floor pans, the biggest can of worms ever

decided to tear into the floor boards the other day, im three days into it and it looks like i have done nothing. i keep finding more and more spots that rusted through. its a love, hate relationship...



and i made a speed hole in my scrap jeep for extra sheet metal.

i think the worst part about it is taking the old pans out, there are spot welds everywhere and they are a pain to get out. if anyone has any tips i will gladly accept them.

find a west coast only jeep and swap every thing that you love about your origional one over to it and tube out the origional one.
other than the cage it looks like your half way there already :shocked:

I heard that NAPA can order pre-formed drop in replacment floor panels.

WOW, unless it's a labor of love I'd find a better body from a non rust belt state.

anyone ever used these replacement floor pans to double the thickness of their existing floor? would it add any significant strength to the unitbody for stiffness?

hahah looks alot like my jeep

i have the same problem, i am fabricating new floors and then herculining the whole thing

you might want to check my thread here . http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=89210

i had to drive somewhere with my jeep all cut up like that it was quite an experience especially in the rain. I usually love going through puddles but not anymore.

yeah i cant drive it in the rain without getting wet. i ordered the pre-formed floors from shermans auto parts (would not recommend) and they required a lot of fine cutting, hammering and shaping. i got the drivers side mostly done last night. its all welded in, except for the seat brackets.

the rest of the jeep is rust free, which struck me as kind of odd. possibly by the end of this year ill have my cage in and the frame rails re-inforced.

can you post finished pics?

mike01166 said:

can you post finished pics?

Click to expand...

X2

they make a spot weld drillbit makes spotwelds easy to tear apart

i sure will, i ran out of gas the other night so i should have them all welded in by tonight.

rust on jeeps...the original meaning of "it's a jeep thing"

Heck man I have an 88 2dr body here in NC you can have, it should be quicker and easier to come get it than do all that!

front drivers side done






and the brown you see in the pictures is just primer from my half assed paint job, not rust.

i plan on getting some silicone tomorrow and sealing the areas whre the two pieces of metal meet, that way i will have a little more rust protection.

passenger side.

Damn thats a bright green in the second last pic...I like it

Nice work.

Looks like a lot of work....think I have to do that soon . About how much for those floor pans?? Too much? Would you rather fab your own after doing it?

What kinda welder did you use...like how much power?

mjma said:

Looks like a lot of work....think I have to do that soon . About how much for those floor pans?? Too much? Would you rather fab your own after doing it?

What kinda welder did you use...like how much power?

Click to expand...

floor pans were a 116 a piece from sherman auto parts. the pans are ok, if you want to spend a lot of time hammering and cutting you could do it yourself with sheet metal, but mine were so rotten i couldnt save them. i used a miller 135 mig welder, 110V lowest heat setting, low wire speed, .023 wire, 14-15 psi argon, co2 mix. the biggest pain is getting the old ones out, there are spot welds every 4 inches and i got a little too excited with the air hammer. and another mistake was letting my cousin and my brother weld on it, i spent more time fixing holes and going back over welds then it would have taken me to do it right the first time. but its just something you have to deal with, they are a bitch no matter what.

I have two questions both of which may be stupid, but I'll ask anyway. First, I plan on doing this very soon, but my jeep is a DD. Obviously I wont be able to get everything done in one day, so other than the obvious safety concern of driving with no floors is there anything else I should worry about? Maybe do one side at a time?
Second, I have a Lincoln Electric Pro-Mig 140, and I have been using flux-cored wire to do most of my welding. Besides splatter is there any reason (strength) to switch to a wire that uses a shielding gas like CO2?
Thanks,
Joe

i cant answer the welding question, but i had to redo the floors in my mj. i wish it was as easy as an xj. the mj has a lot more subframing. the floor is FAR from flat like thoes pics show an xj to be. dont hold back on what you cut. get EVERYTHING out. even up under the pedals/wheel well. go all out. get it all. its possible to do the pass side by night and dd by day, but between the wire wheel/grinding youll be doing to find the blistering spots, your interior is going to be LOADED with dust EVERYWHERE. and your snot will be black if you dont wear a mask. its going to take you a long time. especilly if its a dd. i would almost tell you to find another dd before you do it. its gonna take a while. and take your time. i wish i did a better job on mine. im not happy with it at all. i also had to make new seat mounts. not only did i cut out the studs for the bench seat, but i installed buckets at the same time. again, i am not happy at all with what i did. make sure the new pans fit like a glove. this means youll get to know your ball pein hammer very well. use a stump/splitting log as the base to hit the pans with the ball pein so you can curve the edges. the better u make them fit before you weld them in, the better it will come out. try to make it so the new metal meets right where you cut the original metal (small amount of overlap. hurculine it afterwards before you make the new seat mounts. dont rush it like i did. i kick myself for how shitty i did. i almost wanna cut it all out and start over. i just might