Air dam and grill block design

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Originally Posted by nbleak21

Looking great! Any ideas on the filler?

I'm gonna give this stuff from DAP a shot. It's cheap, dries quickly, and can be sanded and painted. We'll see how it reacts with the foam.

[wmjinman]

Looo-king goood!!!

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After checking out the selection of wood fillers at the local hardware store, I decided not to use the DAP product - the main agents in it are isopropyl alcohol and acetone, which I feared would have eaten the foam. Instead, I'm using Elmer's wood filler Max. It is described as interior/exterior, sandable and paintable, and appears to be water-based with no solvents. And at about $10/quart, it was a better deal. Perfect.

Here's what we have after two coats. I'll apply a third coat later and then starts the sanding...

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I went ahead and installed the grille block for the commute today. Warmup time was MUCH faster. I was at full temp in about 3 miles, right about the time I hit the highway. Normally, I'm on the highway for several minutes before I even start getting heat. I saw no issues with overheating. In fact, the temp stayed right about the same as before the grille block, right under 180 degrees. Next mod on the list will be a hi-temp (195*) thermostat...

[mcrews]

very creative!

[wmjinman]

Good job!

[ECONORAM]

Originally Posted by mcrews

very creative!

Agreed! In fact, this gives me an idea... I tested a near full grill block on my truck and found a 1% FE decrease. However, an idea I've bounced around is to fab a small Daytona nose shape (1969, to be exact) to the front of my truck. Or maybe a bird beak shaped nose in front of the grill. I figure the sloped/beaked nose would give better FE results. -->Never thought of using gap filler foam. Might have to try that.

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Originally Posted by ECONORAM

Agreed! In fact, this gives me an idea... I tested a near full grill block on my truck and found a 1% FE decrease. However, an idea I've bounced around is to fab a small Daytona nose shape (1969, to be exact) to the front of my truck. Or maybe a bird beak shaped nose in front of the grill. I figure the sloped/beaked nose would give better FE results. -->Never thought of using gap filler foam. Might have to try that.

For something that large, they sell expanding foam in a two-part setup. Base + activator I believe. Build a form, mix it up, and pour in.

Also, the "max-fill" product that I used left some considerable sized air pockets inside, which made the wood filler essential (and a PITA). The formula they sell for doors and windows expands minimally, and is denser, which makes for a highly sandable/workable product compared to the super expanding stuff. I would imagine that just a quick skim coat would be necessary if you were topping over that. Although you could use the max-fill to fill the large voids, shape it to a little smaller than you need, and then top-coat it with the dense foam for the finish.

The wood filler also seems to be rather brittle. Just from the commute today, I have a few cracks that have developed right in the middle under the logo. I think once I have the final sanding done, I'll top it all off with a coat of epoxy just to add to the rigidity.

[CigaR007]

Here is my version of foam grille blocks. I used 2-part foam and epoxy resin.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...o-15673-6.html

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Originally Posted by CigaR007

Here is my version of foam grille blocks. I used 2-part foam and epoxy resin.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...o-15673-6.html

Beautiful work! That 2-part foam is definitely the way to go!