What’s underneath the square ridge in the footwell on a VS?

Heavy 20 ga. 2 x 4 box  steel / nothing is functional in it if you have a need to drill into it 

Drill a pilot hole and use a self-tapping screw to attach.

Thanks! I heard a horror story from @majorkahuna about drilling somewhere close to here and wrecking a bunch of wiring. That was the last thing I wanted.

I Have have heard many people tell the tale of "the ridge"  some find gold others find oil....   Tell us what you find Ryan..

Tebs

@Former Member, can you recommend a book on the subject?

Burn off the FG and fluffy carpet and you have!

Run the drill backwards into the carpet. Once you melt through it without pulling any fibers, you can reverse the drill and do a pilot hole.

I was drilling near the hood latch release. There is a wiring harness under the carpeted wall there. My drilling caused a massive short to the electrical system. Typical dumb **** owner. I was mounting a magnet to hold a handgun just in case.....

You guys are great. I ask a vague question and I get humor and wisdom.

Can anyone recommend a flexible plastic piece to help me stop rubbing the carpet raw? (And so I can be more like my idol, and prolific author, @Terry Nuckels)

Machine turned aluminum panel?

JB Weld or ductape:}

Rather than running the drill backwards, just dip the drill bit about an inch into paste floor wax (Butcher’s, Johnson’s, whatever) and it won’t pull the carpet.  I have a tin of floor wax in the shop just for that reason.  Had it for 20 years, now...

For a wear guard, how about a suitable length piece of aluminum angle stock, like 2” X 2”, mounted to the channel just behind the foot rest where your foot would ride on the channel.  A piece of aluminum diamond plate angle stock would look even cooler.  Autozone has that stock, usually flat but it can be bent easily and would look cool.

Ryan, this was pretty simple to make up, and is held on with just velcro strips on the back. No holes to drill and no mods to the car itself. Wipes clean with a damp sponge and easy enough to replace if needed.

I was seeing wear on that same edge, but on the passenger side.

Got some vinyl (at my wife's fabric shop) that matched the color of the seats and trim pretty close. My wife sewed a simple hem around the edge and I glued on the Velcro strips.

Just curious. If my memory serves me (which doesn’t say much) in original Speedsters, the flooring is a rubber mat. Is there a functional or economic reason as to why replicas use carpet at the floor?  

i use black rubber mat- same ribbed pattern as the originals clean, works/looks great IMHO.  and it gave me the motivation to modify the passenger foot well to the 45-50 deg slope like oroginals... mostly becaise my wife was complaining about not having a confortable place to rest her feet while driving shotgun.

 https://www.wolfsburgwest.com/...st.cfm?ID=113863703K

ps- comes in light  grey and tan as well if i recall.

Lfepardo posted:

i use black rubber mat- same ribbed pattern as the originals clean, works/looks great IMHO.  and it gave me the motivation to modify the passenger foot well to the 45-50 deg slope like oroginals... mostly becaise my wife was complaining about not having a confortable place to rest her feet while driving shotgun.

 https://www.wolfsburgwest.com/...st.cfm?ID=113863703K

 

ps- comes in light  grey and tan as well if i recall.

That's really nice looking. I remember wanting that look in Penny when she was being built by JPS. John went to the LAPS and bought a set of universal mats then had a monkey with scissors cut them to kinda fit. Yep, I paid a lot more than the $32 bucks from Wolfsburg West. They looked really good in the garbage can as I recall...

Sacto Mitch posted:

 

Ryan, this was pretty simple to make up, and is held on with just velcro strips on the back. No holes to drill and no mods to the car itself. Wipes clean with a damp sponge and easy enough to replace if needed.

I was seeing wear on that same edge, but on the passenger side.

Got some vinyl (at my wife's fabric shop) that matched the color of the seats and trim pretty close. My wife sewed a simple hem around the edge and I glued on the Velcro strips.

 

 

I've found that the carpet wears out in two spots from rubbing: On the left ridge by the floor and on the tunnel by the throttle. I protected both with 1/16” aluminum plates. These are easy to bend and shape, and look stock. I used sheet metal screws to secure the left one, but found this to be overkill. All you need is Velcro, which I used on the right pad which has been in place for two years now.   

Kevin:  There is no functional reason for carpeting Replicas.  Only an aesthetic reason, like it looks nice.  OTOH, carpeting in these cars is impractical because it's harder to clean and it's a mega-PITA if the floor carpeting gets wet.

Much better, in my mind, is the original (or something close to it) rubber floor mat with a pair of color-coordinated Coco mats on top of that, but not the Coco mats with a rubber or vinyl backing.  Rather, get the Coco mats with nothing on the bottom.  The dirt/sand/whatever then goes right through to the rubber mat.  Pull the coco mats out, vacuum the rubber mat, flop the cocos back in and you're off.  Like, five minutes.

IIRC, The OEM 356 floor mat was a rugged, 1/8" thick rubber utility mat.  Can't remember if it was three separate pieces (left, right and tunnel) or one big, molded piece.

And Coco mats seemingly never wear out.

Gordon Nichols posted:

...And Coco mats seemingly never wear out...

I beg to differ, Gordon.

I had a set of coco mats in my old 2002 and after 23 years they were already showing some wear.

Another 20 years and they would have been completely shot.

WOLFGANG posted:

Burn off the FG and fluffy carpet and you have!

This kinda makes you think about how well protected we are in these cars. A semi could run you over and you could survive. I mean just look at that sturdy frame.

Maybe if you had 31" tires on the Speedster.  The steel is all very low in the car.  It looks like it would be fairly easy to install door side intrusion beams though.

Rusty S posted:

WOLFGANG posted:

Burn off the FG and fluffy carpet and you have!

 

This kinda makes you think about how well protected we are in these cars. A semi could run you over and you could survive. I mean just look at that sturdy frame.

Gee! I'm feeling better now.

Safety is all relative.  I always think I'm in a 4-wheel motorcycle when I take the Speedster out - there simply isn't much protection around you.

And it's relative like when I was hurtling down a mountain pass in Colorado on my bicycle, deep in a tuck to gain on one of my friends whom I had just sped past.  I look down and see I'm just creeping up on 45mph and I thought,

"I wonder.... How many months would it take to recover from a crash, right now, at my age?         Maybe never?   Hmmmmmm.............."

No longer immortal as I once thought I was, I backed it on down to something more sane, like 35 or so.  That was when I noticed the mountain streams and the wildlife off on the sides of the road and a couple of really pretty hikers walking up the road, which you don't see at 45mph because you're focused, watching ahead for minuscule bumps to avoid tweaking your front wheel and throwing you.   Trust me, Lycra-Spandex provides zero protection against road rash.

Still exposed as ever on my bike, but at least my wife wouldn't yell at me for being an idiot.  That friend I passed?  He went down two days before on a trail when he hit some warmed crack sealer and his bike slid out from under him.  His thigh looked worse.  That's why HE was going slower.

"Road Rash - The Badge of Honor"

Now this is a manly dead pedal.

Too late to save the carpet.