Increasing Flat Floorpan/Undertray Area

Well Chaps and Chapettes, having sorted Katos little niggles out this month, I've decided to embark on my 'Ferrari Floorplan Extension'
As you can see from the before and after pictures Katos powerhouse area has improved alot in the year I have had him. However I'm finding that the road grime does seem to swirl up into the engine bay area making it a serious task to keep clean.
Some years ago I added a huge flat floor to the entire length of my Aston V8 mainly to keep the freshly restored cars underside in pristine condition which works brilliantly, but with the side effect of keeping the engine clean too.(See Picture at the beginning of the post)
It does annoy me that the key electricals for the engine ie 2X ECUs, fuel pump, regualor and filter take a right old hammering from the elements by being situated in the insane position of the wheel arch!
So as you can see from the diagram I intend to finnish the job Ferrari never got around to and fill in the key areas that are exposed. By my Aston standards this is a little weekend job so it should be finished by Sunday.
I will post up exact dimentions and details so you Guys can do the same if you wish.
The conversion will NOT be drilling into the chassis tubes or anything like that, it will be quick, solid and completely reversible.
See the diargam, for the fill in areas..
Also pics show how corroded things get and how I've cleaned them up, but if left unmodified they will corrode again, this is why something must be done....
OR I just don't drive in the wet, ever....;-(

All the best, Bell.
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Nice work Bell. Going to be following this closeby.
What material are you going to be using for the extra floorpans?
Cheers
Jurgen

 

Well I wanted to keep it period so, aluminium is the material of that era on a road car
I'm also going to remove the front spoiler undertray thats made of pig iron, sorry steel I mean, and substitute that for aluminium too. I'm using 1.2mm hardened plate which is quite springy. I also ran Kato today with 2 temp sensors in the key engine areas just to make sure there are no hotspots once these bits are added. It's overkill to be honest since there are plenty of other gaps round the engine anyway, and the engine is water cooled, so who's worrying ha ha.
All the best, Bell.

 

Great,
as you can attest with the engine of your AM covered from the underside I had the same experience with my DD (BMW 320D touring) which is also covered underneath. The engine seemed nice and clean, even after 70K km as a DD. I was even very surprised to see so many open spaces on my 8 down below.
So, for a toy it certainly will be a help for those that hate cleaning (Bart? LOL).
Very curious to see how this will work out (and the substitution plate in the front).
Best
Jurgen

 

Well Folks, here it is installed and ready for testing.
Check out the video here:

Ferrari Mondial Floorpan Modification - YouTube

 

Well Folks, having sorted Katos little niggles out this month, I decided to embark on my 'Ferrari Floorplan Extension'
This is part of my 'Rolling Restoration' where I keep the car usable and on the road whilst doing restorative work.
As you can see from the before and after pictures Katos powerhouse area has improved alot in the year I have had him. However I'm finding that the road grime does seem to swirl up into the engine bay area making it a serious task to keep clean.
Some years ago I added a huge flat floor to the entire length of my Aston V8 mainly to keep the freshly restored cars underside in pristine condition which works brilliantly, but with the side effect of keeping the engine clean too.(See Picture at the beginning of the post)
It does annoy me that on the Ferrari the key electricals for the engine ie 2X ECUs, fuel pump, regualor and filter take a right old hammering from the elements by being situated in the insane position of the wheel arch!
So as you can see from the diagram I intend to finish the job Ferrari never got around to and fill in the key areas that are exposed. By my Aston standards this is a little weekend job so it should be finished by Sunday.
I will post up exact dimentions and details as you Guys may fancy doing something similar.
The conversion will NOT be drilling into the chassis tubes or anything like that, it will be quick, solid and completely reversible.
See the diargam, for the fill in areas on a Mondial, I'm sure you guys have similar issues.
Also there are some pics to show how corroded things get and how I've cleaned them up, but if left unmodified they will corrode again, this is why something must be done....
OR I just don't drive in the wet, ever...but in Engand that is very unlikely

All the best, Bell.
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And here it is... the results of todays labours...
All the best, Bell Bloke

Ferrari Mondial Floorpan Modification - YouTube.

 

Great idea.

Looks good.

 

Impressive!


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Indeed very nice! Very curious about the temp effects - please keep us posted on your testing.

Cheers!

Ruben

 

Very well thought out and executed, I'm looking forward to your heat measurements, I have 4 questions for you.

1. Did you do any before heat measurements?

2. What kind of Aston do you have?

3. What is that crazy watch you have?

4. Who is this great girl Emily that lies on the ground to help you with your car?

 

Lovely! It also will prevent our neighbour's cat from climbing into the bellhouse area. Not sure if you will scrape of the nuts passing speedramps? I like it a lot. Will you test the favorite M25 traffic as well? Curious about the temps!

 

Yes I wondered about the airflow effects as well?

