How To Replace Floor Pans

One common problem especially in old cars is rusted out floor pans. This can become a problem when something heavy hits the floor and could fall through, possibly while driving! Replacing floor pans is really simple though as long as you have the tools. Some of the needed tools to replace floor pans are: Flange to make the new floor pan flush with the old (optional), a angle grinder or something to cut old the old one, Some kind of sander the clean off the welding surface, and most importantly, a tig welder or a mig welder.

The first thing you want to do is flange the metal if you decide to flange it. This is done with a with a piece of equipment that creates a lip on the new metal you are installing.

The second thing you need to do is align the metal to exactly where you want it before welding, and remember to cut out other place for things such as seats.

Then after you have your metal completely aligned, be sure to get a angle grinder or sander to clean off the metal before you weld, or the welds will not look or be good. Then get your welder ready (you can use either flux core wire or gas with the mig welder). Once your welder is set up start slowly making tack welds on your floor pan in a star pattern, the reason you make small welds in a star pattern because of warping issues, if your metal get to hot, it will warp or burn through. This is not as much of a problem on floor pans as it is is body panel. But make sure not to get the metal to hot and burn a hole in it, or not hot enough and not have the weld penetrate the metal good enough.

As you weld you may need to use a hammer to shape the metal to the car. You can even use self tapping screws to hold the metal in place while you weld.

After a few hours of welding, you should have a nice solid line of tack welds along the outside of the metal, if you are using flux core wire, member to clean the slag off the metal then get a angle grinder or sander and sand down the weld until it's flush with the metal if you want to. I you start to see holes in the metal after you sand it down, this means you either are sanding to deep, or your weld didn't penetrate all the way through to metal like it should have, this means that you were welding to cold or to fast.

You should have a strong, long lasting weld if you do this. This is what your floor pan should look like when your done.