I've just picked up my first rotary tool, and though I'm still figuring out which cutting wheel works best for what, along with everything else, I have stage one of my rear wheel skirts in about the shape I need to mount them. The actual mounting, of course, is a horse of a different colour, and I may have to modify the arch covers to accommodate the skirts. Nevertheless, it should be a *fairly* painless process, and when I'm done, I'll definitely have one of the more unique MINIs around.
While I was walking around Home Depot after picking up the Dremel, I decided to look around in the building materials, because you just never know what you'll run across. Lo and behold, they have unpainted aluminum gutters for under $6! With a bit of cutting, flattening, cutting, drilling, and cutting, I'll probably be able to use that metal for side skirts and as much of a belly pan as I'll ever actually install. I'm pretty darn excited about that. I'm actually not convinced the belly pan will help as much as some would predict, because it's fairly flat down there anyway. I definitely don't want to cover the exhaust, particularly the cat, and there's not much I can do about the control arms (I think that's what they are - I'm not terribly tech savvy just yet, particularly where the chassis and suspension are concerned) without lowering the car another inch or two, and it's hard enough to get under as it is, never mind how the side skirts are going to affect it.
In preparation for the belly pan, I removed the front airdam I'd installed, so right now my only aeromod is the upper grille block, which is made of tape. I should probably take some new pictures so I'm up to date. Someone yell at me if I haven't done that by next week.
In a somewhat unrelated move, I removed the rear seats today. They add a surprising amount of weight, and I'm working on the rear speakers (which are ridiculously difficult to get to), anyway, so I figured I might as well see what the next tank looks like without them. I don't expect to see a significant change, and I'm going to have to reinstall them eventually, but I enjoy the adventure of making reversible changes.
Speaking of weight reduction, I'm seriously considering
this. It's definitely not easily reversible, but it'll save me 20lbs and make the car sound cooler, so there's not a lot to lose here, provided I can find a place that will do it for a good price without ruining the exhaust or the car.
I've also decided against using pizza pans to cover the wheels, because the metal-on-metal could end up marring the wheels beyond repair, and any savings in fuel economy that ruins any part of the car is officially not worth it. Instead, since the plastic from the water heater drain pan (for the wheel skirts) is fairly rigid, I'm thinking something like that would work pretty well. I'm hoping to find something smaller and cheaper to cut rather than another pair of drain pans, but if push comes to shove, I'll just have to go with that.
All in all, things are looking pretty good right now, though I'm leaving the biggest project (the Kamm tail) for a little bit later. For one thing, I'm going to have to spend some serious time designing and consulting to have it be effective (finding the proper angle, getting all the curves right, getting it to fit to the body without damaging the paint, making sure the whole thing is secure, etc). For another thing, I don't have the base for it yet (another shameless plug for the Yakima MegaJoe 3 bike carrier - the thing is solid as a friggin' rock).