The black smoked plastic side panels look awesome, no doubt about that. Unfortunately, they don’t hold up well. I tried coating them with Clear bra, and plasti-dip, but they still cracked from FOD impacts. The right one was held together with duct tape since last season.
So, it was time to build some new ones. Should be pretty simple. Use the old ones as a template, cut, drill, finish, and you’re done. It kinda went that way.
First off, I measured the height and width of the plastic parts. Then ordered some aluminum 10″ x 67″. What I forgot was that the panels are curved in 2 directions. Which means the shape needs to be NOT a simple rectangle. Oh, well. I’ll use that aluminum for one project or another.
I used 6061 aluminum, .040 thick. I purchased the two panels from http://www.metalsdepot.com because they will cut to size and ship quickly. Maybe finding a big sheet somewhere here in town would be a little bit cheaper. But this is pretty convenient.
I cut it to size, but did not drill the holes yet. I added some beads to improve the look, and to make it a little stiffer, to prevent oil canning. People will often say that beads add strength. That is not true. It will make the panel stiffer, but not stronger. I did the same thing to a lot of panels on the car.
Once the beads were rolled in, I laid the old plastic part back on, and marked for the holes. Some times working the metal like this will change it’s shape slightly. If you drilled the holes before working it, they might not fit right.
Then it was time for paint. I painted the front 1/3 Royal Red from Rustoleum, just like the rest of the car. I let it dry for 3 days, masked off the letters, and painted it blue. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the right blue in Rustoleum, so I used Ace Hardware paint. And the two paints don’t match! So it wrinkled. The only fix is to sand it down and start over.
So, here’s the finished product. The barf emojis are because I’ve had two people barf after riding with me. 🙂
I think the smoked plastic panels look better. But aluminum is more durable. I hope.