floor pans...steeling my nerves.

[Homemade 911]

All,
Getting ready (mentally) to tackle the old floor-pan repair job.
My car has the "normal" flat steel patches (aka the old "road sign repairs") overlaid onto the pan. I'd like to tear all that BS out and do a proper repair - using good replacement panels.

I've got everything here in house: tools (good mig welder, plasma cutter, the usual hand tools) Expert help (my welding instructor from the local college - who happens to be very good at all this: certified, etc, etc. He will come help) and, most importantly, the time to do this right.

I know there's more than one way to go about this, and get excellent results. I can tell you right now I don't THINK I'll be going all the way back to the original spot weld points...

My initial thinking is that I can "cut & graft" onto the original pan, with patches from the replacement panels. I've got enough original pan left to go this route. I got this idea from the guy who runs motoringinvestments.com... He did a floor this way, and it looked pretty good. Certainly good enough for a well-maintained race car.

That said, I'd like to hear what some of your HANDS-ON EXPERIENCES have been:
- how did you do yours?
- how did it come out?
- what would you do differently?
- any other thoughts on this endeavor?

Anyone? I look forward to your collective wisdom (and humor too! )
Thanks
Cheers
Thom

PS - I bet you're wondering: "what about the rest of the chassis?" Good question: Rest assured, the rest of it is quite up to snuff - the interior floor pan area is the last of the structural repairs/upgrades that I've done over the years. Racing's dangerous enough without assuming even more risk with a shakey setup, eh?

[gregk1]

i started welding in the ship yards in 1974, in the ship repair part of the yard there was alot of rust repair going on so that is on a much grander scale then a little bity car if you will.I just replaced part of the floor on a 67 911 left side had big holes in the front and behind the seat. right side was all there but thin in spots I got this car for a song and wanted to keep the cost down. I just didnt want to spend $300 on replacment panels and cut them up and use half of them to pach one side so I used some tin form a old camaro hood and a truck door. made cardboard templet and cut them out and folded some crease's in them for a little more strength and welded them in turnd out great!!! i used some acid to kill the rust and then used POR15 and put about three coats top and bottom that stuff dries rock hard i have had to patch a rocker hear and there but all in all the rest of the car is fairly solid a good street or track beater

[Eric911S]

Hello: You can spot patch the floor with no problems at all. If you do it the way I do with a mig welder and carefully grind the welds. You will not be able to tell that it has been repaired. Redo the undercoating and it will look perfect. I also do the front suspension pans that way. Remember the disc grinder is your friend ;-) Thanks, Eric