61reoldsman

Picked up my new floor pans today from a local Paint /Body Shop Supply here in London.
I was originally thinking about just replacing the pass side front to back and just behind the drivers seat as the front drivers foot well looks like it was replaced already ,but since they were so reasonable I bought the driver side too front to back.So ill be ripping it all out in the spring and replacing the whole floor .

don71

I'm sure you'll make it right. Its just some floor pans It will be worth it, in the end.

Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Allan R

Make sure you get your bracing in place before you start cutting that. You're going to have a monster hole when it's out and you don't want anything shifting. You get a good price on the floor pan?

61reoldsman

Hey Allan ,yes I did get a good price I think anyways ,$109 a side .I 'm going into this job with eyes wide open and with a good wing man (oldzzy)so I'm going to follow his advice
and take it slow and get it figured out and do it right the first time.He's pretty fussy when it comes to this resto stuff so i'm confident it'll be perfect (or close ).

Allan R

Shane won't steer you wrong. Just remember though, he's a perfectionist. You may end up gutting the car and doing a frame off...

61reoldsman

Nah ,that won't happen Allan because then my car would spend too much time in his garage and I'd have to pay room and board to him!!!LOL

61reoldsman

Soo...Shane and I were looking over his floor pans today on his car and we were pre-planning my floor replacement ,as we discussed this we thought to ask on here if any body had done their floor pans by cutting the floor a couple of inches inside from where the door sill goes instead of removing it from underneath the rockers.So our question is if this a better idea considering that the body is on the frame and we do not have access to underneath the rockers or if there was some other option ?

61reoldsman

Sorry here's a few pics of the floors,issue is where the floor drops off just by the seatbelt anchor

Allan R

I see your car going to Shanes garage for a looooonnng time. Based on what you described and looking at the pics, I don't see why it wouldn't work. Sending you a PM with a personal recommendation.

DENT

And the fun begins ,,

oldzzy

Allan.... Noooooo! lol I might be dreaming here, but i think doing one side at a time is best, and i am hoping that between both of us working on the car at the same time we can get one side of the floor done in about 2 1/2 days. That will include, drilling out the spot welds, cutting out the bad, trimming the new pan, zip screwing the new pan in, welding it all in, removing the zip screws, plug welding those holes, and finishing off the welds. Oh yeah, it won't be in my garage.... it will have to be in the driveway lol.

Henry.... I will be wearing and supplying Brian with anti MAW hats!

Allan R

So you're not going to go with the full one piece front sheet metal? Ahh, that would mean the car would be blocking the driveway for much too long. I know it will all work out for you guys in the long run. Looking forward to the project build pics.

HEY! Should take it over to Henry's garage and do it there? See all the space he's not using in his W29 build pics?

oldzzy

It would be pretty hard to block my driveway, it's huge. I just don't want sparks flying anywhere near my car in the garage. Yeah... good idea on Henry's place! hehe

61reoldsman

It's true Shanes driveway is like a 1/8 mile dragstrip !! Seriously though I think we will have a good plan of attack by the time the spring rolls around ,as much as I would love to do it at my house it's just not possible and Shane has all the proper gear which is a huge PLUS and I told him already that I would like to do as much of the welding as possible .
AND NO BLACK W31 's WILL BE HARMED !!!LOL

69442C

Doing as you mentioned is acceptable but you need to keep a couple of things in mind.

1) There are braces that run under the floor and go from side to side. You'll need to make sure you don't cut those braces when you cut the floor and you'll need to drill out the spot welds on the floor pans so you can remove the floor section while leaving the braces in place. You'll also need to drill holes in the new sections where they will sit on the braces so you can plug weld them together.

2) When you cut and weld just inside the rocker you will have a seam that will be directly above the frame rail. That will present an issue for you since you won't be able to get at the underside of the floor to clean up the weld and cover that seam with at least primer and paint. Seam sealer may also be a good idea if you could get to it or fiberglass filler that can be sanded smooth to hide the seam prior to primer and paint. Since you can't get at the seam above the frame rail easily, that area will start to rust if left unfinished.

Brian

61reoldsman

Thanks for responding Brian ,appreciate your input .As my buddy Shane has already gone through this process with his car, although not as extensive as mine will be ,he has a good understanding of some of the hurdles we'll encounter.We have discussed the tedious work that we'll be doing with the drilling of the spot welds as you've discribed.Your second point about the seam underneath the frame is where a little creative thinking will come into play with trying to prime and paint inside there.I 'm wondering if we should pre paint the bottom side of the floor pans with a primer and POR 15 type product before installing the pans ,(can you weld through that paint?)then I'll have just the seam to do later .Maybe spraying Chassis Saver might work also in there ?
OTOH you won't be able to see much of that seam unless its up on a hoist and your shining a light in there !

69442C

If you pre-paint the underside of the pans with something like POR, I would keep it away from any areas where you need to weld due to the risk of contaminating the weld area. I would spray the areas where welding is to be done with a quality weld thru primer. I also recently saw where Eastwood now has an internal frame coating that comes with a flexible hose and nozzle that will give a wide spray pattern. This might work for getting at the underside of the floor above the frame rail or any other tight area where just aiming a spray can won't work. Here's the link to the Eastwood product. It's for inside a frame but should also seal and protect the areas you need protected.

http://www.eastwood.com/internal-fra...ay-nozzle.html

Brian

61reoldsman

Thanks Brian ,that's a good point about the weld through primer maybe I could tape off where I don't want to paint .The panels have that EDP coating on them ,can you weld through that coating?I'll check out that stuff from Eastwood and have a look sounds like it may do the trick.

61reoldsman

Well last week for three days my buddy (Oldzzy) and I replaced the bad areas of my floor.It was a lot of work I must say ,more than what I thought it was going to be ,the cutting out of the floor was the fun part but fitting the new pc and welding in was the tedious part,good thing Oldzzy has a lot of patience with the welder because i pretty much sucked with the welder ,friggin blobs of weld everwhere !But all in all a good experience ,and the interesting thing was that when I drove the car home from his place I noticed that the car was much quieter and wasn't rattling as much even with no interior in it ,I was stunned!
Going over bumps in the street was smoother too.Anyways here's some pics .(Pics won't upload for some reason(security token?) ,will try again later.)

DENT

Hehe this is a fun thread , Id like to see the pics too. As far as using my garage, I do have some stuff coming in soon for another guy.But it may be possible in the future.

455man

I'll be doing this in the near future...thanks for the details.

61reoldsman

ok got the picture thing figured out !