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Geo Metropolis build thread
I recently bought this 96 geo metro for $1100 on Craigslist with 100,000 miles. Shortly after buying it I found the ecomodder site. I spent a few days with my mind just blown by the world of ecomodding. I bought some plastic shortly after this and the car is being rapidly and dramatically transformed. Because I've been fairly fast moving on the mods I thought I would start my own thread where I can share my fun and get some advice from others. Hope it's a help to me and others...
First Mods (did one each weekend :) ) : rear skirts, lower grill block, and smooth wheelcovers: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...oddedmetro.jpg |
This week's Mods :)
This weekend was uber productive: I deleted both side-view mirrors, added in car mirrors + a panoramic rearview to compensate, installed an engine kill switch for engine off coasting, and got my scan guage II!!!
I'll list each mod as a separate post with some method descriptions to keep replies organized... |
Side View Mirror delete
The stock mirrors on the 96 metro are giant and do not fold. Not to mention they are the most annoying things to operate ever! The control stick moves the miror up and down when you steer it up and down, but right and left when you steer it left and right. Since most adjustments are compound I found this really annoying (not enough to justify removing them, I am just ranting, I removed them to continue to improve aerodynamics and Cd.
The interior covers pop off, and there are simply 3 phillips screws holding the mirors on from inside the cabin. Once off I used the miror bases as a template and cute plastic triangle covers. At first I removed the foam backing off the mirrors and placed it on the new covers like this: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P2016012.jpg It turns out the original mirors cover significantly more area than is necessary. The foam allows it to go smoothly over the metal, weatherstripping, and a good inch or so of the window. So I ended up cutting these down to simply cover the bare sheetmetal like this: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P2016014.jpg |
Geo Metropolis -
Great start! You're modding like a bat out of heck. It looks like you bought green coroplast to match your Metropolis. CarloSW2 |
Interior Mirror additions
In between removing the mirrors and installing the covers my buddy had to go to the plastic shop with one of his customers. The customer had a truck and so I followed them over to pick up two 4x8's of coreplast (for what I hope is my upcoming belly pan and camback builds :thumbup:). Driving without mirrors even for just the 2 miles or whatever it is from the marina to the plastics place was scary :eek:!!! I was glad I had purchased interior mirrors and I decided to get them installed prior to finishing the outer mirror covers.
I should take pics closeup of these but the overall result is this: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P2016017.jpg You can see I added a panoramic wideview mirror to the rearview mirror in the center. (These are awesome btw and eliminate both blindspots nearly completely on their own). I didn't think that would be a helpful solution for talking my way out of tickets so I also added mirors inside. You can see the one on the drivers side which is a small convex mirror mounted to the dash, and the passenger mirror is identical but mounted to the A-pillar. These were like $3 each from harbor freight. They mount with suction cups to windows but in my case I put small screws through the suction cups. The mounting points were chosen for their functionality in providing the right angles. Here is a pic from another angle: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P2016013.jpg In the end I can see much more than I could with the old mirors and I have a decreased frontal area, without the additional mirror turbulence travelling down the sides of the car. I consider this a big win :cool: |
Kill Switch - shift mounted
I pretty much used the awesome how-to that bbjsw10 put up. Things weren't identical because our cars are not the same. Anyway, it's very similar but this could be helpful for any 96 metro owners.
