Floor pan tips

[Powell]

Was looking for some floor pan replacement tips.. SO the car is a 91 daytona. now the entire underside is really rust free with the exception of both sides right at where your feet are where the frame rail starts to bend up.. now i was planning on looking to see if the yard has any good pans/cars left that i could pull some from.....

So few questions. i've never replaced a floor pan. I had it temporarily patched so to keep the rain out. Turns out there were holes over where there would on most cars be the mud flaps and the water was getting in through there. So in any case... As far as cutting out a pan if i find one, is it safe to just cut as most as i can or should i try and cut it from the current welds (which i havn't really checked to see where they are) and when putting them in, should the car be on a lift or just on all four tires or wha? Any other info would be helpfull. i won't be able to actually replace the pan for a while due to moving, weather, and lack of welder at the moment.

[ol"blue]

If you can find a solid donor car at the JY, I'd take as big a piece of the affected area as you can transport in your vehicle. Back to the seats, 1/2 way up the firewall, both rockers, the tunnel, the whole clip if you can get it home. Then use what you need.

[Powell]

Sounds good.. The upside is its only the further end half of each floor board side. Another ques i had was if it were better or not if i try to mate it up or just overlap? Also is it a general rule of any sort to try and keep as little seams as possible or should the welds hold up fine? (Welds can break right, so....)

[crusty shadow]

you can overlap or trim it up and butt-weld the seams. butt welding will look a lot nicer under the car than an overlap, just takes more time trimming, and someone who is good with a mig. overlap is more forgiving as far as fit goes, and you can cover up the seams if you get silly with a can of undercoat
3M makes a product called weld-thru primer. id highly reccomend using this if you're doing an overlap. spray this on the bare metal before welding, it maintains corrosion protection so your flor doesnt rust out around your weld seams. not needed if you're doing butt welds.

welds dont break if theres proper penetration.

[nemesismachine]

technically the welds dont break, the metal just AFTER the weld breaks.

[Powell]

Ah good to know. thanks guys.... once the rain stops i'll be on a search.

[rich tideswell]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nemesismachine technically the welds dont break, the metal just AFTER the weld breaks.

GOOD welds don't break..... crappy ones do.

[d_snook6]

I always overlap my new floor pans and weld top and bottom, comes out looking good on both sides