19bonestock88's 2004 Saturn "Ion Green Line" build...

[19bonestock88]

Thanks man! Not as nice as yours are, I’m not 100.0% satisfied with them yet but they’ll work for now

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by 19bonestock88

Thanks man! Not as nice as yours are, I’m not 100.0% satisfied with them yet but they’ll work for now

Don't let them rub directly on your body paint. Over time they will scratch. A little thin weather stripping is recommended.

[19bonestock88]

Got my air separation plates done! Changed the height of them and contoured them to the existing body lines in the rear, didn’t have enough paint to paint them but between my stockpile of strapping tape and the rest of my CF vinyl I think they look great! I had to screw them directly into my bumper cover, there was no other acceptable way to attach them... but since I have like 65 screw holes in the front bumper cover I can live with ten in the rear...

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Looks good! Really like the carbon fiber.

If you jack it up you might be able to remove the wheel without removing the skirt. My setup was similar, albeit not as good looking and didn't extend down as far, and I could remove the wheel just by jacking it up a little.

[19bonestock88]

I’ll have to check and see if that’s possible but it *may* be, which would make changing tires easy.. as it is I just gotta take out like five screws and pivot the skirt upward on the bottom screw (I’ll grab a pic tomorrow) to remove the wheel...

[Snax]

Originally Posted by 19bonestock88

Got wheel skirts in “final” phase and mounted... I was inspired by the post in the wheel disc thread about putting a piece of pipe behind the opening and screwing the coroplast to it, so that’s what I did.

I cut two pieces off my big coil of 3/4” HDPE water pipe and screwed it to the inner fender (also through the lip on the plastic quarter panel, bumper cover, and dogleg... no visible screw holes if I remove the mod, good enough for me)

Then, I screwed the (painted black) skirts to the pipe... I guess I’ll need to carry a Phillips screwdriver with me for tire changes but since I no longer possess a good spare that’s of little consequence at the time being...

Love it - particularly since I also have an s-load of pipe left to use from my wheel discs!

[19bonestock88]

“Is that cardboard?”

I’m literally asked that very question at least ten times a weekend by my riders, referring to my wheel covers (first EcoMod they notice), and while upon explanation they all get the point I wanted to make my wheel covers... nicer...

So I grabbed my spare set of factory wheel covers (technically from an 06 Ion but who’s counting?) and, taking inspiration from the guy that vinyl wrapped his Insight spare wheels to make them smooth, I wrapped my covers in strapping tape, covering all the holes and low spots in the “spokes” with a taut layer of tape. I plan to do more reinforcements and cover the result in CF vinyl for a nice look, but I rushed the initial version into the prototype phase... I still need to poke a hole for the valve stems (or should I?) but they look great, and as a bonus, these are noticeably lighter than my other covers that have coroplast discs screwed to them... reducing rotational weight is never a bad idea, right?

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Looks good! Any issues with the tape holding up at speed?

[19bonestock88]

All together I drove about 400mi on those yesterday and they’ve held up okay... I only got up to like 70-ish at one point though, and the car should do 111-112... these aren’t staying permanently; just testing for this week before I drive... I need to reinforce the tape before I can trust the covers to make it through an automatic car wash lol

[19bonestock88]

I’m not sure if there were actually any gains from the new wheel covers, but they look nicer than what I had... the gloss finish of the tape really shows the tape lines and stuff but hopefully once it’s reinforced and covered with matte finish CF vinyl it’ll look even better...

I’m still in the fence about whether or not to make holes through which to access the valve stem. I mean, it’s kinda a PITA to remove the wheel covers just to check tire pressure, but how much of a PITA would it be to add the holes and keep the tape taut?

Opinions?