So I made a little progress on my track aero project over the 4th of July holiday break...
- Drove out to Rancho Dominguez and purchased (qty 3) sheets of 1/8" ABS from CALSAK Plastics. I wanted to get the 1/4" thick sheets, but they're too rigid and couldn't be rolled up so they wouldn't fit in my wife's Toyota Rav4. I bought a bunch of extra in case I mess up and b/c I plan on making a smooth bottom for the entire car (less a few key cutouts for proper air flow around the engine, downpipes, rear diff, and exhaust).
- Cut out side splitters and approx sized pieces for rear diffuser
- Went to Ace hardware in Torrance and purchased a bunch of different fasteners, washers, nuts, tee nuts, rivets, and L-brackets for mounting the splitters and rear diffuser.
- Created template for rear diffuser side pieces, but I'll probably tweak it a little b/c after reviewing the pictures I took I think the edge near the rear tire should be more straight and a little less rounded.
Pretty happy with how similar my 1st cut is compared to the VRS piece. When I cut it from ABS I'll make the left edge more straight near the tire / wheel well.
Next steps:
- Optional: I'm considering using my heat gun to create a 90 deg bend on the inboard edge of the side splitters. This would have a major impact while tracking as it creates a wall for the air under to car to flow and not allow it to escape on the sides between the front and rear wheels. Downside is that it would reduce ground clearance and impact daily driving. I may compromise and make two sets of side splitters; one set for track use and one set for cosmetics / daily driving. What do you guys think?
- Remove side skirts from car and mount side splitters using tee-nuts. Tee nuts will be riveted to inside of side skirt for easy install and removal of the splitter. Basically, the tee nut is fixed on the inside of the side skirt, so when the splitter comes on and off, the only hardware installed/removed is the fastener and washer. Planning on using ~6 tee nuts on each side.
- Wrap side skirts in 3M carbon fiber vinyl (still waiting for this to arrive from Amazon).
- Install black auto door trim around outer edge of side splitters (like the beveled edged shown on the side splitters installed on Neema's black E92 shown in my original post).
- Continue creating the template for the rest of the rear diffuser.