I spent the last couple of days cup brushing and scraping the belly of my 69. It has four new floor pans and a new trunk pan. The rockers, etc. were all in great shape.

The floor is now clean enough to eat off of it and I am ready for phase II....visual perfection.

I need to run some body filler to smooth the transition from old and new floor pans.

I wanted to weld it so perfect that I needed only to grind it smooth....but I ain't that good with a mig.

So, any thoughts, worries, concerns in running some plastic filler around the edges of the pans?

I do intend to seam seal the edges of other areas (pinch welds, etc), before spraying the primer.

I was thinking of using the reinforced water proof filler instead of standard bondo.

I like the US Fiberglass "Duraglass". It is a durable marine duty green filler. We used to build whole cars out of that stuff back in Buffalo NY. The road salt would eat a car up in about 5 years so we got pretty good building rocker panels with paper plates and Bondo -LOL!

-Mark.

P.S. - Your Vette is ABSOLUTELY OFF THE HOOK!!! graemlins/hurray.gif graemlins/beers.gif graemlins/thumbsup.gif Probably the best custom Vette I have ever seen. Bookmarked your site months ago.

I installed new floors on my car just last winter and as you guessed it, a mig was also used. That left a small overlap and I tried to seam seal it but it still looked like crap to me even though it was as tight a s could be. I then stripped it back and went the filler route to make the seams invisable. We welded the entire seam and then ground it smooth. Next we used short strand fiberglass for the bottom coat as it is soemwhat impervious to moisture. After that was sanded down, we used normal filler for the top coats (2 skims) and worked the lines until they were almost perfect. The car was then treated to high solids and Wurths Undercoating before being sprayed in PGG Single Stage satin black. It turned out totally awesome and many have complimented the underside of this car. Here is a recent shot and a couple old pictures.

http://www.x33d80.com/images/Exterior/Mid%20Sheet%20Metal/Floors/Floors2.jpg
Lap welded seams on both the underside and the top side of the panels.

http://www.x33d80.com/images/Exterior/Mid%20Sheet%20Metal/Floors/Floors3.jpg
Applying the fiberglass filler and grinding smooth before filler is applied.

http://www.x33d80.com/images/Exterior/Mid%20Sheet%20Metal/Floors/Floors4.jpg
Undercoated Floors with the seams bodyworked smooth. Fresh paint applied.

http://www.x33d80.com/images/fp_1/drive_shaft.jpg
This is the finished look now that the paint has been dulled to resemble a satin finish.

Hope this helps you out a bit. I have a ton of photo's but their all loaded on a disk around here somewhere.

Thanks a million. I am headed over to check out your web site now.

One difference is I installed individual pans. Wish I hadn't now as I look at your work of art.

However, I did stitch mig weld the seams and have ground them down as smooth as possible. I will have a bit of extra work around the edges. I am going to saturate and build the bottom with spray in truck bed liner, so that should cover any minor imperfections.

Thanks again. Looks like I have me work cut out for me this next week.

Just take your time on this part Chris. We stitch welded the lower side of the pans and because they over lapped on the inside, we decided to seam weld the top side . They were full length left side and right side pans and then we welded the seat braces back in. Even if you did front and rear pans on both sides, you can make it look seamless if you just take your time and do not rush it. I used the fiberglass bondo along the tunnel area and bottom seams and where they meet the rockers on the topside, I applied brush on seam sealer with liberal coats. Everything was then etch primed and based in high solids before being under coated.

I will email you a few other pictures as it's easier than posting them here.

Okay, started filling them tonight with the short strand water proof reinforced filler.

It is going to work me pretty hard as there are details to get in and around.

I did the four INDIVIDUAL pans instead of the two long ones, or one big one. So, I have more seams to fill.

So far so good. The goal is to get is all roughed fairly smooth by this weekend. Then the primer and seam sealer on the other edges.

It is hard to believe I am spending this much time and trouble on the BOTTOM of the car! Not only that, it will be lowered, so it will be that much more dificult to see the fruit of my labor!

But YOU'LL know it! That's all that matters, right? Nothing wrong with that.
graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Thanks to your encouragement and suggestions...she is DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yipeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It looks SCHWEEEEEEEEEET!

I had replaced each individual pan adding to the difficulty to "hide" the seam.

I used the water proof reinforced dyna hair filler to start. Topped that off with regular body filler, then trimmed that out with feather fill.

Don't let this fool you, there are tons of hand hours in this work!

I next roughed it all up. I had previously cup brushed the entire floor and lightly sandblasted what I could not reach otherwise.

I put on a coat of self etching epoxy prime over the bare metal, etc.

Topped that off with some 2K prime.

Next I POR 15'ed the rear frame rails, then covered them up. This allows them to match the front rails.

I then shot truck bed liner on the entire belly. It looks soooooo awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

You can already tell a difference when you thump the trunk pan. Nice solid sounding.

Next I will tackle cleaning out and treating the inside of the roof, quarters, and windshield frame, etc while I can use the benefit of gravity on the dolly to push materials into hard to reach places.

Oh, I also signed all of our family names in the frame rail. I aint ever selling this car!

http://mcspeed.homestead.com/files/belly_names.JPG

http://mcspeed.homestead.com/files/belly_1.JPG

http://mcspeed.homestead.com/files/belly_2.JPG

http://mcspeed.homestead.com/files/belly_4.JPG

http://mcspeed.homestead.com/files/belly_5.JPG

http://mcspeed.homestead.com/files/belly_6.JPG

CHRIS! You ARE AN inspiration,I go to yor site at least every other month,Keep up the great work!!Mike S. graemlins/beers.gif