Constant Camber Skirts
 

I've seen people put an awful lot of effort into making fender skirts to fit their wheelwell openings, often with awkward results. Why not just make a panel that overlaps on the body to a nice-looking place for a seam? You get shapes like sponsons, or that some 50s custom cars had. 4-doors will need a break at the door edge, but you can still carry the shape forward. The non-removable front bit is easy.
We have all seen plywood boats made by bending and twisting flat panels, and may have recognized some molded plywood ones, but few people know about Constant Camber panels. Those are sheets of plywood that are a bit concave to start with, and then get bent and twisted to a final shape that is much stronger and more graceful. One or two panel molds are enough for great versatility in design.
So - why not look for body parts like roof corners as possible sources of shapes for fender skirt bubbles? The steel can be cut from a junker with a sawzall, or you can mold either fiberglass or thermoplastic onto the shape.
I was noodling around with the idea of making a couple of molds, and having templates to trim skirts for various car models, but I'm not likely to get around to it myself.

I imagine one reason for focusing on the wheel arch itself is they're a handy spot to make attachment points. Also, the skirt needs to be easily removable to change a wheel.

I'd like to see an image of what you have in mind though.

A big skirt can still have it's grippers at the wheel well, and a soft edge to save the paint on the fender. On some cars, the skirt could easily go to the back bumper. Wherever wide track meets a rounded rocker panel, a longer skirt can help smooth things out and cover more of the wheel. Sometimes, a hinge would work well as one mounting point.

No pics today, but you can get an idea of how to work with constant camber panels by cutting shapes from blister packs as little models to play with.

Bingo...

Great minds think alike. Large panels to even out the transitions.

This is what I'm in the process of doing right now.

A BIG skirt for my "little blue" and more... :D

I'll post pic's in my "Boat tail - Redneck style" thread when I'm done.

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I think I see what you're getting at... actually something similar to the VX here:
http://i855.photobucket.com/albums/a...1/P1010111.jpg
Except that the fender skirt could start even further forward...

body parts
 

I've collected molded plastic signs,children's tubular plastic slides,barbecue grills,wheel barrows,boat fuel tanks,flower vases,lamp bases,architectural outdoor lamp fixtures,aircraft fairings,canoes,kayaks,and boats,to use portions for molds.
There are compound exotic shapes all around us!:)

I was thinking about this using the ricer fender flares (full panel), but deleting the wheel opening. I've also thought about this using patch panels and a old door (for compound curve /trim areas).

You've done me one better, using the skirt to ease the transition to the kamm-back.
Some of the '50s skirts I wish I had pics of were probably inspired by drop tanks, with the maximum depth centered on the wheel to cover as much of it as possible. A good-looking ecomod will get copied by a far wider range of drivers.

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r.../mercdsmny.jpg

I posted this years ago...

further forward
 

You can see how Kamm bumped the body out below the beltline just enough to get the rear wheels contained within the skirt,going all the way to the dividing line between the doors.He also uses the rocker panel as a flow fence to mitigate comingling of underbody/side flow.
http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/...3-29BampW1.jpg