI national meet at Palm Springs, I have 4 upgrades to do before then.  The first was to figure out how to install a belly pan under the front end of the car.  To start with, I ordered a factory Mustang plastic pan from CJ Pony Parts of California. When I initially laid it on the floor and looked up at the car, I could see why Avanti Motors had just taken it off when building the car and disposing it.  The pan is fairly flat in design and the front lower panel of the Avanti curves upwards at both ends.  However, once I put the car on stands and took a hard look at it, I figured out how to mount it.  The back side of it has a couple of locator push in pins and 3 holes to place screws into the support.  My 06 still had the screws in the support.  The front side has some recesses, angled and straight, it form-fits around the A/C condenser base, radiator drain, etc.  As it turns out, the front angled section, which at first seemed to be a real problem, became the mounting solution for the front since the angle Matches the Avanti lower piece fairly closely.  Follow along with the photos and it should make sense: