Honda Insight Tail Extension Project

[botsapper]

Dunno the exact ruling for Wisconsin, but you can add your lights/reflector strips on the lower rear wheel spat extensions. It gives them another utility function. It is comparable to the locations of mud flap reflectors on trailers. I got the idea this AM following a 2011 VW Golf. It had red rear reflectors way below the rear bumper but it was placed all the way to the corners. Could an idea like this work for your state.
You could use the renderings and sketch out your rear markers ideas.

[COcyclist]

Nice Zapper, the view from the back looks great.

[wyatt]

What does a school bus use? They light up extremely well at night! Is it a retroreflective paint like this one? It won't solve the blinker embedding, but may be worth keeping in mind.

[3-Wheeler]

Hi Botsapper,

My initial glimpse at the first picture was, "wow"!

That is amazing work!!

And I wouldn't have thought about lights in that location, but it does look really cool. Any of the younger generation that have spats on their cars would want to "cruise the circuit" with lights in low slung position like that.

Jim.

[3-Wheeler]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

....regarding your VG question at the transition to ~12 degrees on the underside of the extension: I'd say they may work there. I bet the flow under your car is cleaner than Phil believes it is....

Hi Metro,

It's nice to hear from the inspiration that started my tail extension project!

Right now it's kind of a toss-up between creating a pivoting under tray, or keeping it fixed at the current angle.

The fixed bottom side keeps things allot simpler and makes the structure more rigid and lighter, but causes more air drag due to the steeper angle.

The hinged under-tray can be lower slung for normal driving, and move up and out of the way when encountering ramped inclines. However this design is also weaker in transmitting loads from the tail to the underside mounting blocks, due to the large cutout for the movable piece.

The movable piece can also rattle over bumps as Cd pointed out in an earlier post.

So, for me, simply adding vortex generators would be the preferred approach in this case, if they actually work in this application.

Jim.

[3-Wheeler]

Originally Posted by botsapper

.....Much speculation on your final flourish. I guess front & rear wheel spat extensions ala-Prius to clean up tire votices. Paint the under body surface areas in flat black, to integrate black rear wheel covers, it also lessens the perceived 'volume' of the tail section. Maybe de rigeur - splitter strakes on the rear diffuser (aero advantage - ?,) but for some cool factor. Also see rear diffuser solution on VW L1 concept....

Hi botsapper,

Alas, but the finishing touches will probably wait till next summer, and the temperatures in Wisconsin as of late are getting cool enough to make the remaining fiber glass work rather difficult, but not impossible.

Spats and such can always to be added then, and I suspect some of the other tweaks that basjoos has made to his Civic will be added as well.

botsapper, do you have any pictures of the VW L1 from the angle you are talking about? I'm curious now.

Jim.

[botsapper]

3W

The winter season hiatus would give you time to rethink your design solutions.
A video of the design process would help you visualize the diffuser design. Here ya go.
Good lessons for all ecomodders but your diffuser answers start @ 1:20 in the vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH5CGQmJ--E

[discovery]

I'm having a feeling that the tail is done!? And the real MPG numbers are coming in a positive note

[3-Wheeler]

Originally Posted by discovery

I'm having a feeling that the tail is done!? And the real MPG numbers are coming in a positive note

Hi discovery,

Well, you're very close!

The extension has been on and off the car too many times to count, but not on the road as of yet.

I have lot's of pictures to post for the last three weeks of work, and once I can start driving with it, I'll post more pictures. The temperature is getting colder here in Wisconsin, so I am concentrating on continuing work until road worthy.

Right now the wood mounting system is a little on the heavy side at 7.5 pounds, so this is getting lightened in between other tasks, such as completing any fiberglass work, which is still going on. This nice thing is I can lighten the mount in the warmth of the basement compared to the cold garage, where all glass work is done. Almost forgot to mention; the extension is too big to fit into the house, so the only option is the garage.

I just glassed on some "hooks" for securing the wiring loom inside the extension and the wiring will run down convoluted tubing on each side of the tail to the old tail light locations. More hooks on the other side tomorrow night.

There is also some finish work regarding the underside of the tail which needs to be smoothed further before glassing.

I thought last weekend it would be on the car and running, but now it's this weekend. I just keep picking away, and don't want to rush things, as it quickly becomes a chore and losses the spontaneity and sense of satisfaction of the build.

Tail lights need to be soldered and mounted, but it is getting very close to being finished for this season.

Jim.

[RobertSmalls]

Originally Posted by 3-Wheeler

Almost forgot to mention; the extension is too big to fit into the house, so the only option is the garage.

I was wondering about that. It's been too cold out for epoxy to cure this week, but there's a chance there could be a few warm days next week. If the season for glassing hasn't passed, it's really close.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the mpg results. The cold weather might take some of the pizazz out of the mpg figures, but I hope you can still get some incredible figures out of your car.