VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Transmission Floor Access Panel

All the gunk has been removed from my 1938 transmission access panel floor piece and it's shiny and new looking.
It has roughly a 1/8" lip around the perimeter.

Haven't found much info in the parts manuals.

Was there a gasket around the edge? I get the impression there was an insulated layer on the underside riveted in place to absorb sound like modern underhood insulation. Was there insulation on just the transmission side or the interior side as well?

The passenger compartment side is just bare steel. I've not had mine off so I can't speak for the underside. The toe board on either side of the panel has a thick tar paper type material that was likely supposed to be insulation. You can see the edge carved around the dimmer switch in the photo.

Thanks Tiny,
I had all the passenger side tar-like product but removed it looking for rust but it was immaculate underneath so wasted time and now have to replace it and it was in really good shape. I did expect the trans pan would have a layer of this tar like stuff so appreciate the pic.

I've attached some pictures of my transmission cover pan. Everything is raw steel. My pan is "Canadianized" for the Canuck Pontiac built out of the Chevy body. No shifter hole (I have column shift) and my gas pedal mounts on 2 standoffs with balls on them (rather than the Chevy pedal having a tab on the floorpan) and the pedal rod goes through a small bellows like the starter pedal but smaller, so need to source a replacement. They also added a football shaped blob to cover one of the Chevy pan bolt holes and this football shaped blob looks like it is designed to change the gas pedal foot position and appearance. Odd they would change that with column shift. Probably marketing to appear different like my GREEN 216 engine...

In looking at the pictures, I just realized the football shaped blob is to provide clearance for the column shift cable! Mystery solved.

There are 4 holes towards the middle of the trans cover which I suspect were to hold the sound insulation on the underside of the pan.

My 38 had a gasket around the edge of the access pan. It is a good idea to seal it from outside dirt and fumes.

Thanks old216, I was going to make a gasket for the perimeter.

As I look closer though, I'm getting the impression that the whole underside was covered with a 1/4" sound/heat-proof insulator that would have acted as a gasket if it extended to the edges I would think.

Hoping someone has seen a healthy unmolested cover/insulator and can provide details.

My '39 had the insulation acting as a gasket.

Thanks Gene, what did the insulation look like? Hoping it was grey and then I can use a modern underhood insulation...

Were there indeed rivets/washers holding the insulator in place?

The insulation looked like a heavy tar paper

The underside of the access pan on my 38 coupe was covered by a dark gray/black heavy tar paper-like substance, as Gene says.

Jim