Floor pan replacement question

Hey Charles I have a restoration shop and have done this many times , and can tell you its not very hard. Its best for you to get the peplacement pans meant for the convertables. Tou want to start out by removing your seats, pedal cluster and moving or removing your brake line. then the 13mm bolts that hold the outer pans to the bodyn just behind the support rails. next is cutting the pan away from the tunnel leaving the back portion of the pan that bolts the body down this section has 2 13mm bolts on each side. This original section triangle shape is much stronger then the aftermarket metal on the replacement pans. make sure to clean the lip of the tunnel from any small chunks of metal.then drill 8mm holes every 5cm you can then slide the replacement pans under the body to rest on the tunnel lips. at this time bolt the pans back to the body to align. then weld in to place.

Hope this helps Mario

I thought they were identical, except without jacking points?!?

-- Howard Rose

1966 VW Beetle 1300 Deluxe 1962 Austin Mini Deluxe 1964 Austin Mini Super Deluxe (cars on website)

they are but its a pain to remove the jack points and looks better.

It saves alot of time amd drill bits.

Mario

removing the jacking points takes ten minutes for both sides...and if you waste a bit, you are not using it correctly...

------------------- Chris Perdue "I'm ever so thankful for the Internet; it has allowed me to keep a finger in the pie and to make some small contribution to those younger who will carry the air-cooled legend forward" Jim Mais Feb. 2004

Ive done 4 sets now and the old spot weld bit about $8 is showing real wear. and I weld and dress the holes before sending for powdercoating. I'm sure an hour or more.

Remember Chris my worked is two inched.

Mario

First, remove the body from the chassis. This will save you a lot of pain. As Mario says, do not remove the rear cross panels on the chassis which extend from the rear of the tunnel to the outer rear corners of the floor pans. This is a major assist to relocating the pans. However, if yours are somehow badly corroded, you may have to do otherwise. Anyway, with all parts of the floor pan removed, position the new pan so that the rear-most outer hole locates over the outer hole in the rear cross panel. The rest of the floor pan should then just fall (or shove) into place. If you want to be sure you are getting everything right then, before removing the old pans measure the position of a few bolt holes. Always measure from two separate points, low on the tunnel, to one hole (triangulation). Try to use the best quality pans you can (73-79). Genuine VW pans are still available for your model, I believe, though at a good price.

well if you have to weld the holes then i guess it does take longer...i have done three sets of pans and removed the jackpoints(have done four sets of pans, but have not removed the jack points from the last ones yet, although i have removed jackpoints from original pans on bugs i have owned) and have never actually drilled a hole all the way through...i don't even nick the pan....so hitting the small high spot with a sanding disk is all that is needed...

------------------- Chris Perdue "I'm ever so thankful for the Internet; it has allowed me to keep a finger in the pie and to make some small contribution to those younger who will carry the air-cooled legend forward" Jim Mais Feb. 2004