Junk Time
Waiting on pieces to finish up the brakes, but I have a lot of other sections I can be working on in the meantime; brake lines, fuel lines, electrical. I got it, I’ll cut pieces out of the car and put them back in!
In a show of complete stupidity, I managed to drop the car off of its 12- inch blocks onto jackstands that were supposed to be clear of the car. One jackstand wound up under the passenger side seat platform. This made it difficult to get to the floor pan that had been punched upwards causing the sheet metal to distort. The best way to make the repair was to remove the seat platform.
A friend of mine suggested that I find some way to pull downward on the dent to avoid removing the platform. Thought about that and decided against it.
Original plan was to cut the existing platform out and replace it with a new one. I have extras. I didn’t know the floor pan came would come with a set.
Whether I hacked the old platform into pieces or took the time to remove it in one piece, I would still have to contend with the many spot welds that hold the platform in.
The right seat platform I have, both sets, are too wide for the available space. I found that weird because the platform that came with the floor pan was wide but the floor pan itself was too narrow. I had to modify the right seat platform to fit. With that in mind, it was in my best interest to take the time to remove the platform in one piece and attempt to reuse it. If that can be accomplished, I won’t have to modify a new seat platform and that makes me extremely happy.
It’s been awhile but I still have plenty of the little mini hole saws for cutting around spot welds.
Same routine; center punch the spot weld, drill a pilot hole on the punch mark for the hole saw centering post to lock into and then walk that fine line of cutting through the top sheet metal without cutting too far into the pan below or completely through.
Cordless drill is smoking but it’s done work it can be proud of. The platform comes out without too much argument. The edges are bent up slightly and that’s what one can expect in a removal like this..
If I wasn’t sure about reusing this platform before, I’m sold now. The by product of cutting out the spot welds is that the center of the welds stay with the parent floor pan. If I were to use a new platform, all of those little nubbins would have to be ground down. By reusing the old piece, these artifacts are now locating tabs.
A nylon forming hammer makes the dent removal pretty easy. There’s some metal stretching and if this piece were any other surface, I’d take the time to shrink the area down but it’s under the car and the platform will hide my sin from the top and unless the car is on a lift, ain’t no one gonna see it from beneath.
The seat platform absorbed a little bit of the blow from the near impaling onto the jackstand but it’s not major and the damage is corrected without a lot of fuss. A little work on the edges with an anvil and body hammer and this thing is ready to go back into the car.
I considered using the Tig welder to reattach the platform, cut down on the cleaning up of the welds, but convenience and ease of the Mig welder won out. It’s the whole foot pedal manipulation when bent over, all contorted, off balance, etc.
I have some super long locking clamps like vice grip type clamps except these are about three feet long, they’re great for clamping the platform to the floor pan. The rocker panel side is easily clamped. For the transmission tunnel side, I suppose I went a touch extreme and removed the engine and transmission so I could put a clamp through the shifter opening in the tunnel to ensure tight fit of the seat platform to the tunnel wall.
Except for the grinding to clean up the welds, this is less than a days loss to back track to effect this repair
Luckily I’ve learned to handle the torch a little better since the first time this seat platform was installed and the spot welds aren’t as lumpy now as they were then. This should cut down on the time spent grinding the welds.