Rear floor edge panel .................silly question?

[nebogipfel]

Folks,

I was about to weld my rear floor edge panel onto the trav' (Hadrian panel) and was wondering if it should be so wide?

Should it overlap the floor to such an extent or should it attach along the edge of the floor in the same way the front section does?

I wondered if it has been made wider because it is a repair section and not original?

As I say probably a daft question but it just seems an odd design to overlap the floor by so much.

[rayofleamington]

withoutn seeing the panel I will try to hazard a guess.
There used to be 2 types of panel - one just reaches the inner step for a sill repair and the other panel is extended further into the floor pan to allow repairing the sill and the floor edge at the same time.

I'm guessing you've got the panel that includes the floor pan edge repair section. (You could still get both types when I got my last ones but I've not bought any for 14 months).
You have 3 options to make a solid repair.
1) cut off the excess and join the panel at the same place as the inner step meets the floor
2) cut off the edge of the floor pan and use the panel as it is (only worthwhile if the florr edge is a bit thin/rotten)
3) double skin the edge of the floor (yuk) but make sure you plug weld the seam where the inner step meets the floor, connecting through to the new panel [otherwise your sill 'box' will not be a box it will be unconnected layers and not very strong]

[nebogipfel]

Thanks Ray, you have confirmed what I suspected. I'll trim it so that the edge follows the edge of the floor the same as the front floor edge panel.

[chickenjohn]

Before doing that, set to your rear floor pan on both sides with wire brush on grinder. If it survives, trim the new panel. When I did one of these rear floor edge panels, the extra bit was needed as the rear floor pan near the sill was pin holed and thin!

It is a repair section, I didn;t know you could get the thinner ones.

BTW, the spring hanger on a plate also has some of the same panel work as the rear floor edge panels. So if you were to fit new rear floor pans you'd have the same sections 3x over.

Still, I guess its better to have more metal than less!

[rayofleamington]

Still, I guess its better to have more metal than less!

unless they are fitted without any trimming and only joined at the panel edges [this does happen] as the end result is a repair that is no where near as strong or stiff as it should be in what is an important structural area

[chickenjohn]

Yeas, thats not a good idea! Thats would give the infamous 3 or 4 layers of metal, as ofte found during a Minor resto. But its nice to have the extra metal on the three panels so you can choose where to trim to get them to fit nicely together for neat butt- welds. (OK my butt welds are not that neat - but are ok after grinding and seam sealing, painting).

[nebogipfel]

Before doing that, set to your rear floor pan on both sides with wire brush on grinder. If it survives, trim the new panel. When I did one of these rear floor edge panels, the extra bit was needed as the rear floor pan near the sill was pin holed and thin!

I have already repaired the floor pan. My Minor, like so many, was an onion skin of repairs and I really wanted to get somewhere near the original appearance underneath without being too fanatical about it

I am trying to leave as much of the original metal (floor etc) as possible - it has survived 50 years!

I assumed it was designed as a repair section rather than original, but I'm good at making assumptions which are not always correct


Thanks for the input

[chickenjohn]

No worries! How about some pics of the work?

I too think its a good idea to leave as much of the original car as possible.

[nebogipfel]

I'll post some before and after shots when I get a bit further. Unfortunately time is limited and progress is fairly slow.

As a general philosophy I think it's good to retain as much of the original car as possible and as it's lasted 50 years it must have been built out of decent steel

I'm loathe to use the word restoration, which I think is much over-used to describe any old banger which has had a coat of paint thrown over it; but in the general renovation/restoration of old cars it is easy to over do it and end up building a new car.

We have all seen the racing car with an important history restored around a new body and chassis, but is it the same car anymore, or was it lost somewhere along the way?

[chickenjohn]

Thats true. I feel its perfectly acceptable if half of a panel is rust free and the lower half rotted- such as the rear boxing panel extension at the rear of a traveller- to cut out the rusted section and just use whats needed from the new panel.

[rayofleamington]

Thats true. I feel its perfectly acceptable if half of a panel is rust free and the lower half rotted- such as the rear boxing panel extension at the rear of a traveller- to cut out the rusted section and just use whats needed from the new panel.

Completely agree, except for one or two places.
1) crossmember repair section - this is deliberately made to a size that extends beyond the most stressed area (where the crossmember connects to the chassis leg). I have had to re-repair two minors that had previously been repaired with a cut-down crossmember repair section).
Cutting down the repair section makes the job quicker and easier but in the long term is a really dumb idea as the crossmember will eventually fail nearby the repair.
Just my opinion, but if you're replacing a crossmember end you may as well do it properly and use the repair section as it was intended for more strength and longeivity.
2) a floor pan. Pin holes become real holes, so if half the floor pan is 'saveable' I'd still use the whole floor pan and join at the edges and not in the middle - mainly for neatness but also because the old half of the floor pan is likely to be rusted even if it is not yet holed.(but cutting down the new panel around the edges rather than replace half the tunnel as well)

On other areas where rust is very obviously localised, I'm happy to cut down the repair section - it also leaves you with some nice new bits of metal for patching other areas...