Winter Driving? Get Rock/Mudguards

[KhaoS2K]

I now have Sukeban minimal ones which are great to me. I prefer the material and lets me run whatever mesh I want for the vent, also nothing gets trapped btw the fenders and the liner. Its a pretty good product but its a bit expensive.

I'm unashamedly preaching for my choir here, but The FX3D material is far superior to the others' design that are using some kind of ABS or HMW plastic. We use polyurethane, which offers the best characteristics for rock guards.

When we first designed those for the FK8, the owner of the car had some carbon fiber imitation hard plastic guards. When I removed them, they were already badly faded even though he have had them for just a year.

Polyurethane will not fade over time! It's scratch resistant, UV and chemically resilient to. I've had a set on my S2000 for a long time and also on my old WRX, my current GR86 and on my wife's CX-5. The last 3 listed cars have lived in hard Canadian Winter conditions and the guards are still in mint condition. Also, once you realize the satisfaction of just lightly kicking the frozen hard packed snow stuck between the fender liner and wheels, you can't help but wonder how you could have possibly lived without a set of our guards before The top(inside) surface of the guard is purposely designed to help drain the dirt easily. It's painted and clear coated which helps in that regards.

The only drawback of the material, which is also it's strength, is that it's flexible. It will endure quite the abuse, but also offer a certain challenge when designing guards on some platforms. On the FL5 for example, the upper OEM screw is located really deep inside the wheel well. That's the whole reason we had to fabricate a custom bracket to make them as flush as possible with the fender. We could have used double sided tape everywhere like some do, but that makes the install less secure and also complicates the adjustability feature our products have.

(I was happy with the 3DFX too though minus how much it blocked the out vent (would have still had them if they did not block it as much, the v3 blocks even more with the TYPE logo in the middle)

The first iteration had a really spaced out mesh on the guards themselves but the new design is more elegant, serves as a first layer filter and adds some lateral rigidity. I'd say this suits the huge majority of our customers. Not sure you would gain half a second on your lap time if you removed the mesh and guards, but you'll definitely prevent a lot of dirt being thrown at your fenders and side panels leaving them on

I'm not making this up. Check what I found when first working on the project.

And I doubt the mesh block that much airflow.

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[KhaoS2K]

I did a review on the FX3D guards and started off quite Leary of them, only wanting the mesh to stop the rocks, but found the ability to mostly hide them and still protect some paint, won me over. Company is very responsive on this forum and keep on adapting their product with the help of users and feedback. I have no horse in the race but in this day and age, having some good customer service seems to be a rarity.

Thanks a lot for making that video and rest assured we've heard you're feedback and we'll continue improving the design in the future.

 

[MooMoo]

I'm unashamedly preaching for my choir here, but The FX3D material is far superior to the others' design that are using some kind of ABS or HMW plastic. We use polyurethane, which offers the best characteristics for rock guards.

When we first designed those for the FK8, the owner of the car had some carbon fiber imitation hard plastic guards. When I removed them, they were already badly faded even though he have had them for just a year.

Polyurethane will not fade over time! It's scratch resistant, UV and chemically resilient to. I've had a set on my S2000 for a long time and also on my old WRX, my current GR86 and on my wife's CX-5. The last 3 listed cars have lived in hard Canadian Winter conditions and the guards are still in mint condition. Also, once you realize the satisfaction of just lightly kicking the frozen hard packed snow stuck between the fender liner and wheels, you can't help but wonder how you could have possibly lived without a set of our guards before The top(inside) surface of the guard is purposely designed to help drain the dirt easily. It's painted and clear coated which helps in that regards.

The only drawback of the material, which is also it's strength, is that it's flexible. It will endure quite the abuse, but also offer a certain challenge when designing guards on some platforms. On the FL5 for example, the upper OEM screw is located really deep inside the wheel well. That's the whole reason we had to fabricate a custom bracket to make them as flush as possible with the fender. We could have used double sided tape everywhere like some do, but that makes the install less secure and also complicates the adjustability feature our products have.



