Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
This is a tough one.
Have you browsed the aero sub-forum enough to find examples of mods that pass your "good-looking" test? There are a few out there that look professional-esque to me. 3-wheeler's Insight tail comes to mind, obviously. As does CigaR007's grille blocks. I think a8ksh4's pickup aero shell is headed in the right direction too.
Another potential option for reshaping the front of the car, by the way, is to make a simple, "ugly" mod, then hide the construction material with a custom or modified vinyl "bra". Sewing vinyl is easier / faster than doing bodywork!
I'm in the same boat - I've been procrastinating about doing a permanent grille block for my Insight. I want it to look "pro". But rather than deciding on a fabrication approach and diving in, I've just been repeatedly re-taping the plastic sheeting that's been threatening to fall off the car for over a year now. |
I'm not sure if we're in
exactly the same boat, since my wife doesn't want temporary ugly stuff hanging off her car, so right now the FE effectiveness of my unfinished mods is 0.
I'd never heard the vinyl fabric idea. Do you have any examples you can direct me to?
AndrewJ is probably is the closest to my way of thinking.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...amics-312.html IIRC he free-formed ABS (thermoplastic). Most similar to my options #3 or #4, although he free-formed instead of making a mold, which is another option I didn't list. (Not sure if I feel comfortable with free-form though, maybe I should try it.)
I've actually got some pipe insulation on the lower grille currently, maybe inspired by CigaR007 (don't remember), but I'm suspicious it doesn't work as well as you might think. Maybe it doesn't work at all. Really I don't think we've tested the (grill-block + airdam) camp vs (bumper overhaul), but my gut feeling, just imagining the airflow, is that the bumper overhaul is significantly more effective. I.e. if I do not fundamentally change the side-profile of the nose, then the point-of-stagnation will remain close to the middle of the bumper (even if the existing transition radii are tolerable). Probably if I scoop the air dam it will help. But even then, overhauling the bumper profile also enables a radiator inlet duct. Not sure if I understand the principle perfectly, but I believe a duct with gradually sloping top and bottom will slow the ducted air flow so it creates less drag passing through the engine bay, with a net result in less drag for a given cooling requirement. Perhaps I'm obsessing? Tough to know without an A-B-C-A test.
BTW, for the tail, I'm planning a hitch-mounted cargo rack tail, functionally similar to the "CargAero trailer"
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ibe-22780.html. That means I don't need an exact match to the car's end profile, it won't be formed onto the car, and I think I can probably get away with simple-curvature rather than compound.
All of the fiberglass-on-foam methods I saw in the forum pass the good-looks test. If thermoplastic doesn't work for me for whatever reason then fiberglass is definitely the best remaining. Bonus points for foam-molds that are reusable. Docked points for nasty chemicals.
Thanks!