Aerodynamic Truck Front End Swap? (1990 mazda b2200)

[snakub]

Here are some pics of the truck to give everyone an idea of what I am working with. The truck definitely looks cooler from the side. The grill is blocked from behind by pieces of lexan glued to the grill but one of them fell of though on my ride to the shop Haven't had time to do any other aeromods I have been to busy with insulating the batteries its about to get damn cold here

[snakub]

And for some reason ecomodder won't let me post with more than one picture per reply

[Slow_s10]

Now this is just my humble opinion but I think what you have now is pretty fantastic. If you really want to fabricate something that will make a significant improvement, an aero cap or at the very least a tonneau cover would probably be the best things that you could do. The front end is not perfect but it is really good and unless you clean up the aero at the rear anything you do to the front probably won't make a noticable difference.

[radioranger]

Yes, I must concur the air dam looks pretty slick, how'd you build it? need one for my Ranger, I think maybe fender skirts and a filler for the cab- bed area would seem pretty easy and some improvement for cheap,

[radioranger]

also on your truck ,it appears to be begging for a raised rear hood line, shouldn't be that hard looks like all square edges,

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by aerohead

I'm mailing the paper to a member.Perhaps they can post it.I've done a composite buildout of the lowest drag recipe but haven't found time to follow it all up.24-hrs a day is not enough!

For those who want to search,the proper title is:
"A Method of Estimating Automobile Drag Coefficients",R.G.S.White,SAE Paper No. 690189,Society of Automotive Engineers,1969.
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An abbreviated portion of the paper was also published in :
CRC HANDBOOK of APPLIED ENGINEERING SCIENCE,SECOND EDITION,1979,CRC PRESS,INC.,Boca Raton,Florida 33431
ISBN # 0-8493-0252-8
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-117044

[radioranger]

here's a picture of my little Escort with the grille block made out of sheet plastic , so far not much testing but seems to help warm up and coast speeds up 1 mph [IMG]file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Tom/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/DSC00418.JPG[/IMG]

[snakub]

Originally Posted by radioranger

also on your truck ,it appears to be begging for a raised rear hood line, shouldn't be that hard looks like all square edges,

You mean like an induction cowl I thought about it but I couldn't find one that was as wide as the hood 54 inches I think. I couldn't see your picture radioranger and how did you test coast speed variation? The front air dam is just a rear plastic bumper from a body shop up the street from my house and I cut it down a bit and bolted it with two quarter inch bolts to both sides to the existing plastic.It still needs to be painted and held up in the middle somehow though.
I have thought about the aero cover for the bed but if I were to do that I would want to make it a hatchback bed cover but I wouldn't know where to start Has anyone here done that?

[radioranger]

Sorry about the picture , havent quite figured it out yet, I test on a three mile long hill , starts out steep and then very long even grade where I usually max out at around 50 mph , so far coasting at 51 or 52 so seems a tiny bit better, plus brought my mpg back op to almost summer levels 39 , was averaging around 37 38 in summer 40 , on the truck the hood bump it seems could be made out of wood with triangle or moulded edges by the fender line, I thought about using a conical section so the air spills off the sides, I am going to partially cover my bed on the ranger, seems if you cover just the rear 1/4 of the bed it helps a bit and should be pretty easy to bolt on , probably hang the back edge of the plywood past the tailgate a foot to extend the airflow, pretty cheap to try anyway.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by Christ

There isn't a bolt-on solution to a better nose for that truck, however, you could probably make something work from a Camaro or Firebird front end if you know how to manipulate ABS plastic.

Ask and ye shall receive.