Step 1 -> Bend a small piece of aluminum and install a momentary (normally off) push button switch: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P1315996.jpg Step 2 -> Solder on two 16 gauge wires (about 6' long each) then fasten the switch bracket to the shifter. I mounted mine this way because I wanted the button on the shifter in such a way that it was easy to press when you wanted to but not easy to press on accident. In this position I can't accidentally hit it whether I am shifting it with a top cane-type grip or a side pistol-grip method, but either way I can simply press the button with my thumb. I cut away some of the rubber outer part and used some stainless wire to secure the bracket like this: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P1315997.jpg Step 3 -> Run the two wires through the firewall into the engine bay. This can be intimidating if you haven't done it but it's really pretty easy so let me explain it. (If you know how to do this ignore sub-steps A-E) A: I removed the plastic center console (3 screws on each side along carpet) and the lower dash panel (Three screws along bottom, some clips along the top edge - just pull the top straight back toward the driver) B: Take a piece of bailing wire, or other stiff-ish wire (like a clothes hanger) and push it through the rubber grommet that feeds wires from the engine to the cabin. The rubber grommet is securing say a 1" bundle of wires in a 2" diameter hole. You're goal is to pierce the grommet somewhere between the wires and the firewall by stabbing it with the bailing wire. You can see the two red wires I used traveling down then disappearing into the grommet in this picture: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P2016008.jpg C:Run the wires from your interior switch through the shift boot, into the center console, up behind the radio, Through the mess of stuff that lives under the steering wheel, and to the bailing wire that you stuck through the grommet. When you're running these wires take your time to go up and over various things so the wire won't be able to fall down where you can catch it on feet or whatever. Also be sure you don't run it in such a way that it will interfere with moving parts (like the petals or vent controls). D:Now take the end of the bailing wire (you can pull it through enough to get better access down by the pedals) and using pliers bend the last 1/2" or so around the wires from your switch and back on itself so it is like the eye of a needle. Now take some electrical tape and wrap it around this "needle eye" and an inch or two of the wires you are running. E: Pull the bailing wire from the engine bay side and it should come back with the wires you're running :thumbup: Step 4: Wire things (Relay, and fuse jumpers) up just like described in bbjsw10's awesome how-to ->http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-how-4356.html The big changes were the location of the fuse. You can see which fuse it was in my fusebox here: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P2016009.jpg Optional: I decided to replace the fuse with a 15A breaker instead. This way if an event happens that would blow the fuse, I simply push a button to restore the circuit :cool: You can also see the ground wire in that pic (it's one of the wires that runs to the momentary switch) I used electrical tape to neatly secure it all in the end. I want to buy some giant heat-shrink tube to cover up that tape but it will do for now. Here's how she looks: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P2016011.jpg |
Nice job with all the mods. What kind of a MPG increase have you seen?
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Scan Gauge II installed
With my aeromods and what hypermiling I've been able to pickup my best tank has been 44mpg. I know the car has the potential for more and one of the biggest opportunities I have is driving technique. I believe the scan gauge II will be very helpful. You can see it in the interior mirror shot above. I mounted it on top of the steering collumn in front of the instrument panel with the wire running behind the under dash panel to keep things looking nice.
Now I just need to figure out how to work it. Can someone link me to a good beginner scan gauge forum post? I'd imagine someone's compiled a good list of useful ways to use the scan gauge |
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What a cool project. Keep up the good work.
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Thanks JM I spent like an hour reading through your forum yesterday. Looks like your engine tuning skills contributed to significant and inspiring results. I'm not mechanically gifted in the tuning sense. I'll have to really read that carefully and see if I could figure out how to do the timing and some of the other things you did.
I also pushed out my own fenders/dents, it was surprisingly easy and there's no reason metros can't look good. I really like your tinted windows on the red, that looks really great. |
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Water has been known to seep into the doors. |
Thanke Euromodder, I hadn't thought of that but you're definitely right it's not water tight this way. That should be an easy fix, I'll modify the covers asap.
