T-100 side skirts and belly pan...

[freebeard]

I remember the picture but I hadn't noticed who posted it. aerohead does photochops!

I think it works as a Kamm-back without the trailer.

[BamZipPow]

Just got my truck inspected fer its yearly vehicle inspection and the inspector told me that they have to be able to see the rear tire treads fer next year but not required fer this year. So I'll have to pull the rear wheel skirts off before I bring it in next year...not a problem!

[BamZipPow]

With the heavy rains here in Texas yesterday, I had to escort someone to the other side of town. This gave me a chance to go do to some dirt flow modeling.

Zipping in through the water, I noticed the water sounded a lot louder than it normally would. Ended up at my destination and made sure my friend made it there safely. As I drove away, I could hear some crunching underneath my truck. Maybe I picked up some debris?

Pulled off into a parking lot do a walk around inspection. Noticed immediately that my rear wheel skirts had popped open since I didn't really secure them to their front fastening point. Oh well...

Looked underneath the truck and found that my main belly pan Coroplast panel was long gone! At least the frame was still there. Guess playing in the water (liquids have up to 200 times more density than gas) ripped it right off the frame and left the screws still attached. The crunching noise was the aluminum flashing dragging on the road. I installed the flashing as a heat shield. I removed what needed to be removed, tucked the flashing back up on top, and had to add more screws to the rear diffuser as some panels had popped off as well to make it home.

So after 5 years, my belly pan will have to be rebuilt. Guess I need to put some more time and thought on how to make it a little better.

Now I'm looking at a metal skin...aluminum would be great as steel will probably fairly heavy. The galvanized metal shed roofing panels would be a good direction as they are pretty cheap and would hold up to road abuse and shouldn't git ripped out should I encounter more deep water.

[freebeard]

Steel is heavy, but it's in the right place to lower the center of gravity.

[BamZipPow]

The quick run into Houston yesterday yielded about a 1.5mpg loss with Dark Aero in tow at 65mph. Coming back was a little hectic as it was the standard Sunday evening rush hour traffic with a few slow downs to crawling speed but at least there wasn't any stop and go events going home.

[BamZipPow]

Had a crazy idea! Replace the long gone Coroplast with an array of the steel studs! It's only made from 25 gauge but since it's shaped, it will be just as structurally strong as a thicker gauge. The overall weight might be close to using the metal sheets but the studs will be easier to change out if needed. Cost is easily half as using the metal sheets.

If I need to reinforce anything, I can easily stack the reinforcement studs on top of the other ones making a boxed stud. I'll probably do that fer the outer portions of the frame.

[BamZipPow]

Decided not to go in the direction of the steel studs due to lack of time before the road trip. Going back to Coroplast fer now.

Here's the revised main belly pan frame...with a majority of the 2x4 wood supports removed and replaced with a top cover of the steel studs. I've also removed the T-nuts that I initially installed into the corner supports and will be going to a standard nut and washer setup for the retaining bolts. I'm guessing the frame weighs about 20lbs or so.

Bottom


Top


I'm gonna use my last full sheet of new black Coroplast fer the major coverage and a roll of aluminum flashing fer the remaining space. I may have to stitch some Coroplast together to protect the aluminum flashing.

[freebeard]

I like that better than the wood 2x4s.

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I like that better than the wood 2x4s.

Just to be clear about the 2x4 wood pieces...none of the main supports on the frame were made from the 2x4 wood pieces. The wood pieces were basically attachment points fer when I installed an upper cover fer the main belly pan. I found out that the wood does retain water and will eventually rust out the steel studs in that area.

Here's the only big piece I had on the frame...


It only took me about 45 minutes to skin the main belly pan frame and install it back on the truck. A quick run around town yielded no issues or added noises. It was comforting to be able to not hear the road noises emanating from the bottom of the truck again.

Here's what an out of focus shot of the new skin looks like...and it looks like I left off a fastener on the Coroplast side.

[hat_man]

I love this thread and see so many possibilities for my truck. You may have said before, but what did you do around your exhaust to keep it from retaining heat? Also, and again you may have said before or put it in another thread but can you give me any details of the rear "boxing" under the tailgate area? It looks like you added panels to the underside of the bed inward of the tires and then added the rear wheel skirts.

The whole set-up is awesome.