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Once again, thanks to everyone for all the help and advice.
Ok, all the rest of the aluminum underbelly panels came off yesterday. They would vibrate going down the road, among other issues I was having with them. Version 2.0 will definitely be made of coroplast. I left a few of the aluminum angle pieces mounted to be used as mounting points for 2.0.
In other news the aluminum grill mesh and lexan covers are also slated for removal. I am now thinking of plain black grill blocks on all the openings, and I can incorporate an appropriate cooling air inlet in the one main one. I am out of the “make everything out of aluminum” phase, so some cheap plastic curved items are in my future. Black spray painted plastic is much more economical. I am thinking of starting with a block the radiator width and 1/6 the height and a real duct. I could then start blocking the width of the opening to fine tune the size.
My “radiator duct” was a part of the aluminum pan which is now removed, so the air through the grill is once again going under the car not through the radiator. The airflow entering the grill is much less restricted since it isn’t going through the radiator and the car engine bay was a lot warmer driving to work this morning, so my MPG actually went up from the pan removal. The downside is that it will be hot all the way home, hopefully not to the point of overheating. It was already heating up and kicking the fans on this morning.
My “Aerodynamics of Road Vehicles: From Fluid Mechanics to Vehicle Engineering” got here last week, so I have been reading that with fascination. Thanks to that book, I will try to have better questions to ask.
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