wheel skirts going on right now - Gas Savers

lovemysan · 11-13-2006, 08:37 PM

Okay 75% through this project and my calvs keep falling asleep. Materials used are old pieces of aluminum(ooh my favorite metal) flooring thresholds. One corner stair clamp, another flooring product. And of course the most annoying stuff in the world COROPLAST. Argh, this stuff is really starting to irritate me. I much prefer the aluminum.

repete86 · 11-13-2006, 08:43 PM

Nice. How difficult will it be for you to change a tire with that? I'm going to eventually add wheel skirts to my Accord, but am worried about how easy it will be to take it off when I need to.

lovemysan · 11-13-2006, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by repete86

Nice. How difficult will it be for you to change a tire with that? I'm going to eventually add wheel skirts to my Accord, but am worried about how easy it will be to take it off when I need to.

I'll keep this simple. If there is not a phillips head screw driver in the car, I will be kicking it off.

repete86 · 11-13-2006, 08:58 PM

Lol, sounds fun. Looks like my steel toed boots are now useful off of a set now too.

lovemysan · 11-13-2006, 09:28 PM

finished the passenger side.

Sometimes the best you can do, is just ugly. Oh well my car will have to look hacked until I can get better.
Pics of the driver side soon

repete86 · 11-13-2006, 09:35 PM

Looks aren't everything. As long as it makes a difference, it's worth it.

Ryland · 11-13-2006, 09:50 PM

I had been thinking that if I was to do wheel skirts, that going with black like that would be ideal appearence wise, seeing as how the wheel well is black, tires are black, haveing the skirt match the color of the car makes the car look more like a blob, contrasting wheel skirts like that give the lines of the car a visual brake.
making it easy to remove them is hard, I wonder if you use a few sets of rare earth magents in place of screws, or did a sub frame with clips, and just a few screws.

lovemysan · 11-13-2006, 09:54 PM

passenger side. Done. Coroplast does not like compound curves. It wants to ripple and deform. I couldn't keep some of the kinks out so I sliced reliefs into it. My original intention was to make templates out of coroplast but time constraints will have me running these for my thanksgiving travels. I will seem caulk them with black caulk and black the screws and there done. Next big challenge will be finishing the underpan. The rear of the car will be fun considering there is a 4.5' section with a gas tank(no screws here, rear suspension, and tumor shaped muffler to deal with.

lovemysan · 11-13-2006, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryland

I had been thinking that if I was to do wheel skirts, that going with black like that would be ideal appearence wise, seeing as how the wheel well is black, tires are black, haveing the skirt match the color of the car makes the car look more like a blob, contrasting wheel skirts like that give the lines of the car a visual brake.
making it easy to remove them is hard, I wonder if you use a few sets of rare earth magents in place of screws, or did a sub frame with clips, and just a few screws.

Haha! magnets, I wish. The body panels are plastic. looking back the best way is cardboard, coat hangers and duct tape.

I have thought about a silver circle to match the appearance of the rim. If I tried to make them quick release I'd go crazy. I have some ideas but the goal was 3-4 hours fab and install. And zero dollars invested.

I'm going to bed folks. Tomorrow belly pan progress. Look for more pics. I need the support. This needs to be done friday evening.

repete86 · 11-13-2006, 10:00 PM

Ouch. They certainly don't make it easy. That's one of the reasons why I probably will never build a belly pan. The other is because this is Florida, and if I'm going to be blocking the grille, a belly pan will be way too much on the engine due to heat. The heavy rain in the summer won't help either with a nice little bowl shaped compartment on the bottom of the car. I think that even the grille block is going to be pushing it and will only go on when I'm travelling long distance.

Matt Timion · 11-13-2006, 10:35 PM

I think that looks AWESOME!

I might actually do this to the Fit now... but I might want to make a single piece for the cover... perhaps out of aluminum as well.

Silveredwings · 11-14-2006, 05:43 AM

You're having way too much fun.

lovemysan · 11-14-2006, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Timion

I think that looks AWESOME!

I might actually do this to the Fit now... but I might want to make a single piece for the cover... perhaps out of aluminum as well.

I wanted a single piece also. I just couldn't make it happen. There were a few issues with doing single piece. The radius of the to horizontal pieces was different and it also had a vertical radius. Lastly the bottom crossmember was angled slightly out. This means the center of the skirt is closer to the ground than the edges. My method was to get a rough shape oversize and screw the bottom, edge to edge. Then screw to the vertical member. After that screw across the vertical member. Then slice and screw ,using a razor knife, every six inches. The second skirt looked much better. I'm still not sure that coroplast or aluminum will conform to these curves. My next set will be hand laid fiberglass fastened by either dzus fasteners or some other quick release method. I have several other ideas rolling around.

JanGeo · 11-14-2006, 08:11 AM

I am wondering if you heated the coroplast with a heat gun if it would soften and curve like if you did it over a curved surface to form it.

I think if you took a big plastic bag full of expanding urethane foam and stuffed it into the wheel well and let it set up then shaped the outside surface to exactly how you like it and then fiberglass over it you would have a really smooth wheel cover.You could then remove the foam and shape the back side into the fender like a plug making it fit really well so that it could be retained easily. I am also wondering how a sheet of lettering vinyl would stick to the body over a foam structure like this instead of fiberglass and it may stretch to the shape better.

Anyone ever hammer aluminum into a curved shape?

My Dad had a car a long time ago that had removable rear wheel skirts - there was a rod lever under the bottom lip that would push up over and then pull down to release.

