Replacing a VW Beetle Floor Pan with the body on:

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0:00 hi I'm s jbugs.com and in this video 0:02 we're going to replace some floor pans 0:04 with the body on this 1967 0:10 Beetle this is a driver side floor pan 0:13 what we're going to do or what I'm going 0:15 to do is cut along this seam and along 0:19 this 0:20 seam all the 0:22 way 0:24 down to the back rear crossmember and 0:26 then I'll cut there right here where we 0:28 have the pedal assembly we need to very 0:30 cautious because we actually have the 0:31 brake line coming around we don't want 0:34 to cut that brake line through so I'll 0:36 be very cautious with by cutof wheel 0:38 along here and along here and then right 0:42 here I'll actually come in and cut all 0:47 the way up to the heater Channel through 0:49 the floor 0:50 pan so that's the process of doing this 0:54 with the body on noting this indentation 0:57 for the pedal assembly in the floor and 0:59 how close to the brake line is to it and 1:00 then this bolt and how close the brake 1:03 line is to right here we want to be very 1:05 very cautious not to cut up through that 1:07 when we're installing our floor pan I'm 1:10 going to bend this tab here and this tab 1:12 here and pull this brake line up just a 1:14 little bit to make sure we don't cut 1:22 it and always leave that guy there give 1:26 us a little bit more room along there 1:27 and there so when I cut along this line 1:30 I know I'm not going to cut through our 1:31 brake 1:40 line so it gives us some good Cuts there 1:43 and I want to do the same thing at the 1:45 back section so when I get back there I 1:47 can worry about that when I get there 1:49 whatever I'm just going to take the saws 1:50 on and get to 1:52 it hopefully I didn't touch that brake 1:55 line looks like we're clear get that 1:57 wheel and tire out of the way 2:01 there we go just like that and then 2:03 we'll come in after we get the floor 2:04 pans unbolted and we'll cut that last 2:07 bit of the floor pan without cutting 2:08 into the box so all here is good all 2:10 here is good now I need to go all the 2:12 way down that 2:13 way put that in place there make sure 2:17 that he is safe and tucked away because 2:20 there is a lip on the tunnel and this 2:22 brake line sits above that lip we should 2:24 be safe all the way down to the back 2:28 side 2:38 seeing as this cable on that side's 2:41 already broken I'm not going to be too 2:42 concerned about cutting through this and 2:44 seeing as it's all rusty I'm not 2:46 concerned about it either uh in most 2:48 cases we would actually cut this loose 2:50 from the floor pan pull this out pull 2:52 the cable up just disconnect it and pull 2:54 it out but again this one's already cut 2:56 I'm not too concerned about it right now 2:58 so I'm just going to continue cutting 2:59 cutting all the way back up to this 3:01 point and then we cut down here all the 3:06 way out to right here we leave this 3:08 piece in 3:11 place let me continue 3:19 on now about right before the heater 3:22 line so we're going to expect a little 3:24 bit more resistance right through there 3:25 again obviously make sure that we're 3:27 safe and not cutting into the brake line 3:29 but we need to stay up on top of this 3:31 lip not down on this 3:58 lip 4:00 so now we've got the floor pan cut from 4:03 here all the way to all the way back 4:07 into right 4:10 in there so from this point to the 4:14 tunnel leaving that lip along the tunnel 4:17 to the rear crossmember out to the 4:19 heater Channel this floor pan cut 4:24 free leaving this old lip in place which 4:27 the fun part is going to be coming back 4:29 and Hammer and banging that out but 4:31 we'll get to that after we get both four 4:32 pans out of the way maybe I'll just show 4:34 it on just this one side the right side 4:37 is exactly the same as the left just 4:39 flip-flopped and since there's no brake 4:41 line to worry about it's actually much 4:44 easier and you don't have to remove the 4:45 pedal assembly this is the more 4:47 difficult side we'll go very very in 4:49 depth this is actually the old floor 4:50 plan welded on top of the tunnel spine I 4:54 will pry this up and I'll show you