Stone Guards

[BlueMax]

Just curious? On my 03 SV I notice other than being sided that the LH is smaller than the RH. I plan to have them polished if the estimate is less than new replacements. Are all stainless stone guards like mine for the SV's?

 

 

 

[TurboWood]

I'm relatively sure mine were the same size ('13 CSR).

[scannon]

Driver side fender on my '04 SV is shorter to allow the rear exit exhaust to turn under the car. Mine were polished but after one year they were pitted so I covered them with bed liner.

[Dave W]

Trying to keep polished spats looking good is next to impossible. By the 2nd year I could not polish out the sand blasted surface. I've settled on a brushed surface finish. 15 minutes with an 80 -200 grit flap roll [depending on the surface you want] and they are ready for another season. Dave W

Edited December 1, 2015 by Dave W

[sevenup]

When I painted my Stalker I wanted to come up with a way to protect the rear fenders from rock/gravel

chips. Made these pieces from naugahyde. The next set will be black material....experimenting with other concepts. After a thousand miles the protective chaps have held up well and there are no chips or dents in the paint. They attach through two lower eyelets to two small bolts on a bracket behind the lower part of the fender, and then to a top bracket with Velcro applied. They go on and come off in seconds...takes a couple minutes to remove the top velcro brackets. An alternative to consider.

Edited December 1, 2015 by sevenup

[wemtd]

From my perspective there are two options: resist or accept the inevitable.

Here is a picture of my new stone guard (never polished) after 1400 miles.... note the adjacent fender is in great shape!

 

 

For what it's worth, I covered my forward facing fenders with Llumar12 ClearMask paint protection film. But left the aluminum bare. So far it is holding up very well, and the aluminum vouches for my blat time.

I think it is worthwhile trying this film on your polished stone guards. I almost did this but in the end did not want to polish them. Please let us know your results.

 

cheers

P.

[BlueMax]

Thanks everyone for your advice and suggestions!! I was going to give (3M) Invisishield a try after I have them polish. I have also thought of some type of mud flap attached to the back side of the front lower wings very close to the ground. It would probably look quite tacky.

 

I was wondering if anyone has used Invisishield product on their stone guards and rear wings?

[slomove]

....I was wondering if anyone has used Invisishield product on their stone guards and rear wings?

 

Kind of....I have usec ClearMask Aeroguard to cover the front and rear wings as well as the nosecone. However...practically all the brands on the market are owned or controlled by 3M so I guess it is pretty much the same as ClearBra, Invisishield or other derived 3M brands.

 

I did cover the high impact front of the rear ones additionally with a 1/16" sheet of hard rubber that wraps around the rounded wing edge. Now, after 7 years and some 25,000 road miles it still looks reasonable but there is some wear and tear. The smooth rubber surface is now also a bit rough , and there are 4 or 5 places where rock impact from unusual angles has torn small pieces (up to 1/4") from the clear film. The nosecone is dull in a few spots from boiling Chemtool solvent that I squirted by mistake from the spark plug holes (while un-freezing a stuck piston ring).

 

However, I guess the car is in much better shape than it would have been without the film. At some point I just have to replace it (and hope it goes off without the paint...)

 

Anyway, as a sole protection of the rear wing front the clear film is clearly insufficient

Edited December 3, 2015 by slomove

[m wirth]

I hope this doesn't look to tacky, but it will give you an idea of what it would look like. I prefer functionality and these do a very good job, they are cut and shaped out of a rubber sheet. The rear covers are semi hard rubber sheets and do the job.

[sevenup]

I saw this car at the Louisville British car show last June...it was very muddy but it shows a couple of the discussed modifications....

[slomove]

Forgot to mention...I have similar "skirts" or mud flaps as shown in the previous post. They are cut from generic Autozone truck mud flaps and riveted to the wings in a similar fashion with a gap of about 1" to the pavement.

They do reduce some of the direct blasting of the car sides and rear wings as well as pebbles in the cockpit.

However:

- while they are quite rigid, when driving the wind bends them up somewhat and allows more rocks to escape below. They are not completely effective.

- the rocks that are captured, bounce around inside the front wing and are mostly spit out to the front of the car. Many of them end up on the bonnet, the wind screen or in the cockpit. I am sometimes wondering if this is responsible for my rapidly pitting windscreen

- it happened twice to me that the mud flap got caught between the wheel and a shallow curb while driving backward. That will reliably bend the wing stay tubes and require some repair.

 

I may just remove the flaps sometimes because I am probably better off without.

[m wirth]

when doing my flaps I followed the inside curve of the fender on both sides effectively gusseting them from blowing back, more wind resistance but it is already a brick in cd measurements.