Re: mail Digest for 6 Dec 2004 in hour 0:00

[Matt Haas <mhaas@xxxxxxx>]

<snip>
> The fiberglass remark is unwarranted though. You obviously don't 
> understand the strength of fiberglass! There are entire boat hulls made 
> from it with minimal wood bracing embedded inside, why wouldn't it serve 
> as a floor? Car floors aren't really a structural member. Sure they help
<snip>

As someone who drove a car with no front floors to speak of, all I can say 
to this is bull hooey and I invite you to chop them out and see how well 
the car does. Of course, I'm not sure how you'd drive it since the seats 
mount to the floor but I'd bet you'll be pretty unhappy when the car caves 
in on itself after you hit your first hard bump (the frame sills attach to 
the floor also). The simple fact is that on any car, the floor is just as 
important to the structure as the roof or the sides. In fact, anything that 
isn't bolted on is a structural part of the car (on my 1996 Ram, even the 
windshield is a structural part). Do some parts contribute more than other? 
Sure, but the floors contribute a bunch more than you think.

And yes, entire boats are made of fiberglass but you don't see large flat 
sections of fiberglass that don't have reinforcements. Corvettes? The early 
ones crack badly due to body flex (and older cars flex a lot more than 
newer ones) and had full perimeter frames. The newer ones have a huge steel 
frame under them and the body is mostly for looks and aerodynamics. Take a 
look at http://www.mattsoldcars.com/gallery/PowerTour2003/page6.shtml for a 
picture of a previous generation (C5) Corvette frame looks like.


mhaas@xxxxxxx
Cincinnati, OH
http://www.mattsoldcars.com
1966 Rambler Rebel
1968 Rambler American sedan
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