Race car / sheet metal interior ideas?

[1fast97gsx]

I'm looking for some ideas of custom fabricating a race car / sheet metal interior that looks "clean" but also provides weight savings. Car has a cage in it and the cage ruins the stock interior look and where the cage runs through the dash the way the dash is cut just looks bad so I'd like to pull everything out and redesign it. The car is stricly a weekend warrior / track car anyways. I'm looking to have 2 front seats, custom dash to mount guages etc, battery and fuel cell in hatch. I'm more looking for ideas or pics of other peoples stuff ... I did some searching on the site and even google, but it appears with these cars this isn't as common as with camaros etc....

This is a 2g 1997 gsx.

 

[turboking15]

I just did sheet metal door panels and mounted the fuel cell and fuel cell box in my 2g i will try to get some pics up for you

 

[1fast97gsx]

I just did sheet metal door panels and mounted the fuel cell and fuel cell box in my 2g i will try to get some pics up for you

Please do, I'm having a hard time finding much of anything helpful. Thanks.

 

[gixrman]

I just did sheet metal door panels and mounted the fuel cell and fuel cell box in my 2g i will try to get some pics up for you

Where did you mount it? I was planing on removing the stock tank for a smaller 10gallon tank and mounting the battery on the other side.

 

[turboking15]

Here is where i put my fuel cell. I cut out the old trunk pan and made a new one from sheet metal with a cover for the sump and screwed it all the way around the edge to the part of the trunk that didnt get cut out. Then i sealed the whole thing with automotive sealant.

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Here you can see the spot welds on the trunk pan. Those are from a piece of c channel on the bottom side that i used to brace things. Also in this picture the sump opening is facing the wrong direction it should be facing the rear of the car.

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And here is the finished product in a metal box with hinged and latching lid. Im not 100% sure on if this is legal or not for racing but I have seen a few cars run like this, if anyone can chime in it would be great.

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And these are the door panels I made

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[eclipse gsx]

i wanna delete my trunk where the extra tire goes i want to put sheet metal but i wanted to see pictures first thanks and nice

 

[1gDSM4g63]

You might as well gut out the doors because your roll cages offers you the protection anyways.

I don't know what you can do for a 2g center console but I did this.

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[Turbo Monk3y]

Here is where i put my fuel cell. I cut out the old trunk pan and made a new one from sheet metal with a cover for the sump and screwed it all the way around the edge to the part of the trunk that didnt get cut out. Then i sealed the whole thing with automotive sealant.

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Here you can see the spot welds on the trunk pan. Those are from a piece of c channel on the bottom side that i used to brace things. Also in this picture the sump opening is facing the wrong direction it should be facing the rear of the car.

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]

Your sump is facing backwards? I was under the assumption if you had 1-2 gallons left of fuel and your car has somewhere north of 400+whp the initial force of acceleration will allow for a period of time where the pump will run dry because all the fuel will be towards the back of the fuel cell? THis has the potential to run lean Isn't that the reason 99.9% of all sumps face towards the rear of the car? Or maybe its just late and my mind is totally off ?

 

[matt98eclipse]

QUOTE=1gDSM4g63;152194099]You might as well gut out the doors because your roll cages offers you the protection anyways.

I don't know what you can do for a 2g center console but I did this.

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[/QUOTE]

Dam man im really digin the gauge setup.

 

[gixrman]

Thats what I was going to sat about the tank facing the wrong way. But good fab work on the sheet metal. Also check with were you plan on racing some tracks do not allow sump feed tanks. And you just cant gut the doors they would have no structual rigidity, just flop around.

 

[turboking15]

As far as the sump facing the wrong way i realized that after i had the trunk pan all setup, so i then had to flip the center section to put the sump towards the back, I just dont have any pics of that yet.

 

[dsmtalon2008]

Anyone have any pictures of a sheetmetal dash? I am also looking to make my own dash for cage fitment issues to.

Thanks, Derrick

 

[1fast97gsx]

Just wanted to bring this back and see what others have done..

 

[50trimgst]

Yes I'm very interested in the trunk. If anyone else made one?

 

[Spdfreak]

Here's how i did mine just to give you some ideas

 

[schemauer]

Here are some ideas

 

[bostonhatcher]

I'm all for weight savings but how is a sheet metal door panel supposed to be lighter than a plastic door panel?

 

[BlackMount]

I'm all for weight savings but how is a sheet metal door panel supposed to be lighter than a plastic door panel?

I would just gut everything but the dash and install some nice racing seats, harness, and roll cage and call it a day. One would think adding in that sheet metal interior would add alot of weight over just being stripped down, unless you used tin foil sheets or something...kinda defeats the purpose if you ask me. Not to mention all the random rattling from vibrations you'll be chasing down.

 

[turboking15]

The sheet metal panels i made were from thin aluminum sheeting. I forget the size but i want to say 22ga. They dont even weigh a pound a piece and look better than an open door and leave plenty of room for the roll cage. And suprisingly they dont rattle like one would think. Also if you are worrying about rattles from sheet metal door panels then gutting a car down this for probably isnt for you. The whole point of doing these modifications is to make the car as light as possible to go as fast as possible. function > form

 

[BlackMount]

Last time I did serious gutting in a car there was nothing to rattle in it XD

 

[rlacasse1]

You might as well gut out the doors because your roll cages offers you the protection anyways.

I don't know what you can do for a 2g center console but I did this.

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What gauges are those?