The two tail light mounting brackets are getting "angled" blocks attached to allow through bolts to rest at these angles.
The first piece of foam is attached to one of the supporting embedded wood anchors. I'll have to admit, that this was pretty exciting seeing the very first foam piece in place.
Here's the back side of the foam, showing just how the embedded wood block is being supported.
Later that night, a picture with the garage door closed, since the mosquitos are out and hungry. The foam has a nice and tight fit against the sheet metal. Way tighter than the normal gaps around the doors and such.
Here's another shot several days later. It took about two hours to fit and glue that curved piece on the bottom side of the tail light. It's the piece with the masking tape and duct tape attached. This includes both sides of the car. The block is extremely thin on the back side due to the way the sheet metal is formed in that area.
This picture is showing the underside of the bumper area. Lots of foam blocks added here.
Those four foam blocks that are added to the bottom of this picture, will create some of the hardest work on the tail extension project. They are so innocent looking but the shape in this area is very difficult to keep true to the Honda stylist's intentions.
Here's a shot of the back side of the foam thus far. Lot's of Elmers Glue back there!
Now the assemblage of foam is removed from the car, and you can see the detail of foam shaping that went into each block before being glued. This is the summation of many hours of cutting, fitting, and gluing each individual block.
Here is what the underside blocks look like so far. You can see the embedded wood support blocks in the foam here as well.
Here's a close-up, showing the many various shaped blocks that make up the assembly.
Now fiberglass cloth/resin is added to the back side of this assembly and placed on the car to setup.
Notice the Glad Wrap sticking out from behind the foam. This acts as a mold release to keep the epoxy from sticking anywhere on the car.
Here's several more blocks added along the rear skirt.
This shows the back side of the assembly with the fiberglass and Glad Wrap still attached.
Same thing for the lower assembly, and still with mold release attached.
This shows the curvature template that will be used extensively in an attempt to maintain proper curvature of the tail extension.
This is a "machined" piece of foam, using a "new technique" that was necessary to keep the intended Honda shape just above the rear skirt.
This picture shows the new machined foam smoothed out and added to the rest of the foam in this area. The foam template is used to glue each piece and then rechecked several more times to ensure that the angles are correct before allowing the glue to setup.
Notice the white filler. These are areas that were over-filed/sanded and had to be filled to bring these surfaces in alignment with the template. The white areas took the most time to ensure they are "straight" and smooth.
This is a picture as the car is today. Lot's of hours at this point!!
You can see the older fiberglass area and the new panels that were added more recently.
The end shot shows the "curvature" of the sheet metal shape just above the rear skirts. This area really takes patience to get right and the convex and concave shapes "look" extremely simple, but actually have compound radii. This takes the most planning and care to keep aligned with the sheet metal shape in this area.
These panels have enough foam added now, that more fiberglass will be added to support the back sides of these panels, before other blocks are again added.
The masking tape on the car is used to "align" the template in the same direction as the anticipated air flow across these surfaces. This also allows some repeatability in placement of the template each time it is used to glue more blocks behind those already in place.
Jim.
Today
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