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Old 07-03-2010, 10:46 AM   #31 (permalink)
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A bit more data. Made another test run of my circuit this morning. At 60 mph (58 with the turnaround) I achieved 90 MPG. Adjusting yesterday's results slightly for traffic, I'm gonna say this thing is closing in on 89-90 MPG at 60mph on my course with my technique. I think that "flatlanders" will do slightly better. Gonna make one more test run, probably Monday.

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Old 07-04-2010, 11:53 PM   #32 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by deejaaa View Post
3-Wheeler, any idea on the weight estimate the extension will add?
i made an aerobed for my truck and i figure it weighed 150#.
About 16 years ago, I made a composite foam/fiberglass full coverage motorcycle fairing.

At the time, Craig Vetter was in full swing with his WindJammer fairings, which weighed close to 40 lbs.

My foam/fiberglass model, which actually covered more of the bike, including riders legs, weighed only 13 lbs.

The tail extension on the Insight should weigh less than 30 lbs.

Jim.
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Old 07-16-2010, 10:03 PM   #33 (permalink)
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The two tail light mounting brackets are getting "angled" blocks attached to allow through bolts to rest at these angles.



The first piece of foam is attached to one of the supporting embedded wood anchors. I'll have to admit, that this was pretty exciting seeing the very first foam piece in place.



Here's the back side of the foam, showing just how the embedded wood block is being supported.



Later that night, a picture with the garage door closed, since the mosquitos are out and hungry. The foam has a nice and tight fit against the sheet metal. Way tighter than the normal gaps around the doors and such.



Here's another shot several days later. It took about two hours to fit and glue that curved piece on the bottom side of the tail light. It's the piece with the masking tape and duct tape attached. This includes both sides of the car. The block is extremely thin on the back side due to the way the sheet metal is formed in that area.



This picture is showing the underside of the bumper area. Lots of foam blocks added here.



Those four foam blocks that are added to the bottom of this picture, will create some of the hardest work on the tail extension project. They are so innocent looking but the shape in this area is very difficult to keep true to the Honda stylist's intentions.



Here's a shot of the back side of the foam thus far. Lot's of Elmers Glue back there!



Now the assemblage of foam is removed from the car, and you can see the detail of foam shaping that went into each block before being glued. This is the summation of many hours of cutting, fitting, and gluing each individual block.



Here is what the underside blocks look like so far. You can see the embedded wood support blocks in the foam here as well.



Here's a close-up, showing the many various shaped blocks that make up the assembly.



Now fiberglass cloth/resin is added to the back side of this assembly and placed on the car to setup.

Notice the Glad Wrap sticking out from behind the foam. This acts as a mold release to keep the epoxy from sticking anywhere on the car.



Here's several more blocks added along the rear skirt.



This shows the back side of the assembly with the fiberglass and Glad Wrap still attached.



Same thing for the lower assembly, and still with mold release attached.



This shows the curvature template that will be used extensively in an attempt to maintain proper curvature of the tail extension.



This is a "machined" piece of foam, using a "new technique" that was necessary to keep the intended Honda shape just above the rear skirt.



This picture shows the new machined foam smoothed out and added to the rest of the foam in this area. The foam template is used to glue each piece and then rechecked several more times to ensure that the angles are correct before allowing the glue to setup.

Notice the white filler. These are areas that were over-filed/sanded and had to be filled to bring these surfaces in alignment with the template. The white areas took the most time to ensure they are "straight" and smooth.



This is a picture as the car is today. Lot's of hours at this point!!

You can see the older fiberglass area and the new panels that were added more recently.



The end shot shows the "curvature" of the sheet metal shape just above the rear skirts. This area really takes patience to get right and the convex and concave shapes "look" extremely simple, but actually have compound radii. This takes the most planning and care to keep aligned with the sheet metal shape in this area.



These panels have enough foam added now, that more fiberglass will be added to support the back sides of these panels, before other blocks are again added.

The masking tape on the car is used to "align" the template in the same direction as the anticipated air flow across these surfaces. This also allows some repeatability in placement of the template each time it is used to glue more blocks behind those already in place.




Jim.
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Last edited by 3-Wheeler; 07-19-2010 at 02:00 PM..
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Old 07-17-2010, 10:13 AM   #34 (permalink)
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Beautiful work! Now that I'm looking at all of the support/attachment points, I'm wondering how you plan to removed the completed boattail. Do you plan some sort of access hatch on the top or bottom?
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Old 07-17-2010, 10:32 AM   #35 (permalink)
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I need a little help from some computer type. I see about half of the pictures, but the last half of the pictures don't come through. I have a little red X where the pictures would be in the text, but no picture. I right click and have a menu that has an option to open the picture, but it doesn't open. I'm running Vista and looking at the forum on Internet Explorer.

Thanks for any help offered!
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Old 07-17-2010, 04:18 PM   #36 (permalink)
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its not just you, looking at the errors in my browser it seems they are not transferring from the server correctly.

No clue why.

"Resource interpreted as image but transferred with MIME type text/html."
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Old 07-17-2010, 07:42 PM   #37 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jimepting View Post
Beautiful work! Now that I'm looking at all of the support/attachment points, I'm wondering how you plan to removed the completed boattail. Do you plan some sort of access hatch on the top or bottom?
Any place that has a block of wood in the foam, is an attachment point that allows removal of the tail extension from the car.

Eventually, there will be four embedded pieces of wood on top and four on the bottom.

I noticed that about half of the thumbnails are not showing as well, even though they render in full size.

I might have to repost those pictures. Done!

Had to repost the pictures a second time for some reason!

Jim.

Last edited by 3-Wheeler; 07-19-2010 at 08:15 PM.. Reason: Pictures reposted
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Old 07-19-2010, 08:14 AM   #38 (permalink)
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Wow! Thanks for posting the pictures. They show up fine for me.
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Old 07-19-2010, 03:41 PM   #39 (permalink)
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You know about using nichrome hotwire to cut extruded polystyrene foam, right?

Also, for lofting good aerodynamic lines and perhaps for skeletal structure, have you considered using PVC pipe and glue?

I don't know if standard PVC plumbers glue is compatible with the pink foam you're using, but it would sure be handy if you could use PVC pipe and glue for the skeletal structure, with pink or blue Styrofoam as filler, then sculpt with hotwire and sanding block. Sureform or cheese grater work, too. If extruded styrene foam is not chemically compatible with PVC glue, consider polyurethane foam, which should not be hotwired due to toxic fumes, but which sculpts and sands beautifully.

As for using PVC pipe to loft the aero lines, somebody I think on this website had a dual bicycle Porsche 911 depicted: PVC in ~1/2" diameter makes a wonderful lofting tool.

All this stuff is cheap and easy from Lowes or Home Depot. Light weight.

Somebody else on I think this website did a beautiful motorcycle fairing, with heat-shrinkable Dacron skin and diluted Elmer's glue instead of epoxy. Since the part was non-structural, its strength was fine. Worth a shot for this application?
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Old 07-19-2010, 03:48 PM   #40 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 3-Wheeler View Post
About 16 years ago, I made a composite foam/fiberglass full coverage motorcycle fairing.

At the time, Craig Vetter was in full swing with his WindJammer fairings, which weighed close to 40 lbs.

My foam/fiberglass model, which actually covered more of the bike, including riders legs, weighed only 13 lbs.

The tail extension on the Insight should weigh less than 30 lbs.

Jim.
Got pics of that motorcycle fairing?

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