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| How To: Rear Wheel Skirts; Coroplast Rear Wheel Skirts | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 9 2010, 05:14 PM (286 Views) | |
| mjspiess | Mar 9 2010, 05:14 PM Post #1 |
 
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I told a few members I would post a How To on Rear Wheel Skirts, so here it is. Keep in mind I did this last November & didn't takes pics. during my progress, so you'll just have to use your imagination on a few of the steps. First of all I took 2 newspaper pages & taped them together & then taped the larger piece of newspaper to the side of my car over the wheel well. If I did it over again, I'd attatch the aluminum strip across the bottom first to compensate for the curve around the tire, otherwise your newspaper template would be too short and leave you guessing when it came time to trace the newspaper onto your coroplast. Once the newspaper is fastend, take a marker and trace the outline of your wheel well. Be sure to get that little "bump" from the front of the bumper. Once you get your outline, cut away the extra newspaper, tape your template to your coroplast, trace & cut. Back out to the car. The aluminum strip is from a hardware store and is actually a door trip you would nail down to separate carpet from linoleum or whatever. Bend and shape your aluminum strip to your desire. Figure out where/how you want to secure it. I used a screw and drilled into the frame on the front end  Afterward, I sprayed the area with Rustoleum Rubberized Rust Protection... Figured I'd try to at least slow down the inevitable... I drilled a small hole in the rear bumper as well.  I used I think a 2" 90* bracket to secure the wheel skirt at the top. There is a "hidden" screw up under the bumper I used.  And here is a shot of the aluminum strip curved around the tire. There is about a 1" gap between brace & tire.  Once you get your coroplast trimmed up to your desire & fit within the wheel well, it's time to secure it to the bracket & brace. I started at the top with the bracket. It's kinda a guessing game... I held the skirt in place, felt around & guessed where the hole was & drilled a small hole through the skirt to match up with the bracket. I did the same thing across the bottom of the aluminum strip too. I secured the skirt with plastic brads that came with nails I also found at the local hardware store. I put a nail in at the top, front & back holes. All the rest of the holes just have the plastic brads.  Here is the finished product! I need to clean & re-paint them. The front is pretty much flush with the wheel well while the rear overlaps the bumber slightly so the air can pass over smoothly.  Here is a shot from the front. There is small gap at the top right of the wheel well, but I'm not going to lose sleep... It could be fixed with a spacer or something between the bracket & skirt or making the skirt longer to overlap the bumper up there too.  Shot from the rear...  Overall, I'm really pleased with them. Turns out the extra coroplast I have is about 1-1.5" too short, so the skirt wouldn't come all the way down to the base of the car frame. We wouldn't want our Metros sluttin' around with short skirts now would we?!  So I will not be making any skirts to sell. Sorry, but at least now you know how I made mine.
Edited by mjspiess, Mar 9 2010, 05:17 PM.
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| Dgeo | Mar 9 2010, 07:31 PM Post #2 |
Advanced Member
  ![]](http://209.85.62.24/static/1/pip_r.png)
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Very nice write up and it looks easy......How many MPG's do you think its worth? |
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| Coche Blanco | Mar 9 2010, 07:45 PM Post #3 |
Captain Slow
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Depends on how fast you drive, 1mpg is the norm. |
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| mjspiess | Mar 9 2010, 08:02 PM Post #4 |
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Thanks, and yeah it was pretty easy...just time consuming. I'm not positive on the MPG increase since I didn't do a A-B-A-B test, however, MetroMPG did and got a 2.8% increase. If I had to guess...I'd say 1.5-2 MPG increase. My best trip this year so far is 57 MPG on a 100 mile trip with my current mods listed in my signature. |
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| Nick | Mar 9 2010, 08:12 PM Post #5 |
The Geo
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huh how much is the MPGuino? 
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| iamgeo | Mar 9 2010, 08:52 PM Post #6 |
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Nick, you should look into getting a Scangauge ll. Scangauge ll Dgeo, I like this post. |
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| mjspiess | Mar 9 2010, 09:12 PM Post #7 |
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Nick, I bought my MPGuino for $45 shipped I think, I can't remember from: http://store.fundamentallogic.com/ecom/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=22&zenid=7a73ce65f5fed4d30ed334a44d00a03c You can also get it from here for $55 pre-assembled: http://opengauge.org/mpguino/ They're currently out of stock from the 1st link. It comes as a kit that you have to solder together. It was pretty easy though. I just bought my wife a ScanGauge II for her '97 Grand Am GT for $95 shipped from a guy on Craigslist. Both gadgets are pretty sweet! |
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4:45 PM Jul 30
