Help with my aero mods: 1.8L 05 Auto Toyota Corolla

[kevlar]

I once used an old grill cover, cut and trimmed, (black) to hide some broken toofusses on my Buick grill. I have since sold it, but a year and a half later, I'll still see it from time to time and it still looks great! I also agree that you should block the bottom grille, and leave a breather vent in the top grille... hot days are-a-commin.

[BBsGarage]

I really think that the upper grill is very restrictive and the majority of the cooling comes from the lower opening. I am not expecting a large improvement in mileage, but we'll see.

[blackjackel]

Originally Posted by BBsGarage

I was inspired tonight by this thread.

here is my grill block.

from the back



from the front



This was made from a scrap piece of vinyl siding and zip tied to the grill.


.

Right on bro! though you would get (Slightly) better mpg if you blocked it from the front, you could use something more ridgid (which would look better), like white packing tape or white duck tape, but it looks like what you have is plenty good already and it looks good from the outside too...

You should also do the license plate mod, takes like 5 mins

[blackjackel]

I just finished my lower grill block mod, sorry no cam as of right now so no pictures yet, but I'll put some up eventually. I went to a local Officemax and the only white tape they had was duck tape so I used it...

I ended up making the hole about twice as big as was shown in my mockup (the exact width of my licence plate), I will add or remove duct tape according to my cooling needs.

I also duct taped some skirts on my back wheels, I notice that on the corolla the wheels stick out (outside) of the wheel wells so you can only go down till an inch past where the hubcaps start which is like 1/5 of the wheel, so if I were to fashion permanent skirts they would have to "stick out" at the bottom (cause the car curves downward causing the wheel to stick out). This got me wondering how in the hell I'm going to go about doing this wheel skirt mod :/

As for front skirts (which I also did), you cant even get to where the wheel is (cause of when the tires stick out on turns) so you can only get like 2 inches down :/

[aerohead]

There have been a lot of good recommendations.I'm glad that you'll do the incremental blocking down below.As to the "cupping",its a way to get around to the sides of the car and thats good.The EV-1 had "cupping" and its the lowest drag car ever offered to the public so I wouldn't worry about that one.

[slopemeno]

Sign shops (and locally, Tap Plastics) carry sign vinyl in all the primary colors. You can get it in various "mils" of thickness. You can gently heat it witha heat gun and shrink it once its on to take out wrinkles.

If I was tackling your project, I'd go for a wider, narrower slit in the lower opening. Fewer turns means less energy is put into moving the air around corners.

[JohnnyGrey]

If you want to block your grille without making it look goofy, go to Home Depot and get some clear window insulation. It looks like the plastic wrap stuff you'd use in a kitchen and it comes with clear double sided tape. When you point a hair dryer at it, it shrinks tight as a drum!

[blackjackel]

Originally Posted by JohnnyGrey

If you want to block your grille without making it look goofy, go to Home Depot and get some clear window insulation. It looks like the plastic wrap stuff you'd use in a kitchen and it comes with clear double sided tape. When you point a hair dryer at it, it shrinks tight as a drum!

Wow that looks like a good idea, too bad it dosen't come in white... don't get me wrong, I WANT my bumper to look white and sealed off... I don't like how that hole down there looks anyways.... and besides, if I put clear insulation on and that got dirty that would look even stupider (is that a word?) than just dirty white stuff in the front.

[blackjackel]

Originally Posted by slopemeno

Sign shops (and locally, Tap Plastics) carry sign vinyl in all the primary colors. You can get it in various "mils" of thickness. You can gently heat it witha heat gun and shrink it once its on to take out wrinkles.

If I was tackling your project, I'd go for a wider, narrower slit in the lower opening. Fewer turns means less energy is put into moving the air around corners.

First off, if I heated it and shrunk it, isn't there a chance it would CREATE wrinkles due to it being so tight? What about losing elasticity of the sticky stuff due to it always pulling on it?

Also, what do you mean by "fewer turns means less energy is put into moving the air around the corners" ??? Why would making awider narrower slit matter?

[ncc74656m]

You, sir, have given me an idea.

I'm going to try to create a custom baffle (I believe this is the word I'm searching for) that will exactly match the curves of the front of the bumper, thus providing a much more smooth and uninterrupted surface for the air to flow over.

The intention of the project would be to create a removeable baffle that does not in any way change the original grille, instead just attaching to and sitting over the stock unit. It would slide into place over the stock grille, and perhaps be attached under the hood with screws or some other item.

If it were to be painted to match the car's color, it would create a near seamless transition. Naturally, I think that it would be impossible short of very time consuming work to eliminate all gapping around the item, so therefore the best solution is to just create a uniform gap around it, similar to the hood gaps for continuity, but it would look much more "stock" without looking too improvised, if at all.

I figure that with just some Bondo/fiberglass, time, and something to keep the material from sticking to it, you would wind up with a VERY effective unit. Obviously, the smoother the surface, the lower the drag.

Am I making sense here, or, in your opinions, would this be inefficient as far as the time and work goes?