04 Civic LX 5spd 4 dr-new front end ideas

[bhut2180]

So I picked up this free fiberglass front bumper for my civic and was wondering if there are any recommendations of what I could do with it in order to make it more aerodynamic than my current bumper. I believe it will go lower than my current bumper cover and I have plenty of fiberglass, so I could reshape this a bit. Im just getting into the ways to increase mpg and thought this would be a fun project





Heres my current front end

[drmiller100]

plug all the holes. doesn't matter if it is on the inside or outside.

[bhut2180]

My next step that I'll do is probably buy that expandable foam stuff, spray it in the wholes, cut and form it to look like what I have with the cardboard over it, then fiberglass over the foam. Once I get a good layer of thick fiberglass, Ill remove the foam from behind

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by bhut2180

My next step that I'll do is probably buy that expandable foam stuff, spray it in the wholes, cut and form it to look like what I have with the cardboard over it, then fiberglass over the foam. Once I get a good layer of thick fiberglass, Ill remove the foam from behind

The foam can work well. Make sure you let it cure for quite a while. Days. I have found it buckles, shrinks, and pits easily. I think Daox reported similar experiences in his "Pretty Prius Grill Block" project thread.

I suggest, actually, that you leave some of the openings in the lower grill in front of your cooling radiator. When the weather is warmer, you might regret permanently and irreversibly closing all those gaps. Duct the remaining openings directly to the radiator so all air entering the car is forced through the radiator. You might leave the fog light holes too, covering them with something removable. LED lights installed there could save battery life by decreasing use of your higher amp and wattage headlights in all sorts of twilight and weather-related driving conditions.

I'm looking forward to watching your progress!

[drmiller100]

fiberglass eats through the foam pretty much instantly.

cover the foam with a thick layer of latex paint or bondo.

alternately, cover the inside of the cardboard with ducttape (fiberglass won't stick to duct tape).
fill the inside of the holes against the cardboard with fiberglass. remove the fiberglass, and use bondo and a sander to smooth it all out.

that's how I built my whole car.

[bhut2180]

So do I leave a hole in the front for the radiator or should I completely cover it? I live in Florida and we have regular summer days in the high 90's, very humid.

Im getting an ultragauge to monitor the radiator temp.

[some_other_dave]

You can answer that by mounting the bumper on the car and testing. If you want the best of both worlds, you can fake up a way of changing the size of the inlet. I've heard of people using a sliding door, or twisting slats (like in venetian blinds), and other ways. You can close off the front until your instrumentation tells you the coolant is getting too hot, at which point you can open the front enough to keep the temps to "normal" operating temperature.

(That temp is somewhere between 180F and 225F, depending on a whole lot of things. My MINI likes to run at 220F.)

-soD

[bhut2180]

So I sealed up all the holes, I may do the sliding door thing. I just got the ELM327 to hook up to torque app. Ill check out the heat and probably work up how to do the sliding door thing.

Here's pics of the work so far

[bhut2180]

Still have a lot of work to make it look good, so the pic below is what im running now