Jack · 11-14-2006, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lovemysan

Looks great to me. I laughed when I thought about checking the air pressure on the passenger side though!

cfg83 · 11-14-2006, 10:37 AM

lovemysan -

Quote:

Originally Posted by lovemysan

finished the passenger side.

Sometimes the best you can do, is just ugly. Oh well my car will have to look hacked until I can get better.
Pics of the driver side soon

This is really hard core. All the way to the base of the body. Keep the pix coming. They are just the right size for detail and fitting on the webpage. I can really understand the "how to" from what you are posting.

CarloSW2

UfoTofU · 11-14-2006, 10:52 AM

Those look excellent.

One thing that came to my mind is "Is he where he gets snowfall?". If you're not then you should be good to go but if you are then you might have some problems with snow building up inside the wheel well.

However, anyone who takes all this time to fab up nice looking skirts like this propbably wouldn't be putting them on right before winter anyhow.

MetroMPG · 11-14-2006, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JanGeo

I think if you took a big plastic bag full of expanding urethane foam and stuffed it into the wheel well and let it set up then shaped the outside surface to exactly how you like it and then fiberglass over it you would have a really smooth wheel cover.

I was thinking fiberglass too. Smooth out the coroplast with whatever you have available (bondo, plaster) and glass over it. Separate, remove the coroplast & reinstall the glass.

But I also totally understand only wanting to put so much work into these projects before it gets to be a hassle

I really want to see a pic from further away showing the whole side of the car when you're done!

lovemysan · 11-14-2006, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I was thinking fiberglass too. Smooth out the coroplast with whatever you have available (bondo, plaster) and glass over it. Separate, remove the coroplast & reinstall the glass.

But I also totally understand only wanting to put so much work into these projects before it gets to be a hassle

I really want to see a pic from further away showing the whole side of the car when you're done!

Your wish has been granted obione kanobi

These were more less a one evening thrash to get an idea of what wheel skirts are like. If I like them, they perform, and I get tired of the rough hewn look I'll make some blingy fiberglass units with quick release. I already have designed the release and the molding process.

lovemysan · 11-14-2006, 11:48 AM

Next mod is carbon fiber trunk, hood, and sunroof, ac and powersteering removal, fill body lines, custom front bumper cover, and a colosal boattail. And custom milled wheels.

Haha we can dream can't we.

repete86 · 11-14-2006, 11:49 AM

THey actually don't look that bad. Hopefully they make a difference.

MetroMPG · 11-14-2006, 12:08 PM

Awesome. No reason they shouldn't help.

That swoopy character line along the side of the car is screaming to be integrated into the skirts somehow. Maybe in the cabon fiber version

cfg83 · 11-14-2006, 01:47 PM

MetroMPG and lovemysan -

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Awesome. No reason they shouldn't help.

That swoopy character line along the side of the car is screaming to be integrated into the skirts somehow. Maybe in the cabon fiber version

I was thinking something in a similar vein so I stole lovemysan's picture and modified it like so :

In the example above you would two-tone the wheel-skirt to have matching paint. Hmmmmm, maybe have "blackout" wheel covers all around to finish the look?!?!?!?!

I think from a distance this would look good but up close, with the "bow out" of the skirt, I don't know if the swoopy line would still look continuous as opposed to "bumpy" on each end. Then again, looking at previous close-up pictures, the place where the swoopy line is would be less bowed out, so the break in the line on each end would not be too extreme.

CarloSW2

lovemysan · 11-14-2006, 04:11 PM

Hey thanks cf! I kinda like it. Makes it look kinda like an old french car to me. You guys are overloading the idea bank. Your laying down some serious challenge for me. A body line may be possible in the glass version, it would look bang up neat.

MetroMPG · 11-14-2006, 04:56 PM

I think I'd go full body colour for the whole skirt, but that's just me.

The Toecutter · 11-14-2006, 11:25 PM

Full body color would look so much better if you get that body line right.

Ryland · 11-15-2006, 12:11 AM

you should be able to cold forge aluminum, altho from the little expermentation that I've done with sheat stock, it's really hard to make it look good once you start pounding on it unless you have a broad faced slightly convex hammer, and something soft (like wood) to pound on, I have also seem some vauge instructions in hootroding books on pressing your own shapes out of aluminum sheat useing plywood dies, and a press, and I would think that would be the ideal way to go, and then make a few sets to sell to others with simaler cars, (would be easiest with more commen cars like civic hatchbacks, and geos) but once you have a mold, you might as well make use of it, right?

lovemysan · 11-15-2006, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryland

you should be able to cold forge aluminum, altho from the little expermentation that I've done with sheat stock, it's really hard to make it look good once you start pounding on it unless you have a broad faced slightly convex hammer, and something soft (like wood) to pound on, I have also seem some vauge instructions in hootroding books on pressing your own shapes out of aluminum sheat useing plywood dies, and a press, and I would think that would be the ideal way to go, and then make a few sets to sell to others with simaler cars, (would be easiest with more commen cars like civic hatchbacks, and geos) but once you have a mold, you might as well make use of it, right?

Back home in TN, my family owns a fiberglass production facility. My younger brother has chop mat, flat stock and resin, all in large quantities. Since I can get the stuff free and it ain't brain surgery I'll probably be making some very nice quick release wheel skirts. Possibly with a body line. When I get it all done I'm going to have the front,rear bumper painted along with the wheel skirts and whatever else I end up doing.