guys 4:55 that process as well so we're cut from 4:57 here all the way to the back now I'm 4:59 going to unbolt all the floor pan washes 5:01 underneath underneath I'll show you what 5:02 it looks like here we've got the floor 5:04 pan cut to right here but not through to 5:08 this Edge yet cuz we've got this 5:10 reinforcement washer in place all the 5:13 way across and all the way along the 5:16 tunnel all the way to the front of the 5:17 car and all the way out through the 5:20 floor pan there and through the floor 5:21 pan there but not cut right there yet 5:24 we're going to cut that once we get 5:26 everything unbolted all the way one two 5:29 three four five 6 7 eight nine of those 5:34 bolts we're going to 5:45 remove this floor pan is almost 5:49 completely free of the body what we're 5:51 going to have to do now is cut through 5:54 here and along the bottom side of this 5:56 to that line but not cut into the heater 5:58 Channel and if we we got a little piece 6:00 of wood under there that's awesome well 6:01 we'll get rid of that in a moment that's 6:03 why I don't actually like using these 6:04 jack points cuz they jack up your body 6:07 structurally overall it's still strong 6:09 enough but I just I don't like these at 6:11 all and I don't like installing them but 6:14 for vintage sake I will put them in I 6:16 just not a fan again on the outside of 6:19 this line straight up to 6:22 there straight up to the body not 6:24 through the body ever so 6:28 cautiously 6:34 and there we go that gives us a little 6:38 bit of safety so we can continue cutting 6:40 that last bit right 6:42 there like 6:46 so all right and now up at the front 6:50 basically like we did here except this 6:51 is a little bit easier now that the 6:52 floor Pan's out of the way we'll cut 6:54 through that last section at the 6:58 front 7:04 didn't even have to cut it just had the 7:06 tear it out now we'll come back in and 7:08 touch up the 7:09 remnants there we go so with that our 7:12 old floor pan is out well 98% of it the 7:15 other 2% still left on the tunnel and 7:17 the rear crossmember I got to work on 7:18 getting that out of the way and then we 7:20 can put the new floor pan in we do want 7:21 to save our old pedal stop there we go 7:24 and you can see a lot of the old seam 7:26 sealant that VW used and we're going to 7:28 go through and 7:31 do the same thing but 7:44 now I don't know if you can get in with 7:46 close to this but we got 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 7:50 9 10 little spot welds and they're 7:52 basically 7:53 every inch and a half inch and a/ 7:56 quarter that's what holds the factory 7:58 floor pans in place is just spot welds 8:01 every inch and a quarter or so so keep 8:06 that in mind when you're welding uni for 8:07 pans in you can drill along the edge and 8:12 you know drill a hole every you know 8:15 inch and a half and do a little rosette 8:17 weld or what I'll do is actually just 8:20 come in and do a little seam about every 8:23 inch and a half just a little qu inch 8:26 seam and all welded on the top side 8:30 to hold the floor pan in 8:58 place all right so from there to there 9:03 is 9:04 done now I just got to do all that over 9:08 there wasn't that 9:28 fun 9:37 PW Beetle 58 to 70 well it's technically 9:40 you can use this as early as 54 seat 9:42 rails are the same floor pan left hand 9:45 side these are our heavyduty floor pans 9:48 that looks to be a little bit more solid 9:50 than our other pan doesn't it seat rails 9:51 are already welded in place holes are 9:53 already drilled out we've got our pedal 9:55 stop Nutt welded in place that's the pan 9:58 itself I honestly have no idea what that 10:00 is I know what that is and I don't like 10:02 it I know what that is and I don't need 10:04 it there is unless this piece is 10:07 completely rusted out in your car don't 10:09 cut it out it is seam welded against the 10:11 tunnel here and here and out at the 10:15 frame horn at the end of the spring 10:16 plate housing right here it is much 10:18 easier just to leave this in place on 10:20 your car or on your chassis actually 10:23 than it is to try and reuse this you 10:25 know they come with them it's awesome if 10:27 you need them but if