Rolla mod thread

[chuckm]

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.)

[blackjackel]

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.

[chuckm]

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?

[Tourigjm]

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

[chuckm]

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.

[chuckm]

OK, here's a profile picture of the corolla.


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?

[azraelswrd]

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

[chuckm]

Originally Posted by azraelswrd

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

AERO
- remove passenger side mirror if not necessary and/or legal It's legal, but I'll need to think about it.
- front/side/rear wheel fairings Good call. Maybe I can steal some from a junked Corolla S
- front wiper air deflector It'll take some designing...
- cover/smooth over door handles Mine are already pretty flush, the effect would probably be minimal.

Thanks for the help!

[chuckm]

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.

[chuckm]

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?