Quote:
Originally Posted by westva
I am building HM 2003. Hurricane no longer uses aluminum on the outside of the foot boxes. I am thinking about making the aluminum panels and attaching them to the outside of the foot boxes. My plan is to attach them with 3/16 rivets. Is there any reason not to use the aluminum panels? Can I expect any problems such as the rivets not holding in the fiberglass tub? Should I use washers and/or a strip of aluminum on the inside of the tub to help hold the rivets from pulling through?
I do have the heat shield tape on the foot boxes.
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I've been a long time fan of the Hurricane product, westva....has the "new" Hurricane stopped offering the aluminum cover
option? The footboxes were never aluminum, but Hurricane did offer an aluminum overlay.
If Hurricane has stopped offering that option, I can see that you would be able to do as you suggested, but I agree with Jeff that you should leave a small air gap between the aluminum covers and the fiberglass footboxes. That will provide a bit of heat resistance, and we all know that the footboxes can get VERY warm from the heat radiated by the headers. On my cobra replica (sadly, NOT a Hurricane), there is a small heat shield between the header and the footbox on the driver's side, but none on the passenger's side. The difference is quite noticable on any day when the ambient temperature is 80* or above.
I am going to approach the heating of the footbox area by using a radiant barrier on the inside of the cabin, between the fiberglass and the carpeting, but if it is not adequate, I'll be adding a layer of metal of some kind, aluminum or stainless steel, to the front of the footboxes in the engine compartment, and it will be separated from the fiberglass by perhaps as much as 3/4".
Good luck on your new Hurricane.....
Cheers from Dugly
