I'm making new floor pans for my Sunbeam. I intended to just remake them in the pattern that the factory had with deep lateral grooves about 1.5" wide and 1/4" deep. But I'm wondering if:
1) I need to go that deep with the beads - would shallower beads be sufficient?
2) More or less beads? Especially if I do shallower beads.
3) Are there patterns that are stronger?
So the reason why ribs work (like through bead rolling) is pretty simple. If you are bending a ruler and double its width, you double the force it'll take to bend it the same amount. However, thickness makes stiffness go up cubic, meaning you can get 2^3=8x stiffer if you double the thickness. Bead rolling or ribbing do this locally, so the depth of the bead has a huge influence on stiffness. I'm not a fabricator though, so I can't speak to the feasibility of actually making a deep bead without warping or shrinking or whatever else. Now, that's not to say you need any at all, right? Flat could very well be stiff enough, so what do you gain by going stiffer? No idea, so I only mention that to demonstrate how little I know about the subject, haha
On an old chassis like that, I would want more of anything that improves stiffness. At minimum, duplicate the factory depth and locations.
In reply to cyow5 :
Great thoughts here! I didn't realize it was a cubic gain. That is significant.
I am not worried about shrinking or warping. I have an English Wheel to flatten and stretch with. There are limits to the depth I can roll beads to but that is driven by underlying frame rail structure, not equipment.
You'll need to log in to post.
