- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
I’m on it! Traveling for work this week but let me see if I have some pics to scrounge up.
Rusty Floor Panel and No Welder
- Thread starter LBJeeper
- Start date
- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
Since it’s been asked, I feel like this is as good a thread as any to show you how I installed the floor pans. Let me start by saying that I prefer to butt weld. It’s takes more time to get the pieces to fit up, but is less likely to invite corrosion between the metal pieces than lap welding. If you prefer to lap weld (or flange), have at it. To each his own!
I used the Key Parts replacement floor pans from Quadratec for this project. Personal preference but I liked how they were an exact reproduction of the existing pans versus the other products that are out there. For everything else, I use Classic Enterprises (they are excellent). Here I have a full panel just dropped into place. Note the rolled shoulder of the pan in the second pic. If replacing the floor all the way to the rocker, this will be spot welded to the rocker panel to provide additional structural support, just as it did from the factory. I will only use part of the pans on both sides:
I used the Key Parts replacement floor pans from Quadratec for this project. Personal preference but I liked how they were an exact reproduction of the existing pans versus the other products that are out there. For everything else, I use Classic Enterprises (they are excellent). Here I have a full panel just dropped into place. Note the rolled shoulder of the pan in the second pic. If replacing the floor all the way to the rocker, this will be spot welded to the rocker panel to provide additional structural support, just as it did from the factory. I will only use part of the pans on both sides:
Attachments
- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
Both the passenger and driver side pans had pinholes (and previous patches where someone just cut a square piece of metal out and welded it over the rusted sections), so I started by cutting the offending areas until I found good metal on both the topside and underside. You don’t have to be precise with your cuts at this point, as you are just trying to find good metal. I use 3 cutting tools: Angle grinder (with metal cutting disc attached), air die grinder for smaller spaces (with metal cutting disc), and an air body saw (I use Astro brand...Harbor Freight saw is JUNK).
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mhinchliffe
CJ-8 Member
- City
- W-S
- State
- NC
Love me some sheetmetal work! I'm assuming that these are already in...?
- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
I POR15’d things under the floor pan that are generally hidden and can rust. Don’t POR15 anything you plan to weld, though! The next step is to “fit up” your new pan to the final hole you will make. This is the most anxiety producing part, as you don’t want to cut too much metal and have large gaps that you can’t weld shut! Ask me how I know. ?. Many people cut the hole, place the new pan over the hole and then trace an outline on the new pan and cut it to fit. This concerned me because the new pan, when placing it over the hole, doesn’t necessarily sit flush, and again, you don’t want to cut too much metal! My method may not be best, but it works for me. What I do is cut the pan down to where it is a couple of inches larger than the hole, and then use the pan as the template. In other words, I place the pan down flush as possible, and then trace around the pan which then leaves marks on the floorboard, and then cut the floorboard to fit the pan, not the other way around (it’s getting late so I hope that explanation makes sense). I used the angle and die grinders for the straight sections and the air saw for the curves on the floor (GO SLOW).
Attachments
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- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
Yessir! I’m getting there! I’m pokey on this iPad. Bear with me! ?
- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
Next, when I test fit my panel and every thing looks good, I use a flapper disc (angle grinder) or roloc disc (air grinder) to clean all of the paint off the edges of the pieces I intend to weld. Your weld won’t play nice with paint, so clean the edges up to bare metal! I then sprayed these exposed pieces with weld thru primer. This works great with the welds and helps prevent future corrosion. I use .023 solid wire and a 75/25 argon shielding gas. The key here is to tack weld. If you try to run a continuous bead on thin sheet metal you’ll end up with a warped mess! I tack a section in, then give it a blast of compressed air to quickly cool it, the. Move around several inches and repeat the process. This is time consuming but important to keep from warping the whole shooting match.
Attachments
- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
Once I’ve made a nice number of tacks around the pan, I grind it all down. I hit the highest peaks of the welds with the stone grinder wheel on the angle grinder, then move to the flapper disc. At this point you’ll notice pinholes in your work. I’ll run another set of tack welds around to try to fill these holes, then grind again. It’s very difficult to have “0” pinholes, so don’t sweat it. I run a very thin layer of filler putty over those and sand it down anyway. This final pic is a pan that is 98% done, I have one section of metal with a slight overlap that I’ll fix, and also a few more pinholes to chase and more final grinding and then it will be ready for paint. I’ll b sure to take final pics of it, as it will look much better than this (I sure hope so anyway).
