Defender Wing-Top Air Scoop, Homemade & Works Great

[Offender110]

Here are some photos of a wing-top air scoop that I've recently fabricated for my Defender (affectionately known as "The Offender"). The scoop was made from 1.6mm checker-plate aluminium bent over a wooden pattern. There are flanges riveted either side of the scoop to allow it to be screwed down on top of the wing using four of the screws from the plastic grill. No modification has been done to the vehicle itself. I have painted the scoop first with etch primer and then with epoxy modified gloss black enamel. The scoop makes a big difference to the flow of air through the cabin ventilator system. Even at low speeds there is a noticeable flow of air through the ventilators, without the need to run the electric fan, and at speeds above 70 kph this scoop forces a vigorous flow of air through the system without the fan running. In fact, at highway speed the flow of air from the scoop alone is more than the ventilator would previously deliver (before the scoop was fitted) even when the fan was running at its low setting. The combination of the fan at its low setting and the scoop pushes a really good flow of air through the ventilators without being noisy. With the fan at its high setting there's a gale force blast of air, although the fan is noisy on its higher setting so I seldom use it this way. The scoop helps keep the vehicle cooler and more pleasant to drive on a hot day and on cold days it helps the heater to warm the car due to the increased volume of warm air that is pumped into the cabin. If forum members are interested then I will put a more thorough description of how I made the scoop onto my blog on this site. Cheers, Matthew.

[n plus one]

Haha, pretty sure I saw this on your Defender the other day - I was on my way home from work and stopped to check out your roof rack.

[Offender110]

Hello, I'm in Canberra so if the vehicle you saw was there then it might have been mine. I have a Hannibal roof rack. Regarding the wing top air scoop: I have seen several home made scoops on other Defenders and one of them was made of checker-plate aluminium and it was on a vehicle that looked very similar to mine. That scoop was a bit 'rough and ready' and it wasn't painted black but it gave me the idea to make my own. I made a cardboard mock-up first to test the idea and that worked well so then I fabricated the metal version that you see in the photos. Cheers, Matthew.

[cooperrat]

thats a very good looking vent.I want 1.. top job.

[Offender110]

thats a very good looking vent.I want 1.. top job.

Thanks for the compliment. When I made the air scoop I was conscious that it would be highly visible on the vehicle and that if I did not do a neat job it would detract from the appearance of my Defender. I've seen a few rudimentary air scoops that looked rather amateurish and I didn't want that. Consequently, I did the work carefully, one step at a time, without putting myself under any unnecessary pressure like "I must finish this job by the end of the weekend". (I'm an impatient person by nature so I have a bad habit of setting myself artificial time constraints like that, but I'm slowly learning the merits of taking my time to do a job well.) The metalwork was done with basic tools of the sort that you'd find in most 'handyman's' sheds and I did it in three stages about 2 hours each. The paint work has come up nicely for the same reason; I took my time and did each coat carefully. All the materials for the project came from the local hardware store. Cheers, Matthew.

[Defender08]

Is the back of the scoop open or blanked off?

[Offender110]

Is the back of the scoop open or blanked off?

Hello, the end of the scoop is blanked off. I've attached a couple of photos to show how I did this. I made a cardboard mock-up of the scoop and stuck it to the wing-top with some duct tape so that I could test it. Originally, I thought I'd leave the rear end open so that rain and dust could be blown out the back instead of into the vents but I found that there was a noticeable increase in the air flow through the ventilators with the end blanked off. Consequently, I made the metal one that way. I should add that cutting this component proved to be the most tricky part of the whole job and, as the photos show, I didn't do it perfectly. Maybe the end doesn't require the blank; I dont know. If someone else makes a similar air scoop they could find out and let us know.

Regards, Matthew.

[LoveB]

pretty sure its you i wave to just about every day on yamba ave. lol

[Offender110]

pretty sure its you i wave to just about every day on yamba ave. lol

Hello, it cant be me that you are waving to on Yamba Drive because I don't often go along it in my Defender. I did so last Sunday but that was the first time in several months. However, I have seen a Defender that looks almost the same as mine heading along Hindmarsh Drive on two occasions, so I think its probably that vehicle you are seeing. Cheers, Matthew.

[uninformed]

A well worth addition IMO. Nice one

Here is mine I did 10 years ago or so. All aluminium, top scoop and bottom plate are 2mm the scoop plate is 3mm. I folded up the scoop and hit TIG welded, and to the scoop plate. I sandwiched some aluminium grill/mesh in-between the bottom plate and scoop plate, Sikaflexed them together and then got it powder coated. Reason I made mine was, that with my truck living outside, I found turning the heater on created instant mist/steam….After removing the stock plastic grill, I found all sorts of rubbish in the duct, along with the duck bill water drain being clogged. So any rain would fill up and pool in the duct, flowing into the vent system. Hasn't been an issue since.