[BIZZLE0905]

Tomorrow's the day! I'm gonna try my hand at welding for the first time ever. I don't know if any of you were as unfortunate as me and got car cancer aka RUST =/ but While gutting the interior after pulling all the carpet and heat shield stuff I looked down and saw my driveway through where my passenger side floor pan was supposed to be. I checked all over the net and apparently the cheapest I could find a floor pan for is like 200 bucks and that is just not reasonable for me at the moment so I went to Lowe's and picked up some sheet metal (steel not aluminum) for 12 bucks. I then put some wood at the level where the normal floor plan would of sat and started shaping the steel to the best of my ability to match GM's original design. Im no where close to OE but it will do, and when carpet and insulation are on top of it I bet no one will be able to tell the difference lol. after watching a couple videos on YouTube it seems simple enough if you have any kind of patience and basic crafting skills. although looks can be deceiving I guess I wont know until tomorrow for sure, I'll be sure to let you guys know how it goes for me. any of you done this before? how did it go for you? Here's a pic of how it looked after I had cut out the worst of it.

[fishslayer143@yahoo.com]

thats some rust.. guess you know why you got a good deal.. welding sheetmetal as your first welding attempt is gonna be challenging.. try not to burn too many holes in it. what type machine do you have, rod, Mig, fluxcore ?

[vettex2]

practice on scrap first

mig or gas welding ?

[BIZZLE0905]

it's a Lincoln mig welder. I have 2 pieces of scrap i am gonna use before I try to do the actual pan. I didn't get to do it on Sunday because I need an adapter for the plug I have. but it's only been postponed till Wednesday, I'll keep you guys updated.

[Hotrod]

Practice is a very good idea. Also, make sure you stitch weld the pan.

[fishslayer143@yahoo.com]

Originally Posted by BIZZLE0905

it's a Lincoln mig welder. I have 2 pieces of scrap i am gonna use before I try to do the actual pan. I didn't get to do it on Sunday because I need an adapter for the plug I have. but it's only been postponed till Wednesday, I'll keep you guys updated.

good, a MIG is much easier to weld thin metal with.. try on a few practice pieces first to get the feel.. it doesn t have to be pretty, a grinder will clean it up.. weld about 2-3 inches and then skip to another area.. you don t want too much heat concentrated in one spot , the sheet metal will warp. keep skipping around until you have it all done.. then clean it up with grinder and check for holes..just take your time

[BIZZLE0905]

Still haven't got that floor pan welded yet =/ I can't find an adapter anywhere and i dont have the plug to use the welder I thought I was going to originally. I checked craigslist and the prices were so close to this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...seller=&sr=8-2 that I figured I might as well get this instead of someone's used crap. This welder would be fine to weld in a floor pan right?

[toobroketoretire]

Originally Posted by BIZZLE0905

Still haven't got that floor pan welded yet =/ I can't find an adapter anywhere and i dont have the plug to use the welder I thought I was going to originally. I checked craigslist and the prices were so close to this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005MDX5R0/sr=8-2/qid=1344527443/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1344527443 &seller=&sr=8-2 that I figured I might as well get this instead of someone's used crap. This welder would be fine to weld in a floor pan right?

That welder would be plenty big for welding a floor pan as the pan is such thin metal.

[BIZZLE0905]

Thanks toobroke

[TimAT]

You can easily build an adapter for your welder plug. get a short piece of 4/10 3wire cable and a male plug that matches your existing plug and a female that matches your welder. Nothing to it.
I made a 25' extension cord for my welder, and then another adapter so I can plug the plasma cutter into the same cord. The welder is 220v and the plasma cutter is 120v. Works great and I didn't have to run a dedicated 30amp line for the cutter.

That welder you linked to is 120v- probably 30a. Same as above- get a plug that matches and build your own adapter.

Take a sheet of paper and plug your welder into it. Make a perfect pattern of the plug so your local Lowe's/Home Depot/Hardware Store can match it.