you don't don't cut 10:29 it out it's much easier to do a floor 10:31 pan without cutting that piece out this 10:34 guy obviously welds in like so I will 10:36 weld this one in place but I just don't 10:39 ever recommend using these I'll get a 10:41 measurement off of this passenger side 10:43 which is still in place from this hole 10:45 or this hole to this point and we'll 10:47 weld it in but now we'll go through and 10:49 we'll get some measurements from our 10:51 tunnel to our holes tunnel to our 10:54 holes because in all my experience I've 10:57 had to cut along this lip on virtually 10:59 every single car uh where this is going 11:02 to be seamed in the back this is 11:03 typically going to have to be cut and 11:05 often times this area right here will 11:07 have to be trimmed down as well to get 11:08 this up in place in the car but we'll 11:10 figure that out as we go from that body 11:13 bolt there to the center line about 3 11:15 and 1/2 in back which should put that 11:17 right about there right about 11:22 there when the time comes to our tunnel 11:26 13 and an8 let's make sure that's 11:29 relatively Square kind of hard to see 11:31 down there 13 11:33 and8 to that first body hole 2 3 four 11:37 let's go to the fourth body hle 18 and 11:40 A4 five 6 7 we go number eight actually 11:45 no I'm about to go seven on a straight 11:47 portion of the pan uh 20 on the dot 11:52 basically so 20 13 and an eth to the 11:55 center line of that hole right about 11:58 here two three 4 we were something in a 12:02 quarter I think it was 18 and a quarter 12:05 yeah 18 and a 12:07 quarter and four five 6 12:10 7 and I think it was 20 in on the dot 12:14 and this is kind of actually that's 12:16 pretty stout so 64 12:19 and2 plus our overhang at the front and 12:22 the overhang at the rear 3/4 and 3/4 so 12:28 an inch and A2 66 in overall length and 12:32 we are 66 and 3/4 so front to back we're 12:36 definitely going to have to trim as well 12:38 and the hard part is is where do you 12:40 trim 12:43 from seeing as the seat rails look to be 12:47 in the identical spot I'm guessing our 12:49 front is over long but let's go from 12:52 here to there 27 1/2 more or less versus 12:57 28 and 3/4 so we have uh 27 and 3/8 plus 13:04 we'll add 5/8 so we'll go out to 28 in 13:07 on the front 13:12 basically 13:14 well no time like the present let's 13:16 stuff it in and see where we're at yeah 13:18 we're 13:21 uh too long I can't get it in that 13:24 way 13:25 so if we were to come in here 13:29 right 13:32 there you can see our front to rear is 13:35 that going to actually line up over our 13:37 Fender or over our bolt hole in the back 13:39 I got to check that right now the answer 13:41 to that is no by about a quar of an inch 13:46 I'm going to start by trimming about a/4 13:48 of an inch off the back of this and then 13:51 we'll go from there to get this hole to 13:53 line up with this hole at the back I 13:55 need to take off about 1/4 inch all the 13:57 way across I you can always cut more off 14:00 it's a little bit harder to put more 14:01 back on so we'll start 14:03 small and trim from 14:11 there let's see how that 14:17 fits all right getting better well if 14:20 the floor pan sat further that way my 14:22 oval hole at the back would be in the 14:24 perfect place so that's a good start and 14:26 getting a good idea of how far we've got 14:29 to trim up here so one major spot is 14:32 right here and then right here I know 14:36 it's not really straight up and down but 14:38 that's kind of a reference of where our 14:41 lip is and of course we need to overlap 14:43 that lip this one I can't overlap so 14:45 that one's just going to basically be 14:46 buted right up against that section 14:48 right there this line here is where 14:50 we're going to butt up to that frame 14:52 horn piece where we cut this thing at 14:53 the heater Channel and I'm going to 14:56 leave it a little bit long just so I can 14:58 gently massage it with a hammer later 15:01 and this is the front of our floor pan 15:03 now and we want to overlap that by about 15:06 a/ an inch so we'll come in right about 15:13 here and then this section we're going 15:16 to come up and over to right there just 15:19 to leave that