Floor Pan Replacement

This was one of those jobs that the more you ripped out, the more you found that needed to be ripped out. It started with the front floor pans. By the time I finished with the grinder and wire wheel, I had to replace the entire right side floor pan. I was able to salvage the left side and needed only a long front pan and firewall extension (toe board). If I had to do it all over again, I would replace the entire left side as well. The remaining metal was thinned due to the rust and it took a lot more patching then expected to get it right. I guess the bottom line is if in doubt, rip it out!

The bad metal was removed by cutting with a sawzall and angle grinder with a cutoff wheel. The spot welds to the the floor support rails and inner rocker were drilled out where possible. In some cases I couldn't get the drill in place so a little surgical grinding was required to remove the remaining metal and spot weld from the frame members. Of course, do not rip anything out until you have the replacements in hand. They come in real handy when trying to decide how far to rip.

One side at a time was removed and replaced to prevent racking and distortion of the unit body. The car was placed on three pairs of jack stands, one set under the rear rails by the front leaf shackle, one set under the floor extensions by the firewall, and the last set under the front radiator crossmember.

Once all of the metal was removed, the wire wheel and cup brush were used to remove remaining surface rust and paint. The new panels were trial fitted, clamped into place, marked for spot weld locations and removed. The spot weld holes were drilled about every 1 1/2" and then the panel was trimmed to fit. Wherever possible, I left as much original metal as possible and trimmed the replacement panels to overlap about 1/2". Then the panels were reinstalled, clamped into place and welded.