Silver's build thread

[kafer65]

Here's my build thread for my Mazda CX-5 which I named Silver for my fuel logs. First thing I did was air up the tires. I've settled on 49-51psi for the factory tires. I then made the Lexan wheel covers. Then came the mirror deletes.




Lexan skirts added and working. I've calculated about 6% improvement with mirror delete and grill blocks. I'm getting skirt slap behind truck eddies which will require aluminum frame from carpet threshold plates next.

[freebeard]

...

Do you plan on clear Lexan skirts? If so, how will you clean them on the inside?

[kafer65]

Thanks Freebeard. I get a lot of people asking what the wheel covers are for now. I wonder if plastidip will stick to it.
Here are the brakets I made to hold the lexan. I got good at building them fast and more suitably shaped as I went along.

[freebeard]

Small 'f' like in e. e. cummings. Without seeing the bbCode that you wrote it's hard to say. Occam's Razor says you selected the little globe and keyboard instead of the moutains and yellow sky.

Plastidip doesn't stick to anything, that's the beauty of it. It conforms as it dries and then adheres through suction. That's why you can peel it off; and use it on chrome, for instance.

'Push locks'? I bought a set of fiberglass fenderskirts with a clamp mechanism that won't work. It hits the ends of the axles. What I intend to do is have a socket at the lower front and rear. The skirt will have flat tabs that fit through slot in each socket when the skirt is held at 45°, then it will rotate up and in and have some sort of fastener[s] at the top.

[kafer65]

I'm cutting from the same stainless sheet I used for the mirror fillets on the doors.

The lip has a changing offset depth so I need to make the brackets conform to that depth and hold the skirt mass while vibrating from the firm ride (aired up).

I weighed the first skirt I cut at 1 lb. 13.5 ounces. I think each stainless bracket is strong enough to hold individually, but I'm sure I'll have at least two at the top of the arch maybe more.

One side effect of the mirror delete is that my window won't roll up all the way when I pull a click on the power window switch. It rolls it up and down if I hold the button at least.

[freebeard]

Consider weight+vibration+aerodynamic forces. The aerodynamic forces can be greater, that's what keeps airplanes up in the air.

That's a curious symptom with the window lift.

[freebeard]

I see now what the "plastic push rivets" are.

[AndrzejM]

Nice start! I'll keep my eye on it

[Ecky]

Looks really good!

[kafer65]

Now that I've discovered where the ambient air temperature sensor is located on my vehicle I'm building a snorkel out of flashing to fix the problem of the gauge reading almost 10 degrees too high after installing the grill blocks.


There is a verticle cross member on the header that the sensor is fixed to. This should direct enough fresh air to overcome the heatsoak.