On Mon, 30 Oct 1995, John M. Trindle wrote:
> I have a crack running down the inside seat rail in the floorboard... the
> front outside captive nut is also missing, so the seat is fastened down
> with 3 bolts.
>
> The combination of the two causes rocking of the seat and is starting to
> make me a touch nervous.
>
> I could:
>
> 1) Patch the floor with pop-rivited sheet metal, like the previous owner
> did to the Spitfire.
>
> 2) MIG weld in a patch.
>
> 3) Replace floorboard.
>
> I have no idea where to start on #3. Is it a big deal?
>
Take a look at my homepage (URL below) specifically the one labeled "I
don't need no stinking floorpan"...We (my fiance's father and I did all
of the above this summer to my 74 B.
The passenger side floorpan had a HUGE (9" x 9") rusted hole in it....So
we replaced it. The biggest problem in replacing the floorpan was
getting the old one out. The panels are held in place by welds about
every 1.5"....This made for ALOT of beating with a hammer and a cold
chisel, until we decided NOT TO remove the entire panel........What we
did was leave the inch or so that was still welded to the unibody, and
weld the new pan to it. The surfaces were wire brushed/naval
jelleyed/wire brushed again to remove rust, etc. The new pan was then
put in place and lines scribed onto the bottom of the panel marking the
boundary of the chassis supports. Holes were drilled every 1.5" (or so)
in the new floorpan, to weld to the chassis. If you will note the black
plates in the "stinking floorpan" image, they are there because we had
already removed ALL of the old floorpan in those areas, and needed to
raise those local chassis areas to match the height of the remaining
welding surfaces. Once that was done, the new floorpan was put in
place, and welded in. I have a scanned image somewhere on my hard drive
of the finished job, but can't find it.
NEXT, I noticed that the driver's side floorpan had a couple holes (small
ones) behind the seat attachment bolts.......For these area, I cut the
passenger's floorpan to make "patches"...These patches were welded in
place, and didn't restrict seat travel (they were welded to the bottom of
the floorpan.)
> I don't think I can fix the seat mounting properly without doing #3, but
> patching the crack would reduce seat movement greatly.
>
Eric
Eric L. Van Iderstine - ME senior - Mississippi State University
Design Coordinator - MSU Formula SAE......Powered by Honda......
elv1@Ra.MsState.Edu http://www2.msstate.edu/~elv1
74 MGB & 85 Buick (until I finish the MG)
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