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What is the truth about wood floorboards?

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Old 08-25-2002 | 03:20 AM
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Question What is the truth about wood floorboards?

I have read that 964's have wood floorboards that will rott away. I ran into a website offers ABS to replace the wood by saying: "DRIVER SIDE FLOOR BOARD... made out of abs for durability to replace the factory wood boards that rott away.

This is a German made Porsche! What's the truth? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
Old 08-25-2002 | 04:21 AM
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I don't know if it's true about wood being used on the 964 somewhere (I haven't found any), but if it makes you feel any better, the piece covering the access to the AT control unit on my '96 300ZX is made out of plywood, and not very strong plywood at that! <img src="graemlins/cussing.gif" border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" />

<img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />
Old 08-25-2002 | 05:30 AM
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Hi Bob,
All I can add is that, yes, the 964's do have wooden floor boards under the drivers floor RHS(not sure about the passenger side-LHS). This creates a cavity for various items to be routed through. I have a 1990 C4 & have had no problems with the floor boards deteriorating. Possibly this may happen if the floor was to be wet via a leak of some sort, so I suppose the moral is to make sure you have no leaks
Old 08-25-2002 | 04:19 PM
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Hello

The reason for plywoodboards are in the crash behaviour.

Just imagen a frontendcrash and all the forece going into hard floorboards.

On the driverside it also avoids that your feets get snatched under the pedals on a frontal collison.

Grüsse
Old 08-26-2002 | 06:11 AM
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Dear Bill,
I have to agree totally with you. I have removed the entire interior from my 964 C4 and not a piece of wood to be found. Metal and more metal. All my soundproofing was orginal and had never been removed when I ripped it out. Found no wood. My 944 has wood but not the 964. Well not the one I own anyway.
Maybe this is a national requirement.
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Adrian
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Old 08-26-2002 | 01:28 PM
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Bob,
I have verified that my 93 RS America has a wood platform under the LHD pedals. I was shocked to find that this car was partially made of wood! No sign of rot, however.
Erick
Old 08-26-2002 | 03:09 PM
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There's definitely wooden floorboards beneath the pedals in my car. I haven't checked the passengers side, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if the boards there were wooden too. I'd take a pic, but I don't know how to post them :¬P
Old 08-27-2002 | 05:58 AM
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Same here, the area underneath the pedals (LHD car) is made of plywood.
Old 08-27-2002 | 06:10 AM
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Guys,
It is obvious that my pedals cover has been replaced. It is not wood, well let me say if it is, it is sealed up in a rubber cover and must be quite thin. If I get the urge to vandalise I will cut it open to see.
However the post said "floor boards" not the pedal cover.
Ciao,
Adrian
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PS: When it comes to Porsche anything, there is no such thing true or false just variations to reality.
Old 08-27-2002 | 05:16 PM
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Hello

The truth why Porsche used woodparts ?

You need something to knock on

Grüsse
Old 08-27-2002 | 05:18 PM
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Hello

The last Streetporsche having wood floorboards was the 356 preA.

grüsse
Old 08-28-2002 | 06:09 AM
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Okay Guys being the nosey person I am and liking also to be accurate I had a little peek last night on my pedal cover. It is a very nice uphostered piece of wood. The job was very well done so I suspect this was part of my full leather interior option sort of package. Yes the pedal cover is wood in my C4 as well. Nicely covered up though. I went and checked my daughters 944 for wood rot. This is a 1985.5 model. The wood looks like the day it was installed. The original "wood rot" issue I do not believe is accurate.
Ciao,
Adrian
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PS: I heard that F.A. Porsche III loved the song "Knock on wood"
Old 08-28-2002 | 09:45 AM
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Plywood is also used in the backs of the rear seats. I was more than a little surprised to see this. Probably used the scraps from the floorboards to build these. I guess we tend not to think of plywood as high tech material,although Morgan seems to think highly of it. Roy
Old 08-28-2002 | 09:54 AM
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So did DeHavilland. Mosquito and Vampire to name just two. Not Porsches but high performers for their time,
Ciao,
Adrian
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Old 08-28-2002 | 12:22 PM
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I have to agree with the last two posts... If porsche they did use wood, what's wrong with that? In some cases, many cases actually, the amazing characteristics of wood just can't be beat.

This is entirely hearsay, but I believe that a current american made sports car uses wood floor boards that are encapsulated with some epoxy and fiber mixture. They claimed that nothing could equal the weight to strength ration of this material for this particular application.


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