travisnd

I've heard you can cut the stock floor pan out and replace with sheet-metal to get even more head-room? Anyone do this? Any pics or tips?

I curently have a custom Ultrashield seat mounted on Hardbar seat rails. The bottom of the seat sits on the floor. If I'm thinking correctly, you could cut out the stock floor, retain the factory metal ribs the seat studs sit in, and then replace with sheet-metal and new seat studs that are threaded properly?

Current setup

drivinhard

modifying floor pan - big pts hit.

I think it's even a no-no in ST2/TTS?

Jason

You're going to have the bottom of the seat protude under the car?

travisnd

I emailed Greg G. because you're correct... it's currently a no-no.

No... but currently the seat rests on the stock floor... the stock floor is about 1/2" thick.... replacing that section with sheet-metal will allow the seat to sit even lower.

I don't 100% need it, but looking at the pics of my driving and seeing where my head is in relation to the roof another 1/2" would be helpful.... since the car will be torn apart for the cage it'd be the easiest time to do it.

froggy47

Think about going off track & what you have hanging below the bottom plane of the undercarriage.

travisnd

Huh... not sure what you guys are visualizing.... I'm talking about removing the 1/2" thick floor and replacing with sheet metal... it'd allow the seat to be lower relative to the car.

Nothing would hang below the car, from the underside nothing would look any different other than a patch of sheet metal in the seat area.

travisnd

Look at your stock floor and you'll see the OEM seat studs are recessed vs. the majority of the floor.... this is room you're giving up.

GOTHAM VETTE

This guy sure did.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-f...ld-thread.html

Probably a little over kill for what you're thinking.

sperkins

Even if you were allowed to do it, sheet metal isn't going to cut it. Those support braces are very flimsy and could never support your weight. You'd have to use a steel plate welded to both frame sections.
Talk about left side weight issues.

If for some reason Greg lets you do it (which he's not ) or if the car was being built for fun, I'd do both sides just to offset the extra weight.

drivinhard

If greg lets you do it, I will have a 100 lb passenger floor pan very soon, and it won't count towards ballast

travisnd

The Panoz is just square tube with sheet metal on top... works fine. I could have sworn I saw a C5 build by Blackdog racing where they cut out the stock floors and replaced with metal for safety.

davidfarmer

just cut slits the width of your seat rails, and recess the rails down into the slits. You can still use the OEM reinforcement, 99% of the floor, but get the seat down "into" the floor. If you are careful, you could even cut the upper layer of fiberglass, the balsa, but leave the bottom of the floor (underside) untouched.

In World Challenge, they briefly worded the rules such that you had to replace the OEM brackets with tubing. What actually happened was that some team cut out the entire floor (including the reinforcements) and just bolted the seat to sheet-metal. When they got caught, SCCA thought there were no reinforcements in the OEM floor and added that rule. Once they realized the OEM supports exist, they allowed them to be used.

Short-Throw

If you search you can find more build pictures of the Beast. I wanted a specific seat in the car which would not have fitted with the factory dimensions. The last pic was pre-Hollinger.











Mike

sperkins

Square tubing > 2 thin metal OEM strips.

travisnd

Thanks for the input David

Thanks Mike... I followed your build-up in great detail awhile back. Love that custom C6R shade of yellow... looks so bright.

I was going to build the roll cage out of 1.5" angle.... I can get it at Lowes and Home Depot pretty easily...

RX-Ben

Have you thought of reclining your seat a bit? Way easier, feels better, puts your heat in a safe place, etc.

travisnd

It's adjusted perfectly for me in that regard.

sperkins

That would probably work just as well as some of the other cages I've seen here on the forum.

96CollectorSport

I agree with David, I recently cut the top layer of fiberglass and removed the balsa wood in one of our cars and it gives you an extra 1/2". Basically I just took an air powered reciprocating saw and cut the top layer of fiberglass, then made strips that I could remove with a hammer and chisle. The bottom layer of the floor is still intact and from under the car you would never know anything was done.



If you look closely you can see the seat is lowered down the thickness of the balsa wood.

travisnd

^ Perfect!