8th Gen Civic Aero Modding

[Krayzie]

Originally Posted by Cd

You could plug up the grille and the area surrounding the fog lights and it would resemble the Volt ( The shape of the top and bottom grilles on both cars are very similar. They appear to have been designed by the same designers trading notes .)
http://puregreencars.com/files.php?f...Chevy-Volt.jpg

yup grille block is what i'll be working on first. the middle of the bottom one is already 1/3 covered by my license place.

Originally Posted by Floordford

I see that you have vent shades and mudflaps. Could test with and without those. And mirrors maybe. If plain aluminum wheel covers cause hesitance then you may consider clear acrylic covers. I may do that because I have a Mustang GT. Pizza pans would look very out of place on my car.

i would prefer not to remove the shades...as i really like the way they look. i know its not the best for aero but sometimes you have to make exceptions.

ive been hesitant on removing the front mud flaps because or fears from rock chips but i think i'll try it out. the rear doesnt have flaps but there is a huge hole which acts like a parachute which needs to be addressed.

as for the underbody, ive poked my head under there....well tried to at least and do see room for a lot of improvement.

[lunarhighway]

ive been hesitant on removing the front mud flaps because or fears from rock chips but i think i'll try it out.

if you want to protect the paint in certain areas, you might look into clear or white vinyl sticker sheets. they're used for signmaking of printing stickers and automotive lettering and striping so they should add a durable slightly flexible coat to your paint that can be removed and replaced when needed. i suppose it could also be used to prevents stonechips to the leading edge of the hood

[Cd]

Originally Posted by Krayzie

i would prefer not to remove the shades...as i really like the way they look. i know its not the best for aero but sometimes you have to make exceptions.

There is a post on here somewhere that has a link to a manufacturer that offers ones that are almost flush with the edge of the car. They barely poke out and actually look cleaner as well.

[Krayzie]

ok so taking baby steps here. I took off the mud flaps in the front and blocked part of the grille. theres an opening beneath the hood which sends air straight over the ending without going through the rad. about 5 seconds for install and remove!

i made a mock up cover for the wheels with some cardboard just now and it looks decent. just need to find some coroplast. I'm still thinking of how to attach them without leaving behind anything noticeable. any ideas? maybe zip ties? but then i'll be buying them all the time.

ok so the strake in front of the rear tire. would it help if i made it bigger?

[Krayzie]

tested out a wheel disk with cardboard today to get a feel for what to expect when building it for real. Looks like double sided tape will work pretty well, the spokes stick out just enough.

not sure if i should leave the coroplast white or paint it. Any colour ideas? lime green or florescent yellow? hahaha...this mod should be good for at least 5% on the hwy considering just how dirty these wheels must be through the air

[Cd]

Coroplast wheels covers ?? I thought you wanted this thing to be "stealth".

Hmmm.... just my opinion, but that's really going to make the car look like .........well not nice.

It's too bad you can't use clear Lexan ( the strong stuff ) because your wheels look great.

( The draw back is that you would have to keep the inside of the wheel clean often. )


You could also go with flat black and leave the trim ring area the color of the wheel as seen here :



Personally, I think a sheet of flat black ABS would look much more professional than coroplast which has noticeable ridges and edges which look odd.

[Cd]

Originally Posted by Krayzie

To me, it looks like you need to extend out some on the design ( the width mainly, since there is a lot of the tire still exposed to the wind. )


Oh - and the grille looks fantastic so far.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Cd

To me, it looks like you need to extend out some on the design ( the width mainly, since there is a lot of the tire still exposed to the wind. )

This is how these deflectors are done by the car companies themselves.

Flow underneath a car usually isn't going nicely lengthwise, but more diagonally, so the deflector actually does shield the entire tire when seen at an angle - without pushing the air further out than necessary.

[Krayzie]

haha, wheel covers can be stealth...

the coroplast idea was just kind of to get a feel for it. just did some reading on ABS and they say its not UV stable. So does that mean the colour will fade? it comes in 2 colours...white and black. i have no idea which one i want. i guess i could always just spray paint it later if it does start to go bad

[some_other_dave]

You could paint a picture of your wheels onto the wheel covers....

-soD