rick piras

I've got the body off the chassis, and am prepping the body for the SRIII frame that should arrive in a few weeks. I'm using the Classic Performance one piece floor pan, and am not using tubbed wheel wells. I've cut MOST of the old floor away, and before I make that final cut it would reduce my stress levels greatly if someone could show me pictures of their final floor cuts. Mike @ SRIII and Tom at Classic have been great with advice, but pictures would help even more. I don't want to cut too much.

Thanks,
Rick

John McGraw

Rick,


What rear suspension? I have pics of several different rear suspension setups.

John McGraw

Rick,


Here is the cutout for a C5/C6 rear suspension. You can see that I cut the wheel wells on mine, but my rear suspension is narrowed. You will notice that the entire floor has to be raised up to the level of the flat areas adjacent to the rear body mounts. If memory serves me right, it was about a 2" rise in the floor at the rear. The floor has to run almost flat to the luggage stop. If you are going with a C4, the rear fllor elevation can stay at the stock height, and only the front of the floor has to elevate. I can send some pics if you need them, but I was pretty sure that you settled on the C5 rear suspension.










Regards, John McGraw

rick piras

Hi John,
Sorry for not clarifying, I'm running the C4 rear suspension. My main questions are the front cut, and the rear corners. I might be overthinking this, I'm unsure how much structural rigidity the floor pan supports.
It seems that the front cut needs to remove material starting where the stock floor pan begins to radius back, and horizontally; and then that somewhat vertical face will bond to the new pan.
In the back, it looks like the radiused areas in the corners need to be cut for the new pan to sit down flush. My guess is that I should follow the side cut line around the radiused corner, and then leave about a 1-2" rectangular area at the back floor to bond to the new pan.
This step is defintely the scariest part of the build for me so far. There's a pretty steep learning curve the first time building one of these cars.

Thanks,
Rick

John McGraw

Sorry Rick, I thought you were going C5.

Here is where I cut the floor for a C4.





I actually built a mold that could be inverted inside the body and layed-up inside the mold.





You can see that I cut just short of where the vertical section takes a turn to the rear, and go almost straight up from there. I fabricated a new luggage stop out of 18 Ga steel to accommodate the higher vertical height, and used this steel bulkhead to further reinforce the vertical section. With the fairly narrow bond area, I wanted to add some additional strength to this wall. I riveted the new luggage stop "truss" to the fiberglass with 3 rows of 3/16" rivets, one below the bond line, and two above the bond line. Just be sure before you bond the glass or install the rivets, that you raise the floor to level!

ALL of these cars sag at the floor from the weight at the seats, and you need to raise the floor before starting to rebuild this vertical wall, as it ain't going to move after it is done!

I thought I had pic of the luggage stop installed on the C4 floor, but here is a couple of one installed on a C5 floor. Same difference, just a little shorter on a C4, and the old one is easier to remove on a coupe, because it does not have the same reinforcement to the wheel wells like a convertible does.






Just set the top of the luggage stop a couple of inches above the rear floor level.


Regards, John McGraw

rick piras

Thanks so much John. Your pictures and explanation are a huge help.
Thanks again,
Rick