Scion xA aero mods

[SVOboy]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Hi,

Well, yesterday I found a fairly major flaw with my video mirrors: the LCD screens go black when they get too hot! This happened to the left hand one, which is exposed to more direct sunlight. This is probably part of the reason why they get darker in bright sunshine -- again the one on the left is often darker and harder to see than the screen on the right.

I may try to rig up a quiet 120mm fan behind them to try yo keep them cooler. Or, if it gets really hot (today is supposed to be hotter than yesterday) then I may be forced to turn on the A/C and that will test my theory...

Bummer. The screens do generate some heat on their own. After it sat in the shade for a while, the screen started working again.

Maybe you could just give them little hats?

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

I think I will try to make a shading shroud that has a fan mounted in it to circulate air.

I have room to do this in the xA because the instrument cluster is in the center of the dash, and set pretty far forward near the windshield.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

I made new aerodynamic covers for the video mirror cameras, which are now screwed on with real hardware:

[Istas]

Hah, wow, those are cool!

See? Sheet metal for all!

Curious, how sharp are the ends of that? Heh heh.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

The ends are not sharp at all. This is 0.008" aluminum roll flashing -- I just cut it with heavy scissors. The pattern took me several hours to get it right, and these two are traced from the pattern and cut out in a few minutes. The hardest part was to drill the two mounting holes in the right place to have it fit well.

I want to neaten up the underside of the pop rivets...

[Istas]

Hmm, my edges are always sharp. Couldn't tell you what gauge I use off the top of my head, though it's galvanized sheet steel and I cut them with aviation shears.

You really did a good-looking job with them.

[NeilBlanchard]

Thanks!

Now, the question is: do I leave them as is, or paint them black?

I do need to clean up the tap goop...

[Istas]

Well, my feeling on sheet metal bolted to the car is, it will look better left its natural color, because I think it'd be pretty hard to paint it in the right way to keep it from fading, or peeling, and looking like crap. (this is of course, just my opinion; I already have a bare sheet metal theme going on Car, heh)

But even then, the material's so flexible that even if painted correctly I would worry about it cracking and chipping due to flex. I guess latex paint or something would flex rather than break, but I don't know how that would hold up in the sun, etc.

Too many variables for me to worry about, but I suppose it couldn't hurt to experiment. Only took you three minutes to snip one of those out now that you have the form, and it's not a whole lot of material.

Oh, and I was meaning to ask you... I got some gorilla tape, and I had pinking shears in my possession, but they wouldn't cut the tape cleanly enough to make turbulators. It kept sticking and gumming up. I even tried putting the tape in the freezer for a while to increase its brittleness, but it still wouldn't cut well for me. Did you have samurai grade shears on you? Or maybe older tape?

[Istas]

Okay, I just skimmed through all your posts since you got the monitors and didn't see the answer to this.

I know you took care of the reflection problem. However, my roommate (who I showed your cam-mirror mod to) is wondering about the brightness of the monitors affecting your nightvision while driving. Have you had any problems from looking at the (relatively) bright monitors at night?

[alohaspirit]

looking at that shape

you also could have used plastic funnels cut at an angle

(easy to paint too)