I see some rubber against rubber wear marks on the sidewalls of your tire. Have you considered spraying some dry lubricant (silicon, graphite,etc.) on the wear zones of the inner tube material of your skirts to reduce the friction when the tires are making contact with the skirt. Also how well are the skirts working when driving on snowy roads with the typical snow buildup in the wheel wells?

Can't tell you yet about snow conditions on front skirt as it(only have 1 so far) has only been on the car 2 days. No snow. But I have had the rear skirts of the same material on the car for a quite a while. They have endured mud and snow numerous times with no ill effects.

Thanks for the suggestion of a lubricant. I used Armorall when I put it on but did not have anything else at hand. I had been thinking of finding some teflon. I am not very sure that the rubbing will present much of a problem. There is no contact with the tire except when turning and any turn at any speed should be of relatively short duration.

I am still in the trial and error stage with this. But I have driven over 300 miles in 2 days. Good sign for me of reasonable durability .

I am hoping that the sealed up aero approach will be worth something not readily available with other systems.

I do plan on better looks for it when I am satisfied with what I have.

O man!! just thought of something. My wife may have teflon or similar non-stick spray. Better go look for it.

Even better than the Teflon lubricant would be sewing a 1/16" thick sheet of PTFE (Teflon) over the area of tire contact on the skirt. At that thickness, PTFE is flexible (but not not stretchy), is very low friction, and is reasonably priced.

Day 3. Front Skirts. New info and pic of front skirt progress 12/05/06. Page 1 of this thread.
CO ZX2

DAY 4. Front Skirts. New info, pic and drag chart posted on page 1, this thread. CO ZX2

I think that chart is for a specific model of Volvo, but it gives a good indication of where sources of drag are coming from for most cars. There will be variances from car to car, of course.

I can't remember exactly where I got this chart. I think I tried to save the web page, wouldn't save, so I just saved the chart. Newer modern cars are quite similar so this should be a reasonable guide.

Day 5,new info, Front Fender Skirts
 

Both front skirts finished and results. 3/15/07, new pic and info, see page 1 of this thread.
CO ZX2

I like the front wheel skirt... can you give us more details on it's construction?

Matt. I have spent considerable time on this project because I believed in it. It has proved to me to be a worthwhile investment of that time. I will be happy to provide more details.

However, I would like to modify the name of the thread (Colorado ZX2) to:
ZX2 Front Fender Skirts Completed and Results. 3/15/07

This new name would give a more accurate description of the content. I probably shouldn't have integrated this project into my Introduction in the first place, not exactly the best place for a tech project.

This thread has been around so long, I wonder if there are those who think they have seen it too many times already. Therefore, they don't bother to look at additions or updates.

Can you assist me with this change? I am not a computer whiz and all I have been able to change is the title within the thread. Thanks CO ZX2

Looks nice. Glad to hear you have noticable results.

Unsure who helped with the title change, but in the future it would be best to start a NEW thread instead of modifying and old one.

This thread was your introduction. Now it is a project thread. Also, when thread titles are changed it affects google's ability to properly index the page.

Sorry, Matt. But I did address the reply to you.

Hi, I like how you've implemented the front wheel skirts. Could you give some details on the construction?

I'm thinking about using thin rubber material, perhaps inner tube, and perhaps thin aluminium for the frame. Maybe the whole thing could be rubber? I'd attach the rubber to the aluminium with sheet metal screws.

I did use inner tube rubber for my first version, sewed to the plastic. A lot of work and hard to get a flat piece of rubber from the inner tube.

Current version uses 1/16 flat sheet neoprene bought off ebay for the inserts. Also was able to simplify construction dispensing with the sewing operation, using Super Glue to bond the rubber to the plastic. Made the job much easier and better looking.

All-rubber covering would be too flimsy and would move inward onto the wheel and tire at speed. One of my first experiments showed that. Even the 1/16 plastic frame is not extremely rigid, good because it has some flex when the rubber moves and also easily returns flat. I use a small 1/2 inch plastic ball screwed to the skirt to contact the center of the hub cap to prevent inward deflection and take some of the load off the rubber insert when steering.

To attach skirt to fender I used hard thickwall plastic tubing metal screwed inside the fender lip. This tubing was intended for in-floor heating systems. Strong, thick, stiff and non-corrosive. Spaced the tubing outward some at the bottom to clear the tire better. Metal screws into the tubing attach the skirt. Only one screw into the fender surface at the front and one at the rear. Skirt removes easily in 30 seconds with just a screwdriver.

Current version has proven to be very durable and reliable in all weather and driving conditions (gravel roads, mud, snow, ice, -0* F temps). Current skirts have been on the car since the middle of last winter.

More pics and info:

https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=4200

https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=4379

https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=4428

Spent a lot of time thinking and fiddling with this project.

Hope some of this helps someone.

Sorry for taking so long to reply, CO ZX2. I only just saw the reply now.

Thanks for the info, I will digest it slowly. I tried just plain rubber (actually pond sheet, but very similar to inner tube although flat), and it does ripple a bit but does not appear to get sucked in much towards the tyre, at least at speeds below about 80km/h.

I am not yet convinced that it is an improvement, although I am seeing my best fuel economy figures ever as a result of my mods+ driving. (i.e. 3.5l/100km).

We did get our HighwayGlider's
 

Just one pair. They look OK, very shiny, very transparent. Will put them on this weekend if the weather allows; and will post how it goes. But in general, I think you just cannot go wrong with the idea of making your car more aerodynamic, especially at this price of literally a few bucks. Will post the pictures, too.