Boxed rocker panel additions
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 4,648
Likes: 1,059
From: N.E. Ohio OH
Finalist 2020 C4 of the Year - Modified
Boxed rocker panel additions
I was watching the auction tonight and saw a Porsche that had "boxed rocker panel" additions welding into the structure. (I am going to assume welded). When the feature was discussed, it was to add strength.
Now back to the ever ending quest to strengthen these cars. I now wonder how it would work to engineer up a fully welded box that welds into the rocker panel and adds another box to the equation. On the Porsche it stuck out and was blended into wheelwell flares.
Now back to the ever ending quest to strengthen these cars. I now wonder how it would work to engineer up a fully welded box that welds into the rocker panel and adds another box to the equation. On the Porsche it stuck out and was blended into wheelwell flares.
Team Owner
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 90,675
Likes: 304
From: SE NY
Cruise-In II Veteran
I had subframe rails welded under my '86 IROC-Z because it was a uni-body with no true frame and it made a huge difference.
Don't know how much it would improve a C4 as it already has a true frame.
Was that Porsche a uni-body or full frame?
Don't know how much it would improve a C4 as it already has a true frame.
Was that Porsche a uni-body or full frame?
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 4,648
Likes: 1,059
From: N.E. Ohio OH
Finalist 2020 C4 of the Year - Modified
I will have to do some research. This is mainly a rhetorical thread. Tying back to Tom's thread and my conjecture on a how turning the car into FRC by fabbing and welding some supports from the halo to windshield structure.
The box for the Porsche was not small. Visually, from seeing it on the tv, 4"x4" maybe more and then finished over the top to make it look part of the car. I saw another vid where tubing was being welded to the pinch welds of a Mustang and then other tubes were welded to the subframe connectors.
The box for the Porsche was not small. Visually, from seeing it on the tv, 4"x4" maybe more and then finished over the top to make it look part of the car. I saw another vid where tubing was being welded to the pinch welds of a Mustang and then other tubes were welded to the subframe connectors.
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 21,543
Likes: 3,216
From: Park City Utah
You want my opinion? I was ALL about this idea...except I was going to use the largest round tube that I could fit inside the rocker rail (about 2" or so). Then plate both ends and weld the large-ish plates into the rear "wall", immediately ahead of the rear tire, and the frame where it curves immediately behind the front tire. I felt the round tube would add torsional stiffness, and tie the "front/middle/rear" of the car together. ...And it MAY do that. I was all into it though...though about making kits that folks could weld into their cars. One of my friends said I should call them "Hot Rods". 
But, based on my frame flexing observations with the Kart and then the '92, it seems like the rocker area of the car is quite stiff, and the problem is more so in the tying together of the left and right frame rails. They seem to rotate about the firewall independently of one another....almost like the two rails are "feet, walking". IMO, this is why the roof makes such a big diff in the car's flexing; it's a major part that resists the rotation of the two rails, about the firewall.
But, based on my frame flexing observations with the Kart and then the '92, it seems like the rocker area of the car is quite stiff, and the problem is more so in the tying together of the left and right frame rails. They seem to rotate about the firewall independently of one another....almost like the two rails are "feet, walking". IMO, this is why the roof makes such a big diff in the car's flexing; it's a major part that resists the rotation of the two rails, about the firewall.
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 4,648
Likes: 1,059
From: N.E. Ohio OH
Finalist 2020 C4 of the Year - Modified
They seem to rotate about the firewall independently of one another....almost like the two rails are "feet, walking". IMO, this is why the roof makes such a big diff in the car's flexing; it's a major part that resists the rotation of the two rails, about the firewall.
These hmmmm discussions might (repeat might) lead to an ah ha moment, or might not, and simply be a waste of ethernet ink.
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 4,648
Likes: 1,059
From: N.E. Ohio OH
Finalist 2020 C4 of the Year - Modified
Everytime we talk (type) and I (or one of the other folks here search) and find new documents, important items come to light. Consider what I found in this article:
https://advancedmanufacturing.org/ge...vette-lighten/
If this is to be accepted and the layout was patented, it just reinforces what you and the other folks were talking about regarding the tunnel, etc.
That would have been their "ah ha" moment. Maybe it would have cured the C4 had it been brought into the game earlier.
Also notice the publishing date of the following article.
http://www.superchevy.com/features/c...clellan-built/
It is, in fact, 99 lb (44.5 kg) lighter and 57% stiffer than the C6 steel frame it replaces. Even more remarkable is that it conforms to the patented topology first used in the C5 Corvette, a full perimeter frame with a center tunnel structure linking the engine and final drive cradles. In the C7, of course, all of these elements are aluminum.
If this is to be accepted and the layout was patented, it just reinforces what you and the other folks were talking about regarding the tunnel, etc.
That would have been their "ah ha" moment. Maybe it would have cured the C4 had it been brought into the game earlier.
Also notice the publishing date of the following article.
http://www.superchevy.com/features/c...clellan-built/
Last edited by drcook; Jan 18, 2019 at 03:40 AM.
