Rules require a floor covering? What we used instead of carpets.

One of the things you notice when your car catches on fire is that the stuff you use to put out the fire is capital M messy. We’ve found fire powder in every nook, cranny, crevice and crack in the car while we’ve been working on the engine swap, and every soft piece has received multiple scrubbings and is still …

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I wonder how low the bar is? Like could you use spray in bed liner or plastidip?

theruleslawyer said:

I wonder how low the bar is? Like could you use spray in bed liner or plastidip?

Duct Tape? 

Msterbee said:

Duct Tape? 

Flammable

L5wolvesf said:

Msterbee said:

Duct Tape? 

Flammable

Spray it with a fire retardant liquid film. Lol.

But seriously, I'm looking for "carpet" that is heavily fire retardant without breaking the bank. Rules say I have to have carpet or I'd put a floor mat over some reflective material on the metal floor.

In reply to L5wolvesf :

So is foam and carpet 

In reply to Ranger50 :

McMaster has flame-resistant cotton-canvas "sheets" 36" wide x up to 50'. 36"x10' is ~45 bucks.
 

Search for 8776K13

Ranger50 said:

But seriously, I'm looking for "carpet" that is heavily fire retardant without breaking the bank. Rules say I have to have carpet or I'd put a floor mat over some reflective material on the metal floor.

What race rules require carpet? For safety interior pieces that are flammable are required to be removed.

In reply to L5wolvesf :

IIRC it's a rule in SCCA CAM/XS, and maybe some TT classes. I think the intent is to keep the classes focused on street cars, but in practice it leads to stuff like this. 

theruleslawyer said:

I wonder how low the bar is? Like could you use spray in bed liner or plastidip?

As one of the guys on the X rules committee, my personal bar is "are you making an effort to keep it from looking like ass?" My bar differs from some of my other committee members, but that's the overall intent. If you can make bedliner look good enough that it doesn't draw negative attention on a quick walk through the paddock, I'll be on your side if you ever get protested.

L5wolvesf said:

Ranger50 said:

But seriously, I'm looking for "carpet" that is heavily fire retardant without breaking the bank. Rules say I have to have carpet or I'd put a floor mat over some reflective material on the metal floor.

What race rules require carpet? For safety interior pieces that are flammable are required to be removed.

Typically ones that are slower than 8.50. There is only 4 pts where the cage even crosses where the rules state carpet must be present. It's just like the same rules that state I must have an "OEM" dash... most of the current cars out there racing have fiberglass or CF replicas available.

Now when you start talking about SFI chassis... you can build a multitude of ways. Above floor, below floor, trans tunnel closed or open. If I'm building above floor I'd want to put a solid flat floor in to avoid having problems with bars in the way. Even with below floor it can be advantageous to make that same flat floor. It's why I asked the question, no stock carpet is going to work.

JG Pasterjak said:

theruleslawyer said:

I wonder how low the bar is? Like could you use spray in bed liner or plastidip?

As one of the guys on the X rules committee, my personal bar is "are you making an effort to keep it from looking like ass?" My bar differs from some of my other committee members, but that's the overall intent. If you can make bedliner look good enough that it doesn't draw negative attention on a quick walk through the paddock, I'll be on your side if you ever get protested.

I would think bedliner nicely applied could be pretty nice.

I'm on board with this definition, substantially because while I'd hope folks are building cars they could genuinely enjoy driving on the street at least occasionally, that doesn't even preclude painted metal necessarily. I'd *rather* the cars were more believably street cars, but I'll take "not bare paint" over nothing.

I bet the rubber flooring more of a Dynamat effect on NVH than bedliner would?

"Floor covering"

That leaves a lot up to interpretation.

Jesse Ransom said:

JG Pasterjak said:

theruleslawyer said:

I wonder how low the bar is? Like could you use spray in bed liner or plastidip?

As one of the guys on the X rules committee, my personal bar is "are you making an effort to keep it from looking like ass?" My bar differs from some of my other committee members, but that's the overall intent. If you can make bedliner look good enough that it doesn't draw negative attention on a quick walk through the paddock, I'll be on your side if you ever get protested.

I would think bedliner nicely applied could be pretty nice.

I'm on board with this definition, substantially because while I'd hope folks are building cars they could genuinely enjoy driving on the street at least occasionally, that doesn't even preclude painted metal necessarily. I'd *rather* the cars were more believably street cars, but I'll take "not bare paint" over nothing.

I bet the rubber flooring more of a Dynamat effect on NVH than bedliner would?

Depends on how well it is adhered. If you uses spray glue or something, probably. If that's the goal you can get black back dynamat that would work as floor covering too probably.

How much of the floor is required to be covered? If it is no more than what is pictured, could you glue a weathertech molded mat to the floor and have the same general coverage area? 

Is this rubber sheeting heat firmable, akin to a vinyl wrap?I was wondering if it might be possible by use of a heat gun, or maybe something milder like a hair drier, to achieve the 3D result without resorting to relief cuts.

M007chan said:

Is this rubber sheeting heat firmable, akin to a vinyl wrap?I was wondering if it might be possible by use of a heat gun, or maybe something milder like a hair drier, to achieve the 3D result without resorting to relief cuts.

Kind of, but hopefully you have more skill than I do. I tried a couple spots and it goes from "slightly more flexible" to melted mess" in a very narrow window. If I had a larger area to do I'd have probably spent more time on it, but my relief cuts were pretty well hidden and my area wasn't full of compound curves.

So, yeah, you can do some forming with it, but be prepared to waste some on prctice.

As a theater tech director, I will tell you that many fabrics are IFR, sold by the yard for about $8 by Rose Brand, and comes with a fire retardant certificate.

Last I checked, they only had about 160 color/pattern options [/sarcasm].

Fabric would be light as heck.  Of course, when you glue it down, it's likely that the glue will make it halfway explosive, but have you seen my certificate, sir?

Tom Suddard said:

In reply to L5wolvesf :

IIRC it's a rule in SCCA CAM/XS, and maybe some TT classes. I think the intent is to keep the classes focused on street cars, but in practice it leads to stuff like this. 

I was gonna say!

You should always take the carpet advice from the guy who helped write the carpet rules in the class ...

In reply to theruleslawyer :had you not trashed the old carpets you may have used them as your template  

In reply to theruleslawyer :had you not trashed the old carpets you may have used them as your template  

mjsizemore said:

In reply to theruleslawyer :had you not trashed the old carpets you may have used them as your template  

 

I'm not actually required to run them in any class I'm involved in. My interest is carpet is theoretical only.

L5wolvesf said:

Ranger50 said:

But seriously, I'm looking for "carpet" that is heavily fire retardant without breaking the bank. Rules say I have to have carpet or I'd put a floor mat over some reflective material on the metal floor.

What race rules require carpet? For safety interior pieces that are flammable are required to be removed.

Out of curiosity, how does this jibe with vehicles that have significant magnesium structure in the interior?

The dash frame of an R50/R53 is a four foot long magnesium casting, for instance.  I would imagine that other BMWs are similar.  People tend to put BMWs and Minis on track.

I suggest something that really ties the room together. 

Where did you get the Goodyear material? Item number etc.?