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SVO/Fiberglass side skirt users, how is the durability?

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Thinking of going sidepipes on my 98 at some point in the near future and I really like the SVO style pipes for 94-98 cars but worried about the durability of fiberglass since I'm pretty sure I will not find any good used CDC urethane ones anywhere.  I know 3 or 4 ppl on here at least run the SVO or ABC ones, now are they for durability? 

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Mine have cracked many times at the top of the opening where the tips come through. It was because the exhaust hit the ground and got pushed up though. My new exhaust won't let it happen again though. I'm going to go through and fix all the cracks and repaint them before the car hits the road again.


Also, the ABC skirts are urethane. If you find fiberglass ones, they're the real deal SVO's which will be more rare than CDC's for sure.

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Mine aren't SVO skirts but they are fiberglass, think they may be ABC exclusives but not sure. The only issue I've had with mine is the tab that mounts to the fender on the driver side broke off when I slid sideways into a curb. Had it fixed by a body shop but it broke back off again. Other than that, the exhaust tip opening got cracked by the tip hitting it when I went over a speed bump.  Pretty much as long as you don't slide into curbs and at least try to avoid most speed bumps you should be fine.

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Mine have cracked many times at the top of the opening where the tips come through. It was because the exhaust hit the ground and got pushed up though. My new exhaust won't let it happen again though. I'm going to go through and fix all the cracks and repaint them before the car hits the road again.

Also, the ABC skirts are urethane. If you find fiberglass ones, they're the real deal SVO's which will be more rare than CDC's for sure.

 

ABC skirts are fiberglass per their website.

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Yeah if you have Urethane ones you have the CDC ones.  

 

Also, how about subframe connector clearance for the side exhaust?  I'm looking at going with a tubular set from Global West or maybe WMS which tuck up a lot better than regular boxed ones.  I've had boxed subframes on everything else and loved them but I know the tubular ones are stronger.

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Yeah if you have Urethane ones you have the CDC ones.  

 

Also, how about subframe connector clearance for the side exhaust?  I'm looking at going with a tubular set from Global West or maybe WMS which tuck up a lot better than regular boxed ones.  I've had boxed subframes on everything else and loved them but I know the tubular ones are stronger.

 

I have also been wondering about that. I need some SFCs. I've been told that Spintech makes some that work with side exhaust but I don't know that for sure as I have no experience with them. Hopefully somebody will chime in on that.

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I know the spintech ones are made specifically to clear the spintech side exahaust and the spintech side exhaust has oval piping too.  However I really do want the tubular ones and I'd honestly prefer the Steeda catback to the spintechs.  Might get the tubular ones welded in and then do some mocking up and see what's up.  

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Researching more and I'm seeing the Global West ones and Hans Racing ones and then they come with a $400+ option that includes tri bars to jacking rails... wtf...  Lol I might just get the Steedas that come with the torque box reinforcements and run tailpipes.  I can get the Steedas done locally for $400 parts and labor in about 4 hours.  

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Where did you get urethane ones?  Did they use to make them in urethane?  And do you run subs?  I remember seeing some undercarriage pics of your car but I can't seem to find them now.  I'm sure I'll run across them again when I'm looking for something else lol.  

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i had a set of urethane ones i got on craigslist. I honestly dont remember what i did with them. i have a few pictures of them mocked up on my car and....they are gone. couldnt tell you what kind they were though. definitly not fiberglass. O and they were beat to crap!

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Called ABC and they used to make them in urethane.  Said they were having issues with the urethane and fiberglass is more reliable.  Maybe more reliable to cast but not on the car.  I am going IRS so I probably will just get some bangin polished tails and run them out the back.  

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Well a guy who wants to trade for my SRA locally said he'd include the polished magnaflow tails but the wife wants him to keep the mufflers.  This would just give me an excuse to do a shout out to my old 95 Cobra and put Dynomax Ultras on it.  I loved those mufflers.  

 

At any rate, with the topic at hand, the original SVO ones were fiberglass, the CDC and early run ABC ones were urethane and the current ABC ones are fiberglass.  

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Well a guy who wants to trade for my SRA locally said he'd include the polished magnaflow tails but the wife wants him to keep the mufflers.  This would just give me an excuse to do a shout out to my old 95 Cobra and put Dynomax Ultras on it.  I loved those mufflers.  

 

At any rate, with the topic at hand, the original SVO ones were fiberglass, the CDC and early run ABC ones were urethane and the current ABC ones are fiberglass.  

 

I wish I had thought of this swap sooner... and could find an even trade like this!

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Well, he wants my SRA, my Steeda LCAs, my tailpipes, DS flange and $300 and I get his 80k mile IRS, Magnaflow tails and DS flange.  Still waiting on him to give the go though, he just had a kid (well his wife did lol) and doesn't want to work on the car in the temps we've been having around here and I don't blame him.  I also have to figure out why my SRA is making noise when the car first starts moving.  Like a really loud wheel bearing noise that goes away after about 5-10 revolutions and is dead silent afterwards.  I'm thinking one of the calipers is boogered and I need to do the rear brakes again anyway (PO cut the rotors when he did the rear Cobra brake swap and did not mention he didn't widen the caliper brackets and also my fault for not checking).  Rebuilding the calipers, new pads, new rotors and if it still makes noise then I guess its bearing time.  I don't want to give this guy a shitty SRA although it would not be hard to do bearings out of it anyway.  At the very least I'll let him know about it and offer to include new bearings.  

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Mine are glass and I have dragged them across a speed bump back in az when it was at stock ride height.  IF your car is lowered your will be in the danger zone and really on borrowed time IMO which is why I went with air ride.  When my skirts were mounted they went a little above and beyond the standard screws on either end and 3m tape holding it up.  The mounted a piece of aluminum L-channel down the the long flat side under the car to give that edge support in case it does hit something.  They just used rivits to hold in it place and the also bent some aluminum flatstock into L-brackets that mount to that L-channel aluminum so it is supported/mountd and not just hanging.  I also had them just bond the skirt to the car rather then the double stick tape.  Sooner or later that stuff will wear out/fail....

 

So if you have a lowered car and live somewhere with curbs/speed bumps it will not be long till you crack the end by the opening like everyone seems to do with a lowered car if they are DD it.

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