Does this reduce drag?

[bhazard]

Couple of befores...





And now...




Tools used:




I know I still gotta get that drivers door. Needs some grittier stuff than the rubbing compound. Maybe some wet sanding. Also wanna repaint the wheels black. Maybe Ill paint the drumz and caliperz yellow and be extra cool? No.

[azraelswrd]

As long as it reduces things that create turbulence while moving through air, that will reduce drag. How much drag reduction... may be too small to observe. Banging out some of those dents wouldn't hurt either.

[bhazard]

Yeah I wanna get the big dents out. Unfortunately the roof and hood have tons of hail damage from a storm we had a couple years ago. I wonder if all the dings act like a golfball and help aero? haha

[azraelswrd]

Actually... I've heard some theorize it (dents) might but I don't know if they'll create the right types of turbulence reordering/vortex generation you want to clean up the air around you.

Might see bigger gains in FE with more air pressure in the tires, cleaning/smoothing out the front of the car, adding some grille blocks to limit the amount of air that gets caught up in the engine, and maximizing weight reduction. Smooth hubcaps might help too or a rear wheel skirt but one step at a time.

[bhazard]

Yeah I already run 50 psi in the fronts (44psi tires) and 40 or 44 in the rears (35psi tires).

Itd be nice to find some choroplast to paint red and block the grill with. Id also like to make an air dam for the front. I gained some ground clearance with the bigger tires so I need to make up for that.

[meemooer]

did you use a buffer or do all that by hand?
If that is the door after, it's been painted before, i'd be careful not to rub through the paint/clear. You never know how thick it is
and for some small sized colorplast hit up a local dealership, and ask for some license plate inserts. They are the size of a license plate, and some pretty good plastic.

[justpassntime]

Originally Posted by bhazard

Yeah I wanna get the big dents out. Unfortunately the roof and hood have tons of hail damage from a storm we had a couple years ago. I wonder if all the dings act like a golfball and help aero? haha

I would speculate that if your car was slung through the air by a trebuchet it might fly farther than one without the dents. Sounds like a good episode for Mythbusters. LOL

Oh, and if you find that it does go farther let me know and I will put my ball peen hammer to good use.

Nice Turbo Coupe BTW, I bought one new in 88, 5 speed, titanium frost color. Man, I loved that car. But got rid of it when I moved from Atlanta to Charleston. My insurance went up $1000 a year just because of the area.
I also had a hard time finding VR60 tires for it back then too because the only one that made them was Goodyear and I didn't want to pay $280 per tire. It drove really good at 140 mph too!

[bhazard]

Its all by hand.

And justpassntime I could be wrong but I think the titanium frost color was the rarest color made. Second being mine. In late 88 they were ending the TC production by introducing the "Mach 1 Special Edition" paint package. It consisted of either bright red (mine) or, I believe the titanium frost color (kind of a bluish silver?) and "Mach 1 SE" stickers in the quarter windows. Did your car have such things? Ive seen a few of the bright red cars but NEVER the "other" color. From what Ive heard they are REALLY REALLY rare.

[aerohead]

Well,you've minimized it.The skin friction constitutes 7-12 % of the drag ( 3.5-6 % mpg ),and by restoring the finish,you've restored skin drag to the minimum,and you've got your original Reynolds Number.Looks good!

[CobraBall]

Regarding Smooth Hubcaps- They are made by mooneyes usa. Gto:
https://www.mooneyesusa.com/Store/pr...b5efe351d72fdb Before I would spend the $$, I would do a cost/benefit analysis. The car may not last long enough to pay hubcaps.

50 PSI on 44 PSI tires. IMHO what you might save in MPG by overinflating the tires will be lost when the center of the tires wear out prematurely .

Overinflating also decreases the tire contact area making the vehicle more likely to hydroplane on a wet surface. Not a problem if you live in Mojave.

On the other hand the yellow calipers will be good for at least 2+MPG increase .