Attachments
mhinchliffe
CJ-8 Member
- City
- W-S
- State
- NC
Wearing a Tag to weld? C'mon Man, you're going to get weld spatter on the crystal and band (ask me how I know). I wear G-Shocks at work and they're pretty ugly but still functional.
- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
Hahahaha! I know; shame on me! I bought it in Nevada back in ‘92. TAG will no longer service the 1000 Professionals, so I really need to be more careful.?. That thing has ended up going with me in the bowels of engines, and halfway in I think “why have I got my good watch on”? Kinda like my nice T-shirt’s that I wear to just “check the oil” and end up pulling an entire head a couple of hours later!
- City
- God's Country
- State
- AR
Excellent info and pics. Thanks for taking the time to post all of that.
I had a nice rust free 85 CJ-7. Went off to school, leaving it and the parents' place. No carpet in it, but did leave rubber mats in the front.
When I came I discovered that the door to top seam leaked, leaving water in the floors, and the mats kept it from evaporating, so I had rust. Over the years I've wire wheeled it a few times and hit it with rustoleum, which slowed it down, but the pans now are to the point where I want to replace them with a new panel rather than try to cut and paste in sections.
I'm not a welder, but am starting a 10 week welding class next week. The local community college finally offered one at night when I can get there.
I had a nice rust free 85 CJ-7. Went off to school, leaving it and the parents' place. No carpet in it, but did leave rubber mats in the front.
When I came I discovered that the door to top seam leaked, leaving water in the floors, and the mats kept it from evaporating, so I had rust. Over the years I've wire wheeled it a few times and hit it with rustoleum, which slowed it down, but the pans now are to the point where I want to replace them with a new panel rather than try to cut and paste in sections.
I'm not a welder, but am starting a 10 week welding class next week. The local community college finally offered one at night when I can get there.
- City
- Cave Creek
- State
- AZ
I don't know why that's so hard for me not to do, but I do it all the time. I'll come in with a dress shirt on from work and my wife will be like "you know you have a huge oil stain on your back, don't you?"
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- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
Ugh! It doesn't take much with these Heeps of ours! Man, that is great you are taking a course. I've had to learn from my mistakes over the years, and wish I'd have taken a course. You'll be able to do some serious damage when you're done!! My MIG machine is by far one of my favorite tools in the garage. I've run quite a bit of wire through it, and repaired so many rusty panels on Jeeps (not to mention frames, mufflers, etc). I'm having a blast with this plasma cutter, too. A bit more money than I wanted to spend, but just cutting the rocker panel out took about 30 seconds, and I used a piece of heavy steel as a "guide", so the cut was straight. Won't warp the sheet metal either!!
- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
Hahahaha!! My wife gets so irritated too! My garage has piles of "oil rags" which were formerly nice shirts.
- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
Ok, on to the passenger side. I posted this on a thread I have in the “Ramblings” section. This pan presented more of a problem, as the rust had gotten in the entire seam where the floorpan joins the rocker. The chrome rocker trim moulding was doing a wonderful job of hiding the crusty mess that was manifesting under there. The cowl support was also shot at the bottom where it meets the pan as well. This is an exterior shot where I’ve cut the floor out, and have started cutting out sections of the rocker panel, probing for damage. You can see where the new pan (the black piece) is sitting in there. Not much was salvageable in that area.
Attachments
- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
Knowing I was going to replace the entire rocker, I ordered a replacement piece from Classic Enterprises. This is an EXCELLENT replacement, as it replicates the “lip” at the bottom outer sheet metal that is on all of our rigs. I measured what I needed and cut the rocker down to size with the plasma cutter.
Attachments
- City
- Mount Pleasant
- State
- SC
Next, I used a 3m eraser wheel to remove the stripes/decals (kind of traumatic to remove the originals) from the rocker. Again, you don’t want contaminants in your weld, so be sure to clean that area thoroughly. The issue I now faced was getting the rocker panel cut off of there without destroying the rear floorpans. This called for a spotweld cutter. There was no consistency to the spot welds. I think the guy in charge of this part of the assembly in 1982 had been drinking some good tequila.
For you observant types, you’ll notice I didn’t remove the decals until after cutting out the spotwelds.
For you observant types, you’ll notice I didn’t remove the decals until after cutting out the spotwelds.
