The Anal Probe

[Sven7]

Pics. Here's what I started with at 11am.


Before by Tyler Linner, on Flickr

Assembled. $48 in aluminum and $8 in coroplast. Triangulated. Took some messing around to get it to bolt up, but it's bolted to the bracket I hung from the rear beam. Coroplast pieces overlapped so as not to catch the wind at speed.


Belly Pan, Assembly Required by Tyler Linner, on Flickr

Up and on. Took a little more trimming and tucking. The entire under body, bumper to bumper, is smooth now.


Belly Pan! by Tyler Linner, on Flickr

Looks kinda lumpy but it's a lot better than before and it's the best I could do today.


Underneath by Tyler Linner, on Flickr

From the side. Around 6pm. I also put the rear skirts back on, made a new front belly pan and made emergency runs for more zip ties (500 ct bag for $11 whaaaat) and bolts.


Anal Probe, Side by Tyler Linner, on Flickr

Again, the sides still need to be sealed up. I'll probably have to wait a week or more to put the boat tail on because I spent too much money on this.

Boat tail materials should cost upwards of $150. That's a lot on a $400 car!

Tomorrow I will install the new plugs, plug wires, cap and rotor that just arrived.

I have no more coroplast so it's time to go hunting. If anyone has some 2'x4' or larger campaign signs lying around lemme know!

Gahh keep thinking of things. I'd like to add an LED indicator to tell me when the rad fan is going so I can adjust the grille block to the correct aperture. Will have to look up some wiring stuff to make sure I do it right. A vacuum gauge would also be VERY useful in Driving With Load because gas engines are usually most efficient at ~80% load, aka 20% vacuum. Getting real-time feedback will help me hone my driving technique, shift points and throttle position. Anyone ever done a vacuum gauge install?

[Sven7]

Does anyone know of a local metal supply company that would sell bars and angle iron for cheap? I need about 50 feet of 1x1/8 aluminum stock.

I'm going to check Ax Man for coroplast. But if anyone knows of any spare campaign signs or other large sheets of corrugated plastic I'd love to take it off your hands or even pay a few bucks!

[JUSTION337]

Honestly, I think you could just as easily use 1/16" walled angle. For what you're doing, 1/8" kind of seems like overkill.

[derp]

stuff what sven said at me

Got it, that makes sense.

More question. Experience my pondering.

How big is this boattail going to be? Is it going to interfere with your brake lights?

Overall I think this is an awesome project, it's refreshing to see something get this much effort put into it when the end result is completely different from the direction most people go with their cars.

p.s. i liked the dazzle paint better

[mnboarder1]

By performance mods I meant like exhaust/intake work? Like for fuel economy

[Audiphile]

Needs more diesel

[GAA]

I have a bunch of campaign lawn signs, 2x4, from my 2001 Minneapolis City Council campaign - like a couple of hundred of them. In storage, I was going to toss them. You can have as many as you want.

PM me with your contact info, I'll call you.

Greg

[Sven7]

Honestly, I think you could just as easily use 1/16" walled angle. For what you're doing, 1/8" kind of seems like overkill.

The boat tail's surface will have simple curvature. I'll use angle for some cross bracing and sub-structure but the majority is going to need to bend.

Got it, that makes sense.

More question. Experience my pondering.

How big is this boattail going to be? Is it going to interfere with your brake lights?

Overall I think this is an awesome project, it's refreshing to see something get this much effort put into it when the end result is completely different from the direction most people go with their cars.

p.s. i liked the dazzle paint better

Questions are fine! I'm just glad it's interesting to a few of you.

Boat tail should be around 36" if my calculations are correct. I'm going to wire up some trailer lights and move the license plate back as well.

Like I said, it's a 'different kind of performance'! Thanks for the kudos.

PS- I liked the dazzle paint a lot too but it couldn't stay.

By performance mods I meant like exhaust/intake work? Like for fuel economy

Some people do warm air intakes which I have thought about. Essentially it comes down to "if it ain't broke don't fix it". I don't want to try something and mess it up and have it not run right ever again.

Needs more diesel

That'll be my first purchase when I get a good job. A mk4 TDI aero'd out should be capable of 70mpg, while having all the luxurious creature comforts I desire- AM radio, tape deck, HVAC and cup holders.

I have a bunch of campaign lawn signs, 2x4, from my 2001 Minneapolis City Council campaign - like a couple of hundred of them. In storage, I was going to toss them. You can have as many as you want.

PM me with your contact info, I'll call you.

Greg

Thanks but I've got a bunch of small ones too. Problem is it's hard to skin large portions of a car with 2x4' sheets!

-------------

Time to go out and install all that ignition stuff.

[derp]

why couldn't the dazzle stay?

[Sven7]

I didn't prep the pass. side correctly so it was flaking off and wayyyyy too much work to touch up. I loved it, but not that much. Time for change.

Picked up another $100 worth of materials today. Goddamnit. About 12 aluminum bars/angles, a submersible LED trailer light kit and some trailer reflectors for the side. Still want to rig up some turn signals for the sides of the tail but I'll worry about that later. Still have to find out why the left turn signal hasn't worked for a year.

Also, the rear brakes are way more touchy than the fronts. I imagine this could cause some unwanted drifting in the winter so I'm going to ask Manuel for some help.

[Sven7]

Working on calculating the correct angle for the top of the boat tail. Ecomodder guys are helping a bit with correct modification/application of the streamlining template.


Updates on the car. I'm going to visit the junkyard to find some extra tail light connectors to splice the trailer lights onto. This should allow me to simply unplug the lights if needed and keep the original ones uncut and stock.

Going to pick up some quad sealed beam headlight buckets too if possible.

Still need more coroplast- I bought out the rest of Axe Man's stock of large signs, totalling appx 25 sq ft.

After lots of sketches and a little actual work I kind of finished the paint job yesterday by adding a crop circle of my own design. It is intended to display my location (Earth) and good intentions to passing spacecraft in LEO. It got some nasty overspray due to the stencil's incompatibility with the roof's compound curvature, but overall I like it.

Kind of mirrors the "blue marble" photo of the planet with swirling clouds over the oceans. The multiples of three represent balance and harmony (you know, with the spiritual switch to begin next solstice ).


Crop Circle by Tyler Linner, on Flickr

So... if I come out to my car some day to see it burnt to a crisp, bristling with radioactivity, we'll know the crop circle worked. Mulderrr!!!

[hamradio]

did you ask an employee at ax-man if they had more in back?

I've had pretty good luck with asking them for things that weren't out on the floor.

[Sven7]

Figured that was probably it. I'll have to head back sometime, or bribe Snotface.

[vwguy3]

When are you getting the alien arm for the truck?

[Sven7]

Ehh, whenever. Super low priority. Got one?

Picked up about 8 sq ft of coroplast from the dumpster at work today. Yayy

Also went to the junk yard and pulled the headlight buckets from a '79 Cadillac. $10. Bringin' a touch of class to this shizz!

Got halfway through pulling some tail light plugs at the yard and realized they're all just spade connectors. I'll buy some spare connectors after work and just splice them in. No wires cut yet!

Once the lights are hooked up I can start laying out the angles in real life to get the boat tail frame started. If the angles and Photoshop are right it should be overall shorter than I'd anticipated For sure with the size of the lights (just as tall as the license plate) it is theoretically possible to have a wake of about two square feet.



So tired physically, mentally and emotionally right now. I need to keep myself busy to avoid thinking about certain things.

PS- feel free to check out the EcoModder thread for more in-depth aero and tech discussion.