Floor Pans... Getting screwed?

[26th-Z]

I re-used my seat frames and bought both floors and rails from Charlie Osborne. Make sure you bolt the transmission crossmember in place to keep the floor pan alignment correct. Use the sway bar to align your frame rails. I paid about $800 five years ago for just the welding.

[madkaw]

Floor pan replacement is not an easy job. I think the above statement of close to 40 hours for a DIY'er is a good estimate. If you think the floor pans are going drop right in and fit right-guess again. The pans will have to be worked to follow the contour of tunnel. Plus, depending on the amount of rust, you might have to add to the panels because they seem to come up short of material on the front of the panel for severe rust. Now we also have the rails to content with. And unless you can rotate the car upside down, you will be welding on your back for a lot of this.

Oh yeah, did we talk about seat rails yet? Can you save the old ones? Well you will have to remove them and clean them up to reweld to the floor. Or buy new ones and cold work them into place and tets fit seats and remove seats.

I can see why an experienced shop would either not want to do this work or charge big$$$ They don't make much money and it's hard work. Not trying to scare you or persuade you as much as make you aware of what you could be in for

[oranngetang]

Madkaw, what did you end up coating the floors with?

[cbuczesk]

Floor pan replacement is not an easy job. I think the above statement of close to 40 hours for a DIY'er is a good estimate. If you think the floor pans are going drop right in and fit right-guess again. The pans will have to be worked to follow the contour of tunnel. Plus, depending on the amount of rust, you might have to add to the panels because they seem to come up short of material on the front of the panel for severe rust. Now we also have the rails to content with. And unless you can rotate the car upside down, you will be welding on your back for a lot of this.

Oh yeah, did we talk about seat rails yet? Can you save the old ones? Well you will have to remove them and clean them up to reweld to the floor. Or buy new ones and cold work them into place and tets fit seats and remove seats.

I can see why an experienced shop would either not want to do this work or charge big$$$ They don't make much money and it's hard work. Not trying to scare you or persuade you as much as make you aware of what you could be in for

I agree with all of that but to clarify the floors supplied by ZF are actually longer than the original floors. You can use the extra metal to replace any rusty metal at the bottom of the firewall.

You don't have to weld on your back. After the floors are tacked in place you can hold the frame rails in place with a floor jack. Get under the car and drill a small hole at the corner of each end of the frame rail. Use a Sharpie to draw a straight lines connecting the holes to mark off the edges of the new frame rail. Remove the new frame rail. Drill 3/8" holes inside those lines so you can plug weld down onto the new rails.

Don't remove the seat rails unless you have to. They will help to prevent any twisting or distortion.

Chuck

[madkaw]

I did the complete Por-15 treatment-including the etching of the new metal with metal prep.

Madkaw, what did you end up coating the floors with?

[madkaw]

The floors were from ZF and usually if the rust is bad it runs up the firewall and you will need to add metal.

Yes there are ways to diminish the fact that you have to weld on your back. As you can see i welded the frames to the floors off the car, but if you have to tie into the tension boxes, you will be on your back doing that.

Like I said, this is not an easy job and the DIY'er should know what he's up against. I also found that careful attention has to paid to where and how the floor ties into the rocker panel-if that's not too rusted either. The bends are not exact and it will cause the floor to hang low or crooked. I believe i documented all this in athread somewhere on here. It also depends on how stock you want it to look. You can make it functional and strong and don't have to try too hard to make it look original. The ZF pans are good, don't get me wrong, the job itself is one of the most challenging sheet metal jobs i've done-physically and skill levels(trying to make it look original).

I would also recommend making an inexpensive tool purchase and get some Cleco fastners from Summitt. It is a great way to fit the panel before and during welding.

IMHO!

I agree with all of that but to clarify the floors supplied by ZF are actually longer than the original floors. You can use the extra metal to replace any rusty metal at the bottom of the firewall.

You don't have to weld on your back. After the floors are tacked in place you can hold the frame rails in place with a floor jack. Get under the car and drill a small hole at the corner of each end of the frame rail. Use a Sharpie to draw a straight lines connecting the holes to mark off the edges of the new frame rail. Remove the new frame rail. Drill 3/8" holes inside those lines so you can plug weld down onto the new rails.

Don't remove the seat rails unless you have to. They will help to prevent any twisting or distortion.

Chuck

Edited May 11, 2012 by madkaw

[cbuczesk]

Yeah, that section of welding the new frame to the old frame under the car is tricky. You can make it a little less upsidedown by jacking up just one side of the car. The 240Z floors go in MUCH easier than 280Z floors. I installed 280Z floors/frames in my race car over the winter and it was tough even with a helper and having the car on a rotisserie!

Chuck

[madkaw]

WOW, you've got a set-up much beyond the DIY'er-nice. I can't imagine the 280z floors are much harder, since the 240z floors were quite the challenge.

[cbuczesk]

WOW, you've got a set-up much beyond the DIY'er-nice. I can't imagine the 280z floors are much harder, since the 240z floors were quite the challenge.

Thanks! It's an Auto-Twirler rotisserie with mounts for a Mopar. I drilled an extra hole in the front mount and made an adapter for the rear and bolted it up! I've done a few 240Z floors and they're pretty easy compared to this. The 280Z floors don't have all the bends of the originals so there's more manipulation. It was a lot of work to get those in. Anyway, I think they turned out pretty nice for a race car.

Chuck

[240260280z]

Wish I had that twirler when I did the brake and fuel lines!

[Patcon]

Chuck,

Great looking work space. Lot's of light!!! Love it... I even love the color. Got one on the rotisserie about the same color and close to needing lines and suspension.

[grannyknot]

Chuck, I see you haven't connected the floor pan rails to the rear subframe, is there a reason for that?

I thought that was pretty standard for Z race cars.

Thanks,

Chris