Any ideas for floor reinforcement?

[mikec4193]

Hi Morris Minor folks

As I toil away on my old man...I keep thinking the floor pans seem so flimsy on these cars...

I have patched several holes with 18 gauge and new patch panels too...each piece I weld into the car seems to make things tighter but darn...the gauge on the OEM pans is like super thin...

Do you guys typically weld any extra support into the bottom side of your cars??



This above pic is where I am currently doing my almost daily surgery on this old man...

The car I am working on ...where the aftermarket Subby bucket seat mounts were all cracked....see pic below...



The overall floor pan seems pretty thin...

[kennatt]

Looking at the state of the chassis rail and sill section the floor is your last ,and lesser problem, Before you go patching consider..... The main strength in a minor frame is the chassis rails and complete sill sections,yours look shot,I would think you need to have a good prod about the whole length of the rails and sill,inner and outer(I take it you have removed the outer,cosmetic sill cover) to find the extent of the corrosion shown. By the look of it you may have to remove the rails and sills and replace the whole lot. The floor carries little weight and is a minor contributor to the integrity of the frame. It's no use patching onto rust,even if you can get a decent weld,in 6 months time you will be at it again.
Good luck with it.

[jaekl]

Don't forget the floor wasn't designed for the Subby seat mounting. That is the fault of the previous owner who installed them. They should have considered the concentration of forces at the mounting point.

[mikec4193]

Looking at the state of the chassis rail and sill section the floor is your last ,and lesser problem, Before you go patching consider..... The main strength in a minor frame is the chassis rails and complete sill sections,yours look shot,I would think you need to have a good prod about the whole length of the rails and sill,inner and outer(I take it you have removed the outer,cosmetic sill cover) to find the extent of the corrosion shown. By the look of it you may have to remove the rails and sills and replace the whole lot. The floor carries little weight and is a minor contributor to the integrity of the frame. It's no use patching onto rust,even if you can get a decent weld,in 6 months time you will be at it again.
Good luck with it.

Is this the sill that I just replaced or a chassis rail?



I have not worked on a unibody car in a lot of years so I am still trying to figure it out...

[Mick Lynch]

You might know the sill as the rocker panel

[philthehill]

The metalwork is quite complicated in how it goes together in the area of the sill/rocker panel.
Below is a list of the panels and a small cross sectional diagram on how it all fits together

Image (2).jpg (394.59 KiB) Viewed 1352 times

[ManyMinors]

I would call that the inner sill. The Minor 1000 doesn't have a chassis in the strict sense - although most of us refer to the front rails as "chassis" rails or legs.
I would say that you have "repaired" that section rather than "replaced" it but if you have cut out all of the rusted areas and carried out satisfactory welding then the results are much the same. Once fully rebuilt, the sill side members are very strong. Yours, like many others, require a good deal of replacement but all the sections are available to do this and are not very expensive. The standard seat mountings ARE reinforced of course (although can still crack over long periods) and if you fit non-standard seats then the mountings for them should also be made sufficiently strong.

[kennatt]

where acutally is the shot in first photo,looks like taken front to back in the rear corner prior to your repair on the inside rear inner sil lbut whats all the curved sheet steel to the lower area.a big cover overall patch ?.Your floor looks to be in reasonable condition in your last photo.

[mikec4193]

where acutally is the shot in first photo,looks like taken front to back in the rear corner prior to your repair on the inside rear inner sil lbut whats all the curved sheet steel to the lower area.a big cover overall patch ?.Your floor looks to be in reasonable condition in your last photo.

Here is another shot of the area in question...I call it a jacking point...looking from the front of the vehicle towards the back...

I just replaced the top of this area a couple of nights ago...the bottom flanged area is getting replaced in this pic..

thanks for all the insight guys...

I really appreciate it...

[philthehill]

Unless you are desperate to retain the jacking points not having them does make life a lot easier when replacing the sill/rocking panels.
When I replaced the cross member on my Minor - I chose a cross member without the jacking points attached.
The factory fitted jacking points are not very good and more of an afterthought. Also I would not fully trust those jacking points. Better to use a trolley jack and much safer too.

[kevin s]

I ditched them too a rust trap that I would never use anyway, we carry a scisor jack and use it under the front chassis legs or rear leaf springs.

[kennatt]

I honestly think you would be better ripping the whole sill section out and fitting a complete new section,last photo shows that the inner lower section is just about non existant you can see the inner centre section (Item 1 in phils post) which is probably rotted away all allong bottom,they usually are,So you will be welding loads of patches all allong the sills.The whole sill section is a rust trap and essential to the structual strength .Its probably quicker and a lot moe satisfying when you see the finished result. You can then ,before the outer sill cover is fitted lather the whole lot with waxoil or other rust proof, and forget about it for the next 20 years. But each to their own as they say.