Cheap source for plastic to make aero mods
I was in Lowe's today. I had been discussing using a black trashcan as a source of plastic for aero mods. I noticed 2 15 gallon black, rectangular trashcans were severely cracked on the top edge. I took them to the customer service desk and explained that I was looking for black plastic sheets, and if I could have them reduced. The guy said "How about $2/ea?" I said "I'd like to pay $1 each - I'm just going to cut them up anyway." There ya have it. Two black plastic cans for a total expense of $2.10. The cracks are on the edges anyway and would have been on the part I'm cutting off anyway.
So there ya have it. Go to your local hardware store and find a broken trashcan and ask them to mark it down. -Jay |
that's a lot better than my $15 trash can.
when you get your mods done, you have to post pics. |
I did better :p I picked up a wastebasket out of a dumpster that had a cracked bottom, that's probably gonna get cut at an angle for wheel fairings.
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I had thought of that, but to me it was worth $2 to not have to clean a dirty old trashcan.
-Jay |
Nice!
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add those how to pics :thumbup:
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tin snips seem to work really well with that kind of plastic. I did an air dam with mine. pics in my garage.
like I said earlier. I got jipped, paid full price for a trash can. |
Ok, this is how its done... with pics...
First we have 2 cracked trashcans. I paid $1/ea for them @ Lowe's. https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...5a6daf8279.jpg Now bring on the necessary supplies to do the job... 2 different kinds of snips, a Black & Decker heat gun, and a bottle of Peach Snapple Tea. https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...973a49c8ee.jpg First thing to do is cut the top lip and the bottom out of the trash can https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...8c4511084b.jpg Then slit the can down one corner. https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...f61c4eaea0.jpg Then heat the edges and slowly bend the corners flat. This is a pic about halfway through. https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...4b06fec6e8.jpg Suprisingly you get a lot out of plastic out of those little trashcans. I will post pics of the grille block tomorrow. It was too dark to take photos by the time I got done. -Jay |
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my friend has some right angle snips. they work way better. you don't have to worry about fighting the material you are cutting.
mine are the crappy yellow ones, his are the left and right handed ones. I don't know where he got them from but I may have to get me some |
The pair of snips on the bottom does that. It cuts a 1/8 inch strip out of the middle, and you can cut straight w/o the material getting in the way.
-Jay |
gotcha, that makes sense. kind of like the electric nibblers (don't know their name).
I had a major set back with my project. I think I just got too greedy. I put on the airdam and now the IAT is staying too cool so I decided to cover the one last opening in my nose (the car's nose) so I test drove it at 1:30 in the morning. outside temps were about 70 deg. I got to about 220 on the water temp before I decided to tear it out. I had the heat going full blast and the windows down. I got the temps back down to about 200 on the way home with the heat going. I am seriously thinking of taking the air dam off too. I didn't yield that much from it (if any) I think anything I would have yielded from it was offset by the cooler temps on the intake. I have gotten a cavalier up to 38 mpg which is in the neigborhood of 50 percent over EPA. I think I should be happy with that. |
Here's where to get them:
https://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=90720 https://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=90719 They're not quite 90 degrees but they look like enough, and they are cheap. If they're like the straighter ones from the same place, then they're better than you think but still not as good as expensive ones. And the other thing IS called 'electric nibblers'. |
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