Floor pan replacement opinions

[casadejohnson]

I'm doing the floor pans on my 66 this weekend and have a question about the drivers side. The original pans were removed by a previous owner and replaced them with some homemade ones riveted and screwed in with about a a quart of silicone in between. I pulled the driver side out today and it appears that the upper portion, behind the pedals, is completely solid. I'm thinking of leaving the upper solid portion and replacing only the portion that has already been removed. By doing this, I'll avoid messing with the E brake floor bracket. I would cut it similar to the way the pans that Wild Horses are made. Any reason not to do this? The floors will be covered with bedlliner and carpet so the aesthetics are not a big concern. Here are some photos of the WH pans I was talking about.

I'll get some photos of the PO's work and get them posted as well.

 

[casadejohnson]

Here is the "Repair" done by Mr fix it. They covered the body mount bolt over and left the support rail full of pieces of the original floor pan.

 

[turbotim2]

Nice work by the previous owner! Below is a link to my build and as you can see, this kind of creative body work seems to be common!
http://www.broncofix.com/viewtopic.php?t=275101

The floor pan from WH you picked should work out just fine. Will you be able to get the old bolt out and fix that body mount?

 

[rojo23]

Sectioning is fine. I have done it plenty of times. You may want to leave about a 1/2" and allow the panels to overlap, this will make a stronger joint. Make sure that you sure weld through primer at the seam, cover all bare metal. Hope this helps.

 

[Broncofan76]

Yeah, you should be good to just replace the section that's bad. The PO's work doesn't look so bad compared to what my PO did. Check my gallery for that sweet fiberglass work.....
good luck and happy welding....

 

[nosaj2k]

Like you, I opted to replace a section of my driver's side floor pan (as opposed to the entire thing). I wanted to keep as much of that original 1970 Bronco metal intact as possible %)

 

[Steve]

The PO of mine used an old license plate and a house For Sale sign to patch mine, along with a couple of tubes of silicone. %)

 

[casadejohnson]

Nice work by the previous owner! Below is a link to my build and as you can see, this kind of creative body work seems to be common!
http://www.broncofix.com/viewtopic.php?t=275101

The floor pan from WH you picked should work out just fine. Will you be able to get the old bolt out and fix that body mount?

The body mount bolt is coming out tomorrow morning. It looks like I'll have to cut off the bolt head and drive it through with a punch. In a way I'm glad he did not do a great job. The pans were just installed with rivets, screws and 137 tubes of caulking. At least I won't have to drill out a hundred spot welds. The funny thing is that they welded lots of things that should not be welded but did not weld the pans. My skid plate was welded to the frame and my bumpers are welded on...not looking foreword to fixing the frame horns when I cut off the bumpers.

 

[casadejohnson]

Sectioning is fine. I have done it plenty of times. You may want to leave about a 1/2" and allow the panels to overlap, this will make a stronger joint. Make sure that you sure weld through primer at the seam, cover all bare metal. Hope this helps.

I was planning on doing some overlap as you suggested. I thought Maybe I could use my pneumatic flanger ( Is that a word? ) but i'm not to sure how well that will work where the pans are beaded. We will see.
As for weld through primer, do you think Lowes or the Depot would have it? In the past I bought some at my Body and paint store also I've gotten it from my welding supply place. The problem is they are both closed on weekends and I worked too late to get any after work today.

 

[turbotim2]

I was planning on doing some overlap as you suggested. I thought Maybe I could use my pneumatic flanger ( Is that a word? ) but i'm not to sure how well that will work where the pans are beaded. We will see.
As for weld through primer, do you think Lowes or the Depot would have it? In the past I bought some at my Body and paint store also I've gotten it from my welding supply place. The problem is they are both closed on weekends and I worked too late to get any after work today.

The flange tool won't work where the pan is beaded. Personally, I would overlap and fully bead weld the pans in. I spot welded mine in first for fitting then went back afterwards and welded them in.

 

[Blue71]

I'd section it as well. Make sure the ribs line up if you can...just looks better/cleaner if they are in line. I sectioned mine as close the the 45 degree angle as possible so that my seam wasn't half way up the middle top portion of the pan. Seam seal the top and underneath where they are overlapped. Good luck,
Blue71