Making a durable (removable) upper/lower grille block for the UFO: 2000 Honda Insight

[Pierrel]

Looks great Metro! Inspirational

[MetroMPG]

[HyperMileQC]

Nice craftmanship! You did a really good job on this adjustable grille, this gives me lots of inspiration for my future grille .

[MetroMPG]

Thanks!

The sliding door is just a cardboard template so far, so it's only "manually adjustable" (like at a stop light) . I drove ~200 km this weekend (target speed 70-80 km/h / ~43-50 mph) and that much open grille was enough to keep the engine temp normal (~198) with nice spring temperatures of 4-6 C (~40-46 F). I started out with the block fully closed, then opened it at the first stop after the engine came up to temp. (Yes, I also need a coolant / transaxle heater.)

I was mad though: no lean burn!! Had to drive slower than normal to get good numbers. Grr. Not sure if it's because it was too cold (I have read that L.B. only works at ambient temps above 5C (if I recall), or because IMA is offline after throwing codes because the car sat unused for ~3 months this winter.

Anyway, enough grumbling. I still got ~85 MPG (US) round trip.

Next steps: this week, cosmetic work on the lower block.

[MetroMPG]

Just mulling over some options...

I don't think I like colour-matched... partial to dark green or orange (just for fun).

[Blue Angel]

Black looks the least "modded" to me, the best way to go IMO.

[2000neon]

Yeah I like the black the most.

[MetroMPG]

I'm not going for stealth. This thing will have a boat tail on it soon enough.

[a8ksh4]

I think it'd look good if you color matched with an ecomodder emblem and a qa code on the side somewhere.

[RiderofBikes]

bored at work... The first one looks like a face, and the second one looks better i think. If you take your main black example for stealth or not, and extend the black onto the bumper, it gives it a bit of uniformity from a striaght-on view point. Idk, but i think it looks good. the orange, maybe brighter tint?! what about tie-dye! for that extra UFO pazzaz if ya wanna go wierd a bit