Cats were added the year before, 1975, along with HEI.
1976 the steel added rigidity to the body and isolation from heat generated from hotter running engines. The heat factor comes from the fact that the engines were calibrated to run hotter to increase efficiency and to partially offset emission related power losses.

yes you are correct, cats were added in 75, i was just quoting the corvette black book that the metal floor pans were added to contain the heat from the cats and that info shows under the improvements for the 76 models

|UPDATED|6/1/2003 3:37:36 PM|/UPDATED|

garry72conv said: yes you are correct, cats were added in 75, i was just quoting the corvette black book that the metal floor pans were added to contain the heat from the cats and that info shows under the improvements for the 76 models

Garry, I wasn't trying to be a "know it all", actually I was getting the info I posted from my copy of the Black Book, and it doesn't mention the Cats as the heat reason.....we obviously have different editions

My bet is that the heat of the cats annoyed enough drivers of the 1975 and they complained enough that the steel pans were a stopgap solution for GM. MY 75 gets far hotter than I imagined possible. No A/C :)

Scot

scot my fool pans both rusted out the steel pan go from tfirwall to behind seat replace with glass matting work for me sunshine corvette of fl. where going to make pans for the (75&76) G.M stop them jim

|UPDATED|6/3/2003 9:42:12 PM|/UPDATED|

I am helping a friend with his 76. The 76-77 pans are regular uncoated sheet metal. We bought a pan from a 79, I believe, that is galvanized. We cut the old one out just below where it rolls over at the sills and intend to pop-rivet the later one in (it was cut at sill level). It looks slightly different, but dimensionally the same. He is building a new house and has gotten side-tracked for the moment, but someday we will get it back in. This may be an easier solution than a roll of metal and a welder.