Help me design my partial Kammback

[Weather Spotter]

I would like to take the credit but I can not.
I saw it on 5gen civic hatchback thread:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea....html#post8636

At first I did not want to mess with it. It turned out to be very easy to remove.

For the top I used the bolt holes that heal the OEM spoiler on (it still opens like normal too)!

[Weather Spotter]

Originally Posted by COcyclist

Spotter, Thank you for posting your careful test data. I hope you do not find a 1% mpg increase discouraging. It is a step in the right direction. Darin (MetroMpg) has said there is no magic bullet; it's more of a magic buckshot approach, a percent or two here and a percent or two there and it all adds up.

I envy your simple and reversible construction method. I made a similar one of coroplast for testing but I don't have easy attachment holes. Do you have scraps left to make flat coroplast wheel covers? Perhaps in the future you can extend your Kammback for a longer, removable tail. I have welded up a bracket that fits in my receiver hitch for this purpose but that is as far as I have gotten so far.

I agree that the %%%% add up over time!

I do have several pieces left over, I am thinking about wheel covers, not sure if they are worth the risk of unbalancing the tires.

I also had thought of using my towing hitch for making a boat tail support. I am not sure if I will make one though. If I like the Kammback I might make a longer one (or just add onto the length of this one). I can add another brace running across the top and sides (attach at the shock mount brackets). I would also extend the braces coming from the top (bolts where the OEM spoiler was). This would let me make it longer in a modular fashion and who knows where it will end uphttp://forum.ecomodder.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif .

[Weather Spotter]

I should have a good data set this weekend to compare with and without the mods. I have to travel the same 600+ mile round trip that I did a month ago. I do not know if the conditions will be the same, but it will interesting to see how the mods work on a long trip!

[cfg83]

Weather Spotter -

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

I would like to take the credit but I can not.
I saw it on 5gen civic hatchback thread:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea....html#post8636

At first I did not want to mess with it. It turned out to be very easy to remove.

For the top I used the bolt holes that heal the OEM spoiler on (it still opens like normal too)!

Oh yeah, hee hee hee. I forgot about AndrewJ's hatch. It's still cool to see another working example and a compliment to the originator.

When I've tried to find pre-existing spots on my wagon to exploit, they just don't seem to add up.

CarloSW2

[Piwoslaw]

Sweet

I may be seeing it wrong, but it appears that the sides of your Kamm don't converge:


Compare to mine:


I believe this would help you reduce the Cd even more.

[Weather Spotter]

They actually do curve inward, not a lot but they do. I tried to keep the angle close to what the car had to start with (more but not a huge amount). I Would have made it more but my source colorplast was only so big, to curve it any more would have required a second splice. I also found it hard to make a radius curve and angle it in at the same time.

[Weather Spotter]

Originally Posted by cfg83

Weather Spotter -

Oh yeah, hee hee hee. I forgot about AndrewJ's hatch. It's still cool to see another working example and a compliment to the originator.

When I've tried to find pre-existing spots on my wagon to exploit, they just don't seem to add up.

CarloSW2

I Google your car, the hatch looks devoid of mount points. Have you seen if you can wrap a thin piece of metal around the top lip and fasten on the inside (like to the hinges)?

[COcyclist]

Like this? from Orange4boy's beautifully constructed Previa Kammback.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...evia-9437.html

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-or...-mounts-2.html

[cfg83]

Weather Spotter and COcyclist -

I do have hinges on my wagon similar to what Orange4boy has :



However, in my case I don't have the lower mount point, I only have the upper hinge.

I know it can be done, but my investigation implies that I could get in over my head really fast. There aren't enough screws to take stuff apart, so I think I would end up destroying gaskets that would be hard to get for my out-of-production SW2. What I *should* do is go to a pick-a-part and see if I can find another rear hatch at a low price. Then I could dismantle it at my leisure.

CarloSW2

[Weather Spotter]

the lower one can just be a stand off with a lip going under the lip of the hatch. As long as the top is attached the bottom is just there to hold the angle. You could just run a piece down to the hatch and put some rubber on it so it will not scratch.