Bill Crowell
Well-Known Member
I had the great opportunity of watching a skilled metal man install a new floor pan in my Porsche 356 the other day. There is definitely a trick to it because you're installing it in a different sequence than the factory did.
Replacement VW/Porsche floor pans are sold in two pieces: front and rear. That makes it a lot easier to trim the pieces to the correct size and to locate them properly. Later, the two pieces are welded together at a covered seam that runs across the middle of the car, so you can't even tell it was two pieces.
The factory first built up the perimeter of the unibody, dropped the floor pan in from the top and welded it, and then welded the transmission tunnel on top of the pan. Now removing all the spot welds from the old floor pan is a lot of work, and you certainly don't want to have to then drill out all of the spot welds on the transmission tunnel in order to remove it unless you really have to, but you have to somehow temporarily narrow up the new pan a little bit or it won't fit under the transmission tunnel; when you jack the pan up under the tunnel, you won't be able to get the edges of the pan up over the ledges upon which they sit. The trick is to put a 2X4 under the tunnel; lift the pan up to the 2X4 with a floor jack on each side; using the jacks, slightly bend the pan up into a slight "U" shape (being careful not to crease it) on one side and then the other until it clears the perimeter ledges and then remove the 2X4.
Replacement VW/Porsche floor pans are sold in two pieces: front and rear. That makes it a lot easier to trim the pieces to the correct size and to locate them properly. Later, the two pieces are welded together at a covered seam that runs across the middle of the car, so you can't even tell it was two pieces.
The factory first built up the perimeter of the unibody, dropped the floor pan in from the top and welded it, and then welded the transmission tunnel on top of the pan. Now removing all the spot welds from the old floor pan is a lot of work, and you certainly don't want to have to then drill out all of the spot welds on the transmission tunnel in order to remove it unless you really have to, but you have to somehow temporarily narrow up the new pan a little bit or it won't fit under the transmission tunnel; when you jack the pan up under the tunnel, you won't be able to get the edges of the pan up over the ledges upon which they sit. The trick is to put a 2X4 under the tunnel; lift the pan up to the 2X4 with a floor jack on each side; using the jacks, slightly bend the pan up into a slight "U" shape (being careful not to crease it) on one side and then the other until it clears the perimeter ledges and then remove the 2X4.
