Making a 1st GEN unibody stiff. Expansion Foam and Fiberglass!

[DSMRevolution]

This summer I am planning to do a little bit of work to my suspension. I am interested in stiffening up my DSM considerably. Now tell me what you think of this...



To stiffen the unibody I thought about using some Solar 2 Part Kit expansion foam and putting it throughout the body of the car. This would be like in the rocker panels and where they meet the floorboard (if that made any sense). I guess this foam gets really hard and would work good for something like this.

Also I would be laying about 5 layers of heavy fiberglass mat in the rear cargo hatch area floor. Sanding, and more sanding, then covering the mat in resin. Possibly throughout the car depending on how it turns out.

I understand that this won’t exactly take the place of a roll cage or anything so I might be considering that too. One thing though, the foam and mat would be extremely light. Has anybody ever heard of somebody doing something like this on a DSM?



Anyways those are just a few ideas I read about in the past that I found interesting. Please tell me what you think! Thanks

 

[NDgsx]

They make foams designed specificaly for filling unibdoy members. I can't remember the name of the companies off the top of my head. I know SCC wrote about it a while back, I think it was their 300zx project. Email Dave Coleman can you probably tell you if you email him.

The fiberglass wouldn't do much.

 

[DSMRevolution]

Ok awesome. Thanks a lot, I'll email them!

 

[ACM]

2-pack structural foam, get it from boatyards, it's used to fill chambers in boats to aid bouyancy. Be _very_ careful using it - it expands like crazy, sticks to everything and will split spot-welds apart as if they weren't there. You must ensure there are sufficient vent ports for excess foam to escape as well. I split a composite bodyshell open by miscalculating the volume required.

If you plan on repainting your car, either seam-weld or increase the spot-weld frequency to 1 per inch around the door, hatch and windscreen apertures, along the sill seams, firewall and floorpan. This will stiffen the structure dramatically as well.

Charles Moss

 

[sids]

I did it, got an aftermarket sunroof and the damn thing creaked and moaned like crazy, after disassembling it, I found out that its not the sunroof but the a pillar section that was creaking, metal on metal, I first filled up the area with skiaflex, its like winshield adhesive filler, when it dries it hardens tough then expander foamed the entire roof, in all seams, welds joints, used about 3 cans all in all. voila no more creaking.

now i got some on my seats and they're a bi*** to remove, anyone got any ideas how do i get rid of it?

 

[igs]

I don't know about the foam, but fiberglass is not stiff at all. It's better to weld iron bars back there.