little blue firefly

[rednic79]

hello, this is my first post. I've been reading the forum for about a year now. I just picked up a 96 firefly 1.0l standard which I have just started to do some aero work on. this will be my third 'aero modded' car. the first two being cavaliers. lots of inspiration from metrompg. I plan on doing a fair amount of work on it and thought I would share a few of my starting pictures. its still well below freezing here in Winnipeg so I do not have any real data yet. althought the blackfly has taken care of most of the legwork for me already! thanks for checking it out.

[Frank Lee]

Those mods look like they should be effective.

[MetroMPG]

Welcome, rednic!

How many km's on it? Don't cars rust away in the Peg like they do in Ontario? Or is it too cold to rust? My Flea is the last one on the road around here -- I haven't seen another one in ages (not counting a handful of summer-only convertibles).

If you've got pics of your Cavaliers, I bet I'm not the only one who'd like to see.

[rednic79]

Hah....yeah..rust never sleeps right? It was fairly rusty...I did a bunch of body work on it. We dont use as much salt as ontario. 220km...I know a bit high. Im a mechanic by trade so I dont really fear the km. Hope the milage is not hurt too bad. Seems to still run ok. I'll look for some cavalier pics to post. I didnt really take many. But I should have one of the fleece bumper I made for it at least.

[MetroMPG]

You know about Achille's rusty heel in these cars, I'm sure (front control arm mount area).

Another mod I've been meaning to do that's showing up on more and more aero-focused production cars is clean up the bumper corner, behind the rear wheel:



The Mirage's Cd for the Canada/US model is just 0.28 according to the company. Pretty decent for a little hatchback (notice also the mini-kammback spoiler and the smooth wheelcovers). This sharp bumper corner treatment that promotes clean flow separation is getting more popular.

[rednic79]

yeah that's a great idea. I also noticed that the volt has a similar 'edge' going for it. I think I read a post about it on here somewhere as to where / at what angle such a hump should be placed. any thoughts? I think one guy had said to put it at the point just before there was flow separation.... maybe do some tuff testin this summer.
I only found two pictures of my first cavalier's first few mods. I don't have a cell phone so I don't take many pictures. the second car got written off when it was at its peak. so quickly tore off all the eco stuff before I took it in for the insurance claim. it was along the same lines but had a kamback and was a 2door.
these pictures show:
front bumper / underbelly / wheel spats and mirror delete. one other thing you may notice if you look close is the single wiper arm tucked under the hood. I changed the length of the 'drive arm' on the wiper motor to allow the one arm to do a full 160 degree sweep of the window.
the bumper is a fleece blanket stretched over the original which I cut in half an lowered the bottom half to be even with the under belly. then I coated in fiberglass resin. I plan on doing a similar one for little blue.

the firefly's front 'frame' is still ok. I know exactly what your talking about. it was mainly the rockers and rear wheel area that were rusty.

[Jyden]

Gota follow this. Get as fuel log startet here?

[MetroMPG]

Nice work on the Cavalier front bumper. Needs a dedicated thread! I'm certain there are other Cavalier owners who would like to know what you did to the car and the results. But they won't find it buried in a Firefly thread!

A dedicated thread on your wiper mod would be gold, too!

Originally Posted by rednic79

yeah that's a great idea. I also noticed that the volt has a similar 'edge' going for it. I think I read a post about it on here somewhere as to where / at what angle such a hump should be placed. any thoughts? I think one guy had said to put it at the point just before there was flow separation....

Yeah - and the Accord hybrid, Camry hybrid, Prius... they're all doing sharp rear bumper corners.

I wouldn't call it a "hump"... I would just project the accepted side taper back to the point where you want to cut it off and make a 90 degree corner rather than a big radius to the rear of the car.

[rednic79]

Yeah ill do that.....just getting going on the posting so...

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ass-28589.html

[rednic79]

I think ill do the wiper mod on the firefly. so ill try to take some pics. those wipers are driving me nuts. the car would be soooo smooth if they were not there!