A little bit of a mystery that I need help with. My 63 FHC, build date Jan. 2nd, 1963. As shown in the following pictures, I have 6 welded captive nuts in the floor area, basically under the seats but right up against the tunnel. 3 on each side of the center tunnel. They are marked with green tape in the photos. They are stout. 3/8" UNF.
I have seen them since the beginning of paint and body. I assumed they were for either the exhaust or the heat shield. But as I look into, there are lateral studs welded to the sides of the tunnel for the exhaust hangers. And as I look through the thread linked below, the exhaust shield would be held in with pop rivets. The SPC confirms this. If I lay the heat shield into place, the forward 4 holes are covered. I could use these holes to attach the heat shield but I am bothered about what I am missing here. Anyone?
So I’m probably going to appear dumb here but…
I thought all E-Type floors covered the underside of the prop-shaft tunnel, yet yours appears to be open. Could it be that a PO cut out that section of the floor for some reason, and had a removable panel that covered the underside of the tunnel, held in place by 6 stout bolts…?
To the best of my knowledge, the original floor panel extended laterally from the outer top edge of the inner sill, around and down to the floor where it overlapped the opposite floor panel in the center of the car.
That’s the way I fabricated mine, copying the originals way back before aftermarket replacements became available.
So Harvey’s looks like it’s been modified.
Well, that certainly casts things in a different light. It is an area that is typically obscured by the center mufflers but let me see if I can find some pertinent photos. Was it maybe a way to allow the driveshaft to be disconnected and dropped, in order to allow the transmission to be pushed to the rear, in order to replace the clutch without pulling the engine? Wow!
Upon closer inspection, if the floor was cut out (and I’m not doubting it was, just saying) then whoever did it did a very clean job.
In the picture below, what is the purpose of the two short stiffener plates with captive nuts (next to the longer stiffener plates with the captive nuts for the seat rails)?
Unless it’s another one of those weird things that the factory did, I have never seen an E-type without that lower panel in. Yes, it will certainly make it much easier to do U joints, and in situ clutch jobs, but it also probably considerably weakens the monocoque through that section.
I bet @CliveR has some engineering insight.
I’m hoping someone will recognize it as some rare prototype, worth millions. More likely I have the more common “bodge job”.
Yes…your spot on unfortunatly…i think from the close up photo you can see its not factory…at least the crossmember hasnt been cutout and a bolt in section inserted
Seat belt anchor points?
I have seat belt anchor points, that look to be factory, on the side of the tunnel.
The only other thing I can think of is a single point mount for an over the seat back shoulder harness for each seating position. This is on your '63 FHC right?
What generation of car is the red one? The seat belt attachment points on my Series 2 are in the wall of the transmission tunnel, but maybe earlier cars had them in the floor? At what point were provisions for seat belts made by the factory?
[Update] Yes, they are seat belt mounting points. Service Bulletin N.11 introduced them. The document is dated January 1962, so they probably happened earlier on the manufacturing floor. Subsequently Service Bulletin N.46 dated July 1967 described the inboard seat belt mounting points being moved from the floor to the side of the transmission tunnel.
I think someone has cut the floor out and made a panel for service maybe some sort of engine swap? That never proceeded My car has none of those bolts it’s a s 1
So a couple of points about seat belts. I discovered last year, when doing my cantrails, that there was an anchor point for a shoulder harness, underneath the quarter window. See photo.
The seat belt bolting that I have is all 7/16".
There are captive nuts in the floors behind the seats, in the rear outer corners. These captive nuts are 7/16".
There are captive nuts on the side of the tunnels, which are 7/16". Since my floor is cut away, I can show them to you from the bottom.
But the captive nuts in question, the most rearward 1 of 3 in a row in my original pictures, are 3/8". So I can’t see that any of them were “factory” for a seat belt, as they are too small. But then a question still remains, as shown in the picture of the red car (a 63 belonging to @ScotThompson ) the factory put in two reinforced 3/8" captive nuts and I can’t figure what they are for.
Sorry Harvey could it have been for a racing mode of sorts I don’t reconize those bolt holes for anything factory, aftermarket muffler’s?
Harvey,
I have updated my post above concerning the change of location of the inboard seat belt mounting points from the floor to the transmission tunnel. Since your floors have clearly been modified at some point, I would assume that the transmission tunnel was replaced with the later one (with seat belt mounting points) at the same time. As I indicated in my first post, I assume that the 6 x 3/8" captive nuts are there to secure a removable panel over the bottom of the transmission tunnel. Maybe the panel was never made, or has subsequently been lost?
Those are the original seatbelt mounting points appropriate for a '63 car, which didn’t move to the transmission tunnel until much later. I can’t tell from the photo whether they are 3/8" or 7/16" but either way I think they are for seat belts.
Harvey my 2+2 project has an open tunnel like that and no extra bracing there and you have to have it open to fit the handbrake cable and mechanism ….however if you think it’s a problem put a 2 mm tieplate along the whole length and the shield underneath it …… I’m no engineer but I’m sure that would stiffen it up considerably
I’ve contacted Scot Thompson. Tomorrow he is going to look at those holes shown in the picture and get back with me. If they are 7/16" then case closed.
Danny, now that you mention it, my 2+2 was open with a heavy structural cover plate. So that is my excuse for not recognizing the deviation on the 63 FHC. I’m going to cut a piece of sheet steel to cover the opening, using the captive nuts to secure it. I agree it will be plenty stout.