Wind deflector project: Total Cost $10.
Time: About 2 hours.
Inspiration: Wrap around sunglasses.
To Start: Look up Plastics in the Yellow Pages. Purchase
one sheet of
Acrylite 12” by 37”. Also buy one 6 foot length of
1/2” clear plastic
tubing. Acrylite is used for skylight domes. It comes in the
following
transparent colors:
Gray 103-2 25% light transmission
Gray 104-1 13% light transmission
Bronze 126-4 45% light transmission
Bronze 131-2 27% light transmission
Bronze 311-1 10% light transmission
Tools Needed:
Jig Saw
Hand saw
Hand drill
Marine Epoxy (Resin and Hardener)
8-32x1/2” Machine screws with nuts. Round heads zinc
Fine point Permanent marker
Files (Fine and course)
5/32 Allen Wrench
2 drywall screws
screw drivers (Phillips and straight edge)
Black enamel paint (Testors)
Masking tape
3M clear tape
Directions:
1. Remove deflector from roofrack using allen wrench.
2. Remove rubber bushing.
3. Keep Acrylite in paper wrapping. Mark bottom edge curve
to be cut by
tracing off bottom edge of deflector. Cut bottom edge.
4. Use masking tape to tape acrylite to deflector lining
up bottom edge.
Mark to edge to be cut and 2 side cuts. Untape and make 3 cuts.
Put
Acrylite aside.
5. Using permanent marker, draw cut out area about 1 inch
in from all sides
of deflector.
6. Drill large hole at corner of area to be cut out. Drill
second hole
right next to first and interconnect to make enough room to get
jig saw blade
in. Slowly cut following permanent marker lines on the back of
the
deflector. Cut right through support flaps on the back of the
deflector. I
was a bit nervous about cutting these off at first but the finished
deflector
seems to hold up fine to highway speeds. Continue drilling and
cutting till
you can remove the center section.
7. File inside edges smooth. Particularly corners.
8. Mix Marine Epoxy and brush on front side of deflector
where Acrylite will
be placed. Peel off protective wrap on Acrylite and hold it in
place until
Epoxy sets. (Note: epoxy may not even be needed. If you don’t
use epoxy it
would be easy to cut other color sheets of acrylite and just
bolt then into
place.)
9. After epoxy has set peel off second protective coating
from Acrylite.
Drill holes in each of the 4 corners as well as centered top
and bottom for
8/32 machine bolts. Bolt in place. Paint bolts black to help
retard rust
and help bolts blend in to dark the dark deflector.
10. Reattach deflector to roof rack. As you can see from
the photos I also
decided to cut up my gear basket. Any other questions just e-mail
me. Let
me know if you come up with any improvements on this simple $10
fix.
