In prior posts, I showed the metal that I had cut out of the car to get rid of the rust. Now I’m going to put metal back in, starting at the floor boards. I picked up some 18 and 20 gauge steel at a local metal wholesaler and started making the floorboards. I needed to replace part of the bottom floorboard as well as the kick panel. I decided to fabricate these out of flat steel instead of trying to get the complicated rolled texture. However, I was worried about the strength, so I put a “Z” bend into the floorboard replacement where it meets the old floorboard. This gave me a good surface to weld to and gave the metal a great deal of strength. The kick panel is just a flat piece, cut and bent to fit into place. Since this will not get the abuse that the floorboard will get, I was not as worried about reinforcement here.
After fitting and bending, I primed and painted all surfaces that are going to be welded together to prevent rust. I knew that I would cook off some of the paint in the welding processes, but I can reach these places and will paint over them later.
Now, I have to admit that my welding was pretty bad! I think my 8th grade shop teacher, Mr. Plummer, would only give me a C- for the work! But it is welded together and since this really isn’t structural, I’m not terribly worried about it. It did take a lot of work with the angle grinder though to get it into any kind of presentable view.
After all the welding was done, I filled all the seams with Eastwood seam caulk, primed and painted. Here are the results!
