My First Aero Mod

[winkosmosis]

I think you should make a small hole at the bottom of the lower block for the radiator to get airflow

[Ferr3t]

I was planning on doing that tomorrow, getting kind of late to do it tonight. Temps should be in the 30s tomorrow, so I'll make sure the cooling temp is alright. The CAI should be able to pull cold air from under the vehicle, so I'm curious to see if there are any heating/cooling issues.

[Christ]

Intake temps don't normally affect engine temps directly (they do, obviously, but not as discernibly as you would expect.)

Tips for cutting that stuff you're working with - use an X-acto knife instead of scissors.

alternatively, you can cut it with heated wire, a-la foam cutting 101. Use respirator if you do this.

Cut out your basic shape first, but leave room between the basic shape and the actual line you wanted to cut. TRIM down to the line. You'll eventually get very efficient at this, and it's the best way to do it, since the excess material is there to account for textures you didn't take into consideration when mapping your surface.

[Ferr3t]

Thanks, I'm sure I'll be remaking these soon in a more efficient manner. I unfortunately didn't have an x-acto knife at home so I went with the scissors lol.

[Piwoslaw]

Ferr3t: On the pics in this threat, I can see that Purple Haze is just begging for some kind of air dam under the bumper. I'm surpised there isn't one.

[Ferr3t]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Ferr3t: On the pics in this threat, I can see that Purple Haze is just begging for some kind of air dam under the bumper. I'm surpised there isn't one.

Yeah, I think that will be my next endeavor after these grille blocks are finished. I've always been surprised about that too, but I guess you have to consider that the car is 10 years old. I'll be looking around for good materials to build an air dam.

[bucknmusky]

OK, so there is some work involved. I went all out to block the bumper vents in my 2002 cavalier, wish I had some before pictures. First I drilled holes in the bumper plastic vertically to use roofing nails to "pin" the foam in place just incase it did not stick to the bumper plastic. Then masked off the back side with tape and filled in the front side with Great-Stuff foam in a can, red can not blue, the red can foam hardens solid whereas the blue stays softer for expansion around windows and doors. Once dry I smoothed out the front face with a rasp and was good to go. Unfortunately driving at 75 mph with a foam grill the gas pockets in the foam cells broke down and indented, stayed in place but made a lot of indents everywhere the foam was installed. So another filing of foam, rasped smooth then covered with 2 layers of woven fiberglass repair cloth and some metalic blue Rustoleum and we were good to go.

2 cans great-stuff $10.00
roofing nails $0.50
fiberglass repair kit $15.00
spray paint $4.00

Under 30 bucks is a small price to pay to get lots of strange looks. And I don't really worry about overheating for now. last week out daytime high was seven below zero, (farenheight for those wondering) welcome to Wisconsin. I will see about temps as the year goes on
You can see my car in the garage (Enola Gay 2.0) for pics of the bumper

[NeilBlanchard]

Sounds great -- can you post pictures of the finished project and/or pictures of the process, please?

[Cd]

Very 'stealth' !

Well done - especially around the grille emblem. Looks almost 'factory' installed.

[Christ]

Home Depot carries a universal airdam also - It's called lawn edging.

There is a small write up on how to use it in another thread here.. I'll find it.