Rolla mod thread
 

Well, it has begun. I'm working in baby steps though. First up is the easy, low risk one - fog light inserts. At first I just filled them with "Great Stuff" foam and painted them flat black. But they came out too rough (second pic), so I've added Bondo to smooth 'em out.
Second, I've installed a little red LED to let me know when the radiator fan kicks on. Once I get an idea about how much it runs with my normal driving, I'm going to add the grill block. (More pictures to come.)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...to-2300-3.html

Check out what I did using plain old white duct tape, I covered the entire grill area, right now I have about 2/3 of the width of my license plate in opening area for the grill on the bottom.

With the upper and lower grill blocks, have you noticed your radiator fan coming on more often?
Do you have finished pictures of your wheel covers?

yay for 8th gen corollas.

I have two mods that i didn't intend for FE... fog lamps. however they make a partial grille block, and an SRI which is a warm air intake

also the antenna is retractable, owned the car for 3 years before i figured that out, just push it in to its housing for slight aero improvement

I am going to search junkyards for a new front bumper, i want to have a project one available that i can mod without hurting my car if i mess up.

I plan to close all the grill openings, maybe have some kind of selectable opening like andrewj as well as a more professional looking mount for my fogs.

I'm hoping it can not only increase AERO, but also look like it was supposed to be that way

Fog lamps: I just filled the inserts rather than putting in lamps. Much cheaper.
Antenna: Thanks for the heads up! I'll push it down (or possibly remove/relocate).
After a week of checking my radiator fan LED under normal conditions, I'm gonna cover my upper grill and test that. But I don't think I'll ever completely close up my lower grill. I'm thinking I'll do a belly pan and leave a small opening in the lower front grill.

OK, here's a profile picture of the corolla.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...1/100_0635.jpg

Like I mentioned, I am planning to cover the upper grill and most of the lower grill. Also, I'm going to add the belly pan, smooth hubs and rear wheel skirts (probably). I haven't decided on the front wheel skirts.

But I'm wondering, am I missing something?

If you mean what else you can do, there's still:

AERO
- remove passenger side mirror if not necessary and/or legal
- front/side/rear wheel fairings
- front wiper air deflector
- cover/smooth over door handles

Thanks for the help!

Upper grill block done, a la white duct tape. No real change to how much my radiator fan comes on.
Smooth hubs done by filling in with bondo and Great Stuff. Not great looking and it was not much fun as the foam seemed to collapse some when I applied the bondo. Maybe I should have let the foam cure longer.

Well, the original smooth hubs started to spall out, so I went with pizza pans. They look pretty good.

I'm about to do some side skirts with the PVC gutters that someone else mentioned (cool idea!). The question is, what's the best way to attach them? Liquid Nails and/or rivets?

Okay. Here are some pics...

First, pizza pan hubs.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/chuckm1/009.jpg
Duct tape grill block.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/chuckm1/011.jpg
Today, I painted the PVC gutters for the side skirts, but I didn't have time to install them. I did install a small section of belly pan between the front bumper and the radiator.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/chuckm1/010.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/chuckm1/012.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/chuckm1/013.jpg

Excellent job, keep it up. I like the duct tape. Someone on here suggested sign magnet sheets as an inexpensive way to temporarily cover the door handles that you aren't often using. It may be sold as a magnetic sheet cut to size to block furnace vents.
Anyway here's your car with your pizza pans, a windshield wiper air deflector and rear skirts. Looks smooth.

wow nice air deflector on the back. how is that made? thats the first time i have seen that on this forum and it looks easier than a kammback because its just a flat sheet. how is it attached?

Nice work, Chuck!

Nice work so far.
Vamp's Domain: Pictures & DIY Guides - Home > Car Engine DIYs

You might want to look at that link, the free flowing cat back exhaust, sri and AEM lightweight pulley might come in handy for FE.

Thanks. If you are referring to the bottom three pictures, I filled the gap between the bottom of the front bumper and the radiator. I had a roll of flashing I bought for some roof work. I riveted three sheets side by side, measured and cut to shape, then zip-tied it to the bumper (left side of the bottom image). Also, Toyota kindly mounted some plastic shrouding, so I borrowed the mounting holes (right side of the bottom image).

