A lot has happened since I updated this thread last!
Firstly, a crazy SUV driver scraped the side of my car while backing down the middle of the up-ramp in a parking garage. She got the front bumper, driver front quarter panel, driver mirror and driver door, with moderate scrapes on the paint and a few small dents. Her insurance was really good though, and the driver's side looks better than it did before the accident. The repairs covered some dings and scratches that were preexisting.
It almost makes me want to cough up to have the rest of the paint redone. Almost.
You might also notice that the headlights are looking particularly good lately. Though I did it a few weeks back (and thus a few posts back), I finally coughed up the $60 for some proper sealant, and sanded them to 1500 grit, followed by a polish + sealing.
My trailer project has progressed to a point where I can drive it around. I found that I can get 65-68mpg at 60mph, and ~50mpg at 70mph. The aero penalty is much more apparent at higher speeds. I'm working on a few ideas to improve this.
Recently I was down near Cowmeat's casa and traded him use of my grid charger for some extra strong, extra large coroplast sheets. Following his example, I installed a super awesome replacement 3d printed shifter from Daox (thanks Daox!) with an integrated kill switch, clutch switch and brake switch, and redid my belly pan:
As Cowmeat did on his car, I placed them over the stock aero panels. However, I mostly reused the bolts that were holding the original pan in place, with some screws (into plastic only, no frame) for extra support. Also following his example, I used sheets of aluminum between the coroplast and the exhaust to prevent the plastic melting, though I cut mine down to small strips and screwed them in place following the exhaust piping.
In the front, I just tucked the new panel under the existing ones, but I'm sorely tempted to take the originals off, given how un-aero they appear.
To make oil changes easy, I cut an access panel into the coroplast, so I can still access my fumoto valve without removing the pan.
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My past few tanks of gas have been abysmal. It has been somewhat cold, and my wife has been doing 90% of the driving, almost entirely city, and the most recent tank suffered because half of it was spent doing 70-75mph pulling the trailer, trying to make it home quickly enough to avoid my wife's wrath, from my visit to Cowmeat. However, today was warm (~75f) and I had just installed the improved belly pan, and dropping my wife off at work I smashed my previous record:
Old record
70.9mpg from a cold start to the office
80.3mpg returning from the office with a warm engine
New record
74.9mpg to the office
85.3mpg back
On one particular downhill stretch on the highway, I normally have to keep the car in gear because I gradually lose speed down to <55mph. Today, I shut the engine off and actually accelerated up to ~63mph before reaching the bottom.