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Front Belly Pan How-To
Hooray for my days off (Mon/Tues)! I decided to start with the front portion of the belly pan. The Geo is kind of a mess underneath for aerodynamics. It has a ton of clearance so a lot of air goes under the car but there is no under engine cover of any kind, and the frame and suspension hang well into the flow. I plan on making a complete belly pan but today I did only the front portion. Here is the before shot:
http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp01.jpg Tools / supplies Needed:
http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp02.jpg Step 2:Drill a small hole in the frontmost portion of each jack point. Hold the coreplast in place and drill two small holes on either side of the jack point. Now secure the back of the belly pan with two temporary zip ties (I used big ones at the end but small ones were sufficient for getting started) Don't cinch these down all the way as you'll be moving the coreplast around for a while, you just want a hingepoint that gets it more or less in place. http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp04.jpg These two points will act as extra hands holding the back where it should be and allowing you to hold the belly pan in place with one hand in the front :) http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp03.jpg Step 3:Hold the front of the belly pan flush with the bottom edge of the bumper and scratch yourself a line around the edge (Again I was about 1" generous here, it's best to trim it perfectly once it's mounted) http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp05.jpg The Geo bumper flattens out at the bottom higher than the front of the frame so I made a long tab running from tow-hook to tow-hook that will be tacked up to smooth the flow over the frame's hard angle. It looks like this: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp06.jpg Step 4: With the Back hinged like this it is easy enough to cutout some space for the exhaust and cat. I just gave it like 2" around, later I'll rivet in some aluminum flashing. http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp07.jpg Step 5:Now that we have a generous template it's time to begin securing it. I started at the back again by drilling small holes in the coreplast and ziptie-ing it to the bar that runs from jackpoint to jackpoint (I think this is the lower strut bar? Whatever it is, I'm sure it will move some with the suspension but a few zip ties looping over it shouldn't impede this nor put a ton of stress on the ties but it will keep the bellypan nice and secure so it doesn't flap about. http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp08.jpg Step 6:Now from the front of the car, hold the bellypan in place and pull it forward to remove any sag/slack. Using 3 self tapping screws secure it to the bottom of the frame front (Do the center first so you can ensure things are nice and straight) http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp09.jpg Step 7:Next undo the existing screw under the bumper that secures it to the wheel-well splash shield and use it to secure the coreplast to the bumper corners http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp10.jpg Step 8:Now that it's secured in place, use the boxcutter to carefully trim off your excess. I kept the knife at like a 45 degree angle, cutting from below so the tip of the blade was away from the bumper. This worked well and even gave the coreplast a little angle continuation from the bumper. http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp11.jpg Step 9:Now it's time to bend that tab from the frame edge up to the lower part of the bumper and secure it with some self tapping screws into the bottom of the bumper. like so: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp12.jpg I ended up adding a few more screws after this pic just because I wanted to be sure no air get's between the coreplast and bumper. If I find some green tape I may tape over the coreplast edge just to smooth it out and seal it even more. Step 10:Last thing to do is turn the wheels to the max and trim the coreplast so that it does not impede wheel turning or rub at all. If you have the key in the on position so the steering is unlocked you can easily turn the wheels themselves so there is no need to go back and forth to the steering wheel. My M became a bit more pronounced and the clearance looks like this: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp13.jpg and http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...polis/bp14.jpg Step 11:Last thing was trip the coreplast so there is a slot where the jackpoints can go through and replace those cheezy zip ties with sometihing beefier. Step 12:Enjoy improved aero. MetroMpg's testing seemed to indicate this would be about a 2% gain in FE. I think it was Basjoos but someone was saying a full bellypan significantly lowers road noise as well. I'll have to drive it around and see ;) |
Woah inspiring thread man... look like some clean, solid mods!
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I can't believe how fun this is and I can't wait to get to the 50MPG club :cool: |
great thread,can't wait for snow to melt and warm up out here so i can do the same. on the kammback, mine is abs like "5th generation civic thread" but looking to elongate further with clear lexan. either way abs is easy to work with and stiffer than colorplast.
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How to - Geo Metro Kammback with window!
First I must thank metroMPG for his inspiring innovation, measurements and suggestions, they were invaluable in making this happen. My goal was simply to mimic the shape and size of his kammback but construct it more simply with aluminum and coreplast and the addition of a plexiglass window for improved rear view.
