Rotten Passat

[steddie]

G'day freebeard, Thanx for your answer, as me and a few friends had a few bottles of very strong firewater, well..... you know how things can turn out, we had a lot of fun creating and designing this super light vehicle, but think it will not be possible to get roadworthy with so many parts missing and with all the changes. Still there might be a few usefull suggestions there.
I often think that many designers have also been on the firewater when they did the designs on some of their best ideas and designs, dont you think so ?
Hope this explanes the great ideas that were put in last night.
Greetings,
Eddie.

[freebeard]

No worries. An example would be Von Dutch. I'm just saying there are lurkers trying to parse these threads for actionable content.

The OP, dfeldt91, noted your post count.

We should make it easy for them.

[dfeldt91]

Got some more aero work done today. Deleted the rear badge and antenna completely. I think the antenna delete will help a little bit as I believe it was what created the low pressure spot at the window which is really evident from the lack of rain in the center foot and a half of the window directly in line with the antenna... I'll be deleting the rear door handles (They do nothing as I removed the wire to the latch so it won't open from the outside). After I remove the handles I will be filling in the space with metal and bondo to make it aero. Might do the front doors as well if I can get a door popper kit.

Anyhow, here are the pics. Not quite done with smoothing it out and still need to paint it.








Got the front door panels removed today. That was probably about 15 pounds or so. Did a lot of wire removal the past couple days. Probably removed close to 5 pounds of wire.

The front speakers are riveted into the inner metal door panel so I'll have to drill those out for an additional 4 or 5 pounds of reduction. Slowly inching closer to 2500 pounds.

[niky]

You're barking mad.

Keep it up!

[dfeldt91]

Originally Posted by niky

You're barking mad.

Keep it up!

Thanks! I'm almost done with the easy to do weight reduction. Today was my first real day of aero mods with the antenna delete and the start to shaving the badges and whatnot. I'll also be shaving the rear door handles, side marker lights and mid door trim soon.

I really don't think these things will have a measurable impact before and after but it will help overall when combined with the many other little mods.

I'm also going to design a plate to cover the location where the mirrors bolt to the doors. I'll probably use thick plastic, contour it, then apply a textured paint. Not quite sure how I'll attach it yet because I want it to be smooth (no bolts sticking out or showing) and want it to be quickly reversible (so no gluing it on or using caulking..). Perhaps I'll countersink bolts into the plastic then filling in the bolt head area with bondo or something before bolting it to the door.

[deejaaa]

looking good so far. i have a feeling, the mods you are doing are on so many peoples minds that they want to do but are afraid to do. at least, it's on mine.

[dfeldt91]

Originally Posted by deejaaa

looking good so far. i have a feeling, the mods you are doing are on so many peoples minds that they want to do but are afraid to do. at least, it's on mine.

I got the car for so cheap that I don't mind modding it past the point of no return, hence the lack of interior and the bondo. A car is just like the tens of thousands of other models just like it until you put your time and effort into it to make it your own, that's what I'm doing! I like my cars to stand out in the crowd.

Anyhow..tomorrow I will remove the mechanical fan and finally wire up the electric fan to a switch since it hasn't worked since I got the car. Not only will it free up a minuscule amount of engine power, it will remove another few pounds from the front of the car. Most of the weight I have removed has been at the dash and back so it is much lighter in the back now. I'm going to relocate the battery to the trunk space as soon as I can buy the wire. That will definitely help equalize the front/rear weight distribution as the battery is easily 30 plus pounds.

I'll likely do the lower grille block tomorrow since it is as simple as wrapping the plastic inserts in dark plastic sheet or some other thin material. The car likes to overheat at the moment since the electric fan does not work so I'm going to check to see if the electric fan will be enough to cool the engine alone before doing a partial upper block.

[dfeldt91]

According to the MPG calculator, my weight reduction of ~400 pounds has increased my MPG 2.5 at 50 MPH. This is equivalent to a .02 decrease in cd for my vehicle at the stock weight. I have not been able to notice a measurable increase, probably due to the larger wheel well space creating drag from being lighter.

[dfeldt91]

Got the fan wired up to a switch, unfortunately that switch decided to melt and nearly caught fire. Darn amperage..!

It's raining today but I'm going to head out anyhow and get it figured out, perhaps a larger and heavier duty switch..?

After removing the resonator, the car is far too loud for me to keep it where I currently live since they do not like loud cars. So that is 30-40 pounds that will remain on the vehicle for now. I have been running around with it just unbolted and hanging under the car so i'll bolt it back up to the downpipe and go silent again. Also, the extra 100 HP from the diode mod is causing me to drive like an ass hat so I'll be removing that as well in favor of MPG's. I've been averaging about 21 MPG. Less than half, although it looks pretty cool spitting flames under the car....

[dfeldt91]

Alright, heading out to wire the fan into the fan relay so it won't destroy the switch.

Have been doing a lot of driving the last couple days and with the car dumping exhaust out directly past the catalytic converter(which sounds awesome by the way) I got 38 MPG mixed driving over 200 miles including a few highway pulls at 6 MPG <--- It is amazing a car can get so little economy when pushing the motor.

I can't wait a for a few more weeks to pass so I am relocated to a place where I can pull the front end off and redo the timing. The Rotten Passat is over retarded which is probably not helping economy.

As soon as I have the funds to do so I am going to be doing a full under body cover. (Or maybe I'll go find some large Trump signs to use). My last under engine cover was accidentally left in the Passat wagon when I got rid of it, oops.