Gurney bubbles

[LRdriver]

Hmm.. since I am the new owner of a sport model i need to get just a tad more headroom. My thought was to get a gurney bubble for the drivers side ala the GT40's. This will give me an extra 1.5 inches to clear my helmet from the roof (ha-ha..).
Any thoughts about this and who would be competant enough to cut holes in doors and respray? Or would it be better to buy a new door, fit the bubble and then respray the lot and then fit?

[stig]

Congrats on your purchase!

Instead of going up, can you go down? If you can live without the seat runners you could bolt the seat directly to the cockpit floor. This would give you the space you need for much less hassle and no chopping about the GRP!

Send me pics if you can and I'll post them on the site.

[LRdriver]

I thought of this but there does not seem to be any room below the seat (i tried getting my hand between the seat and floor and there is no room). Unless I go to brackets and angle the seat further back to lower myself..I just don't see that happening

[james]

The only way you're going to find out how much room you can save by removing the runners is to remove the seats and look.

Another alternative would be to replace the seats with a thinner one which will sit you lower to the floor. I manufacutred my own seat in my car, and my backside now sits on the floor.

James

[Bug G]

Why not retrofit the low floor option from the GTR, ask the factory if it fits ? if so cut old one off and weld new one on and gain 2 inch in headroom!!
Simple !!!!!!!!!!!

[ultimaandy]

CLIVEGTR retrofitted the lower floor pan, good place to start.

I had the lower floor pan and also modified the seat to get it resting on the floor al-la JAMES.

If you don't have factory seats they will get you lower still.

[polson]

I can confirm that removing the seat runners with factory seats gains you no headroom. The seat is dished down so the middle is virtually touching already.

I think I am going to have to retrofit the lowered floor pan as well. I can tell it is going to be a real pain in the arse job, with lots of upside down angle grinding. Shame they didn't tell me about the option when I ordered it . Only read about it later on the Ultima club website.

[LRdriver]

To be quite honest, I don't feel to keen to mess with a structural part of the chassis, I think that by grinding and re-welding it will weaken the rigidity so I think a gurney bubble will be the best option (not the prettiest..) to retrofit more headroom.

[stig]

LR - grinding out the floor section of the chassis, which is only tack welded steel sheet anyway, will make no difference to the integrity of the chassis.

It a bit of a pain to do I'd imagine (as Polson says) buy far less of a pain than adding the gurney bubbles. I hate to say it, but I thing the gurneys would look pants too

[LRdriver]

yep, just spoke with the factory, they said it should not be hard job..just labour intensive.. this might be the way to go. any suggestions about who to let do it? or is the factory the best bet?

[stig]

Well, unless you're handy with an angle grinder and MIG welder, I'd take it up to the factory. It's made harder because you can't invert the chassis (unless you get it REALLY wrong round a corner!).

Easiest way would be to do it from underneath with the car on a pillar lift.

[james]

I'd agree with Stig. If you aren't going to do it yourself, get the factory to do it (unless you have a pet welding expert).

[GTRCLIVE]

I retro fitted a 1" lower floor pan 3/4 of the way through the build. ( fitted the seats and found no room for my Helmet !! ). I had some 2mm thick Galvanised sheet cut and folded with a 1" drop and a 1/2" overlap,and 1" smaller than the floor area, and then cut out the floor 1" from the chassis inside.Drilled holes from the top, and scribed then cut from underneath. I have some pic's I'll send you.
Ps. My fibreglass cills overlaped the original welds when I fitted them. So retro fitting the original Dropped floor will need the removal of the cill. !! a specialy made floor will need to be made similar to mine if your car is allready finished.
Good luck Clive.

>> Edited by GTRCLIVE on Saturday 14th September 00:52

>> Edited by GTRCLIVE on Saturday 14th September 00:53