Here are the tools/supplies needed: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...707_181758.jpg
http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_131504.jpg Step 2: cut a strip of aluminum to be roughly the same length as the distance between drip rails and - using the self tapping screws (even if you plan on riveting later - because you'll be adding lots more layers to these drill points) - attach the ends to the ends of your first two pieces so that you have something like this: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...707_190018.jpg Step 3: Build the bottom outside braces. For these I chose to screw into the hatch again, this time between the taillights and the hatch window. Bend them so they will make a correct angle toward the ends of your trailing cross piece (again leave about 1/4 of an inch to accommodate the coreplast you'll be adding). Ensure you have the correct angle then using the pliers bend the end not attached to the car so that it will hold up the rear corner of the kammback. The angle will be funky and leave some extra aluminum sticking out, mark it with the marker and trim it with the tinsnips. Do this on both sides and then screw the braces in using your existing self-tappers. Should look something like this (except hopefully you're working in the day): http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...708_001041.jpg Step 4: I fitted a plexiglass scrap I picked up at the plastics place to ride across the top of the kammback overlapping the aluminum all the way to the trailing edge. I then tied in one more crossmember of aluminum to act as a support for the leading edge of this window. I suggest you lay it in place then screw it on then mark and trim it. I originally made it match the length of the trailing crossmember but it need up kinda closing the width of the whole thing so I undid those screws and redrilled. You can see the crossbrace here: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_125441.jpg Step 5: Step back to admire your skeleton and compare it with MetroMPG's (his was tuft-tested and adjusted to near perfection). At this point I began to get excited: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_085218.jpg Step 6: Cut a generous piece of coreplast to the rough shape of the roofline, width of the kammback top, so that it extends down over top frame of the window. Should look something like: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_132829.jpg Step 7:One at a time pull the screws that make up the kamm-window frame, carefully mark and drill through the plexiglass and install it over the top of the frame. Be really careful to pre-drill, I recommend you do not use self tappers until you've predrilled and definitely don't use the metalpunch to mark your drill spot. Once this is done, begin securing the coreplast to the plexi, to the aluminum. You can see that here: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_132043.jpg This was feeling a little flimsy in the middle so I added another brace at the top of the hatch. It looks like this: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_131504.jpg Once everything is in place trim the coreplast top layer along the side edges of the kammback top so that it can be bent down. Step 8: Hold a piece of coreplast along one side of the kammback and trace a marker around things to make a good template for the side. Cut it like so: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_141013.jpg Step 9 Trim the top layer of the coreplast side pieces along the side edges of the kammback top so that it can be bent to and attached from the top. Should look something like this: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_141739.jpg Tep10: Attach coreplast with a generous amount of screws and figure out how you'll trim/overlap the extra bits like so: from this...http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_141351.jpg to this...http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_141403.jpg and this... http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_141730.jpg Step 11: At this point the whole thing is pretty solid but i wanted to be sure air wasn't catching on things and would flow smoothly so I added tape to the car's connection points like so: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_140804.jpg I'm not a fan of the tape color, I'll either paint the tape green or find green tape soon. Check out how little of the window is actually blocked with the addition of the plexi-window: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_142336.jpg View from back: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_143345.jpg Because I screwed the plexiglass window in at the four corners then into the middle (rather than from the middle out) it caused the top of the kammback to bow or sag a bit: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_142225.jpg To fix this I added a brace that simply pushes out from the window: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_143725.jpg Here's the finished product: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...709_142302.jpg |
I should note that mine is not exactly the same dimensions as MetroMPGs - but I used his measurements to get the angle right. He had suggested I shorten mine to improve view. Because I figured the window would solve the problem I actually lengthened mine a bit so it extends a few inches past the bumper (as you can see in the final pic). Also in comparing it now I see I didn't go all the way down to the tail-lights with the side pieces. I had intended on it I just forgot when I cut the side-pieces out :o. I think I'll probably put on some extensions to go all the way to the tail-lights because it seems like it would be worth it. and not too hard
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Fantastically thorough walk-throughs, well done! I hope that you can see some good results from these mods.
