mtcookson Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 May be a dumb question, may be a good idea... I have no clue. In an attempt to make some of my project cars lighter the idea of replacing the steel floor pans with aluminum came to mind. I was thinking something along the lines of using some flat pieces of aluminum to replace the floor pans and adding some strength to them by either supporting them with aluminum flat bar or maybe aluminum tube. Likely use adhesive and rivets or bolts to tie them into the stock steel frame rails, if that would work good. Like I said, I have no idea if it would be a good idea or not or if it would even save all that much weight but if it could and wasn't a bad idea I wouldn't mind giving it a shot. My only concern is just making sure the aluminum can handle the weight and such of the stuff inside but also whether it will handle the loads from the car twisting and such or if it will just make it flex even more. I was thinking about trying this out on my Maxima since I have a lot of rust repair to do on it, it wouldn't be too bad to do since I'm already working on those areas a bit. The Maxima, weight wise, really isn't all that bad for being a sedan but it could always be better. If it did work I'd even think about trying it out on my Z32. I figured this would be the best place to ask as most of the other forums I frequent usually don't know what the term DIY means. ...so what do you guys think... yea or nay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
260DET Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 The 'sculptured' aluminium sheets/strips used to make ute/pickup trays and sides is tough and strong, it should easily do the job without additional reinforcement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roostmonkey Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 It will work,but the weight savings are marginal.Stucturally, a welded floor is stronger than rivets or bolts however some of the adhesives are pretty tough and when combined with a mechanical fastening, can be just as strong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtcookson Posted March 15, 2007 Author Share Posted March 15, 2007 It will work,but the weight savings are marginal. That's the only thing I fear, lots of work for minimal gains. I do have to do some cutting of some other areas so I'll probably weigh the metal in the process and see if its worth doing weight wise. Thanks for the input so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buZy Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=11014&cat=500&ppuser=10889 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Define "minimal gains." If you're racing under a tight rule set then spending hours and hours trying to get "minimal gains" makes sense. If you're building a street car or a racer car that runs in an unlimited class, then spending hours and hours on "minimal gains" is foolish until you've exhaust all possible "moderate" and "maximum" gains. IMHO: Building aluminum floor pans in your car to save 5 lbs. is foolish if you have 25 lbs. of radio and speakers in the car. EDIT: I'm not bagging on you MT for this idea. My post above might have sounded a bit harsh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtcookson Posted March 15, 2007 Author Share Posted March 15, 2007 My post above might have sounded a bit harsh. No, no... not at all. You have it exactly right. I'll probably take it to the track a lot, but nothing like getting into a lot racing with it (with the mods done to it, it probably wouldn't even be allowed in the majority of the classes). If it were a decent amount of savings, like say 50 to 100 lbs., I would probably do it right away. Being a 4-door I'm sure there's a decent amount of weight there but that's what I need to find out first. If nothing else, I'm wanting to build a Z32 race car so I'll probably mess around with it on that since I now know it should work out pretty well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boodlefoof Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 I will be using aluminum paneling throughout on my 240-Z project. If you consider the difference in weight between 20ga steel (1.5 pounds/sq.ft.) versus .050'' aluminum (.7 pounds/sq.ft.) you'll save about 20 pounds for a 25 sq.ft. floor (assuming no additional bracing). I'm also doing the firewalls, rear deck, fenderwells, etc. all in aluminum and had estimated that when I was done I would save about 60 pounds. I plan to use rivets and a bead of 3M 5200 adhesive (it is made for boats). A lot of the kit-car guys use this to affix aluminum body panels on GT40s, Cobras and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtcookson Posted March 15, 2007 Author Share Posted March 15, 2007 Awesome, good info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustinOlson Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 As far as noise dampening, wouldn't aluminum transmit more road, engine, exhaust, ect noise into the cabin? Justin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TeamNissan Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 I thought there was a post about this not too long ago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m1ghtymaxXx Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 Suprised no mentioned aluminums resistance to corrosion yet. That alone might make it worthwile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtcookson Posted March 27, 2007 Author Share Posted March 27, 2007 Heh... yeah, especially with all of the rust in my Maxima. There's enough rust to make it not worth restoring... I'm actually considering getting another rust free Maxima just due to how much rust there is but with the project I want to undertake there's a chance this one might work out. Its definitely going to be a lengthy project though. I'll definitely put some pictures up and such if I do go the aluminum route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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