6sally6 wrote:

I did one out of OSB and painted it black. I put the peel and stick water proofing stuff Home Depot sells on the inside.
Sealed ALL the holes and cracks. I think I may have put a sheet of that foil backed foam insulation too. Put peel and stick ALL over the floor pan and especially over and round wheel wells. Seems to have really helped quiet and insulate the inside.
About the back seat divider.....IF I get rear ended hard enough to rupture the fuel tank...........weeeeell not sure I would be concious enough to crawl out whether soaked in gasoline or not!
It's more a "mental" safety step......and keep your wife happy thang....IMHO!
Hope I never find out.

Sal, You crack me up brother, Matt

I have a couple of suggestions.

“Camper foam tape”  is dense and fairly thin and wide.
Easy to trim to desired width shape with scissors or utility knife.
Use where any metal to metal contact.

On side facing the seat, add noise damper to prevent “drum” effect.
It won’t be visible in the trunk.

On side facing the trunk, use vinyl, fabric, carpet, etc with/without a layer of thin foam as desired.
3M has a spray adhesive that is great for stuff like this…think headliner material.
Usually can find in arts section of store, or automotive section by engine paints, and most auto parts stores too.

The roll on bed liners work, problem I see with some of them is that some grab fabric and a rough texture.
Might be harder to clean since you can’t just rinse off with water in the trunk.

Another suggestion is to install with rivnuts.

Or place mounting holes at edge of rear seat opening.

The panel can be pinched in place around perimeter of opening with bolts and fender washers without drilling holes in original metal (that’s how I have my barrier/stereo equipment mounted).
I didn’t want to drill holes in my car.

BTW…divider panel is 1/2” MDF

Last edited by Nos681 (2/27/2022 7:07 PM)

Hey everyone sorry for the delay getting back to y’all.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks.

Huh! I've heard about using it for protection from the gas tank, and using metal seat dividers to give more rigidity to the unibody (that actually helps more than SBF connectors), but I've never heard that it blocks noise. Thanks Toploader, I'll add that to the list.

6sally6 wrote:

X-2 on the sound dampening!
Think of the trunk and one-huge-bass-drum!!!
The addition of sound deadeners and plugging EVERY single hole and crack reduces the amount of road dust and such that enters car. (putting sound dampening material over the rear wheel wells helps a lot too!
6s6

Any particular kind of deadener?  I'm looking to reduce the interior sound a little, and these two suggestions will help.
 

lowercasesteve wrote:

6sally6 wrote:

X-2 on the sound dampening!
Think of the trunk and one-huge-bass-drum!!!
The addition of sound deadeners and plugging EVERY single hole and crack reduces the amount of road dust and such that enters car. (putting sound dampening material over the rear wheel wells helps a lot too!
6s6

Any particular kind of deadener?  I'm looking to reduce the interior sound a little, and these two suggestions will help.
 

I used that peel & stick stuff Home Depot sells.
Some kind of ice guard that goes under roofing shingles.
 

Mach1Driver wrote:

Huh! I've heard about using it for protection from the gas tank, and using metal seat dividers to give more rigidity to the unibody (that actually helps more than SBF connectors), but I've never heard that it blocks noise. Thanks Toploader, I'll add that to the list.

 
Another point for noise ingress into the cabin of the coupe are the rear deck speakers.
I made “speaker boxes” with batting inside to block noise from trunk as well.
In addition to the mass backed carpet from ACC, also have the asphalt carpet underlayment on my floor, transition hump and gas tank.

Nos681 wrote:

Mach1Driver wrote:

Huh! I've heard about using it for protection from the gas tank, and using metal seat dividers to give more rigidity to the unibody (that actually helps more than SBF connectors), but I've never heard that it blocks noise. Thanks Toploader, I'll add that to the list.

 
Another point for noise ingress into the cabin of the coupe are the rear deck speakers.
I made “speaker boxes” with batting inside to block noise from trunk as well.
.

 
X-2

There are a couple of different reasons to install one. One is to provide a visual barrier to hide the back of the seat. Anything will work to accomplish that.

If your goal is fire or fuel containment, only a 100% perimeter weld job with additional pieces welded to fill all gaps will be of any benefit. Snd that, in my opinion, is of little use. Any collision that is serious enough to rupture the fuel tank is also going to bend the heck out of any metal supporting tge tank or the area around the back seat. Weld will get broken. Metal will bend and break. New gaps will occur.

Consider the failure mode. And this one isn’t pretty if you consider what COULD happen. Luckily, it rarely, if ever does.

sign & image

 

MS wrote:

Steve69, I stand by my post that states your steel cover will do nothing in the event of a rearender with enough damage to rupture the tank. The scenario I see with your solution is that the primary bending will force the rear bumper forward bending frame crossmember, then pushing the tank forward where the steel plate and its notch around the filler neck tube will immediately shear off the filler tube. The compressive forces on the tank will result in fuel spewing out the severed hose with high pressure filling up the trunk area above your plate with great force. The rest of the collapsing rear end will result in the steel plate bending just like the rest of the back half of the car. Sheet metal screws will be immediately ripped out. Fuel will travel into the cabin unimpeded. Sorry.

Now, if that same plate were 100% welded to the floor atop the frame rails and is not thicker than the sheetmetal already there, so it crumples with the floor, and you have removed the filler neck to be completely under the car’s new trunk floor, not inside. In my opinion, that MIGHT provide a little extra protection, but n reality, not all that much, either. You can mount the tank below the flanges by welding nuts atop the holes in the flange and bolting the tank up from the bottom. I have no suggestion on a filler neck relocation. Some move it to the side, setting themselves up for the above scenario in a side collision.

Ok, all pessimistic bad news from MS. Somebody come up with an argument that disputes this. My opinion is anyone wanting to keep gas from getting n their trunk or cabin should buy a fuel cell. Anything else is a waste of time.

​MS – I’ll take a shot.  I agree that a very severe hit in the back probably will do as you indicate.  And also, anything that severe will probably leave the driver and passenger in the front seats incapacitated, especially if using stock seats as they’ll may very well have broken necks.  However, even some protection is better than none for less severe rear end crashes, as long it is not thought to make one 100% safe. 
Thinking of a recent forum post regarding roll cages; without the safety features of new cars with crumple zones, air bags, etc., we’re all at risk from almost any “severe” crash to the front, rear or sides our vintage rides.
 

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