I got a kick out of reading about Roger's floor-board repair, as I too
performed a similar non-standard repair 2 or 3 years ago. Impatient at
waiting for new footwells, I cut out all the rot and rustoleumed the
remaining metal around the perimeter. I put in 2 (on each side)
fore-and-aft steel channels (fastened to the bridges directly in front of
the seat and up by the toe-board) for solid support and cut out new floors
from 1/2-inch plywood. The underside of the plywood was encased in some
alum newspaper printing-plates and placed on/attached to the steel channels,
while my sins inside were hidden with a liberal amount of bondo. My
"temporary" half-assed repairs worked so well that I may never get around to
doing it right. (The best news was that the sills and side-panels appeared
in real solid shape.)
There was consolation, however, when I noted that the new C-5 Corvette has
similar sandwich/composite floor construction. But they only use balsa,
whereas my Spit has genuwine plywood. Total direct costs were close to
zero, as I had the channel behind my shed and the alum plates and plywood
(plus the ever-present family-size can of bondo) stowed in my dinky
workshop.
Ree Gurley , Silver Spring, MD, 78 Spit FM73070U O
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