I did mount the PVC gutter side skirts. I mounted them with sheet metal screws and fender washers.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...1/100_0643.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...1/100_0644.jpg

I still need to add some flashing for wheel spats.

Sayyad, man, if I can make my rear wheel skirts and wiper deflector look that good, I'll go into business. Honestly though, matching Toyota's paint color is the toughest part. I do want it to look at least somewhat good.

lol ive just realised what i thought was a rear air deflector was actually some fence in the background that was not actually part of your car at-all!

in the pic that chuckm and sayyad posted. it looks like it has a vertical panel comming up from the trunk. this would make a neat kamm-back alternative for reducing flow separation.

i feel silly :)

I think I'm going to tackle wheel spats next, using the same flashing I used for the partial belly pan.

Does anybody know if there are any magic angles?

Nice job on the side skirts. What's your ground clearance with those on?

Subscribed, for obvious reasons :D. Nice work, I have yet to do much aero mods to the Lemon. Keep it up!

I measured 5" clearance under the skirts. Still plenty of room.

On this tank, I got 45.7mpg! I'm half way to my 50mpg goal.

Just a note: even though I've got an automatic, I am doing some light EOCing. No funny smells, no kicks or jerks. I am allowing a few seconds after starting before I put it back in D. Most of my EOCing is coasting up to a stop light or into my driveway.

have you tested those skirts on a speed bump yet? hate to see them get dinged up

No speed bumps, but plenty of road construction, some railroad tracks, and normal Louisiana roads. In other words, I think I'm good.

Do you have a pic of the PVC Gutter before you installed it?
I'm not 100% sure of what it is that you used.

Borrowing someone else's picture, I used this style, with the "house side" facing out.
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...10/gutter2.jpg

Pics of the car with these on please! :D

Dutchboy,
Already done. Check post 16

Well, I'm not sure if I'm going to do the wheel spats next or not. In order to be effective, I think I'd need to come out to the side of the vehicle (covering the same frontal area as the tire). I do want it to look good and matching paint color will be troublesome.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...1/100_0645.jpg

Another option would be to do the lower air dam, but to be honest, the under carriage profile doesn't have many excrescences to shield. Or am I missing another benefit? I figure that the most beneficial thing to do here is the belly pan and I don't have the materials to do that yet.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...1/100_0646.jpg
Sorry for the poor picture angle.

Other item on my to do list is rear wheel skirts, but I've got the same paint matching issue.

Suggestions on paint matching? Recommendations on the next mod in terms of $ and effort vs benefit?

This is what mine looks like.

they helped slightly. coupled with your other mods it should be a nice addition.

http://www.sippingfuel.com/pics/deflector_2.gif

BBsGarage,
Pretty slick looking. Is that flashing or mudflap or something else?
You got me thinking... if I use flashing, I can angle the exposed portion back toward the wheel.

Okay, after a long absence from modding, I've done a couple of items. First, I did change the upper grill block from duct tape to sheet metal. No big deal there, just smoother and a little better looking. Although I do think I may have to get a ecomodder decal to put in place of the Toyota badge. The other thing I did, just today, is attached a crude, two-piece, belly pan, attached with four zip-ties each.
http://x14.xanga.com/11af92573813724...b198288367.jpg
It only goes back about a third of the way, just past the front wheel well. Thoughts?

First day results were great. On my typical commute home, I'll get around 47mpg. This time, 49.4! The first 90 miles are showing 47.5mpg.

rear spoiler
 

Looking at your car from this view leads me to believe that a rear spoiler would help at highway speed.------------- If you can find a flat level spot to park the car,lay a straight edge across from your trunklid to the top of the car.------------------ If the angle,as measured from the horizon,is any steeper than say 13-degrees max.,then you probably have separated flow behind your roof which is not re-attaching ( like a Lancer).--------------- A simple bent sheetmetal spoiler,angled up no steeper than 30-degrees,and tall enough such that it just intersects,say a 12-13-degree line coming down off your roof,should get you flow re=attachment and lower drag.------------------------- Better to compare it to the streamlining template,as this would give you a more accurate appraisal.See Project" permanent Kammback for Metro" or "Aerodynamic Streamlining Template".

Huh. Would never have guessed a spoiler would help. I'll look into it!

Just had my best tank at 46.6. The belly pan rocks!