Stiffer pan
 

Hi

I doing a turbo T4 conversion in my bug, and yesterday when i lifted the body off of the pan I began to think of different ways to make the pan stiffer. I will eventually add a rollcage, but right now I don't got the money nor time to do it.
What I came up with was this:

http://rearengine.com/vwt1/ascf0019_red.jpg
http://rearengine.com/vwt1/ascf0021_red.jpg
I was thinking 25x25 mm tubing.

How do you think this will turn out? Will it be worth the effort and time in terms of stiffnes?

/Rba

you should also think about a half hoop that goes over the tunnel. They sell braces/stiffeners for subis and evos that go accross the rear floor boards.

Hi

I found these on the net somewhere. Aircooled net seel them as well. I reckon that they would help. Has anyone used them?

Steve

Would you plan to run a roll cage also or just stiffen the floor/chasis?

Floorpan stiffners

Jason

Here's what you can do yourself...1 1/4" x .120" square tubing and bent with a mapp gas bottle...Not too difficult...:)

http://www.manxgallery.org/gallery/a...rame.sized.jpg

http://www.manxgallery.org/gallery/a...sett.sized.jpg

Hi

Very nice work. Will you weld the side members in place?

Steve

boratuner: I plan to use a rollcage, but the right material (ductile and strong) is not easy to come across nor cheap where I live (northen Sweden), so I was planning to strengthen the pan first, when I already have lifted the body.

ellobo: That looks really nice. Do you know how well it works?

How are you going to mount the pan to the body? :confused:

Hi

I think he will be drilling holes through the tubes, he's probably not up to that point as yet.

Steve

I have just one comment to this: TOO HEAVY!

Roll cage incorporated to front and rear struts is more than enough. seeam welding the body also help.

Do you mean welding the pan and the body together? or seam weld the floor pan to the frame? I think you mean the first right?

No i didnt mean the first. then you cant dissasamble later!

I mean seamweld the bodyjoints where sheetmetal is only spotwelded.
the roofplate is not even welded, just rolled on!

Welding the seams will do very little. VWs don't develop stress cracks at the spot welded joints, therefore the spot welds are plenty strong enough.
It is well known that auto makers have reduced the # of spot welds in order to speed up manufacturing. These improvements didn't happen until the late 80s, long after our cars were made.

Why not seam-weld the pan and body together to create a unibody?

Every other auto manufacturer in the world does it that way for a reason. The argument that you can't take it apart afterwords seems odd. Why take it apart again? If you're in a wreck that does serious damage to the body you'd think some damage would be done to the pan right? Porsche 356's are set up that way for the added rigidity from my understanding.