Fish out of water.

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Man I am glad to see you bring this back! I was just thinking about your thread. I stalled on my Valiant for the winter and am trying to get moving on it again. :-D
 
Got the front pan in today. It went pretty well in my opinion. I got the frame rails cleaned up some, and shot a bunch of primer inside them. I drilled holes all around the new pan for plug welds, then sprayed weld thru primer everywhere there was gonna be a lap that I couldn't get to, to paint later. Then I shot regular primer on the rest of the bottom of the pan. Put a few screws in the pan to hold it in place, then went to town with the welder. It was a b!tch to weld the plugs on the frame rail, but I got better as I went and got the welder tuned in. Once welded, I hit the high spots with the grinder. I didn't get carried away with the grinder as none of it will be seen later on. It's never gonna be a show car...... After grinding I primed the top side and called it a day. I hope to start on the back pan tomorrow.
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that was a sweet concrete truck, you really got the ole' garage looking good now. I have a 24x32 shop but no floor yet
 
I got the passenger side rear pan in today. I didn't even bother grinding the welds as they came out pretty good. I still need to weld the seat support brackets back in. I'll probably do the driver's side rear pan tomorrow. I patched it with a homemade patch a week or 2 ago, so I'll have to cut it back out. The area where the driver's seat bolts down is in kinda rough shape, so I'll likely have to do some surgery on it, as the metal's pretty thin in spots. I'm also gonna pull the drain plugs out of the rest of the floor and weld the holes up.

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nice work. i see what you mean about not grinding down the welds. they hardly stick up. you're doing this fish the justice it deserves.
 
I was gonna tackle the driver's rear pan today, but decided to wait. There's some pretty serious pitting and rust through in the section under the seat, and I really don't want to butcher things any worse than necessary. I'm gonna attempt to cut those spots out and make some patches to fix it. If that turns out well, I'll go from there. If not, I'll be looking for a piece from a donor car. These pics show the spots I'm talking about. They also show my crappy patch in the rear floor that's coming out. I'm really glad I decided to do the floor right, rather than just butcher something together.

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Okay, had a chance to work on the floors again today. I cut out the bad sections under the seat, and made a patch for them. They came out okay, as far as I'm concerned. I also cut out the old patch in the rear floor and welded in the new pan. After I finish the final front pan later this week, I'm gonna try to weld up the bottom side of the laps, underneath the car. I have a friend with a lift, and may see if I can "borrow" it for a day, to make the welding easier. There's no way I can do it while laying on the ground. The only other alternative is making a rottiserie. Or just filling the spots/gaps up with seam sealer or something, and I really don't want to do that.

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Hell that looks great! I made the floor pan on the pass. side front for mine. I went about it the same way, by drilling out plug welds to hit the frame. Your actual floor pan replacements look better though. Good work!
 
Using the actual pans is awesome, and a lot easier than fabbing your own. Not to mention the stiffening ribs/dimples make a huge difference in how the floor feels afterwards. It's a lot more rigid, or so it seems. I certainly don't regret spending the cash on them as it made things much easier for me in the long run, and I'm getting much better results than when I tried making my own. Small patches aren't a big deal, but bigger ones are out of my skill level when it comes to the results I'm wanting. When I get the floors done, I'm gonna start on fender patches, and then quarter panel repairs. That's when I'll find out what I'm capable of......
 
Finally got around to putting the driver's side front pan in today. I played hell with this one, and it fought me all the way. I couldn't plug weld it worth a crap because of the weld thru primer I sprayed on everything before hand. I didn't have this problem with the other pans, so I'm not sure what was up with that. After a LOT of cussing, I got it done. It was a pain to weld the front edge too, as my helmet kept hitting everything and I couldn't see well. But it's done now, just need to weld the seat brackets back on and fill a couple of holes where body plugs used to be. It ain't the prettiest job, but it's a huge improvement over what was there a week or so ago.

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You did a great job is what I think. You have the nice contours of the orginal pans in which when you install your carpet it is molded to fit the orginal pans. So you will have a nice fitting carpet.
 
I'm a loooooong way from carpet ;-)
I'm either gonna start cleaning up the engine bay next, or put a patch on a fender, I can't decide which. As much as I'm not wanting to, I'm probably gonna pull the windshield soon too. I need to change dash frames, plus it will make it easier to undo everything else under there to get it all cleaned up.
 
Nice job on the floor replacement. In the past, I never really liked the Notch cars but yours looks really cool.
I know you like the shop now as it is day/night difference in your work space. But your dog is going to love the cool concrete on hot days. Your project is great, keep it up.
 
definitely a clean job on the pan installation. welds are nice. keep us posted. this fish out of water is gonna be sharp!
 
You have dun allot of great work Jimmy.:cheers:
This thread Fish out of water is outstanding.=D>
Your floor's in the fish look perfect and you are showing some great skills.
You must be proud.:toothy8: I sure would be.:-D

Keep up the great work Jimmy.
 
I stopped by YearOne last week as I was in the area looking at a job. I picked up a fender patch panel for the fish. I have to say, I was not impressed with the quality of the patch panel. The floor patches were nice, but the fender patch is pretty crappy. I've seen other posts on the forum that showed how bad the patches fit, so I wasn't too surprised. I haven't had time to work on the car lately. I've been busy with work, and doing some remodeling on my house. I hope to get back to the car soon. It's gonna be interesting to see if I can do a decent job on the fender, especially with the crappy patch.
 
Holy crap..... It's been 6 months since I worked on my car........ My how time flies..........
 
Haven't touched my car in years. It's now up for sale. Everything thing I have parts wise goes with it, as well as a 71 Scamp that's been in an old shed of mine for the last 12 or 13 years. Bill of sale only for everything. $3k.
 
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