818 front and rear floors

[ben1272]

Instructions have you rivet front floor (below battery tray). I was thinking it might be worth making it remove-able with screws/rivnuts. Would love to hear thoughts for and against!

I think I would apply a thin self-adhesive rubber strip (maybe 031-062 thick) and then screw in place?

-Ben

[FFRSpec72]

Instructions have you rivet front floor (below battery tray). I was thinking it might be worth making it remove-able with screws/rivnuts. Would love to hear thoughts for and against!

I think I would apply a thin self-adhesive rubber strip (maybe 031-062 thick) and then screw in place?

-Ben

Mine being an R version I try to make most things removable, this is one of the panels I riveted as I did not see anything there I needed access to from underneath and also that panel will get a lot of air flow on the track and wanted to make sure I did not have issues

[UnhipPopano]

Two things. First over time steel screws would corrode and be a job to remove, so drilling out rivets would be an easier job. Second, while drilling the holes for the floor is easiest at the beginning of the build, riveting it on at the end may make the build a little easier.

[Hindsight]

Use 1/4" rivet nuts and bolt it in place: Hold the pan in place with duct tape then drill a 1/8" hole through the pan and into the frame and then secure with a cleco. Repeat until you have enough holes in enough locations for the bolts. Remove the pan, then drill out the 1/8" holes in the frame to 25/64" and install rivetnuts in the frame. Then drill out the 1/8" holes in the pan to 1/4" or 5/16" to fit the 1/4 bolts.

I would not install either of the floor pans until the car is basically finished - just no reason to do it before then and it keeps this easily accessible.

[RM1SepEx]

I use a 1/8 drill and clecos, then a 10-32 drill tap and then SS pan head screws to make panels removable

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GREENLEE-DRILL-TAP-BIT-10-32-NEW-/391488823622?hash=item5b268d6146:g:MccAAOSwxH1T62l k

[Frank818]

Mine being an S it was a must to have as much as possible removable. I used 10-32 alu rivnuts with SS 10-32 bolts.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Mine being an S it was a must to have as much as possible removable. I used 10-32 alu rivnuts with SS 10-32 bolts.


Frank,
you are really mixing you metals. steel frame-alum revnuts-stainless steel screws-alum. panels. You should read up on galvanic corrosion.
Bob

[Frank818]

Bob, good thing bringing to attention. Too late for me as I have hundreds of rivnuts on the car and hundreds of bolts I paid for but I checked the web to see if I did something really bad and although it's not as good as steel-steel-steel, I think I'm not too bad. Alu and steel are very close on the corrosion chart, FFR uses alu rivets so why not alu rivnuts. Then I'm using black oxide STEEL bolts, thought they were SS but aren't. And I'm using copper anti-seize on the threads which helps on corrosion if what I read about that is true. I do have some zinc bolts on alu rivnuts and 18-8 SS bolts on same rivnuts, I'll check on those closely but they are rare. According to what I read, dissimilar metals need a corrosive environment to corrode. Since I'm not driving in salt or water and the car is always in a dry garage, that should also minimize corrosion. I guess I'll keep an eye on my bolts and inspect every year.

Good stuff to remember, tnx for pointing out.

[CNC_Geek]

I read somewhere that the original engineering includes the strength of each panel in shear. When glued and riveted any load would be spread evenly and the panel held in place to prevent any buckling. Personally I doubt the difference is enough to worry about but it would be good to hear that from a qualified expert involved with the original computer modeling.

[K3LAG]

I made a lot of things removable for easy access later, but the floor panels are all riveted except the angled piece (which not everyone seems to have) between the front floor and battery area floor. Everything is pretty reachable from the top so I saw no reason to make those removable.

Larry