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I'm almost done with this tank. I can't wait to see the difference. I've been watching the scanguage and obliterating all my previous records for MPG from place to place (i keep a scorecard in the car). I had to change all my coastpoints on regular routes because I kept coming in hot. I can maintaing a much higher mpg at cruising speeds, this thing feels like a much bigger difference than any of my other mods.
I remember somewhere AeroCivic saying that when he drives other cars it feels like the road is covered in molasses. I drove my wife's Rav4 the other day (our only car capable of carrying surfboards) and 3 times while driving I checked to see if the eBrake was on before I realized I'm just used to cutting through the air instead of pushing it out of the way :thumbup:. There is no doubt an improvement, I know the butt-o-meter isn't scientific, but I can definitely say I'm looking forward to the tank to tank results. |
Looking good so far. That's some fast ecomodding.
You might want to check your kamm angle. Looks a bit steep. biggest gains come from between 10 and 15 degrees. It's real tempting to go for the steep angle but even if the flow stays attached, it creates lift and with it drag. Keep on modding! Added: Could just be the camera angle that makes it look steep. |
FULL Belly Pan How-To
A few months ago I did a Partial Front Bellypan. This post is to detail how I completed the belly pan to run the entire length of the car. I decided this was important for two reasons: 1) The metro bumper in it's current shape forces a lot of air underneath the car (I plan on later fixing this with a nosecone like aerocivic's or a full airdam like AndrewJ's - but until then all that pressurized air would probably benefit from a smoother underbelly. and 2) getting rid of the 4x8 sheet of coreplast on the roof of my boat was one of my wife's conditions for me finally getting my 67 mustang rat rod (sort of the opposite of the metro... it's a story for another time).
Without Further ado, here is the How-To: Tools/Supplies Needed:
Step 2: Be sure the coreplast is nice and straight with the body of the car and tuck the front edge up over the trailing edge of the partial or front bellypan (this keeps air from getting under the front edge of your full bellypan (which would be very bad) I secured this in only two places by drilling some self tappers through the coreplast and into the belly of the car near the jack points. At this point it should look something like this: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z.../bellypan1.jpg Step 3: Pick appropriate mounting points and use the self tapping screws to secure your bellypan to the underside of the car. Do this from front to back to ensure you keep things nice and smooth and don't create any bulges or ripples. I found a low point on each side of body that was about two feet back from the first screws and two feet in from the outside edge of the car. Then another pair of screws a bit farther back but along the edges again (6 screws total at this point). Step 4: Next you'll need to secure the back of the bellypan but you'll find the wheels are in the way. Estimate how much to trim off of the sides to accommodate the wheels and make cuts that look like: ] [ Remember the back wheels don't turn so you won't need to get fancy like we did in the front :D Step 5: Lastly I placed one screw into a nice solid steely frame bit right in the rear center of the car which pinned it up nice so that it dropped on either side with the rear suspension bits. NOTE: I did not drill into the gas tank, wire harness, or any exhaust components and you should be careful not to either ;). At this point it should look something like this: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z.../bellypan2.jpg Step 6: At this point I realized the perfect piece of coreplast would have been 8'6" to give me a little extra to trim and secure perfectly to the rear bumper. As it is though, it was about 2" short of perfect but no worries. The piece would be long enough to reach the back bumper on it's two corners only, but because of the compound dips for the suspension I needed to slice the center a bit to allow it to spread and curve correctly. Step 7: I had noticed that in the front the pan had sagged a bit from the suspension arms. I imagine this is because the suspension hangs a bit lower when the car is jacked up and the wheel is in the air so I decided to place some zip ties to secure the coreplast around the suspension arm so it could stay snug when it travelled. I cut a small piece of coreplast and drilled through it and the pan on both ends straddling the suspension arm then ran some zip ties around it. Step 8: Next I took two self tapping screws and secured the rearmost corners of the coreplast to the bottom of the rear bumper. The exhaust caused the right side of the split bellypan to sag weirdly so I