Project Del Sol Kammback Dead; New Ideas

[jedi_sol]

Still praciticing fiberglassing...

Made out of coroplast base, then a layer of foam for flushing, then another coroplast top layer, then a layer of fiberglass, then a layer of bondo. But as you can see, the foam didnt quite stick to the coroplast, so it started warping after everything has cured. Definately gonna have to do a v2.1 ditch the inner foam core and add additional layers of fiberglass for strength to prevent warping again. Still debating on whether to start fresh or continue to modify what i have now.





While I had the bumper off, I added a partial front belly pan and a wheel spat. But I may end up removing the spat since my car is already lowered, that spat just rubs on EVERYTHING.

[EcoBill]

Originally Posted by jedi_sol

I am now averaging 43 to 45mpg a tank.

I think thats very good, esp considering you have a B-series in there...imagine how many mpg's you could get with a D-series motor?

by the way...I like how clean the front grill and stuff looks...

[jedi_sol]

Originally Posted by EcoBill

I think thats very good, esp considering you have a B-series in there...imagine how many mpg's you could get with a D-series motor?

by the way...I like how clean the front grill and stuff looks...

With my original D-series I'd probably easily get into the 50's.

Yeah the front grill block and aux light plugs are practice runs for making a fiberglass rear skirt that I want to mold better into the body and wrap around the rear bumper.

Then once I get better a fiberglassing, I plan on upgrading them into carbon fiber perhaps. Or eventually even making my own carbon fiber trunk/hood/body panels (because I still have a little racer-boy in me).

[jedi_sol]

I know I already made a new thread about my new underbelly tray. So i thought i'd repost them here to keep the progress of my mods in one place...

Black coroplast for stealth:


Before:


Work in Progress:


Filling up the gaps in wheel wells:



On del sols, you can slide the coroplast in between the body and the side skirts, then screw them onto the side skirts:


Finished product: From the front


Middle car:


Rear:


Updates:
The back half must have been catching the wind, so the stress broke the zip ties holding the coroplast up. This explains the loud as scraping for the past week.


To fix, i screwed on a piece of aluminum sheet metal to attach the front and back piece, to smooth the airflow. Now im contemplating on covering the whole exhaust with aluminum sheet metal.

[euromodder]

Nice work !
I'm looking forward to seeing your mpg numbers.

[EcoBill]

Originally Posted by euromodder

Nice work !
I'm looking forward to seeing your mpg numbers.

yea same here

let us know how the fiberglassing goes.

what do you think about splitters on the front bumper? would that help at all?

[jedi_sol]

Got my first tank fillup with the new underbody tray: 44.74mpgs.

Not bad considering I'm stuck in traffic for 30min everyday afterwork. Gonna have to make a few runs on my usual "testing grounds," but the results may not be worth anything now that it's getting colder, and the runs will not be back to back a-b-a-b from before I installed the belly pan.

[jedi_sol]

The goal is to make the skirt mold into the body better, just so it can look a lot nicer.

The Tools:


1. West Systems 105 Epoxy Resin
2. West Systems 207 Clear Hardener
3. West Systems mini pumps (these are a real time saver, they automatically pump exactly the 3:1 ratio needed for mixing)
4. Mixing sticks
5. Rubber gloves
6. Acetone
7. Fiberglass (woven is easier to work with and cut, but more expensive)
8. Painters mask
9. 3 Paint brushes
10. Painters tape and gorilla tape
11. Foil
12. Plastic cups

Before shots:






Took out the aluminum cross bar and reshaped it to reduce the angle so the skirt can sit as close to the wheel as possible. Then once the skirt is finished, hopefully it'll be sturdy enough where I wont need the cross bar.


Ensuring enough clearance:


Prepping the work area


Prepping the overall shape and placement of the skirt:




Fiberglassing:




Gotta let it cure overnight. Hopefully it's sturdy enough where it'll keep its shape because coroplast is flexible, yet still pretty stiff if you try to bend it too much (hence the need for gorilla tape). Otherwise, gonna add more layers of fiberglass.

[jedi_sol]

Just crunching some numbers, you can interpret the results with a grain of salt due to its unscientific nature.

I took an average of all of the fillups ever since I installed the underbelly tray and compared them with the previous 10 fillups.

Underbelly Tray = 42.84mpg
W/O underbelly Tray = 41.76mpg

2.58% increase.

[groar]

Your last 10 tanks are since 2010-10-13 while the 10 previous one were from 2010-04-19 to 2010-10-01, ie automn-winter vs spring-summer, so the 2.8% improvement is certainly lowered by lowered temps.

Do you feel the car behavior different ?
I know that with the rear wheel skirts my car accelerates stronger and is more difficult to keep at a steady speed, as it want to accelerate rather easily...

Denis.