I'm not planning on rallying anytime soon, but I do want to go further offroad with my Prius.
I know of a company doing lift kits and soon to be released skid plates, but they won't be delving into the issue that impacts a lot of Prius owners - the flimsy, weak, easily destroyed and ripped off front wheel fender liners.
What's the common practice in rally for fabricating fender liners so you don't end up with mud caked up inside the fender, around the washer fluid reservoir or elsewhere?
Most guys just use thin HDPE sheeting. Easy to cut, you can get it permanent bends and creases with some heat, And if you buy at the fairly thin stuff it flexes well anyway. Most of the problem with wheel wheel liners is actually not the plastic itself but the fasteners. With my HPDE stuff they are all attached via screws or bolts with large washers, rather than plastic fasteners
In my Gen2 salvage Prius adventures I have replaced front fender liners. All I have to add is that aftermarket liners are very noticeably thinner and generally crappier than genuine factory liners.
With that said, are you sure that at least you have the factory liners?
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
What thickness sheeting have you seen used?
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
What thickness sheeting have you seen used?
really depends. For actual stage rally cars they tend to use thicker stuff and really go to some effort with the heat gun to bend/shape the pieces. For general off-road driving and stuff, just the really thin stuff. IDK how thin it is, but it's like the multi-pack cutting board stuff you can buy at walmart. I use it mostly for splash guards on the sides of my skidplate (on both the rally car and my Raider). It's super-flexible but holds up well. I would just find basically the thinnest stuff you can (and maybe go up one thickness) and should be fine for wheel liners/splashguards. For our actual underbody armor, we use MUCH thicker stuff (like 1/8" I think).
Would it be possible to buy two sets of fender liners and bond one inside another to double the thickness and add strength then install with upgraded hardware like screws with washers to spread the load instead of plastic pop fasteners?
Go to local brewery and ask if they'll sell you a few plastic rubberized pallet dividers, there's about five manufacturers of them they'll likely have all five, the one's manufactured by Ball are the best. They'll be light blue.
I think I actually have some of this stuff from some shelving units laying around. I suspected it might make a good fender liner, sounds like I was onto something.
Fastners however, should be interesting.
I've cut rubbermaid garbage cans into liners and riveted them into place. It was great until I had to cut them out again.
This seems relevant.
I would think any decent plastic and some zip screws would do the trick.
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