then used another fortifying scrap of coreplast and a ziptie to raise up and match together the two halves of the bellypan. (Step 6, 7, and 8 are all kinda pictured here:) http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z.../Bellypan3.jpg In the end I'm pretty happy with the result. I wish the coreplast could have been just a hair longer, I would have liked to secure it all along the bottom edge of the rear bumper. As it stands though, the pan cuts off 1/2 inch to 2 inches ahead of the rear bumper lip but well lower so it should direct air past that parachute like edge without incident. Here's a good view of the completed project: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z.../bellypan4.jpg *I made no accommodations for hot exhaust components. I'm not worried about the piping much, as it's a bit tunneled in the car's underbody but the muffler is literally touching part of the pan. So far I've taken 2 10 minute drives and no melting, but I'll keep an eye on that. My first plan had been to cut out areas subject to heat and rivet in some aluminum flashing but that hasn't proved necessary so far. OH! and while I was under the car I cleaned up the front pan a bit. Those dogbones under the front suspension were really sagging and I rigged them up with a ziptie loop just like we saw here. I also trimmed a few bits of the front bellypan just to keep things looking nice. |
Sign Vinyl - an EcoModder's Good Friend
I can't say best friend, It think coreplast is probably an ecomodder's best friend :D but i would like to introduce everyone to the wonderful world of sign vinyl:cool:.
Sign vinyl is basically the same stuff used for car pinstriping, all precut automotive window stickers, and you guessed it - sign lettering. It's also the same stuff used for vehicle wraps. It's great because it looks fantastic - just like paint, lasts 5 years in the sun, leaves no residue, is flexible enough to fit on compound curves, and it does not damage paint! It also is cheap and comes in a variety of colors. You can pick it up on bay pretty cheap just search for "sign vinyl roll" and pick the color of your car. My geo is hunter green metallic so I purchased a roll of - you guessed it - hunter green metallic sign vinyl. In the sun they look almost identical although I found that in my case the color is not exactly the same because the sign vinyl is a bit more sparkly and so it looks lighter in most light. No worries, it's close enough and still better looking than the plastic alone. I think I paid $25 for a 30 yard roll that is 18 inches wide. For the purpose of this writeup I used it to recover my rear fenderskirt. Here is a Before picture. You can see I had sloppily used some black sign vinyl to seal the edges of the skirt to the car (note I did this while at a rest stop on a road trip so quick and dirty was the goal not pretty - today the goal is pretty). Anyway before -> http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...P1000094_2.jpg I feel like it would be obvious but for this to work, it's important the surface is clean and free of dust and the like. Just make sure to wipe down whatever you're covering in vinyl before you begin. I decided to remove the screws and then repierce the sign vinyl rather than cover the screw heads because I know from experience that removing the skirt is necessary in the case of a flat :rolleyes:. So I cut a piece of the vinyl to be slightly bigger than the plastic skirt then, making sure it was straight I smoothed out the sticker down the center of the skirt vertically. Then holding the left side of the sticker away from the skirt I simply smoothed it down, moving left format he center. It'd flexible and forgiving so if you get a wrinkle just pull it up a bit and stretch it as you smooth it down. Here is a picture of the left side smoothed out, the right side is just lightly stuck in place -> http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P1000096.jpg Next, I simply repeated the process working my way from the center to the right and it looked like this -> http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P1000097.jpg Remember I cut the sticker out to be a little big? I did this because I wanted to wrap the sticker around all the edges. To do this I simply cut the overlap every 3 or 4 inches to help it handle the circular edge and wrapped each tab over like this -> http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P1000098.jpg With all the edges wrapped it now looks like this -> http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P1000099.jpg Now I always worry about air getting caught up on the leading edges of these things so sign vinyl makes a perfect smooth transition from skirt to car. I cut straight 1.5 inch strips and used them to straddle the gap between skirt and paint. Remember how I said it's flexible? Well if you have one thumb applying pressure to smooth it down while you use your other hand to