Removing brace?

[Roy]

What would happen if I removed the angled brace from in front of the seats? I think I am going to need to be able to move the seat forward a bit more.

[michael everson]

I cut mine out with no ill effects. None that I can see or feel anyways.
mike

[RM1SepEx]

I removed it on my driver's seat to add a slider as well. While it does reduce stiffness a bit it shouldn't be a problem on a street car

[wallace18]

I had to take it out of the K818S build. Handling no affected, IMO. Though side impact strength maybe.

[fact5racer]

I cut mine out and when I went back into the shop the next day the whole side had folded in.

[flynntuna]

http://img.pandawhale.com/61427-George-Takei-oh-my-gif-Dzvp.gif

[Zach34]

I cut mine out on the R frame. I also did a complete re-structure of the floor to get the seats down lower.

If you cut the diagonals out, there's a decent chance the floor will sag. The welding of the frame creates a lot of stress as the metal cools and things tend to not stay square when you remove parts of the structure. When I cut mine, the middle of the floor sagged down about 3/4". I added a new diagonal brace in the center console and one behind each seat in a position to clear the stock firewall. I clamped a long metal beam to the floor to hold it flat and level while welding in the new braces and everything held great. However, I screwed up and didn't test-fit the fuel tank before I finished all the welding. I ended up having to cut out the floor under the fuel tank so it could be installed from underneath. The fuel tank now sits on 1/8" aluminum sheet that can be removed.

I would recommend replacing those diagonal supports somehow, and consider devising a method to hold the floor tubes flat after you cut out the existing braces.

[michael everson]

3/4 of an inch? Nothing moved on mine. I don't even see how that piece of metal would affect the positioning of the floor.
Mike

[Zach34]

Yep. If you get down and look at the floor tubes at eye-level, you'll see gentle bends and curves where the welds are. With only 1" tube making up most of the floor, you need some kind of vertical support in the middle if it's going to support 400+ pounds of driver/passenger and interior parts going over bumps, etc. That being said, the floor probably wouldn't flex a noticeable amount if you don't have those supports in.