*MODIFICATION JOURNAL* I got my hands on the girlfriend's Prius ...here is what I did.

Belgian Malinois? I made the mistake of asking my buddy if his Malinois was a German Shepard, now I pay close attention to the coloring of the face! There may be a company which makes a full length dog blanket, I have not checked but I imagine there are other people in the same position as you.

If you have no luck finding a dog-specific cover you can look into tent tarps. I have an REI tent that comes with a bespoke "foot print" aka tarp that protects the bottom of the tent, it is nylon with a water resistant coating on one side, there are also clips at each corner. You may be able to find something like this that is similar dimensions to your cargo bay.

Much appreciated! Your car was the inspiration to Plasti dip the front bumper.

Also, my car has been stealing the spotlight (and garage) recently but my Eastwood roller finally arrived so when I have a free moment I will get to rolling the fenders and installing the SSR SP1s.

I will be running a 10mm spacer in the rear but unfortunately the style of spacers I have are the design that have studs mounted in the spacer already, the issue I have is the 10mm spacer isn't as deep as the oem studs which interfere with the SSRs when mounted. Running a 15mm spacer or greater will be too much poke and will make dialing in the fitment extremely difficult.

I think the best plan of attack will be to replace the oem studs with longer ones to accommodate the 10mm spacers and then but 2 sets of open mag-seat lug nuts to accommodate the oem wheels if they need to go back on, studs will stay on the car permanently.

Evan

 

haha, go figure.... Great looking dogs!

 

Here is a little update. After some projects and repairs on my own vehicle I was able to get around to rolling the fenders and installing the new wheels. The fenders ended up being pulled more than I was expecting but I contribute that to my lack of experience and the Prius having fairly thin body panels although the lip on the rear fender itself is fairly thick. In addition to the rolling I trimmed the front liners. Considering this was my first time rolling I think it turned out ok.

I will be adding 15mm spacers to the rear and once that is done I foresee some additional rolling and trimming of the rear bumper and bracket, it won't be very fun but I will do my best to make the modifications clean and functional.

I am most pleased with getting some good rubber between this car and the ground, the previous Touranza tires were presumably focused on efficiency and not ride quality or performance so the V12s are a huge improvement. We are not terribly concerned with the mileage of this car so a small drop in efficiency is fine. With the added grip and footprint of the V12s this thing can really terrorize freeway onramps and connections.

These wheels are not the best match for the Prius and it's overall theme, but they are just so damn cool! I really appreciate the wheels by themselves.

Here are some pics of the wheels mounted up with some temporary ugly rear fitment.

Evan

 

Thanks, I am happy that it came out pretty clean but I would have really like to get the fronts rolled without being pulled. The added clearance with the pull makes the wheel sit tucked where it was perfectly flush before rolling... first world problems.

Car is on new H&R springs and oem struts.

Evan

 

Sorry for the delay. Glad you find the car inspiring! I removed the Plasti Dip from the side mirrors when I was showing a family member how Dip acts during removal and I never got around to recoating them. They look fine either way IMO.

 

Finally dialed in the rear fitment. The process included adding 15mm spacers, rolling + pulling fenders, trimming rear bumper and bumper bracket, cutting oem studs to accommodate spacers.

Since the Prius has a solid rear axle and flexing the suspension to test fitment (like lowering the vehicle's wheel onto a wooden block) wouldn't be 100% accurate I loaded up the rear of the Prius with about 300lbs of weights. I then climbed into the cargo area and would jump up and down to compress the rear suspension, I can only imagine what my neighbors think of a 6'8" guy in his girlfriend's car throwing his weight around like a gorilla.

It passed the garage rest and after a short drive around town, so far so good. I have a hunch that it will still rub slightly with heavy loads or large compressions at speed but if it does the wheels won't be contacting much material and should be worn down quickly (if I don't address it sooner).

Evan


Before:






Much better:

 

Removed various yellow stickers from the engine bay...

 

Headlight Retrofit V2 | PriusChat

 

As it turns out I didn't do enough fender work to accommodate the added width of those 15mm spacers. I heard that there was some rubbing but I didn't expect it to be so substantial.

Under closer investigation I see the tire popped out part of the forward fender edge, essentially creating a blade that would "slice" tires instead of "rub." Luckily I caught this in time before any serious damage occurred.

As a kicker my girlfriend and I are moving down to Orange County and she was about to drive 400 with a car FULL of stuff so I had the morning to work on the fenders and resolve any unwanted contact. It was a little stressful but I got it all done in time. I am happy to report that she completed the voyage with only a couple "rubs" during large compressions on the highway.

This Prius could really benefit from a load-leveling airbag system to help compensate for suspension sag during high load periods.

Evan

I wasn't expecting the tire to contact the fender this low so it wasn't rolled during my last session. Since it wasn't the tire contact the fender and pulled it inward, creating a blade.


No bueno


Fender: 1 Tire: 0


Tire is the fender's lunch


Tools


After 1


After 2


After 3


Loaded up 1


Loaded up 2


Loaded up 3


Loaded up 4


Looking good under weight!

 

Not much has happened with this car recently but here are a couple pics...