I was looking for some insight into floor pan installation. Should I butt weld them in, or should I overlap some metal and pop rivet them along with silicone. If i over lap the metal should the pan be on top of the original floor or underneath?
Cut the rust out until you get to good metal, clean up the original pan, put the new one on top with about 1/2" over lap, and weld it in. Seal the edges with seam sealer, then paint the floor. Most of the rusted out floors rust out from on top, from inside of the car/truck. Gene
IMHO If you are putting in like replacements of a stock floor and the stock floor was lapped, you should lap at the stock locations. Preferably with spot welds like stock. Rosettes if you can't spot weld. All other welds should be butts. Rivets only for holding things together while you weld them. Better yet - clecos. Rivets removed and the holes filled with weld at the end. Never silicone.
Yea, no rivets. Believe me, it isnt as hard as you think. I cut my whole f'n floor out so my pillars were just swinging in the breeze and was scared as hell but got it done. Weld those puppies in. In some cases, the factory laps the joint such as where the floor goes over the rocker panels and then they used spot welds. I used a spot weld cutter to remove the welds and that leaves a nice hole to fill in when welding. But rivets and silicone is GHETTO no matter which way you look at it.
Butt weld and use a copper spoon to help with warpage. seal with seam sealer and paint with por 15. Use a good sealer primer then paint. You will be glad in the end.
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