C7BlackRose

I've been considering placing a tunnel plate on my 2005 C6 convertible, but am not sure it is worth the effort of attaching the plate. Two questions: 1) Does the plate really help reduce the chassis flex and the creaking noises we get with our convertibles? 2) If they do help, which company has the best tunnel plate? LG Motorsports or the TPS Motorsports plate with the thermal coating? Or is there another company I don't know about which has a good tunnel plate? Thanks for your help.

timd38

I have coated one. Installed about 8 years ago and would do again. Less heat in the cockpit and the doors open fine when I jack one corner up.

TTZ06VETTE

Helped with heat most for me. I also added heat insulation under the inside console.

Dcasole

U do know that you all ready have a tunnel plate in place right?

The aftermarket plates are thicker and some are insulated but all use the factory mounting bolts

Dave

C7BlackRose

Dave; yes I know the C6 Corvette has a thin plate, but I was wondering if the aftermarket tunnel plates would improve the creaks and flex of our convertibles. Richard

HOXXOH

Only marginally and probably not enough to notice. The attachment screws are less than 3/16" diameter and have a washer to keep them from falling through the nearly 1/2" holes. That's because the plate is right next to the exhaust pipes and it has to expand and contract quite a bit. That also means the flex limitation is related torsionally to the thickness and alloy. Doubling or tripling the thickness would help, but not a lot.
You might find it easier to simply use 2 tunnel plates and weld or bolt them together.

B-Vette

I installed Elite Engineering's 1/4" Aluminum Ceramic Coated Tunnel Plate with Thermal-Abs on my 2000 FRC. For the C5 platform, I did notice a huge difference in the amount of flex in the car, (in a good way).

I now have a 2007 coupe but I don't think there would be as great a benefit in changing it out this time.

C U IN REARVEIW

Is it really ok to jack just one corner of these cars up at a time? I've always lifted whole front or rear up at the same time I fear of damaging the removable top....

HOXXOH

Yes. The frame is so stiff, that it's possible (I've done it) to have one corner supported (jack, jackstand, etc) and have all the weight on the opposite corner. You can then rock the car back and forth by hand to get the other two tires touching the ground. Kinda shocked me at first too.

xBoostx

I got a heat shield and install it on the oem plate helped with the heat a lot on my 2011 gs I didn't see need to add weight as car is plenty stiff.