DIY: plastic rear wheel skirts (Geo Metro)

[ebacherville]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

After this season, I've been thinking of moving to a warmer climate for mental health reasons.

Yeah me too.. Actually i recently bought land in Texas.. rarely gets below 32 degrees..

[Bror Jace]

I have a late model car ('06 Civic) and I just can't see me putting anything on this car that I made myself.

I'm waiting for a quality-made kit I can buy that has:

1) 2 rear wheel skirts (preferably painted to match)
2) solid wheel covers (at least 2 for the front)
3) a better / lower front splitter (the rubber piece that goes under the front bumper.

The DIYer part comes in when I fasten the bits on.

[MetroMPG]

I just finished Rear Wheel Skirts v. 1.5

Skirts have coroplast backing for added stiffness (think I mentioned that somewhere up the thread already).

And they're now attached to the wheel arch with 5 home made brackets that were installed without drilling into metal. The skirts can be removed/reinstalled in about 30 seconds. The downside is there are now 5 screw heads around the rim of the skirt - which don't look too bad.

I'll post new pics tomorrow.

[MetroMPG]

Pics, pics, pics:

First of all, here's the back of the skirt with the coroplast attached (contact/rubber cement) to stiffen it more for those hot summer days (when the black plastic was getting pretty soft & wobbly):



Next, on to the new non-drilling-the-car attachment method. A crummy shot of the DIY bracket. It's made from flattened copper pipe, stainless nut, bolt & washers:




Next, the same bracket, shown installed. Another crummy shot - sorry:



I made 6 of those special brackets in total, 3 per side. Once tightened, they're well clamped down and very solid.

The other two brackets per side attach to the lip of the plastic bumper, so I just made simple 90 degree bends in the copper pipe, drilled & bolted them on:



And here's the skirt installed. I'll probably paint the screw heads black:

[MetroMPG]

YES, those are mud flaps on the back wheels. (*hangsheadinshame*)

They serve as a mounting point for the aft end of the skirts (without them the curvature to bring them all the way to the bumper would be so much that I believe flow would detach anyway).

I'll probably trim the excess off now that the final skirt installation is done.

[Xringer]

I took my rear flaps down to my shop so I could use the belt sander to clean off the edges I cut with a Stanly knife.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/36034-post25.html

I think they are going to be a good mounting point, if I ever decide my CRV should be wearing skirts.

[mobilerik]

I really like the copper clips you made. Does that type of clip have a name? Can you buy clips like that anywhere? My tools are not cooperating with me right now, and I could really use clips like that!

So you smashed a copper pipe? Is that 1/2"? How did you drill the holes in it? (I mean what kind of bit?) I tried using copper pipe straps, but it was a lot of work, and they weren't tough enough to hold anything.

[MetroMPG]

Not sure if there's a name, or if you can buy them.

Yes, I flattened a 1/2 inch copper pipe with a hammer and drilled it with a regular bit (copper is pretty soft).

[MetroMPG]

PS - aside from the exposed screw heads offending some people's aesthetic sensibilities, the clips are great. I had the car rust treated earlier this month, and the skirts come off / go back on in less than a minute with this setup.

[guudasitgets]

Did you see much of a diffrence in MPG? By that I mean not a 10 or 15 mile trip, I mean a 200 mile tankfull compared to a 200 mile tankfull?