We are working on bringing back to life an 87 Mustang SSP . Both sides of the floorpan need panels. And are not having any luck finding anyone in North Georgia to do this. So it may be time for some DYI. The Saker brand I see online -looks- like it could work. Any experience on this? Thank you.
I once took a car to a pro to weld in new pans. He installed them with adhesive.
I didn't like it, but they've survived nearly 20 years without issue.
Worth considering?
Interested in this thread.
I've never heard of Saker... are you referring to this thing?
Not sure if that actually works as intended, but if you want to weld on the cheap, I would at the very least go with a flux core welder. That looks like some sort of stick welder, and I could be wrong here, but it doesn't look like the tool for the job.
Welding floor pans is actually one of the best ways to learn. I am still terrible at welding, but having welded in floors in two of my vehicles, I have learned a lot. Watch a few videos and grab a cheap flux from Harbor Freight (or even better, a cheap used one), the proper safety gear (highly recommend an auto-darkening helmet) and practice on a piece of scrap sheet metal until you get the basics down. You'll be stitching metal in no time!
Most folks I know prefer panel adhesive to welding now... depends on what suspension structure would be affected being unibody.
When I put floors in my Dodge Ram the shop specifically said "DONT" weld them in, flange the old and the new, bond them in, seam sealer, undercoat.
This was driver/driveway quality not restoration quality of course.
Something over on the Classic Motorspors YouTube about bonding on a repair panel:
Well you folks have certainly opened a whole new angle on this for me
. ( I LOVE GRM) A Fox Mustang is a unitbody car. Which is my first concern about panel bond. But continuing down the rabbit hole, I do not need to replace entire pans. Just panels. maybe called toe boards? And the car will be getting quality subframe connectors.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Yes. Exactly. But it appears that there is no magic shortcut. Armed with some great info from this forum, I am leaning towards panel bond. Done properly it sounds like a great solution. Already bought the floorpans. So next up I reckon will be cutting out the bad panels and preparing the surrounding areas. my youngest is in engineering school so I guess we will end up with a welder at some point....
SPG123 said:In reply to Tony Sestito :
Yes. Exactly. But it appears that there is no magic shortcut. Armed with some great info from this forum, I am leaning towards panel bond. Done properly it sounds like a great solution. Already bought the floorpans. So next up I reckon will be cutting out the bad panels and preparing the surrounding areas. my youngest is in engineering school so I guess we will end up with a welder at some point....
If you decide to get a welder, get a name brand with available spare parts. Also get one capable of running with gasses.
I'm pretty sure a ton of people buy a cheaper welder (still not too inexpensive) and then end up buying a nicer unit anyway.
Buy once, cry once.
And we (well, the Classic Motorsports crew) has a video on welding in replacement floor pans:
I agree with getting a good Mig with gas, life (and car builds/repairs) is so much easier with the proper tools.
I don't think you need to buy a top of the line unit tho, I think the quality of even the somewhat off brands has improved significantly. I have a Clarke 100E that I bought in 1994, still works perfectly and lays down a good bead. The key to the cheaper units is duty cycle - how long you can weld without letting it stop and cool off a bit, but that's never been a problem for a home garage builder just tacking or welding in panels, as you spend as much time getting set up (or more actually) than you do making sparks.
A used Hobart on 240v for example would be a good buy on a major brand, you won't find a good lightly used Miller or Lincoln for short money tho. ......you might find a lightly used Lincoln 120V and that will weld sheet metal panels all day just fine.
In reply to 93gsxturbo :
I'm sure you are aware, but for folks that might not be, but are reading, the Dodge is a body on frame, whereas a Fox body, the body is a structural member of the frame.
Depending on what part of a unibody floor pan , and how much of it, it could be quite different.
Whether you paste them in or burn them in, spend far more time cleaning, cutting and adjusting for as good a fit as you can manage before you make fire. Or glue.
Might be helpful to see exactly what needs replacing. My idea of a toe board would probably involve a combination of glue and welding. If there is a reasonable perimeter of the old pan that is still solid, cut the rusty stuff out, glue the edge and spot weld to the frame rails.
Photos with carpet out might be useful.
+1 for buying a decent welder, I got a used Lincoln wire feed welder for very little. All the parts to convert it to gas were available on Amazon for less than $100. The most expensive part of the whole thing was the gas bottle.
SPG123 said:Well you folks have certainly opened a whole new angle on this for me
Gawd that notch is sexy
MiniDave said:I agree with getting a good Mig with gas, life (and car builds/repairs) is so much easier with the proper tools.
I don't think you need to buy a top of the line unit tho, I think the quality of even the somewhat off brands has improved significantly. I have a Clarke 100E that I bought in 1994, still works perfectly and lays down a good bead. The key to the cheaper units is duty cycle - how long you can weld without letting it stop and cool off a bit, but that's never been a problem for a home garage builder just tacking or welding in panels, as you spend as much time getting set up (or more actually) than you do making sparks.
A used Hobart on 240v for example would be a good buy on a major brand, you won't find a good lightly used Miller or Lincoln for short money tho. ......you might find a lightly used Lincoln 120V and that will weld sheet metal panels all day just fine.
In fact, I'm pretty sure a lot of body shops prefer a 110V welder. Its advantage is that often a 220V has difficulty turning down low enough to keep from burning through thin panels.
Datsun240ZGuy said:
What are we looking at here? Is the brown stuff insulation / sound deadening?
I'm not sure I see anything that needs cut out and replaced.
Edit: even if the brown stuff is the corrosion, I'd hit it with a wire wheel and see what it looks like.
That's rust, and I can already see a couple of small holes. Given how thin the metal is on these cars, a wire wheel will likely blow right through it in multiple places. Cut and replace is the way to go here.
Two holes and the brown rust is thin and soft. The top white is the concrete floor.
The goal is to get it running - pretty close to getting a battery dropped in. Then brakes, tires, clean gas tank and debug what I assembled. THEN we look at body work.
Watching as I prepare to re-floor my 64 mini. Leaning weld but intrigued by panelbond.
Based on those pics I would def buy new panels and weld them in.....nothing against panel bond, just have no experience with it so I go with what I know.
For Mini panels, Heritage tend to fit better, but pretty much any of the aftermarket panels are just fine. The problem isn't with replacing the floors, it's making sure everything it attaches to is solid first. On a Mini, no doubt you'll be replacing sills (don't use oversills!) probably the bottom edges of the flitch panels and possibly the lower part of the front bulkhead. Check where the rear subframe bolts up too - that heel panel tends to rot away on the outside ends - you can buy repair panels for all of these areas.
Sometimes on a Mini it's easier to just buy a complete floor panel and replace it all at once, be sure you weld in cross bracing before you cut out the old stuff.
Yeah, I'm welding, not going to be pretty at first but you gotta learn.....
Do your best to delete all rust first. Angle grinder is your friend. After this, you may find it a better time to weld in some tubes before putting back any sheet metal. On the topic of sheet metal, just go to your local metal supply and by a big sheet of .020 gauge steel. Get yourself an electric cutter at Harbor Freight (along with a MIG welder). Welding will be necessary, especially if you intend to do subframe connectors that mount the right way (involving rockers).
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