The first iteration had a really spaced out mesh on the guards themselves but the new design is more elegant, serves as a first layer filter and adds some lateral rigidity. I'd say this suits the huge majority of our customers. Not sure you would gain half a second on your lap time if you removed the mesh and guards, but you'll definitely prevent a lot of dirt being thrown at your fenders and side panels leaving them on

I'm not making this up. Check what I found when first working on the project.

And I doubt the mesh block that much airflow.

I think you make a great product and was really happy with mine and the price was great, I just wanted something a bit different. I think the small mesh is great for protection but rather give up some protection to get more air flow to go through those vents, after all thats why they are there in the first place. Btw the mesh and then further blocking it with the logo its just not what I am after.
That said for most people this is non issue and if that was not an issue for me they would still be in the car.
For reference I removed them after 2k miles and they looked brand new, I then sold them to someone else so I agree its a great material. I just want to make sure you know I am not throwing shade towards you, i really liked your product and would recommend it

 

[KhaoS2K]

I think you make a great product and was really happy with mine and the price was great, I just wanted something a bit different. I think the small mesh is great for protection but rather give up some protection to get more air flow to go through those vents, after all thats why they are there in the first place. Btw the mesh and then further blocking it with the logo its just not what I am after.
That said for most people this is non issue and if that was not an issue for me they would still be in the car.
For reference I removed them after 2k miles and they looked brand new, I then sold them to someone else so I agree its a great material. I just want to make sure you know I am not throwing shade towards you, i really liked your product and would recommend it

No worries my friend I get that. One of our prior design had the bracket with the same honeycomb pattern to optimize airflow. In the end, having the bracket integrated like that just adds to simplicity of the install.

 

[TeslaHonda]

Should I be upset that I scratched up my front fender liners a bit trying to release those damn rivets? I've never seen push rivets that 1) are this fragile and 2) just flat out refuse to release

 

[MooMoo]

Should I be upset that I scratched up my front fender liners a bit trying to release those damn rivets? I've never seen push rivets that 1) are this fragile and 2) just flat out refuse to release

its just plastic, will prob get a bit bit up when stones hitting it anyways.

what i would recommend though is putting some ppf or helicopter tape where the flats contact the painted part cuz rocks prob will get stuck in there and scratch shit up

and yeah those push in pins suck ass. Luckily the ones you get from whoever sells you the flaps will be easy to remove and reinstall

 

[KhaoS2K]

Should I be upset that I scratched up my front fender liners a bit trying to release those damn rivets? I've never seen push rivets that 1) are this fragile and 2) just flat out refuse to release

WD40 and patience does the trick.

 

[J_D]

I just broke the heads off with pliers, and then rammed them through with a small screwdriver.

 

[Sporky McGeuschky]

This will save the side of your car in winter

Looks nice.
Brand new here... first comment now.
I'm in TX and we usually don't get much ice or snow, but we certainly have plenty of dirt and pebbles down here. I myself have recently ordered the Rally Mud Flaps from RokBlokz.com . RokBlokz is in Utah and makes tons of mud flaps for side by sides as well as cars and trucks.
For the 11th Gen Civic they make low profile Splash Guards and full on Rally Mud Flaps. The Mud Flaps include inserts for either blocking off the front tire vents completely, or installing a honeycomb mesh to block debris while allowing airflow behind the front wheels. The Rokblokz YT channel has an installation video for the FL5 Rally Mud Flaps.

 

[heartbeat91]

I also run FX3D mud flaps. Does anyone know how to better prevent both front/rear fenders from getting hit up so hard with dirt? It's not like i'm going off roading, but it accumulates very quickly and the mud flaps don't really do anything there.

 

[J_D]

Did you install the mesh inserts in the front?
You will aways get some dirty, just the big pieces won't blast your paint directly.

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