Bear with me as I think I have vibration white finger from another grinding session!!

What is the best material and method of attaching the floor?

Aluminium and rivets?

Steel and weld?

steel and weld for rigidity

Ali and rivet

Bond with sikaflex and rivet every inch or so. If you weld it it WILL distort and 'boing' every time you step on it. Which will p*ss you off quite quickly. I don't care what anyone says in reply it wont drop off or be any less rigid I did it 5 years ago and last time I saw the car the floor was still firmly stuck to the car

Obviously you should use the the right rivets and bath sealant wont do instead of sikaflex


Edited to say - has to be steel btw for a 750MC Locost





[Edited on 7/5/08 by D Beddows]

if you want to avoid the bong then cut the floor a fraction smaller than the hole. tack weld in each corner, then half way each panel. then fully weld - doing opposite corners an inch or two at a time. by making it a fraction smaller you'll stretch the steel into the hole and you'll get no boing.

Of do what it did and fully weld the outside and stich weld the inside every few inches. Somehow i've got the deformation going down permanently so it never boings.

Hi first off this is a LOCOST CHAMPIONSHIP car so MUST BE a STEEL floor.

Do not want any one else turning up with an alloy floor and being well miffed that he was advised wrong.

Without doubt the best method is to bond and rivet. The regulations where changed to allow this for the reason that those that where just placed over/under the chassis rails and then stitch welded round like most manufacturers do. where found to have a small problem due to the fact that the cars are raced in all conditions Inc SNOW. That problem is that the floor of the base tube was rotting away very quickly due to the weld removing any protection on the steel and no real way of getting enough protection back in.

This why bonding and riveting is best as it allows full protection of the tubes ie no bare areas that cant be protected and fully sealed by the bonding agent. It also means that in the event of an accident repair ( remember it's racing ) the floor can easily be removed ect. Or if the car moves out of locost to another championship the floor can be changed for an alloy one later.

If you are going to weld a steel floor in the best method is to do as MikeR
has just said as this allows the the full area of the tube to be given protection. However ideally it would want to be fully seam welded to make the best job for strength. But all that heat is not doing the chassis any good at all.

Cheers Matt

Ps sorry Dave missed you edit for steel floor.

[Edited on 8/5/08 by procomp]