Fiberglass pans
 

I am generally trying to find a mostly rustfree car for my next GL project as I was fortunate enough to do when I bought my 1302 in 2004. However, a 1303 has caught my eye. A visual inspection showed it might be a good candidate but it would most likely need pans.

Are fiberglass pans worth looking into? I wouldn't have to worry about rust and I would save a little weight. I'm just not too sure about securing seat tracks onto them. On the other hand, I have ridden in f/g boats under duress and they held up well.

I would worry most about how the pans are secured to the structure. They would have to be secured very well to have a ridged platform for the rest of the car. Then there is the matter of securing seat tracks and safety belts, etc. I am sure it could be done, but it would have to be done right.

I have a fibreglass Clan Crusader. Although it is commendably strong as a complete shell (I exceeded the FIA motorsport requirements without a roll cage) the floor is worringly flimsy. Fibreglass' strength relies on the shape of the components so boxed shapes are the strongest. Unfortunately a floor has to be flat so that does not suit. Also, the floor in a bug imparts some torsional strength to the pan that would be difficult with a fibreglass floor simply fixed to the tunnel and crossmembers. Structural gluing is an option but that would be beyond most repairers. there is nothing wrong with steel as a material its just that it needs periodic looking after. I bet if you spent as much time looking after the underside as the rest of the car then you wouldn't be contemplating fibreglass floors.

Clive

Installing the pans will both take about the same amount of time so I would go Metal. No chance of delamination of the layup. Out gassing of the resins Stress cracks, and so on. Most fiberglass floors are secured with bonding resin and sheet metal screws, (at least thats what the manufacturer suggested )Which gives a stress point at each screw hole. New metal finishing materials and rust proofing materials are state of the art and should give you years of service. At least you will know when a metal floor needs attention, Not too sure on the fiberglass.

Thanks, guys. Usually when I see a car that needs pans, it needs a lot of other stuff, too. I haven't heard back but I am hoping to see this car for a drive, etc. this weekend. I will go with metal if I need to do a replacement job.

I brought this up with another person and he thought metal would also be better because it is heavier in that it would lower the overall center of gravity of the entire car. All of the other concerns mentioned above make sense.

Look around for the H/D pans. They are thicker and feel much more like the OE pans.

Treat this as a bit of BS. The weight difference using fibreglass pans over say a 20g steel one would be small so the if you could calculate the difference in the CofG I doubt whether it would reach a millimeter let alone anything significant. Then you look at the effect of moving the CofG on the roll couple and dive/squat and it would not be noticeable.

Now if you had a CF roof and Lexan glass...................................

Clive.