Scion xA aero mods

[whokilledthejams]

I like the hood-gap-gasket idea, so I went and scrounged up some rubber weatherstripping/gasket. Of course, when I attempt to test-fit it, it's too small. The gap isn't that big, but the way the hood of the xB is shaped, I can't easily mount what I have.

I guess a trip to Home Depot is in order.

I still need to replace the coroplast in my air dam/grille block with something smoother. That is to say, expanding foam + bondo. Luckily, a significant part of my car is hand-painted in flat black paint, so I can ghetto-rig all sorts of crap and cover it up well.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello,

I made some rear wheel skirts this weekend:



I'm not real happy about the acrylic glass -- the stuff is pretty brittle, and where it curves down and under at the front and back -- the tape keeps pulling off. I bought a heat gun to try and soften it up and let it form to the curve, and this may have helped a little...

At first, I tried to use just the acrylic glass, but the air pushed them in and they touched the rims (no matter how much a carved the edge...), so I added the 1/8" x 3/4" aluminum bar, and this seems to have helped.

I think I will do them again (using these as patterns) and use Coroplast (if I can find some). I was hoping the the transparent material would be less noticable, but I think the Coroplast would be a better look -- because we WANT to draw attention to ourselves, right?

Tomorrow, I'll see if they survive the commute to work.

Next on the agenda: foil tape on the alloy wheels to see if they can be made a little more aerodynamic!

[Xringer]

But, I'm wondering why you have them cut out in the bottom (around the center area).?.
Almost all the skirts I've seen were flat across the bottom..

I think Coroplas might be the better way to go. It's much lighter than acrylic/Plexiglas(?).
If that stuff were to fly off the car, it might not be something anyone would want hit or be hit by..
Whereas a piece of Coroplas weighs about the same as cardboard..

I have two pieces of blue Coroplas one is 2x4 feet and the other is
about 24x32 inches. I used some for an airplane tail..
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...PA32D/d0ce.jpg
It looks a little lighter blue in this pic..

Anyways, if that's enough make a pair of skirts, I'll sell the stuff to you cheap.

Cheers,
Rich

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi Rich,

The bottom of the body panels curve well inboard of the tire on the xA, and with the Plexiglas, I had to cut it this way to clear the tire. If I can get Coroplas (sp?) I should be able to form a wedge to flare the bottom out (just) beyond the tire, so the bottom edge could be considerably lower down; covering a majority of the tire.

I am going to contact the local sign shop (right in Maynard where I live) and try to get some dark blue Coroplas. If they don't have that, I think I'll use black. The light blue is my third choice, I think. I'll need each to be ~30" x 18"-20". I'm also hoping to avoid needing the aluminum bar...

[Xringer]

Coroplas is stiffer than cardboard, but it's still darn flexible.
My guess is you will need the aluminum bar to keep it from flopping at highway speeds.

On model airplane wings, 5/32" steel rod (called music wire) is used to
reinforce coro. You spray a little silicon inside one of the little channels and then force the steel rod inside.
This wing has a 16" music wire about 2" behind the fuel tank.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...SPA3D/654d.jpg

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think my Blue coro is the light blue version.
But it does look lighter in the pic (above)..

It's a little tricky painting coro, since it has some kind of coating over it.
I've noticed the paint on my stuff isn't too durable. I've heard of guys
heating it with a propane torch to burn off the coating. That's the tricky part, not scorching the plastic so bad it melts.

My fav for models is the White or Yellow. I like the way it looks and it seems to cut better. The darker colors almost seems softer for some reason.

I just got back from Auto-zone and they didn't have any metal tape.
I'm gonna haft to wing it..

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello,

Thanks for mentioning the piano wire -- that will help a lot.

I got metal foil tape at the local hardware store, and the large home centers will also have it; often in the heating\ventilation section.

[Xringer]

piano wire has to be a lot thinner..

I was just at Lowes and found the stuff I wanted, it was a big wide roll of
aluminum flashing with adhesive (w/ pull away paper) on one side.
It was in the roofing dept.. But, it was more than I needed and cost
around $24 for the roll..

I may try cutting some plastic plugs for my rim holes, if I can find some plastic & glue that will work together..
---------

I've been thinking about how to make a bow at the bottom of a wheel skirt.
If you had a 5/32" steel music wire installed with a 1/2" sticking out both ends and could have a little L-bracket (or Z-bracket) bolted in on both sides of the wheel well..
You could use 5/32" holes in the brackets, and flex out the bow and plug the ends of the music wire into the holes.. That gives you a bow and fore-n-aft mounting..

------
If you had a fat molding around your wheel well and your wheels didn't stick out too much, you might be able to drill (2) 5/32 holes in the molding(on the inside, facing each other).
Then cut the coroplas to fit inside the wheel well.
Install the music wire with 1/2 protruding, flex the bottom and plug it in..
Maybe use a couple of smaller rods up on the top to hold it in up there.
You would have to be sure to make the bottom wider, so it could bow and still fit inside the molding..

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello,

I've determined that the approximate frontal area of the Scion xA is ~18.01 square feet. [See adjusted number below] I inserted this photo into DataCAD 12, scaled it based on the measuring tape just below the bumper, and I then carefully traced the outline of the car with a polyline, and the hatched it with a 1'-0" square grid.

Now, there is some distortion due to the camera being at a point (this is not a true "elevation" view). To minimize this, I used the zoom lens on it's longest focal length, and tried to position the height of the lens to ~1/2 the height of the car. The height scales to ~4'-2 1/2" whereas the specification is 60.2" (~5'-0 1/4"), and the width scales to 5'-1 7/8" vs 66.7" in the spec. so the actual area is like a little greater. In fact, the width is ~19% low and the height is ~7.75% too low, so that averages to 13.375%, so:

18.01 + 13.375% = 20.42 sq ft

[Edit: I will take another photo with a longer lens to try to reduce the error, and post the results later.]

[xbUser]

With the hood taped or rubber gasket installed, what improvement you have noticed? Will the ventilation air becomes cooler? or any mpg increases?

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello,

Taping over the upper grill and installing the flush lens on the fog lights added ~5mpg; and had no appreciably affect on the coolant temperatures. Good change -- and easy, too.