Hello -
The wonders of Saturn plastic paneling helped me again. I took a rain gutter and attached it as a side skirt to my SW2 :
This has been bubbling around in the back of my head for a few years. I can't believe how easy it was to do. I just :
1 - Removed the plastic rocker panel, held on with the plastic push bolt thingys :
2 - Figured out that I had a lot of "interior volume" to work with :
The holes for the drop-down bolts were drilled in the "cavity" area (the round interior volume). There was a problem in that if I remove the wingnut, the bolt could "fall up" into the cavity. I solved that by gluing pipe insulation above the bolt. This way the bolt will stay in place.
3 - Attached with 3 bolts :
The wingnut attaches at the bottom. I just unscrew three winguts and the side skirt comes off. I dremeled the "curvy" part of the rain gutter off because it made it harder to get at the plastic pushpin thingys. Now I guess I could have left it on, but I am still happy with the current result.
I deliberatly chose the location of the holes on the theory that the weight of the vertical part would "pull down" the gutter and keep the horizontal portion "pushed up" against the bottom of the rocker panel. If I had centered it, I think the vertical part might have a tendency to pull down the gutter and "sag", if you know what I mean.
Here is how the "attachment sandwich" looks
PHP Code:
Bolt ( 10/24 x 3/4 long)
Star washer
Fender washer
(Hole through) Rocker panel plastic
(Hole through) Rain gutter plastic
Fender washer
Split lock washer
Wing nut
Benefits :
1 - Cheap. $7 for the rain gutter. I don't count the bolts, washers, and wingnuts. because I can reuse them for other things. Bolts n' stuff are always good.
2 - Easy to make.
3 - Easy to remove. I need to take it off when the car is going into the shop.
3 - 100% reversible. It only cost me three drilled holes where nobody can see. There is already a hole in the rocker panel that I think is for drainage, so I could argue that I am just adding a few more "drain points".
Problems :
1 - The rain gutter plastic is that kind that is "brittle", so it will be interesting to see what will happen when I bottom out and hit something. lawn edging would be more durable to impact, but I wanted the "L shape" to maintain rigidity and have a connection point to the rocker panel.
2 - White. Not really a problem, because it matches the car. If I wanted to be steatlhy, I could paint it black.
3 - In order to keep the bolt in place I used pipe insulation. If water gets into the rocker panel, it could swish around. But that could be solved with ... a few more holes!
In general, I am not a fan of "ground effects" on cars. However, I am happy that this is such an easy "exploit", and I do like how it looks on my car. If it turns out that it doesn't help or is problematic to maintain, no big loss.
I only made one for now to see how well it takes punishment. So far no bottom-outs, and I am not babying it (because I forget about it).
CarloSW2