do i have to remove the lines running underneath?
common sense would tell me YES!

fuel lines running underneath the driver's seat and SLS hydraulic lines running underneath the passenger's seat, correct?

how much of a bother is this?

I don't think it is too much trouble. You will want to remove anything that is in the area that is made out of rubber too.

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Jim

Take it from an old guy... this is the cat's meow for what you are going to be doing...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2312037886&category=22664

I got mine for half that at a pawn shop...

It both makes a hole (in the patch) and flanges the base metal... then you just cut your patch to fit into the depressed area... then you have lots of places to " plug" weld the patch to the base....

Do not consider butt welding sheet metal.... almost no way to control heat creep and warping... even with this method you should jump around.. like tightening wheels... not do them sequentially....

However, you have another very good option... flange the base, cut the patch and then rivet it into the depressed area, then use one of the things like POR15...

Rivets ,, and I mean solid ones.... not pop rivets ... are much underappreciated... you would need to have someone with an " anvil" under the floor to do them.. but they are amazingly strong when done right...

They showed the use of one of those on Two Guys Garage this weekend. Looked like a pretty neat tool. I'm in the mkt for a Plasma cutter right now myself. Am considering purchasing a '69 Chevelle SS that needs to be put back together (including some body work).

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Jim

If I had a plasma cutter I would be making exhaust mufflers for my Gravely walking tractors... out of stainless steel...
The offset flanger makes it possible to place patches flush with the floor.... one can obtain them in ' manual' vice grip type where you press down repeatedly with your hands... and their is a type which fits to an air chisel ... but I think for noise, access, and since it can make the holes also... that the air flanger is a better choice....

I just got rid of my plasma cutter (A very good one) unless doing lots of comersical work I found it a pain in the Butt, it was fine on clean body panels but not very good on stainless or painted metals much eaiser to use a sawsall or cut off wheel or metal cutting bandsaw........
William Rogers......

William , thanks for the feedback.... I have never used one, or seen them in action.... when I mentioned cutting stainless someone said... 'oh , you need a plasma cutter'.... I have tried oxy/acet... not a pretty sight....LOL
Do you suggest any particular bandsaw blade ? Does it need to be carbide tiped... or the carbide grains brazed on the edge.. ?When using the Sawsall... do you sandwich it between wood ? Any particular blade style for the sawsall ?

leathermang, it depends a lot on the thickness of the metal you are working with ,I can see no reason to use stainless as it won't weld easly to if at all to the non stainless used in in the surounding metal. I would use 16 or 18 guage guage flat auto body panel steel that can be bought at body shop supply house or steel supply house. I would cut it with as sawsall with a fine tooth metal cutting blade alout an inch over size then pop rivit it in place and then weld it with a wire welder.you can then grind the heads off the pop rivits punch them out and weld the holes as the rivits are only used to keep the panel from warping while welding (a pro can spot it in place with out the rivits and weld it and not get warp.
I would then clean it and coat it with any number of rust preventing paints or coatings.....
William Rogers........

William... you may have missed my " exhaust mufflers for my Gravely walking tractors... out of stainless steel..." reason for wanting stainless..... they are not quiet,, and don't last long... the rest of the Gravely is like a tractor.. but the exhausts are in need of metalurgy help... LOL

Wayne did a bang-up job. Have you had the experience of a quote from, say, 250 to 300 and it comes back at 299.97?
Well, Wayne quoted me at 350 to 400 and it came back at 336 (350 with tax).
Super nice guy, sealed it all up and applied rustproofing, etc.

See my new post on battery-corner rust.

I also lock my keys in the trunk so I won't loose them. Welding will do that to the brain,anyway I have been fabricating metal for about as many year as the Rolling Stone have been making noise and see no reason for a plasma cutter unless it's hooked up to a computer to do production work, you
can buy a very good mig welder and a nice little band saw for the price of a decent P cutter,mine was $2700.00 dollars 7 years ago, or you could have a metal shop cut the pieces for you and do the welding. Lot of stainless resturant stuff is butt welded......
William Rogers.......

William - you do have a point about the plasma cutter but I think one would be pretty neat to have. Lincoln has a pretty neat looking rig for under $1k these days and it will run on 110 v. I picked up a Lincoln SP 135 plus MIG welder to use around the house. You don't ever want to weld stainless to carbon steel because you will run into a nasty little creature called galvanic corrosion.

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Jim

Shawnster, That is again great.... maybe you should put a plug for him on the ' good shops' forum....

William and Jim.... thanks for the input.... I have a bandsaw, so may just get a blade for the SS.... A muffler can even be solid riveted if designed right....

shawnster,

If you've seen my suggestion about the battery tray area you probably know where I'm going. On several engine conversions that I've done in the past where I needed more area in the floor tunnel, I merely taped together a poster board and masking tape tunnel and fiberglassed over it in place. Once I had the desired thickness laid up and dried, I'd pop out the new contoured tunnel, peel off the poster board. Any poster board that stuck could be soaked off when wet with water. Then I "bondoed and metal-screwed the fibergalss patch in place. Voila! a contoured permanent, solid patch!

Hope this helps.

Ben

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www.reproduce100s.com

if you are going to be doing sheetmetal work a plasma cutter will save you time on your cuts, but they still leave a decently rough edge and when you are done you will wish you had spent a grand on about 5 different tools instead of one.

a 110v plasma cuter is kind of like drinking a real nice beer out of the bottle when it needs to be in a glass. the brew will still be good but you will feel that its misssing something. you will not always be doing sheetmetal work, and when you really want to burn through something it will be some 1/4" and you will be at it all day with an angle grinder and cutting wheel.

a dolly wheel set would be nice for bending and manipulating the metal once it is cut to shape. you can get an inexpensive set of these from northern tool or harbor freight for $20-30.

the other items to have would be:

gas shielded mig welder- i use a hobart handler 135 110v welder shielded with c25 and .030 dia "wire" in the gun. lincoln and miller both make the equivelent. .023 dia wire would be ideal for sheet metal work. a welder like this can handle 1/4" steel easily on a double pass.

4.5" angle grinder- makita, dewalt, and milwaukee. i use wire brushes, thin cutting wheels, and thick grinding wheels a lot.

skill saw- these are excellent for cutting large sheets of metal when using a cutting blade. and also work well for making angled cuts.

drill- self explanitory

jig saw- these things work great on thin metal

sawzall- great for lots of stuff. milwaukee blades last the longest for me.

all this stuff should be under the price of a plasma cutter and be much more versatile.

Hunter