Floor Pans Welded

This was a major milestone.

I know it will seem to you, Dear reader, as though I think that every post is a major milestone, but rest assured, this is one of those actual cases.  After much delay and lots of cutting and grinding, the floor pans have at long last been welded into place.

Like every step along the way it took longer than I expected or wanted.  Although it was incredibly satisfying when completed, welding in the floor pans simply took a lot more time and effort than I expected.  You'd think by now I'd be used to the process of estimating my time and effort, but it always seems to take me by surprise.  Actually it probably more of a function of my over-eager optimism than my ability to effectively estimate how long something will take.

For one thing, it always seems that some of that over-eagerness has to be corrected before I can actually get on with the task at hand.

Cuts in the frame have to be welded

In this case, this preliminary task was repairing the places where I'd cut into the frame while removing the rusted old floor pans. In hindsight, the old pans were so decrepit I could have taken them out with a pair of pliers and a nail clipper, but because I set to the job with a great deal of energy and a cutting wheel, in a brief period I managed to render several long and probably completely unnecessary gashes in the frame at the very point where the new floor pans were set to be welded.  I say 'probably' because it turns out that these cuts were not completely unnecessary, as they did give me the opportunity to practice my welding on some more substantial steel than the floor pans offered before setting a spark to them.

The Millermatic 160

Test welds are pretty bad

For this job I rented a small MIG gas wire welder from Alamo Welding Supply.  Since it was the Thanksgiving weekend, I managed to get the welder for four days for the price of just two, but in the end, because of my work schedule, I was really only able to weld on one of the four days.  It wasn't long but it was enough--barely.

the welds don't look half bad

But when ground down

To my surprise and great delight, the welds I made on the frame were substantially better than those I'd managed to make on the test pieces of steel.  In fact, when I ground them down, you'd could hardly tell that I was not the cool, calm and seasoned professional welder that I claimed to be.  Well, ok, it may not be the best metalwork ever but it did the job and it will be out of sight.  This, I believe, may be my saving grace on all my welds until I get to the body.  But that is another story.

Assembled bits to the side

My three helpers

Another reason I had only one day to weld is because I can never get to the good part--the thing I want to do that day--without having to do some prep work.  In this case, I decided to remove both the front beam and the rear trailing arms in order to lighten the load on the frame and make the whole thing easier to turn over after the floor pans are welded in.  I called on my three helpers, Valery, Madelaine and Loki, and we removed the front beam.  The trailing arms came out easily and I set all these parts to the side as I brought out the floor pans.

Spot welds are the way to go

The first weld in the center

After preparing the contact surfaces between frames and the pans, I set in the pan on the left side, weighed it down with a couple of garden bricks and proceeded to tack-weld it in place.  I put a few spots in the center, then welded down the corners, then went around the pan, gradually filling in small tack welds until I had one about every three inches or so.  I re-learned to weld as I went along slowly.

The back edge

The front corner

Even with a careful pace, I came close to burning through the pans at first.  Then I learned to use the heavier steel of the frame to start the spark, allowing the wire to melt and run down just as I touched the edge of the thin floor pan with the spark.  I learned that the key to a good weld was stopping and pulling back quickly.  This allowed the weld to set as the edge cooled.

One weld at a time

All the way down the frame

Of course, the latter welds look a lot better than the first ones.  I am not going to grind these welds down, mostly because that would weaken them unnecessarily, but also because they are not going to be visible when I am done.  A think layer of silicone sealant will cover the joint, followed by paint, some kind of sound-proofing material and finally, the carpet.  I love to know that the work I've done is good, of course, but as I've said before, my goal is to refurbish, not perfectly restore this car, and this work is certainly up to that standard.

The left side floor pan is welded in!

The second pan, on the passenger side, went in much more quickly, not least because I had squandered most of the late November light and knew that the welder had to be returned the next day, whether or not the floor pans were adequately secured.  What had taken hours on the other side took fewer than thirty minutes on this one.  I think that I finally gained some degree of confidence, which allowed me to move from one weld to the next without a lot of time and/or light to work with.  It was a good feeling, even if it doesn't mean that I am yet able to claim welding as one of my skills.

Rusty bits on the front beam

Next, from both of the sets of parts that I pulled off--the front beam and those trailing arms--I learned that the paint job I'd given them was inadequate.  I cleaned, primed and painted them all flat black.   I see now that I have to paint them with a hard gloss, in order to better protect the surfaces.  Flat black looks cool but it scratches and chips too easily.

Also, my intent to leave the bolt heads unpainted or even covered in clear acrylic was a bad idea.  Even though we've had no rain to speak of, what little moisture there was in the past few months has caused a few tiny bits of rust to form on all the parts that were not actually painted.  So, I will go back and paint everything with a hard gloss enamel.  I'd like to paint the bolt heads another, contrasting color, like green, but I don't have the exact color the body will be and I don't know how good a standard 'Emerald Green' will look.  I'll try a couple of experiments this week.

Before I get to those details, though, I have to flip it over to seal and paint the bottom of the pans and the frame before I start putting all the freshly re-painted goodies back on.