 

Samsung watch phone is my guess


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Hi Gents, I have 3 temp sensors that I intend to place in key areas of the engine bay.
I will then do a stuck in traffic test, a highspeed run followed by a heatsoak static test.
These will be done with and without the floor pan for comparison and hopefully all will be ok. If not then I will fit a vent in the middle where the exhausts are.
I'll pop my findings up here when I do it, today however is a bit cold so I'm going to remove my plenum chamber and throttle body and get it powder coated. Also renew the pipes between the heads and have and engine bay clean up. I can do this now I feel I'm not waisting my time ha ha.
Oh yes the Aston is a and old school V8 which I restored totally and converted to Vantage spec, cams carbs, cosmetics etc. It was a 2 year job and I cost me a whole heap of time and 3 girlfriends.
I stripped it to a shell and powder coated everything removable, rebuilt the engine, gearbox, diff I even made the wood dash and leather trimmed it. To be honest I went totally overboad with it. I swore to myself that from now on my restorations will be 'Rolling' and so far I have to say this little Ferrari has been a peach!
It's economical on fuel, is fun to drive, makes a nice noise, is prettyish from most angles although not 308/328 pretty, but I do have 4ish seats and so I can take my friends out at the weekend and we can have some fun and arrive at our desiination in retro style.
The watch....ha, ha, ha is my crazy 'Storm' of London retro 80's watch. it matches the Mondial display perfectly..
And my Girlfriend has become a total petrol head since I have met her, mind you she's not into anything post 1995, she's more into the 70s and 80s stuff.
She has just got her dream car, a 1976 Fiat X19 which is totally rust free and has 27,000 miles. She is working on it herself with me glancing over her shoulder from time to time. But for a girl who knew nothing about cars, she really has got stuck in.
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She's a keeper! Does she have a sister?

 

She is working on a wood floor. Is the car inside the house?

 

It makes it look much cleaner underneath. And makes me wonder if fuel economy will be improved.

 

Love the early 1.3 X 1/9 so so pretty with the original bumpers, before it was ruined with the dodgem bumpers of the later cars. and rust free! in England! mmmm!!!

 

Well Chaps I was going to test yesterday but I removed my plenum chamber instead ha ha.
Now it's all enclosed I've got a real incentive to detail the engine areas
However I will be testing soon and will report back.
PVDirk, it's odd but now when I remove the floor it looks like something is seriously missing.
MvT, the leading edge scoop is just a little proud of the original floorpan and not quite as low as the jacking points. You are right about the cats too, I'm pretty fed up of them hitching free rides into town and their meowing has on several occasions made me think that my alternator belts were loose.

 

Ha ha Todd, yes she has 2 older sisters but neither of them are high octane
Greg, I put wood down in my garage so it's nice to lay down on since I don't have a pit
David, I couldn't believe it either it's a real time capsule car, not driven in 20 years garaged all its life.
And as you say the Bertone pure shape with the quarter bumpers is quite beautiful.
Oh nearly forgot to say, I was going to go out temp testing yesterday but got carried away with engine detailing which ended up with me removing my plenum chamber etc. I will post the video of that little exercise here too.
Anyway as soon as I do my floorpan temp tests I'll report back here.
Cheers chaps, all the best, Bell

 

looks cool - looks Original - much cleaner engine bay
If temps stay ok - this looks like a serious upgrade.

My cats also have the habbit of Climbing in/on things, with a specialty in neighbourhood cars.
They know they're not allowed in the garage but when I'm working on the cars outside, they tend to keep an eye on me, sort of supervising. I think they brief the lady on the number of beers I had or laugh with my clumsiness.

 

Awesome work.

Cool idea. Personally, I would be very concerned about airflow as others have stated.

I love the wood floor in the garage! I'd love to put large ceramic tiles in mine one day..

 

Hi Singletrack, yes I agree cooling is going to be the deciding factor in the final design of my undertray, that said it is more of a panal than an undertray and there are still many gaps for the air to get in and out. Also the 1 inch drop on my leading edge may turn out to give actually more cooling than without the floor pan since it will act like a scoop.
However hard evidence is what we need and so the temp sensors placed in the engine bay should give the data needed for this little excercise, something I never did with the Aston V8.
It's worth bearing in mind that the later cars floorpans are completely filled in with only tiny ducts for cooling the exhausts. For me the area of special attention is the exhaust bank nearest the firewall, so my floorpan quite literally scoops the air directy onto that bank.....well that's the theory anyway.
Can't wait to test it, but just need to wait for and warm still day, although all tests will be relative to each other anyway, ie with/without floorpan in the same conditions on the same day.
Here are some pics of Ferrari road cars that have exhaust systems developing more heat than our engines I would wager, and with only tiny scoops for cooling ;-)
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Hmmmm....... Guess what I do for a living.