Complete floor pan fabricators

It seems kinda stupid to just replace floor pans by section. Are there sheet metal fabricators out there that can take an accurately cut COMPLETE floor pan (transmission/driveshaft hump, and all pans, both front and rear) and replicate, with a flange around the perimeter that would make it easy to weld back to body?

Reasoning here is that cars like Hudson, Chrysler, Lincoln are hard to find floor pans.

 

A floor is actually stronger by sections over lapped, than having a continuous piece of sheet metal, just like concrete when you pour it in sections with expansion joints. Floor pans are not that hard to make yourself, I got myself a bead roller from harbor freight and made my front floor pan, with a flange and tranny hump and driveshaft tunnel. here are some pictures. In these pictures I had the car all braced up to take the body off the frame.

 

Usually in order to save the floor supports you have to destroy the rusty "floor" during removal. People tend to think of the floor as a sheet, but it's actually a structure.

Then when you think about how the new floor would be made, a fab shop won't be making a huge stamping die, so it's going to be a series of pieces welded together anyway. Basically the labor to make a "drop in" is going to be so huge that you better be able to sell ten of em to cover your fixturing and development labor.

Then you gotta figure out how to get that one huge piece thru the car's door or windshield opening.

 

How would you get a complete floor pan inside the car in one piece anyway?

 

Not to mention the fact that the build tolerances on some older cars were pretty bad. What would be perfect for on car, wouldn't fit in another...or would have a 1/2 gap somewhere.

 

Are you talking about a complete ONE PIECE floor or floors in sections for cars for which floors are not commercially reproduced? A ONE PIECE floor for a lot of cars would be overly heavy and cumbersome to fab and ship not to mention fit and weld into the car. I make floor sections for cars and trucks that are not serviced by the aftermarket. John

 

Frame off restoration would allow me to install from the underside of the body, no need to install from inside. Car would be on rotisserie and can be revolved.

Unibody same way, just remove powertrain and subframe.

 

good points!

 

Hey,

Something to consider is that most floor sheetmetal pieces are "deep drawn" pressings by design. A deep drawn pressing is a sheet of metal that has been pressed with many changes in shape, form and size. As a result, the dies to build a pressing like these are very expensive, given what you're asking the metal to do between them. Sometimes, multiple pressings or strikes are required to produce the part. One tear, one wrong stretch and you have to scrap the part$$$$! A stamping the size of a floor would be very heavy and to crate and ship that pressing would be cost prohibitive! Not even the "Muscle Car" big money builders could supply the demand to cover costs on a venture like this.

Swankey Devils C.C.
"Spending A Nation Into Generational Debt Is Not An Act Of Compassion!"

 

and to add to what pimpin paint was saying. . . IF you did go through all the trouble of making those expensive dies, the size of press it would require is enormous.

Also, to install from the bottom, you are going to have to remove then reinstall the floor supports, and if you're going to go through all that trouble, you might as well make new supports.