The CF Bedford Rebuild Begins

Part 18: The rebuild starts - the side skirts

Well the side skirts have been a decision and a half.
Originally I planned to have a rounded style then was shown a picture of the van in England, they were similar in shape so decided not to use them.
So then I decided to go clean and not use any but because I lowered the foot wells (to take the batteries) they stuck out the sills a fraction so really needed some type of side skirt on there.

I went through my collection of photos and images found on the net and the two most common styles are running boards or nothing, so using my old van as inspiration I decided on a similar concept.

I want the van low but at the same time I don't want to have to worry about going up and down driveways or speed humps etc.
The average car is 180-200 millimetres off the ground (measured to bottom of sill), so I am setting the bottom of the side skirts at 180mm. In some ways it's good as am still running standard height suspension front and back so if I ever lower it I will still have ground clearance. The side skirts while looking big, only come down 40mm from original sills.

Above are with and without the side skirts, quite a difference, and will look different again once the flares are on. Still haven't got the door skin on, am being messed around with the window channel rubbers.

Here is another view with the side skirts, from the back.

The front flare will flow into the side skirt where as the back flare will step out slightly from it.
If the engine wasn't mid mounted I'd bring the exhaust out the back of the skirts, but how it is now would be to short, to loud, to many tickets.

The side skirts will be hollow and one piece, it wont be strong enough to stand on or jack from but from experience racing stock cars it is easier to make them softish so if they ever get damaged would be easier to cut them off and replace them. If they were made solid the impact would no doubt effect other parts of the van.