The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop floorpan looks like swiss cheese

So my goal is to have my truck "finished" by summer one of the biggest projects left is the floor pan now i have never welded sheet metal i have some experience welding but very little and it is mostly stick vs mig so my question is should i look into contracting out the work or should I try my hand at it? Is it difficult im really worried about blowing though as I cant afford more then 1 floor pan

I would do it myself get a bunch of scrap metal and practice on that before you start on your truck I also never welded on sheetmetal before this project but there are some online welding sites that would help get you started,once you get in some practice on scrape it does not take long before your welding on your own and the money you save you can get more stuff for your truck. Do a search on auto body welding you'll see,do you have a mig welder already?If you do get some .023 wire and practice on scrap.

Good luck,Pete

Most of us would tell you to do it yourself if you want to learn. If you have the money and no desire to learn about it, then contract it out. There's probably not a single question that one of us can't answer here, and I am sure that if you ask, there's a member real close by to you that would drink a few beers and give you a hand, or at least tell you. I've done about 4 car's floor panels for chev's, and many more on other cars. It's not that bad. Follow the original spot welds, and the seams where they are installed. Drill them out, and save the pieces you remove. Try and get it out in one piece. Don't be surprised if it takes longer to get it out nicely. This isn't demolition time. Once you have the piece out. Trace it onto the new floorboard if you are buying them, cut it out, and weld it back in. Good advice from pete 52. If you can't mig weld, ask around. Believe it or not, the welding is the easiest part in my opinion. Getting a nice fit and removing the piece in good working order is another issue. Don't forget to drill out the spot welds and leave the cross members underneath for support. Worse case, just PM one of us guys, and call us and we can walk you through it.

When I did mine, most of the welds were butt welds. I used the lowest setting on my 120V MIG. The one problem was welding the pan to the heavier cross member underneath. I eventually figured out that I had to step up the current on notch to get proper penetration in the cross member.

All of the above, I would add to get a good spot weld cutter as this is were you will spend alot of time. busting alot of cheaper ones is costly and frustrating.

sounds great, i guess imma be learning to mig weld or at least attempting to learn, ...

Welding that sheet metal is relatively easy if you just practice a little bit first. Just remember when you weld it, use stitch welds instead of one long continuous weld to avoid warping the metal.