Project: The Anal Probe

[t vago]

Think about deleting the retracting headlamps altogether. Might be a challenge, but fitting in projector-style lamps might turn out to be more aerodynamic than keeping the retractos.

[Sven7]

Anybody have a DIY on non retractable lamps? I'd rather not do much with electrical stuff, but if it's easy I'd consider it.

Anyway, updates. Busy day today! I found some large coroplast campaign signs (Thanks BamZipPow for the idea!) in the barn for the partial belly pan.

Before:


After:


It's made of two halves, and they're securely zip tied to the frame and bumper in like six places each. I duct taped the seams to make it even more slippery.

Next came grille blocks. I made them for the top and bottom grilles, but left the middle one for now. If the temperature is still good when driving around I'll block the middle one too.

Just the bottom block in:




Cleaned up the rust a bit with a wire brush, 60 grit, primer and some random red paint. Driving by, you'd barely notice the severe rust spots!



Here you can see the zipties securing both grille blocks.



This is turning out a little more OEM looking than I had planned, but that's alright. I doubt chicks dig hardcore aeromodded cars anyway! :P

Rear wheel skirts are coming tomorrow after the alignment. I'm thinking of putting some bolts through the inside of the quarter panels, and nuts on the outside for easy removal. Thoughts?

Possibly extended belly pan too.

[MetroMPG]

Nice. Block that bottom-bottom grille too!

I'd at least look at the headlight motor(s) if it's not a pain to get to. See if it's siezed or ??? Never know ... could be a WD-40 fix with some massaging.

[Sven7]

Planning on the other grille blocks asap! I'll ask again what my friend thinks is wrong with the lights, and take a look. Otherwise I'm thinking maybe there's a way to lower (and fix) the units into the bodywork, cut some of the bumper down so they can shine out, and make some transparent fairings for the front.

[Sven7]

Extended the belly pan back. I'm stopping halfway through the front floor pans because there's really nothing to zip tie to.



Tried out this wheel skirt option but the coroplast didn't like bending like that. Too bad, because I think it would have prevented flow separation after the wheel well, and cut it off nicely at the end of the car. I don't imagine the radiused bumpers are doing any favors.



So I ended up doing partial wheel covers for now. Later I'm going to do some fairings on the trailing end of the front wheels, and do complete rear fairings integrated into lower skirts.













That was a lot of pics. lol

[Sven7]

Oh and Metro, supposedly the light motor on one side is weak so it has trouble going down. I'll have to look into it a bit. I would be totally fine with operating them manually if it nets some reasonably significant mpg improvement. Honestly I think this thing is probably damn slippery already, but it can always get better!

[MetroMPG]

As for the headlights, I'd say they're significant. But to me, significant = 2%

Also, I'd be curious to know if you have attached flow over the rear glass. (I'm betting no.) Tuft test would reveal all!

[Sven7]

Yeah I'm hoping to score a small sheet of clear plastic to go over the turn signals/grille as well as put an angle on the lights out to the front of the bumper. If they won't go down at least they can be a little less obtuse.

I'm planning on doing a tuft test this weekend when I will hopefully have most of the fairings on.

If the air is detached from the rear window what would I do to correct that? Would small vortex generators (a la Evo MR) do any good?

[MetroMPG]

Better than VG's would be a rear spoiler, I'd say.

VG's energize the boundary layer and redirect airflow at the expense of the vortices that consume energy.

A rear spoiler that's high/long enough to promote flow re-attachment (assuming it's detached in the first place) would be a passive fix with no downside, assuming it's sized appropriately.

Easier said than done

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Sven7

supposedly the light motor on one side is weak so it has trouble going down.

Better a winking car than one with both eyes wide open, if that's an option.