Wood Floor Test Panels

We have decided to do some test panels for wood floors. I have taken 3 different types of wood and coated half the panel with resin and glass on top and a rubberized undercoat on the bottom and the other half I left plain. Starting 12/22 I will submerge the wood in water once a day and track what happens. this should be an interesting test to see how well wood floors hold out.

 

Looks like gun mix polyester resin. It would be interesting to do a mechanical test of the bond between the resin layup and the wood. Polyester reputedly does not bond to wood anywhere near as good as epoxy, which is an excellent wood bond. On a plywood rod floor, a layer of 12oz cloth (not rmat) in an epoxy resin layup achieves a huge increase (around 40%) in impact and flexural strength.
Being able to use polyester would be very convenient, and I am sure a lot of us are interested in your research results.

 

Interesting test, I'll be watching the results. I've built several wooden boats of varying construction methods and have a great respect for wood/epoxy. I've never used polyester resin with wood, but in my early days of custom work and fiberglass fab I used a ton of polyester resin. I've pretty much settled to using epoxy for 99.9% of my work now days, although I do keep a few quarts of poly on hand for the odd job.

 

I'm interested to see the results, too. I built some C-Cab bodies years ago from 3/8" CDX plywood and laminated them with fiberglass (the first one with cloth, the others with mat) and polyester resin. I kept the first one for 8 years and one of the later ones for 6 years and drove them in all kinds of weather; I never did have any problems with delamination. Also, I have used polyester based ordinary body filler as wood glue! It works fast, fills gaps, and makes a strong bond.

 

I wasn't gonna comment, but here goes.

Anyone who's ever had trouble with polyester delaminating did something wrong during the process.

If you were to use a construction grade plywood that's loaded with natural rosins, of course it's not going to adhere.
BC, AC, OSB etc. are all construction grade materials.

The floor of a street rod project is no place to skimp on quality. Anymore than skimping on building a boat.

Buy the best grade cabinet or marine ply you can get. After all, you're building a car, not a shed.

 

Absolutely!

 

Thanks for all the reply's. This should be a good thread for a lot of people. Myself included. I think I'l try to find a way to include impact and flexural strength testing also. I'm not sure what flexural means but I'll bend it till it breaks.

 

Out of queriosity, does Spirit glass the bottom of the wood floors in the C-Cab? PS: I like the test also!

 

I use 3/4" exterior plywood for my floors and firewall covered with fiberglass mat and resin top and bottom. Been in 2 wrecks that the floor held together, seat belts, body still intact with frame. Have also used 3" aluminum pucks to suspend floor off of frame using 3/8 bolts and swell nuts/inserts. My son is alive today because of the strength of my build and also the mounting of the windshield which is made from S/S .

 

Ouch! Glad you guys are OK. I am thinking about an aluminum floor in mine. I have some 1/4" tread plate left over from something else. The side impact is the thing that concerns me, there is not much there to protect you in a glass bucket.

 

Right hand lane on a 4 lane road with a 60` divider at 55 mph. Front left tire blows, automatic left tun and no control. Crosses medium, other 2 lanes in oncoming traffic, and right front tire and engine hits guard rail, then right rear tire hits guard rail. Still spinning when left front tire hits guardrail and rolls car onto right side. An off duty fireman was following him and saw it all. He immediately stopped and ran to my son who was still seat belted in the car. Unbuckled him and got him out of the road. By that time others had stopped and they righted the car, for gas was poring from the tank. Windshield kept car from rolling over. His knee hit the dash and some road rash on right hand and fore arm, Lucky to be alive. It broke the head on the engine at the valve cover and rocker arms when it hit the guard rail. If not for the seat belt, he would have been thrown from the car into a bunch of trees on the far side of the guard rail and not likely to have survived. That is why I always SAFETY FIRST before all else when building Hot Rods. [ATTACH

 

Guess instead of spending money for Art School he took car building classes!

 

Just curious. Why would you want to use plywood? The honeycomb material you currently use for your floors seems like a perfect choice. Light and strong. What am I missing? Unless you are thinking about density for protection from objects coming through the floor?

 

It's a good thing that he actually was wearing his seat belt!

 

What is the consensus on using any of the various composite boat decking for the flooring?
Coosa Bluewater 26 is one that I've been considering.

 

Zandoz , my take is this , coosa & others like it would perform great , however , these products are very expensive. a/c ply , especially if it's glassed on all sides will more than likely outlast the rest of the car [the plywood transom & floor in my boat lasted nearly 40 years , stored outdoors] marine ply is glued together w/the same glue as any other exterior plywood , the difference in it is the plys are thinner & the sheet is void-less [stronger but slightly heavier]. there are alternatives such as honeycomb sheet [I think CCR is using it] but again, it may be cost prohibitive. Face it , these cars are babied , seldom if ever left out in the weather , and there are 30 -40 year old examples still cruising around .
dave

 

You're correct except on the weight aspect and then you are correct with some variables. I know from boat building that baltic birch is extremely heavy, although it's not the best boat building material either despite wide spread use. Meranti (mahogany) ply is about on par with construction materials in terms of weight, just a lot stronger in which case you could, if you wanted, use a thinner ply and get the same strength with less weight. Another very good option from the boat building realm is Okume plywood and it is very light weight yet reasonably strong. It's not as strong as meranti, but it is much lighter and still better than construction materials. If you want to shave some weight off your ride you could do a laminate with biaxial glass, epoxy and okume and have super strong and almost (but not quite) as light as foam core.

The only reason I see to use construction materials is the convenience factor of having a local store to buy it from. It's really hard to argue cost when you look at the overall cost of the car. Since I also build boats I'll use Okume and epoxy with biaxial glass just because I'll have it on hand. I'll rest easy knowing it will outlive me and the extra $50 or so won't matter by time the rubber is burning on the road

That's my opinion, we all have them

 

So... They are conducting a Water Boarding torture experiment at Spirit now...

Too soon?

Kinda curious to see how it goes too...

 

Waterboarding!! Good one!