Sponsorship (looking to develop products for hybrids)

[Hybrid Effects]

Hello all

I am in the central VA area (Lynchburg) but any input is welcome from any region if you have idea's please feel free to email me.

I am looking to sponsor some one that owns a Hybrid.
I have been in the custom Corvette painting body shop business for over 20 years.
I started a company 3 years ago that sells carbon fiber accessories www.FiberEffects.com.
I have just founded a new company that I truly believe will make me a happy person as I love Hybrid technology and engineering products www.Hybrideffects.com.

I would like to find some one that would allow me to design products from there Hybrid car. In exchange they will receive free prototypes and products.
I would never harm or cause damage to your car as I am in the business of fixing things not breaking them.
I would like to find someone that shows an interest in developing new products for Hybrid vehicles.

Some products I might be interested in developing would be Carbon Fiber and Fiberglass products, Electronics and any thing else that comes to mind.

http://www.HybridEffects.com
email@hybrideffects.com

Thanks for any interest.

Franklin

[TomO]

Welcome to Ecomodder!

I believe that others would also have a great interest in creating boattails/Kammebacks for some non-hybrid cars as well. Just tossing the idea out there for you.

I also know that having a ready made grill block for my Civic would be an awesome thing as well.

There is also a decent amount of want on here for a cowl cover (similar to what's available for trucks) that covers the windshield wipers.

[Hybrid Effects]

Thanks TomO

I have been looking into components for grille blocking but have yet to come up with a good design for the actual blocking part. The research I have also been doing is trying to motorize the grille blocking mechanism. I was thinking of having preset positions from a switch that would limit the amount of air according to the selections on the switch. If any one has a good Idea's that would allow free flowing air in the open position please post or email me. email@hybrideffects.com I think the hard part would be designing the the mechanism that blocks the air the easy part would be motorizing it.

The thing about taking the time to design a boat-tail or the like is that in the fiberglass and carbon fiber industry is that people will order your part and copy it. Then all your hard work is down the drain so to speak but I will not discount the idea as I am looking into making rear wheel skirts for the Prius right now. What I would like to do is get a fairly simple product out on the market at first to generate capital to work on bigger projects like boat-tail's etc.

Thanks Franklin

[DifferentPointofView]

For the grille block, I always thought of a design that used the air to regulate whether you needed to block the grille or not.

You have it hinged on the grille, and depending on what your grille looks like, you have it either laying on the front bumper, or a little rubber bumper. while your traveling at low speeds, or stop and go, you get plenty of air to cool the engine, and since you are at low speeds, drag isn't a factor.

At highway speeds, the incomming air that rushes under the block will lift it in the air, creating a grille block, when you come to a stop, it falls back down on the bumper.

There's a pic somewhere of one way to do it if you have a very deep grille housing. I just gotta find it...

[MetroMPG]

Hi Franklin - welcome.

I'm surprised it's taken someone this long to decide to "mass" produce aero add-ons for the hybrid market.

I think you're on the mark going for rear wheel skirts first.

Something else that may be relatively easy to do would be to produce a better front Prius undertray, and possibly a rear tray as well. I wish I had access to one of these cars to confirm, but my impression from seeing a bunch of them in traffic in LA recently is that there's a good opportunity to clean things up with a rear tray.

I'll be watching with interest.

Darin

[DifferentPointofView]

AH, here it is, Basically this is for deep grilles. on others you could have it on the front bumpers, and the tips could be bent to let air get underneath to lift it up and onto the grille, then fall back down on the bumper. I didn't design this, someone else did after I explained in words what I was thinking. It's probably more practical than my initial thought because I was going off of my grille. But all grilles are not built the same, so some design effort would have to go with each individual grille.


Also, I think it'd be even better if you scooted the flap to where the blue part sat on the green part, so it would close more flush with the grille.

[tasdrouille]

I thought about using 2 grilles with one inch slots against each other. One grille would be fixed and the other would slide. When the slots are lined up you get plenty of air in, and when you offset it one inch you get a total grille block. I thought I could simply mount a couple of power lock actuators and trigger the opening of the grille with the rad fan. I don't know if the power lock actuators would be strong enough to make the grille move at speed, but they are so cheap I've got to try.

[Lazarus]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Hi Franklin - welcome.

I'm surprised it's taken someone this long to decide to "mass" produce aero add-ons for the hybrid market.

I think you're on the mark going for rear wheel skirts first.

Something else that may be relatively easy to do would be to produce a better front Prius undertray, and possibly a rear tray as well. I wish I had access to one of these cars to confirm, but my impression from seeing a bunch of them in traffic in LA recently is that there's a good opportunity to clean things up with a rear tray.

I'll be watching with interest.

Darin

I agree that the front and lack of rear tray leave a lot to be desired and the rear skirts would be a great place to start. That would be lowest hanging fruit and pretty easy to do. I've thought of installing a rear tray several times and just never got around to it. Does anyone have any data for that?

[TomO]

Originally Posted by Hybrid Effects

Thanks TomO

I have been looking into components for grille blocking but have yet to come up with a good design for the actual blocking part. The research I have also been doing is trying to motorize the grille blocking mechanism. I was thinking of having preset positions from a switch that would limit the amount of air according to the selections on the switch. If any one has a good Idea's that would allow free flowing air in the open position please post or email me.

If you can make the grill blocks out of fiberglass, you could install a slider channel near the top and bottom and have a certain sized section slide open and closed via a stepping motor. This way you could have several pre-set positions from a switch inside the cabin. With even further development you could automate the sliding portion via a homebrew thermostatically controlled controller.

Originally Posted by Hybrid Effects

The thing about taking the time to design a boat-tail or the like is that in the fiberglass and carbon fiber industry is that people will order your part and copy it. Then all your hard work is down the drain so to speak but I will not discount the idea as I am looking into making rear wheel skirts for the Prius right now. What I would like to do is get a fairly simple product out on the market at first to generate capital to work on bigger projects like boat-tail's etc.

Thanks Franklin

An idea for a starter could be making a grill block for Metros and Civics since they abound on this site. The cost should be relatively low if using fiberglass and someone close to you willing to loan you their car for testing. That way you can build up some capitol for the Prius stuff.

You could also build some "aero caps" for the fog light recesses for civics as well as anything of the such for some of the other predominate models on the boards. Just a brainstorming thought.

[NoCO2]

For Franklin:
What kinds of hybrids are you looking to make prototypes for? I would be interested in participating in some sort of prototype program if you're looking to make products for the Honda Insight. I am hoping to purchase one some time this year and if you need an insight to test on, feel free to contact me VIA PM and I'll see if I can work something out for you. I'm really excited to hear that someone is finally doing this on a mass production scale. Now if only people would make aero mods for other street cars "en mass" we would be set, lol.