Question - I have a CMC square tube chassis with fiberglass flooring and fiberglass shift rod tunnel which is open at the bottom, this concerns me. Being that it's open and any road debris could get up in the shift rod tube or just dirt into the shifter bushing.
Has anyone ever closed this up? I'm thinking putting a piece of aluminum diamond plate or just making a removable panel from thick fiberglass mat.
Any thoughts?
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Can’t see a downside.
Both generations of our tube chassis leave the underside of the tunnel open during manufacturing and assembly and both are completely sealed up before they hit the road. It makes assembly MUCH easier when it comes to running fuel lines, shifter, brake lines, ebrake cables, etc... but I feel that it all needs to be protected from the elements before hitting the road. Just my $0.02
My vote is for a removable panel or two. I had to use a Dremel to remove the fiberglass panels when I needed access to the tunnel on my Beck Speedster, but I made them easily detachable for service access. That was a Godsend more than once.
@Lane Anderson posted:My vote is for a removable panel or two. I had to use a Dremel to remove the fiberglass panels when I needed access to the tunnel on my Beck Speedster, but I made them easily detachable for service access. That was a Godsend more than once.
Early cars the center tunnel was bolted, sealed and then fiberglassed over. We now leave out the last part (fiberglassed shut) so they are still sealed but easier to access if needed.
So how did you guys fasten the removable panels over the tunnel opening? I want it to be removable without having to see nuts or bolts in the interior. What about the ends?
Use little sheet metal screws; the sharp ends will be buried under the carpet. Or use nutserts @ quarter/20 or smaller.
Use aluminum pop rivets. For the amount of times you'll go in there you can drill them out easy enough. They're cheap too.
@bkelly posted:So how did you guys fasten the removable panels over the tunnel opening? I want it to be removable without having to see nuts or bolts in the interior. What about the ends?
our center tunnel sits atop a 1x2 tube on edge, so any fastener we use is hidden inside the tubes. If yours is not hidden then I'd just use short pop rivets, they are easy enough to cover and if they wind up too tall you can always buck them down flat/flatter.
