I was wondering if any one could think of a reason, legal or otherwise, I couldn’t have plexiglass floor pans. They would have to be rather thick of course. They wouldn’t be load bearing either. I will make braces for the seats so the only thing really resting on the floor will be my feet.
Thanks for any info
Al

Well, you can legally do it, but I can think of a few saftey reasons on why you shouldn't.

1. as the plexi gets older a rock hitting the bottom could shatter it
2. it can shatter/ crack with a heavy enough hit anyway
3. Exhaust heat, could cause it to loose shape/ stability.


also, it scratches very easily. dust and dirt is just going to take it's toll. it will look horrible in a short period on any kind of driver.

What about Lexan? Would it hold up any better? Would 3/4 be thick enough that shattering wouldn’t a problem? What are the lenses in my safety goggles made of?
Al

* I think the heat issue would be easy to get around.

lexan is a polycarbonate, where plexi is an acrylic. lexan is more resistant to cracking, and such, but will still break down over time/ scratch the same.

saftey glass lenses are in no way related to the strength of plexi/ lexan, some do have polycarbonate lenses, but it's thin, and made diffrently.


it's not worth the hassle/ cost really. shure you could get 3/4" lexan and it might be ok for a year or so, but your talking $$$$$$$ for that stuff, then figure, any car was designed with a sheet metal floor, less than 1/8" thick, your going way thicker, how are you going to bend the lexan for the firewall kickup? the transmission tunnel? how about the small amount of heat that the transmission will put into the lexan?

there was a car made of Plexi in the 30's ( Model A I think, display/ dealer car, 1 off ), but the floor was steel, just somthing to think about

Plexiglass will crack. Lexan will not. Most bulletproof windows in banks are either laminated tempered glass, but most around here are Lexan. No reason you can't do it if it is thick enough. But price a piece of 4 x 8 x 1/2" Lexan and hold on for the ride You are talking $500-1000 for a sheet.

boltboy's question got me thinking. If you are doing this to possibly show of some chassis work or polished trans etc. may just do a smallish Plexiglas window, maybe 1' x 1', in the appropriate locations. Then, as the piece gets scratched or warped over time, it can be replaced fairly inexpensively. Done right, it might be sorta cool.

I seen it used for the floor in a pick up show truck to display the chassis work. I'm sure it was a trailer queen though!!

Youngster

So plexiglass is defiantly out. Lexan seems like it has limited potential. I found 3/4 x 24 x 48 is about $115. I have found different web sites that say lexan starts to deform at around 285-300 degrees. What is the average temp around a manual transmission? I was thinking instead of doing the whole floor pans I could make sort of a box around the trans where the trans tunnel would be. I was also thinking I could light it in some way, maybe with led’s.

Thanks for the advice
Al

I am not a structural Engineer, but I have a Haunted House every year at my House and build a bunch of new Props-anyway, I built a Prop where a person has to walk over a box with the top made of clear Lexan, there's a person underneath, they flip the light on In the Box and scare the person above (it is hilarious-oops! My dark side is showing)-

Anyway, I had a Engineer friend figure out how thick it had to be to withstand the weight (I didn't want anyone hurt)-I had to buy a 1" thick piece-it was VERY heavy (and expensive), so with Seats and all of the Interior components I'd think it might be tough to have anything other than a small piece-

So YOUR the guy that scared the crap out of my kids!!!!!!

On the subject of strength, I would think there is quite a bit of difference between a person standing on lexan and a person sitting on a seat and just putting their feet on it. In fact, if it's just going over the trans hump (with NO feet on it), I'd say 1/4" would be more than adequate.

[QUOTE=cboy]So YOUR the guy that scared the crap out of my kids!!!!!!


Hee Hee Hee (evil laugh)