Regarding cage construction and the factory floorpan, are there any rules of thumb regarding how much of the original floorpan needs to stay intact in order to meet the requirements for various production classes. I have sent an email to the rules coordinator at SCTA-BNI, but it never hurts to solicit opinions here, either.
Since the rules require all factory body panels, mounted in original locations, what can be done about the floorpan(s) with respect to cage construction. Since I already have holes rusted through both footwells, does it seem OK to weld in some subframe connectors and then patch the missing areas of floorpan with common flat steel sheet, bent into approximately the same as original shape?
That would be much easier than trying to find a set of virgin floorpans for one of these cars. To my knowledge, there are no reproduction pans available, and almost all of the original ones are rusted.
One of the other suggestions was to cut away the entire floorpan, build the cage, drop the body over the cage, and then re-construct the floor, using a combination of the original floorpan and fabricated steel sheet. Anybody want to hazard a guess whether or not this is allowable for production-based vehicles?
My mind is open, and I'm hungry for ideas.
Steve.