BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”

[Rktpwrd]

Well that escalated quickly.

How did we get here? Follow along dear viewer, and let’s find out.

When I made this as a boxed section, I knew I was going to need extra material on the edges to tie back into the factory floor boards. I’m not as concerned with how the back is going to look once everything is welded in as it’ll be underneath the seat, but I wanted the front to tie in as smoothly as possible in case it’s visible through the carpet.

So when I bent the edges, I made the back 1 1/2”, and the front a full 3”. This’ll give me lots of material to play with. This is the side profile of the floor pan traced onto the front edge:

The two vertical lines represent my cut lines as in between the two is where the floor is mostly flat and I don’t have to do anything special there. After those cuts were made, I removed that middle section. It’ll weld flush to the floor as seen here:

Next is where things got a little tricky. I wanted a nice gentle radius from the bend down to the lower parts of the front floor, so after a little experimentation, I came up with a simple deep socket in the radius I wanted clamped in the vise:

I formed the first section around the socket with the body hammer as best I could, and ended up with this:

After flattening out the un-needed excess, I next transferred the factory dimpled depression onto the excess.

A little bead roller action will help with that authentic feeling, it’s always a good day when you get to play with the bead roller!

End result?

Not the best picture, here’s a little better view.

Next up was the section directly beside it. I repeated the forming around the socket process, just this time slightly lower to meet up with the different elevation.

The last section on the front was the most difficult as I had to bend the radius at an angle. I don’t have a good picture of it, but you can see a little bit of it in the middle/bottom right of this pic:

That about finishes up the fitting of the front to the floor, at least for now. I’m to the point where I need to start welding this in solid so that I can hammer and dolly the metal around in the more difficult transition areas.

On the backside of the boxed section, I just trimmed off the excess material from the areas that didn’t need it. The welding will be done in the angles where the two pieces meet up.

That just leaves this guy, the catalytic converter hump. It needs a haircut.

You can see the top of it needs to come down considerably:

So how do we do that? The same way that top chops are done. Hack the top off and drop it down. Except when you do this, the top is no longer big enough to fill the opening. So it has to be sectioned in half, and material added to the middle.

This is just done laterally in those pictures, the same will have to be done width-wise as well. So you basically end up with what looks like a cross in additional material that will need to be added to the middle.

But before I proceed any further on this area, I’m going to get the entire piece fully welded in first and tackle that at the end. Again, because I need some of the strength to be returned to the area so that things aren’t so floppy-flimsy and it won’t move around on me.

Probably going to take tomorrow night off, but Saturday the new piece will start to become one with the floor. 👍🏻

D.

 

[L92 OLDS]

If you cannot service it with normal tools, reasonable procedures, and minimal waste then it doesn't work.

Start over.

I think I’m going to go out and buy an out of warranty Audi or BMW. You know, German engineering is the best in the world. 🤪

 

[Rktpwrd]

Finally received the last missing pieces to my bumpsteer correction parts today, the 1/2” taller ProForged lower ball joints.

Dunno when they’ll be getting installed just yet, but hopefully soon. Fingers crossed that they’ll be a direct swap for the ones currently in the RideTech LCA’s.

The passenger floor crossmember patch is coming along nicely too, it’s probably around halfway to being fully welded in. I finished out the most difficult section first and was glad I did.

This is all the look you get, because teaser and I ain’t done yet.

D.

 

[Burning]

As Always D impressive metal working skills. I love the attention to detail.

 

[Rktpwrd]

As Always D impressive metal working skills. I love the attention to detail.

Thanks! If you like what you’ve seen so far, I think you’re really gonna like the finished product. It’s turning out great.

 

[Northernregal]

Thanks! If you like what you’ve seen so far, I think you’re really gonna like the finished product. It’s turning out great.

I almost expected a plug for an Onlyfans account at the end of that. HAHAHA

 

[Rktpwrd]

I almost expected a plug for an Onlyfans account at the end of that. HAHAHA

 

[Rktpwrd]

Little weekend update.

Why do I always seem to put the most time, effort and energy into the things that no one will ever see? Nevermind, don’t answer that. Rhetorical question I already know the answer(s) to. But still.

Anyways, passenger side floor patch is done, no more Flintstone floors on this side. I’ve cut and moved the metal around A LOT to make everything not only meet up, but to flow and look as OEM as possible. A quick look back at these earlier pictures illustrates just how much it has changed. On the opening where the catalytic converter hump used to be, I stood up the outer corner, added a little bit more material, and formed a nice curve into it to meet up with the notch for the seat bracket:

Pleased with the result, I next got the elevation cut down to match the boxed section and made a template for the top. Because the shape had changed so much, it was easier at this point to just make a new piece than try and cobble together the old pieces.

Note the 1/4” reveal that’s traced around the outside perimeter. You’ll see what this is for next. Trace and cut out the new piece…

…then cut my template on the 1/4” line and trace it back out onto the patch.

This 1/4” of material is extra, bigger than what was actually needed. That was so I could form the start of the curvature into it on my dolly fixture.

After still LOTS more trimming and fitting, I finally had it to the point where I could start tacking it in.

I went extremely slow and took my time, welding in 1/4” to 1/2” sections at a time, then would stop and carefully grind and metal finish the areas. Eventually I got the entire perimeter done, then tweaked the curve to the existing transmission tunnel slightly before making it solid too.

When I was done, this was the end result. Not quite how I had pictured it, but more than acceptable:

In this last picture, I dropped in the seat bracket for a test fit and an overall idea of how it’s looking, and was pretty pleased with the result.

Last night, I took the seat bracket (that I had previously taken into work and bead blasted) and started looking at what it was going to take to get it cleaned up and ready to reinstall into the car.

I welded up the lower spot weld hole and trimmed down the edge slightly to give me a little wiggle room, cut off and replaced the badly damaged section by the inner rocker, and cut out and made new pieces to rebuild the inside wall and add a matching flange to it:

Extremely happy to report, it almost literally drops right into place and lines up with everything perfectly now.

Today I’ll spend a couple hours welding and blending it all back into the car, then this side is completely finished. This has been quite the challenging little undertaking, the driver’s side next should be quite a bit easier.

It’s also making creating a new transmission tunnel looking quite a bit easier and gravy in comparison. Finished pictures once the seat bracket is done to follow in a bit.

D.

 

[pagrunt]

 

[69hurstolds]

Makes me SO glad I have a rust-free starting point. I'd have to farm all this stuff out, and likely either cost me $4K to get all the welding work done, or it just wouldn't get done.