Front/Center Undercarriage Aluminum

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Major System Category: Body (Undercarriage)
Task: Install center aluminum panels in cockpit
Parts:
Prerequisite Tasks: N/A
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 1 hour
Date Started: August 28, 2012
Date Completed: August 28, 2012
I am at the point where, I am planning to drop the body on the chassis. This is a decision driven by budget and funds. The next major purchase is the ISIS power system. This is going to have to wait for another 60 days, before I have enough money put aside for that purchase. The nearly 60% price increase was not anticipated in my budget, and this has thrown a minor wrench in my budget and schedule.

The easiest way to mark this panel is front under the car. Drop the panel into place and start  tracing the  cross members.

I want to finish up the fuel tanks, AC and coolant lines as much as possible before moving into body work. On the subject of fuel tanks, the longer I stand under the car examining the Corvette tanks and the FFR modification, the more convinced I am that they will leak like sieve. So I am opting for the aluminum tanks that do not rely on RTV silicone to hold everything together. I had to get to this point in the build, before I understood the real problems with this approach.

These panels are the ones that rest on the cross member between the foot well and the rear floor pan. They need to be installed before the tunnel aluminum goes into place. As I have installed the rear half of the tunnel aluminum, and I have built the foot well boxes, it seems like it is time to get this done.

Cross members covered by this piece. Orientation: Passenger side cockpit.

The nagging issue for me is how thin this floor piece is.just 1/16" aluminum. This seems a little flimsy.

Lots of rivets! Orientation: Driver's side cockpit.