Vibe mods: One man's quest to better 40mpg.

[taco]

so the hole was uncovered?> so much dirt ect could get in there?

i would like one, i measured it today took me 2.1 miles to hit my 181 degress. but i will block off the grill to tryu and help that. oh it was 50 degrees out also

[Tango Charlie]

Yes, it's an uncovered hole. But it's a 'blind' hole, and located toward the top and rear of the engine, so no splashed water/mud reaches it.

Yesterday I pushed off, rolled into the street, and hit the key. Instant 114 F.

Not going anywhere today, since work has been reduced to 4 days a week.

[Tango Charlie]

It looks probable that we'll be taking Olivia, and not the Bomber (our '94 Buick Roadmaster wagon ) on our planned family vacation during the upcoming holidays. So I want to get some more aerodynamic mods done on Olivia before that happens. This afternoon I decided to emulate Daox and box in that space between the bumper and radiator. I want to do this before installing an underbody tray.

If you didn't see it in my other thread, I got a stack of coroplast signs from a local candidate;

So I started cuttin' and fittin'.

Yeah, it was a little chilly, hence the half-fingered gwuvies.
Okay, it's not as exciting as a 'look how big my electric motor is that I'm gonna put in my Metro' picture, but I couldn't resist the classic foot-in-the-picture-for-reference shot.

I couldn't extend the right side as high as the left because of the AC accumulator being in the way.
And here it is installed;

Yeah, I've still got Goldie and her funky wheels. If interested, see more about it here.





It stays in place with absolutely no screws in it at all. We'll see if it flutters or moves while driving...
Well, Knight Rider is about to start. See ya.

[Tango Charlie]

I've been sick since last weekend. Head cold. Sinus infection. Sleepin' on the couch propped up on pillows... And then I learn I've been inducted into the Ultimate Ecomodder Fuel Economy Challenge. Oh, crap. No rest for the weary.

Remember how I said that Olivia shouldn't have teeth because she's a lover and not a fighter?

Well, I was wrong.

Turns out she's really bloodthirsty and has a hankering for some Saturn wagon...

[Daox]

Lol that is awesome. Good luck to you and Olivia!

[Tango Charlie]

It's been a long

long

long

long

winter. I about died.(facetious) I hate winter.(NOT facetious) I want to move to Florida. (seriously)

I STILL haven't reached my goal of besting 40mpg on my commute (consistently, anyway). And like MPaulHolmes is wont to say, it makes me really mad!

It actually warmed up nicely today. So I did an oil change. Up on ramps, I was poking around, seeing how Olivia fared through the winter. CV boots good. No leaks. Some of the stock plastic bellypanels are missing a button fastener here or there. Hey! What's this!? Rust?!



Bad images spring to mind of rusted out Geo Metro lower control arms with repairs that look like squeezed sparrow crap welds. Yikes! (You've been around this forum for awhile if you know what I'm referring to... )
Well, it's not nearly that bad. It's just begun. I remembered I had a bottle of Naval Jelly.



Honestly, I haven't really used it before. I have heard good things about it.
I grabbed an acid brush and started slathering it on.



THEN I read the label. I guess you're s'posed to wash it off after five or ten minutes and then prime/paint. Well, that's not gonna happen today.
Maybe next weekend I can reapply, wash it off, then paint.

Oh, yeah. For the oil change I got Kendall synthetic blend. If it doesn't spring a bunch of leaks, I'll go to full synthetic on the next oil change.

[Tango Charlie]

Yay, 57th post! For some weird reason, I really like the number 57.
I've been wanting to do this for awhile, so I grabbed some PVC guttering from Lowes, which is about 57 seconds from my house


and fashioned some interwheel strakes.
left side, looking forward:


left side looking aft, attached with not quite 57 self-tapping screws:


Painted with Krylon Fusion satin black rattlecan paint, shaken about 57 times:


I'm embarrassed how dirty Olivia is in these shots, but the wife is already complaining how much time I'm spending working on "a car that already runs just fine."

Yes, I know I'm missing a center hub button.

These probably won't do much on their own, but they should nicely compliment the bellypan I want to install later...

[DIMS]

Originally Posted by Tango Charlie

Yeah, my ultimate goal is higher, too. Just tryin to bust through this wall at 40mpg. Maybe I need to change my plugs.
Congrats on the house, Daox. I've moved a couple times in my lifetime. Pretty exciting. One thing I've found: the quicker you get rid of the cardboard boxes, the sooner it feels like home. But if you're anything like me, there will always be a couple of them lurking in the basement, silently mocking you...

Okay, Anyway. Where was I? Oh yes. The grille block.
I'm not leaving blue tape on there. Looks tacky. So I scrounged around the garage and came across my floor jack. It's a pathetic little thing I bought at Meijer on clearance. It gets the job done, but it's got a flimsy piece of metal that sorta snaps on top of it as a dust shield or something. Honestly, I think it's just a place to plaster a label. So I snatch that up, and with my aviation-grade tin snips, whack it into six little brackets. I popped the hood and slid them behind the coroplast. A little adjustment here, a little tweak there... I think it'll work.


Removing the badge had given me an idea for attaching the brackets to the car. On my lunch break, I went to the local NAPA and picked up some 3M double-sided foam tape used for weatherstripping and what not.




AHH! SPIDER! Ha! Just seein' if you were awake. My wife, bless her heart, likes to throw random insects into spider webs and watch the carnage. I know, weird, huh? And she thinks grille blocks are strange. Actually, she doesn't. She's quite understanding.
Anyway, I stuck the tape on the brackets and slid the brackets down the backside of the coroplast and stuck them puppies down tight. I had pre-drilled a hole in each bracket, so I took a 90 degree pick and poked through the hole in the bracket from the backside and through the coroplast to locate each attach point. Then I removed the coroplast.


Dang. I shoulda painted them dang brackets first. I'm such a tool.
The blazing white coroplast was just too much. Gotta paint it. And no, I'm not painting teeth on it. Sorry. I layed it on the front lawn and blasted it with some flat black spray paint. It's made for plastic and works quite well, if not somewhat expensive. (edit: it's Krylon Fusion. $4.79 at Meijer)
Hey, look! My lawn is smiling back at me!


After it dried overnight, I installed it.


The top of the coroplast is somewhat unsupported yet, and I'm afraid that at speed it might be bowing back and not staying flush (hee hee, he said flush again!) with the front lip of the hood. I'll have to address that next.

If you want to see a spider have a fit, throw a sugar ant in the Web. I have not found a a spider that can handle the small little sugar ant. This particular spider will first fight the ant then have a fit and release it to the exit dump hole.

[FastPlastic]

Originally Posted by Tango Charlie

I remembered I had a bottle of Naval Jelly.



Honestly, I haven't really used it before. I have heard good things about it.

I've used that Naval Jelly stuff on a project before. It does a good job. Doesn't hurt to use a small wire brush on the bad spots first to knock off any loose rust.

[Tango Charlie]

Heh, OK guys. Do me a favor and don't include the entire post with all the pictures when you 'quote' OK?

The wife was taking a nap, so I had a chance to work on the car a bit more.
Speaking of, it looked like she had driven through a puddle of High Fructose Corn Syrup, and then baja'd through a hay field.
So I washed it.
Now you get to see the other side, clean.

So, whatchya think?