What does this piece do?

[mejulihn]

While replacing the carpet in my '76 this weekend I found an injected foam molded wedge-shaped "thingee" behind the carpet in the passenger side behind/below the underdash A/C fan assembly against the wheelwell. It appears to be molded to flatten out the multiple shapes of the forward "firewall" for the carpet to lie on. Does anyone know whether this wedge serves any other practical purpose? If not I plan to leave it out when I replace the carpet. If you do not have A/C then you may never have seen this FLP (funny-looking part).

[DK914]

Yeah, my '74 non-a/c car has the foam "thingie" there too, as I discovered during a re-carpet. It's there just to provide a nice flat place for the passenger to plant his/her feet (less interesting, but so much nicer than the tethered footrest of the earlier cars). Probably a bit of acoustic damping effect to be had by leaving it in. And it certainly doesn't weigh much. I reattached mine with generous blobs of silicone sealant.

[mejulihn]

Thanks. I think I would rather have the foot room. I was able to form the new carpet piece quite nicely without it. Also, I found that together with the A/C assembly, it blocks the path of warm air from the heater vent on the passenger side.

[PeteD]

On the '75, there was a box that connected between the speedo and the tranny (in-line with the speedo cable). It counted off the miles and reminded you to change out some exhaust system component. The hole was there in the foam on my car but the box was missing.

[John Dandy]

Pete, That box was a gizmo to turn on a dash light to remind you to change the oxygen sensor. It's always in a hot area of the exhaust system and would remind you of a spark plug. It should be changed about every 60,000 miles. It provides fuel system operational information to the computer which in turn adjusts the fuel system for optimum performance.

[mejulihn]

Pete,
I see where the "counter box" would have been installed in bottom of the mold (like yours mine is also missing). There is also a small wiring harness in the same area that probably hooked up to the speedo in cars that came with certain emission controls (i.e. oxygen sensor).

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

No oxygen sensor in any stock 914. The two lights that could be turned on were "EGR" and "CAT". Those were reminders to the drivers to have the EGR system or the Catalyitic Converter serviced.

It would be neat to figure out how to hook an O2 sensor into the stock EFI--but I don't think it can reasonably be done.

--DD

[BeeJay]

I am using my foam foot rest as a mold to build a sub-woofer enclosure. I will wrap the foam with fiberglass cloth and epoxy, and mount it too 3/4" HDF, High Density Fiberboard. I will mount a 6" sub-woofer speaker, and return it to the floor under the carpet. I'll take pictures, and keep Wayne posted on my progress. This should work nicely.
Bee Jay

[BeeJay]

I am using my foam foot rest as a mold to build a sub-woofer enclosure. I will wrap the foam with fiberglass cloth and epoxy, and mount it too 3/4" HDF, High Density Fiberboard. I will mount a 6" sub-woofer speaker, and return it to the floor under the carpet. I'll take pictures, and keep Wayne posted on my progress. This should work nicely.
Bee Jay

[BeeJay]

I am using my foam foot rest as a mold to build a sub-woofer enclosure. I will wrap the foam with fiberglass cloth and epoxy, and mount it too 3/4" HDF, High Density Fiberboard. I will mount a 6" sub-woofer speaker, and return it to the floor under the carpet. I'll take pictures, and keep Wayne posted on my progress. This should work nicely.
Bee Jay

[BeeJay]

I am using my foam foot rest as a mold to build a sub-woofer enclosure. I will wrap the foam with fiberglass cloth and epoxy, and mount it too 3/4" HDF, High Density Fiberboard. I will mount a 6" sub-woofer speaker, and return it to the floor under the carpet. I'll take pictures, and keep Wayne posted on my progress. This should work nicely.
Bee Jay

[BeeJay]

I am using my foam foot rest as a mold to build a sub-woofer enclosure. I will wrap the foam with fiberglass cloth and epoxy, and mount it too 3/4" HDF, High Density Fiberboard. I will mount a 6" sub-woofer speaker, and return it to the floor under the carpet. I'll take pictures, and keep Wayne posted on my progress. This should work nicely.
Bee Jay

[BeeJay]

I am using my foam foot rest as a mold to build a sub-woofer enclosure. I will wrap the foam with fiberglass cloth and epoxy, and mount it too 3/4" HDF, High Density Fiberboard. I will mount a 6" sub-woofer speaker, and return it to the floor under the carpet. I'll take pictures, and keep Wayne posted on my progress. This should work nicely.
Bee Jay

[TFI]

do you think someone is making a subwoofer enclosure to go where the foam thingie came from?
why only a six? why not a small enclosure eight that can handle more wattage and produce lower frequencies without distorting?
is it going to be ported or sealed? what kind of sub? DVC? got the thiele small parameters on that? what is the volume of the foam thingie, and how did you calculate it? (i would have made it waterproof, dunked it in a bucket of water and measured the amount of displaced water.)
how many layers of fiberglass are you using? are you using polyester resin, or epoxy resin?
are you layering the fiberglass on the foam thingie to build a mold for the enclosure, or are you going to use the fiberglass form that you pull off of the foam thingie as the enclosure and chance having a piece that is too big for the hole you just pulled the foam thingie out of? (can we get a better term for that part, other than foam thingie?)
what are you going to use for bracing inside the enclosure? did you compensate your total volume for the loss of airspace due to bracing?
if i have anymore questions, i'll let you know. if you have any questions for me... tfi@hotmail.com

[mejulihn]

How about "molded-foam foot rest"?

[TFI]

molded foam footrest! the man's a genius!
foam thingie just does NOT compare. and again, i was out at my car and forgot to check for that little black box that was mentioned earlier in this string.

[mejulihn]

TFI,
Like Freud once said about cigars -- sometimes a sub-woofer is just a speaker...

[BenI]

The Kicker solo-baric 8" only needs .33 ft^3 of volume. I put one in a center consold and, powered with 300watts, it souds great-even at 90 with the top down! You have no chance with the early foam pieces, but the late ones are big enough (just dunk it in water!) but making a stiff box to fit the sapce is soooo much work. When I was working on the project (before taking the easy road out) I decided to use 3/8" plywood soaked in epoxy to seal and strengthen. You'd also need braces to hepl against flex. Now, Im not the sharpest tool in the shed ,and am sure there are other/better ways to do it. Good luck! It would be sweet to see it work

[TFI]

ben,

you're in the colorado area, aren't you? i'd like to see your set up sometime. do you have the old circle solo, or did you somehow manage to get an L7 square sub?

i think it just depends on how you have that cigar positioned.

[Baloo914]

The best design would have you use the vehicle as part of the box. The steel is much stiffer than the wood or the fibreglas. You would also gain some volume. Using a jigsaw and a dremel you could form a piece of MDF to fit snuggly against the vehicle itself.

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