George P. said ---
I was thinking about replacing
> the tunnel with a fiberglass tunnel. The Vic-Brit catalog seems to imply
> there are two different tunnels available - glass and some other type of
> plastic (three letters that just aren't coming to me right now...). Can
> anyone recommend one over the other? And is there a recommended
insulation
> that will keep both heat and sound out? How tough is this job? I assume
it
> involves having to remove the carpet without destroying it.... Also, has
> anyone replaced the tunnel and cut a piece out for access to the clutch
> cylinder? I was thinking about cutting out a window and then making it
into
> a little removeable panel for easy access to the slave cylinder. If
> anyone's done this and can direct me to a website for directions or
> something, I would appreciate it. Otherwise, I do have some ideas on how
to
> do it (cut out the window, rivet a hinge on it, install a dzus fastener to
> hold it closed, and glue some insulation on the gbx side of the hinged
panel
> - whaddya think?).
George, A couple of years ago I re-built the cardboard tunnel in my '78
which was missing about half the vertical part that bolts to the firewall
and pretty much screwed up everywhere else. I cut a new vertical piece from
hardboard and fiberglassed it to the tunnel body - also made a lot of
fiberglass repairs to the tunnel itself, including the hole that the
shift-lever goes through. Not pretty, but very functional & well-sealing (I
used some household weatherstrip for the seal). For insulation, I used the
original stuffing on the underside, but re-wrapped it in new heavy-grade
plastic, which I screwed to the tunnel body because I had no luck with glue
or staples (that, BTW, was a PITA job).
Early this year, I re-did the tunnel on my '77, which was in much better
shape than the '78 one. However, it had a hole banged in the left side
(with a sledge-hammer?), apparently to gain access to the clutch slave; the
hole was covered with nothing but masking-tape. So I cut the hole out
neatly, made an access panel out of hardboard, & attached same to the tunnel
with those clip-on U-nuts. I insulated this one on the top-side with
household 7/16" carpet padding (which, BTW, also works great under the door
upholstery panels). I'm sending you a few pictures of this project,
off-list.
Cheers, Ree G. in Silver Spring, MD / Mexico, NY
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