Honda Insight Tail Extension Project

[Cd]

Wow.

Why isn't this on the front page of the site ???

This is by far one of the most impressive project cars on this site.

[Cd]

I'm not going to go back and re-read several pages to see if anyone asked , but ....
is there any way you can insure your work ?
Have you taken any molds of the tail in case some knucklehead smashes into you ?
And with a mold, I can see others being interested in some sort of DIY kit for Insight owners.
( I know I would be interested if I had an Insight .)

[Sven7]

Man, a fiberglass mold, some mounting hardware and lighting, and you'd be in business! Make back that money you spent on bondo

[MN Driver]

Hey, you mentioned me, cool. It was great to meet you at the Stevens Point MREA energy expo. I asked all the question that I wanted to ask but am still curious about the 'maximum sustainable lean-burn speed'. It's perplexing to me that you haven't tested this but I don't blame you as you do have your goals. I keep remembering back to my trip that I took from Rapid City, SD to where I live nearby Minneapolis, MN. 630 miles and got 73mpg holding lean-burn the entire time at the maximum speed that lean-burn allowed which on the flat was around 70mph and any uphill it went down but downhills I could get the maximum speed to hit the PSL of 75mph in SD with the ability to exceed the PSL but of course I don't exceed the speed limit as there are 'enforcers' who probably patrol the web. I had another driver drive the car and LB runs in 5th gear up to 78mph before the RPM is too high and it kicks out at any TPS and LOD value on my scanguage so that's the top speed that I'd ever drive if I drove in TX with the highest speed limits in the nation that exceed the 78mph point. Either way I'll remain curious and hope that you test higher speeds, if not just the interstate PSL in WI for what MPG you'd get. ...anyway do what you wish but I drive cross country and the curiosity tortures this cat.

[3-Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Cd

I'm not going to go back and re-read several pages to see if anyone asked , but ....
is there any way you can insure your work ?
Have you taken any molds of the tail in case some knucklehead smashes into you ?
And with a mold, I can see others being interested in some sort of DIY kit for Insight owners.
( I know I would be interested if I had an Insight .)

No I have not made any molds of the body work. Sorry.

Actually I learned more about foam/fiberglass/water based products such as water based spackling.

The tail started the summer very smooth in finish but not yet painted red to match the car. Well after painting red, we had some very hot June days, and I'll bet the surface temperature of the red paint was close to 150°F or so, and that heat reacted with the spackling, and caused some "puffing" in spots.

Now because of this, to make high quality molds, the entire surface would have to be pain-stakingly sanded and smoothed over the span of the summer.

Well this won't happen this summer as my wife and I just finished putting a sheet metal roof on the house, and we still have some bathroom work to do, so guess what takes the back seat?

I would also like to put a trickle charge plug under the tail to make it easier to charge at night, and this will hopefully happen this fall sometime.

Anyway, the simple answer is no, there are no immediate plans to make molds at this point.

Jim.

[3-Wheeler]

Originally Posted by MN Driver

Hey, you mentioned me, cool. It was great to meet you at the Stevens Point MREA energy expo. I asked all the question that I wanted to ask but am still curious about the 'maximum sustainable lean-burn speed'. It's perplexing to me that you haven't tested this but I don't blame you as you do have your goals. I keep remembering back to my trip that I took from Rapid City, SD to where I live nearby Minneapolis, MN. 630 miles and got 73mpg holding lean-burn the entire time at the maximum speed that lean-burn allowed which on the flat was around 70mph and any uphill it went down but downhills I could get the maximum speed to hit the PSL of 75mph in SD with the ability to exceed the PSL but of course I don't exceed the speed limit as there are 'enforcers' who probably patrol the web. I had another driver drive the car and LB runs in 5th gear up to 78mph before the RPM is too high and it kicks out at any TPS and LOD value on my scanguage so that's the top speed that I'd ever drive if I drove in TX with the highest speed limits in the nation that exceed the 78mph point. Either way I'll remain curious and hope that you test higher speeds, if not just the interstate PSL in WI for what MPG you'd get. ...anyway do what you wish but I drive cross country and the curiosity tortures this cat.

Well we know that the tail offers about 18% better aero at 56 mph, as tested two years ago (or was it three?) when the tail was first put on the car.

I typically do not drive at any speed close to 55 mph on the way to work, so I can not answer that question directly.

However, I can say that on the way to Stevens Point, I did get 105 mpg on the way there and 97 mpg on the way back, and this is with no under body panels at all during that time.

The panels were off because I had to get a wheel alignment and the garage wanted everything off. Plus, upon removing the panels after two years, there were several very rusted fasteners that simply broke off when removing the panels. I spent several days trying to work out and/or drill out the fasteners to make room for new ones.

As you know, the temperature that day was probably 90°F or so, maybe hotter, and that really helps the mileage.

Jim.

[3-Wheeler]

I still am not completely satisfied that we have adequately addressed how to duplicate the Streamlining Template, especially for those of us who need to render this shape for tails on our cars.

To help determine how to duplicate this shape, I downloaded the "C" version, straightened the "road surface" in a photo editor, then placed that copy in a 2D CAD program, and started working.

The first picture shows the "C" template with some geometry applied. You can see that a radius of 5.64 times the height of the car body provides a very good curve fit of the aft curvature down to 21° slope.



This is a closeup of the curve fit to AeroHead's rendering. Very close indeed.







I would have to say, overall this method gives a very close fit to AeroHead's standard.

Jim.

[2006Corvette]

The boat tail looks very good, it almost looks as if it came from the factory that way.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by 3-Wheeler

You can see that a radius of 5.64 times the height of the car body provides a very good curve fit of the aft curvature down to 21° slope.

Now there's an easy way to get a good curve fit !


The same can be done in plan view.

[Varn]

That is a great way to look at the shape. It is nearly spherical.

Do you think that if the front is not as good as the ideal image that we might need to be more conservative and use a 6 or 7 d shape?

I am thinking of my 86 jetta with it basically being a box with very little radii on the front.

Did I miss you tuft testing your tailbox?