Aero foglight covers for my Insight

[RedDevil]

Ever since reading about stonechipped and -smashed fog lights I wanted to cover mine before my luck runs out.
Also, these lights have a big rim that protrudes like an oval volcano crater. Set on the lower corner panels at about 45 degrees sideways, I could not help feeling that this was not the most aerodynamical design in the rich history of fog light housing; the deep recess especially.

The outside was double curved quite nicely though.
If only that line continued over the fog light and were transparent...

So I ate a couple of croissants.
It seemed to be the logical thing to do.
They came in a thin transparent PET box with a flat 8" square top.
Cut that out and halved it, then stretched it over a metal bowl and poured some hot, then boiling water over it:


That made the sheet shrink to shape the bowl quite nicely.
Used a soft nail brush to wipe away the bubbles and nudge the material to follow the bowl shape even more.
Note I only stretched it from 2 points; in hindsight I would have used 4.

Cut those now curved sheets to fit the edge of the volcano, added some double sided sticky tape on the edge and stuck it on.
The edges were already severely pitted from stone strikes, but the glass was spotless. Lucky me

The covers are flexible and should hold up to small stone strikes. And if a big one hits it it might save the unit at over 100 € to replace.
The covers cost me next to nothing to fabricate. AAMOF I got a whole stack of those boxes awaiting fabrication projects. My antenna wing sleeve was made from the same material, just like the UGB I used last winter.


Another pic to show the curvature:


Now this mod has saved me a lot of fuel - not. On this afternoon, driven 5 miles since. At least they held up well, staying in place.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

So I ate a couple of croissants.
It seemed to be the logical thing to do.

This is the best thing that I have seen all day!

I like it! Hopefully it works out! Can you attach them with less visible tape or something?

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by Xist

This is the best thing that I have seen all day!

I like it! Hopefully it works out! Can you attach them with less visible tape or something?

Thanks

I suspect I'll lose them sooner or later, V2 will be better and more appealing.
I just wanted to find out whether this idea of shaping PET foil works at all and holds out in practice. So far so good.

They are not that conspicious on the car as a whole. You really have to look at them to notice something is out of the ordinary. The units are not that big, too.