Project Del Sol Kammback Dead; New Ideas

[jedi_sol]

pgfpro - I was searching through the ecomodder archives for "del sols", and actually it was your car that i saw that inspired me to put the tape on the headlights and aux lights. You said you have this heavy duty plastic wrap that you use at body shops and you ended up wrapping your whole car (thus creating a semi-kammback).

[jedi_sol]

I was working on the rear skirt today, and Christ, you were right, the angle of the aluminum cross bar is too steep. Yes, yes, its cuz of my fat 205width tires.

Before:


Some tinkering later (i know it looks ghetto). Would this be a good start in the right direction?




Christ, you mentioned fabbing up a triangular brace to my existing aluminum cross bar to sweep the rear bumper. Is this what you are talking about?

[smokeyj]

Why don't you disable the alternator except when the brake lights are on?

Then you have a kind of poor mans regenerative braking.

You could also bypass this to re-enable the alternator if the battery voltage goes too low.

I bet you find that battery charging with the equivalent of the "pulse and glide" is more efficient.

Your motor is usually more efficient at higher load. So by only turning on the alternator into a relatively discharged battery you are charging with the highest possible mechanical load. The power efficiency of battery charging is also best with discharged batteries. Going from 50% to 80% you get back a lot of what you put in.
Going from 80% to full not so much.

On the other hand it is bad for many batteries to be in a discharged condition so a deep cycle would be the best choice. If you had a big deep cycle and a relatively small motor or live in a warm place and run synthetic oil you should still have enough CCA to start in the AM

Once you take out the alternator you are kind of stuck for range. I drove a car this way for years back and forth to work, till I fixed the alternator. Bit of a pain though.

[smokeyj]

Far be it from me to offer relationship advice to strange people on the internet, but.

When you say "killed" I want to know how exactly? Chainsaw? Accident?

It is just possible that she prefers a somewhat more stealth look? If this is the case I would go for grill block passenger mirror delete, LRR tires and possibly a belly pan.

[jedi_sol]

Originally Posted by smokeyj

When you say "killed" I want to know how exactly? Chainsaw? Accident?

Killed = gave me the stink eye when I showed up to her house with it attached and said "I'm not driving in THAT!"

[smokeyj]

HA so closer to the chainsaw.
In that case, I suggest working on stealth mods first.

[jedi_sol]

-smokeyj,

I've decided to scrap the "alternator delete" idea, too much risk of getting stuck in traffic in southern california, which would most likely leave me stranded. Hence, that's why i installed the alternator disable switch so i can turn it off and on when needed.

As far as stealth goes, I've installed a front grill block just the other day, removed my side mirrors, and as you can see, im working on the rear wheel skirts. The problem i'm having with those is that ive got fat 205width tires on, so they jut outside the body panels. This'll cause a disruption in airflow, hence trying to figure out how to smooth the transitions from body panel --> tire --> rear bumper.

[smokeyj]

Well a 205 is a lot of tire for such a small car. Maybe you could trade with someone for a more reasonable tire.

I too think alternator delete is a bit risky what I do think is maybe you could automate your disable switch. So for instance when you hit the brakes the alternator is enabled, or when battery is really low it enables automatically. This would also make the car girlfriend compatible as they tend to not want to be bothered with switching the alternator in or out depending

[jedi_sol]

Originally Posted by smokeyj

Well a 205 is a lot of tire for such a small car. Maybe you could trade with someone for a more reasonable tire.

I too think alternator delete is a bit risky what I do think is maybe you could automate your disable switch. So for instance when you hit the brakes the alternator is enabled, or when battery is really low it enables automatically. This would also make the car girlfriend compatible as they tend to not want to be bothered with switching the alternator in or out depending

Yeah i definately am going back to a skinnier tire once these wear out.

The gf doesnt mind the alternator switch actually, but she still thinks its a stupid idea.

[smokeyj]

How is the alternator switch going to work? Do you have access to the field winding?