again to butt up we're 15:20 going to use a lot of seam sealer right 15:22 here once this is installed because this 15:25 isn't actually welded all the way to the 15:26 tunnel but it will be sealed up believe 15:33 me let's give that a test 15:39 fit obviously lengthwise we're having 15:42 issues but if I can get a long enough 15:44 body bolt I can try and bolt these in 15:46 and then get a scribe on there but let 15:48 me see what I can come up with as far as 15:49 a couple bolts to hold the floor pan up 15:51 in place so I can scribe our tunnel to 15:53 make sure we get a good scribe line 15:57 there yeah hold that for a little bit 16:01 all right that's better a little bit 16:03 better idea of how this is going to fit 16:05 in 16:11 here all right now we're going to kind 16:14 of have to eyeball but that'll give us a 16:16 really good idea we're going to go a/ 16:17 inch out on that line and then take that 16:19 all the way 16:27 back 16:30 that should hopefully give us a nice fit 16:32 all the way 16:35 around Notch that corner right there so 16:38 that this can pop up and hook in right 16:40 around there and then I can massage that 16:42 in but either way as much Brewing as 16:44 this is going to take to get in first 16:46 I'm going to go through and clean that 16:47 rail up on the chassis hit it with a 16:50 little cor seal real quick and then uh 16:52 then I'll come and lay the floor pan in 16:54 that way I'm not wrestling it just to 16:55 have to pull it out back out once I get 16:58 it back in in place and as far as our 17:00 panda body seal I'm going to stick some 17:01 weather strip adhesive on here when I 17:03 bolt it back in place and we're going to 17:04 call it 17:12 good and honestly I know that's going to 17:15 have to come back too on the standard 17:17 floor pans you could just bang that into 17:19 shape but on the heavy duties it's not 17:21 going to so let's just trim that 17:24 down and since I don't like rust that's 17:27 a wonderful thing 17:49 couple 17:54 more there we go make sure our panda 17:56 body seal is in place down here 17:59 and uh I'm going to go get all the the 18:00 body bolts in place that's almost all 18:03 the hard part I mean honestly it is the 18:04 hard part welding at this point pretty 18:06 dang 18:09 simple everything's back in 18:12 place 18:15 overlapped overlap that tunnel piece all 18:18 the way across the back butt it 18:21 up and slightly overlapped on that front 18:24 seam and sitting inside the pan all 18:28 along the tunnel we trimmed that out 18:31 I'll come back and persuade that little 18:32 lip right there and then we'll get some 18:34 seam sealant right here and in this Gap 18:36 right here and obviously on the inside 18:37 and that is good to go I haven't ground 18:40 anything down in here for the most part 18:43 anyway we got a couple spots that are 18:45 ground so hopefully hopefully I'll have 18:48 enough bare 18:51 metal to Arc 18:57 out 19:27 d 19:33 there we 19:35 can 19:36 see it's welded on the back two legs 19:40 welded on the front legs and the 19:43 brace is welded on the 19:48 top the back and the front and we've got 19:52 welds all the way back in there all the 19:55 way up seam welded that and that that 19:59 every inch and a half or so even 20:01 including back behind the seat rail 20:03 where it's nice and tight all the way 20:05 across the front or all the way up to 20:07 the front rather and across the front 20:09 and even seam welded that guy all the 20:13 way up the front there again doesn't 20:15 really matter cuz all this is going to 20:16 get seam sealed but before we do that 20:18 we're going to use some cor 20:27 seal 20:29 all the way back all the way along the 20:33 tunnel all the way to the 20:35 front with 20:37 that I got one side done the hard 20:41 side I got to do it all again on the 20:44 right side but at least you guys now 20:46 know the process you don't have to pull 20:48 the body off to get a floor pan done 20:51 showed you guys how to do it relatively 20:53 easy no reason why if you have the right 20:56 tools and some time 20:58 you guys can't do it in your own cars at 21:00 home without pulling the body off it's 21:02 not that hard until next time guys 21:05 thanks for 21:12 watching