I made some side skirts

[Gasoline Fumes]

Good or bad? I haven't attempted any testing yet. They are open on the bottom and wrap around on both ends. This car has plastic rocker panel covers, I screwed the skirts to them. They're about 6" off the ground.

Made from white coroplast painted black.

I also added ecomodder.com decals. Those alone should be worth a couple of MPG.

[skyking]

that looks "right" on there. Good work.

[jousai7]

Is there any kind of suggested length of side skirts? Or the more the better? Planning on doing this soon with some lawn edging.

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by jousai7

Is there any kind of suggested length of side skirts? Or the more the better? Planning on doing this soon with some lawn edging.

Mine are 7" tall. I don't know what's ideal, I just don't think I can get away with them being any lower. I'm concerned about them scraping on speed bumps at their current size. My front air dam scrapes and it's about the same height. But it's a lot tougher than coroplast.

[basjoos]

The coroplast double side skirts on my car are designed to flex independently of each other when they encounter a speed bump or high curb and it doesn't damage them a bit when they do scrape. When I designed and installed them, I deliberately made them too long and painted them black. After driving around for a few days, I could see where the paint was abraded off by pavement encounters. Those wear marks served as a guide as I trimmed them down to where they only made occasional contact with the road. Now 6 years and 180,000 miles later, they show no abrasion loss from the occasional scrapes accumulated along the way.

You'll need to keep a coat of paint on any coroplast that is exposed to direct sunlight, otherwise the sunlight's UV will cause the coroplast to become brittle and crack within 2 to 3 years.

[Big Dave]

A while back I did this on my truck. Instead of coroplast, I used 3/8" ripstop rubber conveyor belting. Made both an air dam and side skirts. With the conveyor belting i didn't have to sweat road debris but the side skirts made jacking the truck up for service a royal pain, so i ttok them off. the loss of MPG was minimal.

I did modify my air dam to be 6" above grade, but it's still there.

Attach the front edge of the side skirt REALLY well.

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by basjoos

The coroplast double side skirts on my car are designed to flex independently of each other when they encounter a speed bump or high curb and it doesn't damage them a bit when they do scrape. When I designed and installed them, I deliberately made them too long and painted them black. After driving around for a few days, I could see where the paint was abraded off by pavement encounters. Those wear marks served as a guide as I trimmed them down to where they only made occasional contact with the road. Now 6 years and 180,000 miles later, they show no abrasion loss from the occasional scrapes accumulated along the way.

You'll need to keep a coat of paint on any coroplast that is exposed to direct sunlight, otherwise the sunlight's UV will cause the coroplast to become brittle and crack within 2 to 3 years.

Thanks. There's really just one speed bump I'm concerned about. I actually parked over it and measured the clearance before making the skirts. I think it should just barely clear if I go over it really slow. I will stop over it and see how close the skirts are.

I never even thought about sun damage, I just didn't want 7" wide white bands under the car.

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

A while back I did this on my truck. Instead of coroplast, I used 3/8" ripstop rubber conveyor belting. Made both an air dam and side skirts. With the conveyor belting i didn't have to sweat road debris but the side skirts made jacking the truck up for service a royal pain, so i ttok them off. the loss of MPG was minimal.

I did modify my air dam to be 6" above grade, but it's still there.

Attach the front edge of the side skirt REALLY well.

The air dam is a little annoying for service, I can't use ramps and it's hard to see the front jacking point. I don't jack it up from the side, but I should check if I can still get the scissor jack in there if I have a flat tire. I'm pretty sure I can with 6" of clearance. So far, the biggest issue is that I keep kicking them. Getting in and out of the car and even just getting something out of the car.

I keep looking at the bulk conveyor belting at Tractor Supply, but the coroplast was free.

[Big Dave]

Problem is that 6" clearance above grade is about as you can have and expect any effectiveness.

[wagonef8]

Why not just lower the car