I need molding

[s2man]

I want to clean up the rear end of my car. Aerodynamically, that is. It's got a nice start on a boat tail, but everything is rounded off. I want to add a small lip to get clean air-flow separation. I'm looking for a small wedge-shaped cross section. Maybe 3/4" x 1/4", or a bit larger. Rubber, silicon, or soft plastic would be fine. Has anyone seen a product I could use for this?

I've looked at all the molding, seals and weather stripping at the hardware store and Home Depot. Weather stripping usually has a square cross section, and the other seals usually wrap *around* something. There's got to be some application out there that uses a long rubber wedge for a seal. Thanks in advance.

[s2man]

I resumed my internet search, and finally got some results searching for "extruded seal". Here's the best I've found so far:



I figure I could cut the legs off, resulting in two wedges. Seals are available in many materials. EPDM seams to be weather resistant and inexpensive. The search continues...

[SVOboy]

Think about stuff for the bottom of doors that creates the seal with the floor?

[s2man]

Most door seals I've seen have a metal strip. But I'll look at door stuff again. Perhaps I can get the seal separately, or cut the seal off the metal. Thanks.

[s2man]

I checked the hardware store again, starting with the wipers/seals for the bottom of doors. The wipers had a T or Y shape for sliding into a channel; could work. I continued to work my way down the isle, looking at every single item again. I found some garage-door seal, which I could cut in half to get the wedge shape I wanted. Then I found a P shaped seal. Imagine a P laying on its side, with the round bump 1/4" tall. If testing works out, I'll probably go with the garage seal. It's the desired shape, and it's black, to match my trim.

Extruded seal posted above: $2/ft, wedge shape, black EPDM
Garage-door seal: $0.70/ft, wedge shape, black EPDM
Door wiper: $0.28/ft, Y shape, gray unknown
P seal: $0.20/ft, P shape, self adhesive, brown EPDM

I bought the P seal for three reasons: 1) price. 2) self-adhesive for fast A-B-A testing. 3) while not the perfect wedge shape I wanted, I figure the 1/4" radius is much better than the 6-10" radii currently on the back of my car. And it's about the same radius as the trunk lip on more aerodynamic cars.

Yes, Darin, I'll do A-B-A. I keep thinking the same question you ask in the VG discussions. "Why not a lip instead of VG's?". Here's the plan: make an 11* jig and mark all around the backend of the roof, sides, trunk, bumper, etc where the body is 11* from centerline. Attach lip where marked.

I'm oncall this weekend, and it's raining/snowing here anyway. I've got a river-trail cleanup next Saturday (1st & main, RH77), but hopefully I can get some testing done next Sunday. I really doubt the air is reattaching on the trunk lid, so I think a lip there will be wasted. Perhaps some tuft testing is in order before lip testing. Any other thoughts? (beisides this thread should be in aero or experiments )