2013 Subaru Impreza WRX STI - Project Log

[BrandonMods]

I notice the coroplast is snug up against the muffler and most of your exhaust. I would really like to do one myself but am afraid that it will melt and catch fire. Will the coroplast eventually melt?

[jedi_sol]

Yes, the coroplast does eventually melt, but only in the immediate vicinity of the exhaust pipes.

In all of my years of ecomodding, coroplast has never caught fire on my cars.

I recently removed my rear diffuser, I'll take a picture to show how much of it has melted away. It's not very much.

If you want to be safe, I'd leave a 2-3" gap.

[jedi_sol]

Here is a picture of the topside of the rear diffuser that sits up against my exhaust pipes. As you can see, the coroplast does melt, but it does not catch fire.



Here is the bottom side, as you can see, the exhaust has not even melted all of the way through.

[OG VX]

Thats some brave clearance and close proximity to heat Jedi! Think it could ever catch a blaze? Close to the gas tank too...

[jedi_sol]

Folded Homes

Folded Homes

The first video shows that yes, it can burn, but it can also blow out really quickly. Therefore, since it's under the car, I would imagine that if it ever catches fire, the wind will blow it out quickly.

In the second video, notice it takes a lot longer to catch fire when lit from the "flat surface." I think this is the best representation of how the coroplast sits on my exhaust pipes.

So as you can see from my car, even with a turbo, my exhaust pipes barely melted the coroplast.

[jedi_sol]

Sorry for the lack of updates. I pretty much took residence at the office for my very first tax season as a Jr. Accountant. Due to the long hours, I decided to just drive to work and stay late. The 4 hour round trip commute by train I used to take was just way too slow. This allowed me to rack up more highway miles (yay for mpg boost! boo for wear and tear)

I eventually made it out alive and took 3 week European Vacation to Prague, Paris, Venice, Florence, and Rome.

Proposed to my girl at the Eiffel Tower, she said YES!
Pics or it didn’t happen…


When I got back from vacation, my bosses pulled me in for a performance review. Got big fat raise! Plus I was able to negotiate with them to allow me to only work 4 days a week so that I don’t have to do the 100 mile round trip commute 5 days a week. It’s not much of a cutback, but it will definitely help in the long run. Plus they offered me the potential to work from home (in the future). Sweet!

Now with that extra day off every week, I have more time to dedicate to ecomodding!

I finally installed the middle and rear underbelly tray (with rear diffuser) v. 2.5. I decided to go with a “modular” approach and cut up the undertray into smaller pieces (instead of one large piece) and also created separate mounting points for each. This way if something falls off, only that one piece should fall off and not the entire thing.

The middle/rear Undertray is now 2 pieces. Each piece is mounted onto the lower control arm. This should allow each piece to flex independently of each other, thus less chances of falling off.


And the rear diffuser back in place


Observations – during the few months of commuting to Los Angeles with no middle underbelly tray, the best trip MPG I could muster was 28-29ish mpg. Now with the full underbelly reinstalled, I easily hit 32-33mpg!

Next up: Inner and outer side skirts, front wheel “canoe style” deflectors, rear wheel boat tails, and possibly re-visit the rear bumper vertical spoilers.

[UltArc]

Looking good, and congratulations!

[pgfpro]

Nice work!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[OG VX]

Great work and congrats! Man, so glad you made it out of tax season alive. Also glad to hear about the performance review and life improvements. Of course, the best update was the pic and your engagement. Congrats friend!!

[jedi_sol]

Inner side skirt

I had a day off today to whip up an inner side skirt "basjoos" style. I extended the skirt passed the rear tires to hopefully smooth airflow past the rear tires.



Outer side skirts will have to wait because since they are in plain sight, I'll have to give them the "almost OEM" treatment to get the fiance stamp of approval.