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How-to: Fix front wheel liners with degrading plastic grille after track use
The front wheel liners are actually pretty good on the C8s, and don't seem to be suffering from rubbing issues as much as the previous gens did with wide tires. That said, the grille for the front cheek coolers' exhaust air eventually get damaged with the debris and tire rubber getting stuck in there, and slowly destroying the structure. This is most prevelant on the outer side of the grille area, and the inner side stays intact. Once enough damage is done, the fabric protective cloth behind the grille starts getting caught by the rubber, and it eventually gets ripped out of its place as well. Replacing the whole wheel liner is a solution, but I think a better solution is to replace the cloth behind the plastic grille, which would secure the internal components. I should also add, that cloth is pretty restrictive, and replacing it with metal mesh should improve the air flow.
What you need:
A pack of 3/16" split-type (tri-fold) rivets at 3/4" length to secure the new mesh in place. Example:
A drill with a 3/16" tip for pilot holes to the rivets.
A handful of zip-ties for securing the section by the brake ducting port.
Mesh grille. I have 1/4"-gap sheet from Home depot (link).
A garden scissors or similar to cut the mesh.
Thick gloves to not get cut by sharp edges of the mesh.
Sooner or later, it looks like the plastic mesh starts failing with the rubber from the track surface getting stuck, and pulling on the ribs. This is how it looked like after I removed the dangling plastic pieces.
... and here are the pieces I've removed.
The plastic pieces are not that important besides directing air, but once they're out, the debris starts pulling on the cloth behind it that protects the fan, etc. I should also add that this cloth is very dense, and is likely reducing the air flow.
To replace that cloth, I've used the mesh cloth readily available at Home Depot. This mesh is stronger than aluminum mesh available on Amazon, etc., and should be much more resiliant to the beating. It is also galvanized, and should not easily rust. One roll should be enough for both sides.
You can start by cutting a piece large enough to cover the whole area. We'll trim it later on. It'll be about 16"x16".
You can start from the putting a rivet on the left bottom corner (this is for the passenger side), and go from there.
If you screw up with the drill and hurt the mesh while drilling your pilot hole, you can use a leftover piece from your trimming, and put it on the hole as pictured here to reinforce.
.... and done! I've used zip ties around the area by the brake cooler ducting. This area does not get beat by road debris, so zip ties here would be much more likely to survive.
Good thinking here.
You really think the black mesh you can find on Amazon wouldn’t stand up in this application?
Galvanized mesh will rust but I guess since we don’t drive these cars that often maybe it’ll last long enough to not matter
Yeah, galvanized should not rust, at least not easily. Color is not a big deal in my opinion, since it won't really be visible like the front guards.
Regarding material: this material is meant for fencing, and it's much much stronger than the aluminum mesh we find elsewhere. The fabric cloth that used to be here is also a very strong material, and I wanted to replace it with something similar in strength with more air flow. We'll see how well this one stands up to the beating from the tires picking up rubber and stones.
In my experience with C7 Z (with cheek coolers), aluminum was not up to the task inside the wheel well..
How-to: Fix front wheel liners with degrading plastic grille after track use
