Wheel Skirt Problems

[popimp]

[Bill in Houston]

Use the existing screws down near the bottoms to attach your metal bracket to. There might be some near the top, too, holding the fender liner in place or some such. You could temporarily use that foamy double sided tape just to see if the prototypes give any improvement.

[Rick Rae]

For about a week now I've been eying the Cabrio looking for easy mods I could tinker with, and I have basically the same issue. I'm thinking about cardboard and duct tape for initial experiments, but unless I work out a way to bend the cardboard I can barely cover down to the axle. Haven't taken the time to get down in there with a flashlight and look for existing screws that could be used for a bracket yet.

popimp, please share your findings; I'll do the same if it seems like it might help others.

Has anyone run into issues with brake cooling after adding rear skirts? Coming down out of the mountains yesterday got me to thinking about heat dissipation. I know I've read of problems with racing covers/moon hubcaps on some vehicles... would a full rear wheel skirt similarly restrict cooling?

Rick

P.S. I'm thinking about a sign for the back of the car to explain away cardboard skirts and duct tape grill blocks and the like:

FUEL EFFICIENCY TEST VEHICLE
EXPECT FREQUENT SPEED CHANGES

Then if someone complains about P&G or whatever I can say, "Hey man, can you not read, or what?

[88HF]

Wow, that has to suck for fuel economy, I noticed that on my friend's Nissan pickup as well. I don't understand why they make the tires stick out like that. I'm gonna think about it for a while and see if I can help.

[lovemysan]

Well your limited on method of attachment. I personally wouldn't want to screw into metal. However I wouldn't mind putting holes in a plastic fender liner. You could epoxy the brackets to the fender lip and then screw to them.

I've never noticed any ill affects of the wheel skirts other than making the air valve hard to get to. Then again I've never driven in the mountains but I wouldn't be afraid too.

[cfg83]

popimp-

Originally Posted by popimp

Rear Wheel skirts. I might just scrap the project all together. I don't want to drill holes in the van either.

I am sympathetic. Are the plastic wheel skirts held in with plastic doo-dad fasteners? If yes, then maybe you could reuse the fasteners with the holes. If you think the wheel skirt would add too much "stress" or "load" to the existing fasteners, then maybe you could find your own fasteners that will fit into the same holes.

I like reversible mods, so I would try to exploit what's already there.

CarloSW2

[Bill in Houston]

Originally Posted by theclencher

I formed my coroplast skirts and attached them without any drilling. I posted how to do that but nobody cared so I deleted it. Just know that it can be done.

Post it again and I will tell you that I care. I'd like to know how to attach without drilling...

[88HF]

perhaps you could just make a deflector that was sort of half moon shaped. At the front of the tire well you could attach it with a single metal bracket metal straping or bracing beneath the vehicle and a bead of silicone adhesive (like kitcar's video) to attach to the side of the vehicle. I'm just trying to think least irreversible damage. You could still get those "moonwheel" wheel covers instead of stock wheel covers. if you are worried about rust from the screws underneath, you could buy a cheap can of that underbody spray and spray over the sheetmetal screws to seal it, or just use more of that silicone adhesive.

[CO ZX2]

Your tire may be hanging more outside the body at the bottom than mine but not much. I will relate what I did.

I used 1/16 solid plastic wall panel bought at Home Depot(20 bucks for a 4X8 sheet). This stuff is tough and flexible enough to work with. Comes only in white but is easily painted.

Cut a rectangular section 6 inches larger than your wheel opening. I lined up the bottom of panel with the lower body panels. Position the top with a 3-4 in. piece of tape. Then tape the rear of panel enough to hold it stable. All taping is temporary.

Then bow the plastic to get it to clear the front of the tire. Tape it down enough to hold position securely. Remove tape at rear and bow to clear tire. Then tape to hold in place. Not as hard as it sounds.

You can now look it over to get a feel if this is what you want. Maybe adjust as necessary. While it is still taped, mark panel for trimming to fit where you want it. When ready to install duplicate the bow used earlier.

I used duct tape and when I painted I masked real tight to the outside edge of the duct tape and sprayed the skirt and tape all at once. Looks surprisingly decent.

I have used this plastic for all my aero mods: grille block, frt. and rear wheel skirts, tire air deflectors, underpanning. It has a slight texture on one side I believe helps maintain flow attachment.

Hope this helps. Worked great for me.

[88HF]

Is there another name for that plastic wall panel, what size sheets does it come in?