stretch the free end the direction you want it to go, you get a nice smooth curve like this -> http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P1000100.jpg I went all the way around the skirt and even added a strip to cover the bumper/quarterfender gap just for good measure. In the case of a flat I'll simply remove this little strip (again it comes off very clean and easy) and I won't have destroyed all my work smoothing the thing on there. The final result looks like -> http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...y/P1000101.jpg Pretty cool right? Looks just like painted metal! Don't judge the color match issues to harshly, it's a really specific color and I decided this was close enough. If you have a simple color like black, white, red, etc - matching the color would be much easier. I plan on covering all my mods, including the kammback, with this stuff, and I'll have enough left over, I might even wrap some of the car where the paint isn't looking so good (like the top edge of the hatch). Think of how great it would be for gap filling. *If you have access to a powersource (and don't have to ecomodd streetside like me) a heathen will go a long way. little heat really helps it flex for curves and also gives it a shrink-wrap like quality for compound curves and the like. I know that's how they do vehicle wraps with it. **Also you can spray a mild soap/water mixture on the car before placing the sticker. This will allow you to move it around more easily and you simply squeegee the water out from under the sticker surface and it goes down smooth. ***If you get small bubbles you can also pierce them with a needle or pin then smooth them down. |
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:D I couldn't let that opportunity go by! Thanks very much for the writeup. I've been hanging out on this forum ever since it started, and this is the first time I've seen sign vinyl mentioned. I think you've added a new and useful material to our tool box. Thanks again! |
lol - yea please substitute "heathen" with heat gun, oops :rolleyes:
yes, I'm glad to bring sign vinyl to light, it's extremely useful for so many things, but in the ecommoding I could see it being a great way to:
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How-To: Front Fender Gap Fillers / Partial skirts
My cardboard mockups seemed to contribute to better tank to tank results (yeah, yeah, no ABA, I know...) but they weren't weathering well at all (sunbleached, waterlogged, moldy, etc). I decided I like them so I wanted to make them a little more permanent.
I started by screwing in a variety of aluminum brackets around the front and top of the wheelwell. I don't have any pics of this but I just bent some 3"x1" aluminum pieces into 90 degree brackets. I used self tapping screws to mount them to the inner edge of the fender surround. Next I used the cardboard to make a template that fit the inner fender edge and allowed the tire to clear when turned back and forth (with enough margin to allow for some suspension movement and passenger weight). Honestly, the cardboard one helped me figure out where to add margin because it simply wore off where it needed to. I used the template and a boxcotter to cut a piece of 1/8" abs to the right shape. Unfortunately my ABS snapped when I tried to save some time by bending it along a score mark instead of cutting all the way through. I decided to use it anyway and simply put a bracket across the crack and secure each side of it with a screw. Here it is fitted in place: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...sticfitted.jpg Next, I began wrapping it in sign vinyl. I decide I wanted the screws outside the vinyl so I had to remove the screws, wrap the section, then put the screws back. You can see the process here: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...ylwrapping.jpg To wrap around the back, I just notch the vinyl every 2 or 3 inches and wrap each tab back, this helps it go around all the curves. You can see one of the tabs sticking out here: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...ylwrapping.jpg Next I used a 3/4" strip of vinyl to seal the gap between the new piece and the fender. While I was at it, I filled the bumper/headlight gap. Here is the side view: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...4finalside.jpg And the front view: http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...finalfront.jpg I'm really happy with the result on this one, it really looks pretty sharp wrapped in vinyl. I can't wait to get all my mods adjusted and wrapped, I think the whole car is going to look really good :thumbup: |
Thanks for sharing. I've also been working on a belly panel. I am curious if you've had water and dirt collect in the slots in your corroplast? I noticed that with nearly every corroplast panel I made, except the side skirts...
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