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cutting the boot floor in half, opinions?


naddy

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  • Leadership Team

Ian, that was my Mk1 version in my old car. In my current car I decide I wanted access to the diff filler/drain but also wanted to fully seal the boot floor around the side and rear edges, this was impractical in my first version because to get my 2/3 floor out I had to remove the sealant.

Mk2 version is an access hole which from memory is approx 8" x 3" cut into the middle-front of the honeycomb floor, I'll see if I can take a photo later.

Tom, if you have any spare thin metal sheet tape it round the rollbar and turrets where you think you might make contact, masking tape etc won't offer enough protection against the edges of the honeycomb which are pretty vicious.

Stu.

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  • Leadership Team

Okay here's some photos of my access hole:

18D58F8F-5F28-4F02-A250-FEE38C56996F.jpeg.d0ef9549ce6966cffbba026b33296c32.jpeg
 

Easily cut from the existing honeycomb panel with an electric jigsaw:

EFDD70B9-F564-466A-B484-ACB2F05CBBA3.jpeg.91ed8a1d0d169baedcbbbc3238a87d13.jpeg

I added a 25mm wide ally plate riveted to the underside and fitted 3 x M5 rivnuts. The plate is covered with a 1mm thick black neoprene strip so might be a little hard to work out in the photo:

42F6BAB0-6A4B-4712-B770-66AC3563FA83.jpeg.92cf3d1e29be7d91631830e49ac60bdc.jpeg
 

I also added a rubber (roof gutter) seal to the edge of the cover plate to prevent water ingress from below:

60A78C59-A9F7-48E3-B556-B349397317C4.jpeg.969267beb01ea9d88ef192c64874f2c0.jpeg
 

Easy now to top up or change the diff oil. I forgot to measure the size of the cutout but let me know if anyone needs the dimensions I used.

Stu.

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My turrets pre-rebuild had been painted during a rear panel respray, so it was readily apparent how battered they had been by putting the floor in and out.  Unfortunately over years I've had to do this a few time to fuel pump failure, gasket failures and a repair to the small tank filler pipe, so Im very minded to cut it into 2 pieces to make this easier in the future.  

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  • Area Representative

I thought that the aluminium honeycomb boot floor section was for rear end crash resistance. Cutting it in half will debilitate impact resistance however little it may be.  

And yes my floor section is a pain in the ar*e to get in & out!

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I’ve just spoken with Phil at Arch. He’s checked with Bruce, and there is no crash protection designed into the use of the honeycomb boot floor, and any crash protection conferred is purely a coincidence of its horizontal position. It’s  not designed or intended as a crumple zone and isn't considered structural either. They didn’t think there would be any problem cutting it in two to aid installation, indeed Bruce did this on a couple of race cars he ran in the past.  Looks like I’ll be getting a big hacksaw and work bench out next week! 

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I cut in half down the middle, the the two pieces glide into their respective halves, without a single touch of the turrets.  I've also put a couple of rivnuts in the ali strip to hold down the forward boot piece and wood, which I fastened in with some silicon to seal.  The only snag is while testing the electrics last night, my fuel pump isn't priming, so the forward section need to come out again to check the wiring connection on the plug.  

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Well, that's spooky.

I've not done anything to the car in a while or been here for even longer! This morning I took the boot floor out, with ease! Still in one piece with a bit cut out to fit around the fuel filler. Never got around to bisecting mine and it looks like I've got the knack.  Weirdly, this thread came to mind while I was doing it earlier and now I found it on the first page of TT.....

Anyhow, useful to hear Tom that it's not structural as previously rumoured!  

Is the front section still wood with a thin sheet of ally on new cars or has that changed?

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