I installed my Flapatax mud flaps yesterday.
They are fairly hard plastic but were also fairly inexpensive, and should suit my needs for some protection during SCCA Rallycross events and perhaps drivers who tailgate me in the winter will appreciate as well 😛
Here is what comes in the box. Note that the smaller flaps are for the front and the larger flaps are for the rear of the car. Also, the flaps may have a slight curvature or concaveness to them. You may want to orient them one way or another. Also note (mentioned again at the end of this article) that the inner part of the front flap can catch on your tires if you are moving in reverse with the steering wheel turned significantly. Be careful not to tear your flaps off.  See note at the bottom of this article.
Here is the supplied mounting hardware. The clips are have a protruded piece where the bolts are inserted. This protruded piece should be oriented towards the back of the vehicle.
To get started:
1. For the rear flaps install, it may be necessary to remove this plastic pop fastener behind the rear tire. Pictured below is the hole where it came from.
2. The metal clips should slide over the rear mounting holes i the bumper plastic and ‘snap’ into place convincingly.
Here are two clips in place.
Here is one of the bolts with a washer. The washers have rubber bonded to one side. The bolt should be threaded through the washer as shown. The rubber side of the washer will press against the mudflap as you screw it into the clips.
3. Attach the bolts as shown.
Here is how the bolts pull the mud flap against the bumper plastic.
Here is a rear mud flap attached to the car. The flap can be moved slightly so that you can adjust them straight. The holes are slightly over-sized for this reason.
Here is a rear view of the rear flap on the car.
4. For the front mud-flaps, you will need to remove two plastic pop fasteners. If your car has side skirts, the bottom fastener can also be removed. On my car I was unable to remove them without breaking them, so I left the bottom fastener (3rd fastener) attached and carefully pried the fender liner back to slide the two metal clips into place.
5. The metal clips will slide over the metal body of the car for the front flaps, whereas the rear flaps had the clips sliding over plastic. The front clips may not snap into place as nicely as the rear clips did. Position them to the best of your ability.
5. For the bottom clip, I found it necessary to slide it onto the metal body piece, and then push it downward until it lined up with the hole i the fender correctly.
6. The instructions (on the Flapatax website) suggest using a 1/4″ box wrench. Since my tools are mostly metric, I used an adjustable wrench instead. You may need to turn the steering wheel to allow better access to this area for the front mud flaps installation. Tighten securely (but not overtight, don’t strip them) the bolts when you have positioned your flaps to be straight.
Here is a picture of the front mud flap installed.
Here is a photo from the rear of the car showing the mud flaps installed.
I just liked this photo, it has no other real purpose 🙂
Be careful when backing up with your front wheels turned.
Depending on how straight or curved your mud flaps are, the front flap can sometimes catch on the tire tread and make a “playing card in bicycle spokes sound.” If you are not careful you could damage or rip off your mud flap. Not only could it damage the flap, but it could damage the body metal of your fender where the bolts and clips attach.