[GMPG]

I've been reading and lurking here for a number of months now but I haven't done any aero-mods yet. I'd intended to get my 2000 Sunfire 2.2 5spd to hit 40mpg and with tuning mods and driving changes I have hit a peak of 36.5mpg with an average of about 33mpg in combined but mostly rural driving.

Early in the summer I lost interest when I replaced the car (2002 Jetta 2.0 Wagon) and I haven't done much with it since. Well the time is almost here to get rid of the spare car and I'm about to head out on a roughly 2000mi round trip to GA and back tomorrow morning. I have materials at hand and a list of mods I plan to do and some optional ones. If anyone wants to chime in with suggestions about which mods may be best or may not be worth doing I'd appreciate it. All my packing is done so I've got all day to play on the car.

Correction, I have done two mods. I deleted the rear wing and I installed a small 1.25in lip under the front bumper which is a few inches behind the leading edge.

Here is a list of mods I plan to do with approximate times:

Front air dam to 3.5-4in ground clearance. (1.25 - 2hr)
-Heavy MDPE garden edging attached to previously mounted 1.25in MDPE edging "lip". I'll have to look more closely, I may be able to move the lip forward so that the airdam will be at the leading edge of the bumper but I think due to the contours of the car this would make it jut forward in the center. The existing lip and the airdam will follow the contours of the bumper but are about 3in from the leading edge at the deepest and come closer towards the corners.

Cowl at rear of hood in front of wipers. (45min)
- The wind seems to hit right at the base of the windshield, I'm already attaching some stiff rubber moulding that will project up about 1in and lay back at a slightly higher "angle of attack" than the windshield. I'm hoping this will bounce air over the wipers without causing worse problems.

Headlight covers (1-1.5hr)
- Sigh... GM was in the ballpark with the aero headlights on this car, they just stayed at the back of the field. The headlights are set well back of the leading edge and instead of blending they create more opportunities for turbulence. I'm attaching temporary plexiglas covers to blend them with the hood line.

Grill blocks, upper and lower. (1-2hr)
- Coroplast covers for the upper and lower grills. Upper will be a 100% block, lower will probably have some opening for cooling to the radiator although I may incorporate an opening in the top of the air dam and a coroplast scoop behind it to push that air up towards the radiator.

Optional Bonus Round:
Rear wheel skirts (2-3hr)
- Coroplast over a steel former, blended with the wheel opening at front and overlaying it at the rear. I've got all the materials for this and from other experience I think I can fab up the first one in a bit over an hour and knock out the other side quicker.

AND/OR

"moon" covers in coro for two or four wheels. I've got 16" 5 spoke wheels and I think I can cut out circles and zip-tie them on with two per spoke and call it done.

With testing and not going past my time estimates I've got a pretty full day coming, anyone think any of these ideas are worth dropping from the list? Grill block and air dam are going to be the next projects, then headlight covers and finally rear wheel skirts if I have time.

Thanks for any input! I'm going to put a followup quickly with an overlay of the car profile.

-GMPG