Technical Installing floor pans problem

I have some aftermarket pans. We had to reroll the grooves.( too shallow). Now the pans(6' long) are bent and twisted. I thought I read on the HAMB as to get rid of or reduce the bending , but I'm unable to find it. Any help ?? Thanks Terry ('36 Ford)

 

English wheel,probably next to the grooves? got a pic?

 

I remember reading that post also. I don't remember what the fix was or the title of the post. I do remember thinking "I'll have to try that next time".

 

It seemed like it was to do something at the end of each groove. Heat it maybe.??

 

Maybe; I've always shrunk an inverted V from the end of groove to outer edge. Seems like what had been discussed was a bit easier.

 

On the thread "How would you approach this floor repair?" has a brief statement about pre stretching a pan before you roll beads, its towards the bottom of page 2, but its a little late for that now.

How bad are they "bent and twisted"? Can they be clamped into place? I think your best option at this point is probably limited to shrinking both the ends of all the bead rolls, though you might get away with just flattening the area around the ends of the bead rolls from the bottom side. If you can straighten the pan enough to get it clamped and welded in place, it will probably be OK. Gene

 

Yes I can bend them down I guess. Some will be a little difficult to clamp down while welding. I'll try a little hammer work and try the hot wrench.

 

Could well be the gasket punch ground away such that it matches the end of the groove pressing and is used to crisp up the end of the groove and help eliminate the distortion. See Lasse's video which includes this neat trick.

Chris

 

How much tension? Will it be welded to Xmembers?

The bead caussed the stress. You may be able to lay the panel on a flat surface (beads up) hammer (don’t kill it) closely to the bead edges to relieve some of the stress.

 

I know I'm spending your money here but you can use these clamps to hold it down and use a stud gun with a shrinking tip to help distortion.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...348368D9E57B25747CE0348368D9E57B257&FORM=VIRE

 

screws

 

That was the thread I was thinking of also. I hope that you braced everything well before you cut the old ones out.

 

Anthony's remedy is spot on..

Relieving the edges of the swages will help relax the panel. So fetch your flattest doly with a straight edge, get it right in onto the edge of the swage and tapety tap along the length of the edge "on dolly " right on that hard edge created by the swage and stretch it.. Coining the ends will stretch that bit at the end of each swage.

pre stretching would have prevented the twists but trying to stretch with the wheel now will be a bit of a disaster unless you have a lower anvil with a good "sharp" edge and set it tilted in the lower cradle so that the edge of the wheel runs along the edge of the and the edge of the lower anvil gets right into the crease of the swage and stretches the metal along that line... same idea with the hammer and dolly..

basically what you've done is drew all the metal for the swage from those edges and the edge has effectively locked the metal in its deformed state, the edges are effectively shrunk. Relieve the edges and the panel will relax and flatten out .. but its a fix so persevere..