Boot Floor Panel Repaired

So the last few weeks were spent repairing the replacement boot floor panel. There were several bits like this from where the breakers had extracted it from the donor shell with a big Skil saw. There was some need for repairs on the edge flange, but other than that it was in good shape, just needing some Jenolite rust remover applied on a few spots on the underside.

I’ve welded on the exhaust hanger mounting plate and primed up all of the underside ready for fitting.

In addition there’s a few mods. I’ve blanked the non-necessary holes in the floor plan and added in some new mounting anchor points. The anchor points all relate to mounting a spare wheel in the boot. I did think about a post based mounting, but decided that a tray might be better, so I bought one of these from Motamec.

Which looks massive until you stick a wheel in it…

So there’s four mounting points welded in to secure the tray and three mounting points to secure the eyeless for a 3-point OMP Wheel strap to hold the spare in place on the tray, With all that faffing, the boot floor panel is done so it’s now finishing off the prep to get the floor back in.

First up are the two boot floor reinforcement channels. The driver side one needs a rear tow eye mount adding so I made this out of some 3mm box and added in mounts for a Motamec tow eye.

The passenger side needed the other exhaust hanger welding on. They’ll both need some adjustment on the flanges to tie into the rear panel and the cross member – minor tweaks and they’ll be ready to weld in.

Final stage is the inner layer of the inside wheel arch on the near side, CAD design work done and transferred onto steel. Just needs chopping out and welding in. Once I get the cardboard template cLose to the right size, I use tape to get it to the final shape, because it’s a lot quicker to work it to the final shape. The good news was that the panel that came with the boot floor wasn’t too far gone and gave a good basis to get the shape right.

Last stage is prepping the chassis to weld the repair in. I don’t think I had posted pictures of the paint layers…

Factory exalt, primer and cherry red paint. Then it was painted white, then black, then red-oxide primed and then brush painted with red Hammerite. It’s thick and horrid!