Finished the interior and working on footbox ventilation

[EZ$]

Well after all these years I've finally finished the interior.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50700247451_69cd1a25b2_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kfd2cr)20201208_172000 (https://flic.kr/p/2kfd2cr) by Rick Paul (https://www.flickr.com/photos/156322842@N02/), on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50700247106_58523d08c1_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kfd26u)20201208_171929 (https://flic.kr/p/2kfd26u) by Rick Paul (https://www.flickr.com/photos/156322842@N02/), on Flickr
I don't think I ever want to do carpeting in a car ever again!

So now I've moved on to the footbox ventilation. Had some concerns about the brake cooling duct hose, and proximity to the headers/exhaust, so for the drivers side I built a box so the hose stays as high as possible. Although it was a major PITA, mostly due to self inflicted mistakes, it actually came out OK.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50728432672_9901b2fab3_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2khGtFw)20201216_162906 (https://flic.kr/p/2khGtFw) by Rick Paul (https://www.flickr.com/photos/156322842@N02/), on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50727605933_28ca9d4dd7_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2khCeVp)20201216_162915 (https://flic.kr/p/2khCeVp) by Rick Paul (https://www.flickr.com/photos/156322842@N02/), on Flickr

Now for the passenger side. I was hoping to avoid having to build another box, so my question is, how close to the exhaust can this brake duct hose be? Unfortunately, due to mounting my heater on top of the PS footbox, I can't go in from the top. So it'll have to be from the front, top right of the front looking at it from the front of the car. Should be about 6-8 inches of clearance, but it will be sitting over the top of the exhaust. Does anyone see a problem? This is my last major project before I put the body on for license/registration, other than figuring out my ABS system, and what is going on with it, but that's for another post.

[Norm B]

Did you use the entire top of the passenger footbox for the heater? The reason I ask is, I mounted the blast gate on the inside with the opening through the top outside of the 3/4 inch frame where the black circle is in the first picture. A 90 degree elbow was used to make the turn forward. The brake duct tubing will take the heat but, I wrapped it with EZ cool insulation and aluminum tape to prevent heat transfer to the air inside.
Hard to tell from your pictures but, you could have increased the difficulty of tightening the passenger side windshield post mounting bolts.

HTH

Norm

[CraigS]

Mine is similar except it goes into the footbox just the other side of the 3/4x3/4 tube. I also used some insulation and aluminum tape from HD.

[Hacksaw84]

From what I have seen on other builds you don't have to be super far away with the quality hose you have. Mine is lower than yours on the driver and I have not had any issues but I'm still building. On my passenger it comes in straight on in the upper right corner of the footbox and not from the top, just routed the hose up as much as I could.

One thing I would check before you button it up is sit in the car with the blower running and see how the air hits you. When I did this it somewhat annoyingly blasted one spot on my leg. So I added a "deflector" to split the air direction. I didn't want to put a diffuser in so just kind of cut the airflow in half.


Unrelated, but did you make your own panel(s) to seal up both sides of the radiator?

[JohnK]

I was hoping to avoid having to build another box, so my question is, how close to the exhaust can this brake duct hose be?

An option to consider if you want to route the duct hose closer to the exhaust, is to put a heat shield sleeve over it. Something like this:

https://www.heatshieldproducts.com/thermaflect-sleeve-velcro

They make them in both a velcro version as shown, that can be installed on a hose already in place, or a version with a sewn seam.

[Norm B]

Very nice work on the airbox for the driver's side. You might want to put a deflector or elbow on the blast gate outlet to direct the air down by your feet. What I find amazing is how many different solutions we, as a group of car enthusiasts, come up with for the same issue.

As an example, here is how I did the driver's side. I used a hole saw to cut a hole in the front of the foot box at the top outside corner. A 3 inch elbow was fitted from the inside and the blast gate attached sitting flat so the incoming air goes straight down. Here are some pictures.

Norm

[EZ$]

Norm, Yeah, I did use the entire top unfortunately, plus that top area needs to be sealed off from the engine bay since it's now open to the passenger compartment. That would have been the perfect location. I'm using the "quick release" pins for the windshield, and I created an access panel in the top of the PS footbox so I could reach up in there to place/pull the pin. It'll be a two man project to work the windshield down while I put pressure on the pin to hit the hole. Pray for me!

Craig, Thanks, I didn't even think of the foil insulation from HD. Might give that a try.

Hacksaw, I'll check and plan for some deflectors if necessary. The panels were an idea I took from Chris, (can't remember his screen name, something like CCRsAC. He might also go by Gumball, can't remember). He may also be on the other site. I just held up a piece of poster board, marked all the notches, holes, etc., and worked it from there. One of the easier pieces of the build!

John, If I remember the pricing on the 3+", I may need to sell that other kidney! Just kidding. I didn't know they had this with velcro closers.

Norm, Nice solution, I may have to deflect the flow like what Hacksaw mentioned. My head was spinning trying to come up with a way to do this. It's taken way too much time. That airbox is the "second generation", the first now resides in my aluminum scrap bin!

Thanks guys. I appreciate the comments, and suggestions. Hopefully get the passenger side done today.

[JohnK]

Wow, yeah I didn't realize the larger sizes were that expensive. I used some of this in 3/4" and that was pretty reasonably priced. Definitely nice stuff, and nice that it can be added after the fact with the velcro.

[EZ$]

Yeah, I checked the pricing when I was planning the routing of the hose, and decided it might not be in the cards budget wise!

[Desert Cobra]

I used all aluminum cloths drier vent hose from the elephant ear panel back to the foot box. Joint and clamps are forward of the panel so can't be seen. At the foot box I got a bulk head fitting to clamp the hose to from an aircraft parts dealer. A pair were about $15.00.

[EZ$]

More than one way to skin a cat.