Aeromods on a 99 Malibu
 

Hello to everyone, I stumbled across this sight about six months ago and I've been reading/lurking ever since. Back in March I was inspired to the point of adding rear wheel skirts to my car, pics below. Now that school has let out for the year I finally have some time to take my aeromodding to the next level. Today I got some sheets of coroplast and fashioned a front air dam that I'm planning on adding to my car this week. I thought I would post some pics here to get some feedback and suggestions before making anything final.
Obviously there won't be any masking tape on the finished product.


Let me know what you think.


Currently I have my wheel skirts off as my car is having some work done on it. I'd like to have them back on and the front air dam finished before I begin my cross country trip from Indiana to California.

Glad you decided to de-lurk. Welcome to the forum.

The rear skirts look good. I wonder about the front air dam though. There's some conflicting evidence that bigger is not always better in that department.

Phil (aerohead) has firmly repeated lately that the bottom of the dam shouldn't extend much past the lowest hanging components under the vehicle. Phil's advice is worth betting on.

I also had Hucho's aerodynamics book open again at lunch today and happened to spot a diagram showing that an air dam that's too low actually increases drag.

Unless you have the ability to test the vehicle in as-controlled-as-possible conditions before heading out on your road trip, I'd be inclined to go with a more conservative height there.

Looks good. The front end has a NASCAR look to it.

Thanks for the input. I've read a couple other threads around here dealing with air dams and arrived at the conclusion, as you suggested, that it may be best to trim the air dam so its not so low. I'll also probably do a partial belly pan back to the point of the inside of the usual front bumper, if that makes sense.

to me the front airam looks too low also... really why push that air around your car that can slip under it unubstructed... raise it to the lowest point of the under carriage.. then next step consider a belly pan..

However looking good so far!! I so got to get my skirts made

How about blocking the grill before you try the airdam? Then do a smaller airdam while keeping an eye on water temp. Does your dash have a water temp guage?

I agree that it looks a bit large. If it looks too much like A NASCAR spoiler that isn't good. Those are designed to add front downforce. In general, downforce = drag.

A shorter dam with a belly pan would probably be better.

Happy testing!!!

My car doesn't have a water temp gauge so I won't be able to monitor it closely. I think what I'll be doing now after getting some feedback, is shortening the airdam and giving it an appearance more closely to the front of basjoos's civic. Then I'll do a partial belly pan from the front of the new nose. I'll post some pics once I work out a mock-up.

what most gars with good aero seem to be doing is have the airdam lower in front of the tires and more sharply cut, and higer and smoother in the center to allow the air under,

perhaps you could cut down the sides a bit and fold back the center section below the bumper to form the undertray...
a coastdown test might hint at how well things work

update
 

About a week ago, I posted a mock up of a planned front air dam on my 99 Malibu. Based on suggestions here I made some changes. Its now shorter, rounded on the edges, and its angled as to deflect air upward and around the car.

Pictures are below. Also, there is a partial belly pan that is not visible in the pictures

I tested it out today on a 30 mile drive and I made a few observations. One, without having done a formal coast down test the car seemed to maintain speed slightly longer after after letting off the accelerator. And two, the engine was running a little hotter than usual so I will probably have to cut a small hole in the the front to let some air in to keep the temperature down.

The beauty of the air dam is that its attached to the car completely with velcro so its easy to remove and modify. Let me know what you think.

Your mileage results are super consistent. Could you tell us what the EPA estimates are for your combined driving? The mileage.gov website will do a quick little calculation for you based on your estimated percentages of city vs. highway and tell you what you should be seeing in general.

Like the airdam, that looks pretty slick. I've got to go ahead and make one of those for the truck.