MarcD
Active Member
So I found a very nice gentleman on local CL with a '65 Barracuda factory four-speed car with a stripped out interior who allowed me to splash a mold of the tunnel hump. I had to drive to San Jose and work in a warehouse for a limited amount of time, so I used 6" orthopedic plaster and mold release over the relevant area of the floorpan.
In a perfect world, I would liked to have stripped out all the seam sealer to get a clean mold of all the tunnel hump edges and used 'glass with a tooling gelcoat layer, but we work with what we have....the donor car was pretty damned original and I didn't want to screw up the "perfect" factory finish.
Got the mold off intact, filled in the indentations from the seam sealer and pulled a pretty decent fabric and mat glass copy from it. Not pretty, but plenty strong and fits like a glove on my '63 floorpan. I taped it down to see how it worked, and the car is unbelievably quieter.
So the problem confronting me now is what to do about permanently attaching it to the floor. As the pics show (if I can get them uploaded), the PO didn't cut out the entire area around the trans, and two of the shift rods are "captured" by the remaining sheet metal. Not a problem as is because everything is wide open, but if I epoxy the new 'glass tunnel down, the shift rods would present a problem in removing the transmission for servicing.
Here are the options I see:
1. Cut out the remaining floor pan like the factory did and permanently bond the 'glass hump to the floorpan. This is the most straightforward option, but I worry that the fiberglass won't contribute as much strength to the cut floorpan as the factory welded-in metal hump. Might flex/crack/fail?
2. Leave the floor pan as it is, and just screw the 'glass hump down with high-density neoprene foam to close any gaps and keep it watertight. This would require the carpet to be pulled back and the hump removed to access the shift rods should transmission removal be needed later. Wouldn't be fun, but would leave as much sheet metal in place as possible.
3. Just cut enough of the floorpan away to allow the shift rods to be detached from below so the transmission could be maneuvered out around the remaining metal, then permanently bond the 'glass hump. Might be a little fussy, but would leave metal in place and not have to pull the carpet up for transmission service.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be highly appreciated!
Marc in SF
In a perfect world, I would liked to have stripped out all the seam sealer to get a clean mold of all the tunnel hump edges and used 'glass with a tooling gelcoat layer, but we work with what we have....the donor car was pretty damned original and I didn't want to screw up the "perfect" factory finish.
Got the mold off intact, filled in the indentations from the seam sealer and pulled a pretty decent fabric and mat glass copy from it. Not pretty, but plenty strong and fits like a glove on my '63 floorpan. I taped it down to see how it worked, and the car is unbelievably quieter.
So the problem confronting me now is what to do about permanently attaching it to the floor. As the pics show (if I can get them uploaded), the PO didn't cut out the entire area around the trans, and two of the shift rods are "captured" by the remaining sheet metal. Not a problem as is because everything is wide open, but if I epoxy the new 'glass tunnel down, the shift rods would present a problem in removing the transmission for servicing.
Here are the options I see:
1. Cut out the remaining floor pan like the factory did and permanently bond the 'glass hump to the floorpan. This is the most straightforward option, but I worry that the fiberglass won't contribute as much strength to the cut floorpan as the factory welded-in metal hump. Might flex/crack/fail?
2. Leave the floor pan as it is, and just screw the 'glass hump down with high-density neoprene foam to close any gaps and keep it watertight. This would require the carpet to be pulled back and the hump removed to access the shift rods should transmission removal be needed later. Wouldn't be fun, but would leave as much sheet metal in place as possible.
3. Just cut enough of the floorpan away to allow the shift rods to be detached from below so the transmission could be maneuvered out around the remaining metal, then permanently bond the 'glass hump. Might be a little fussy, but would leave metal in place and not have to pull the carpet up for transmission service.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be highly appreciated!
Marc in SF
