Starting my Build

@Impala posted:

I believe original VW pans are about 18 ga. It’s a good suggestion to go with at least that much.

18 ga steel is .05". VW pans are flimsy and rely on the assembly for strength. I haven't measured the pan thickness but would guess they would be 22 - 24 gauge. In Speedsters, seats and sliders will cause the floor pan to stress fracture over time. You will want to add some reinforcement where the mounting bolts will go.

18 Gauge would be a good choice for the floor. I doubt any of the aftermarket patch pans are that heavy.

Flat sheets are absolutely nowhere near as strong as rolled, dimpled, or corrugated.

VW pans may be thin, but they are stamped increasing the strength.

@Lane Anderson... yep that's why I'm skipping the highly custom fabrications on this round.... Smo22 will very likely not be a cosmetic-complete drive but will be a scenic and fun --- if I get it together.  I set the body on the chassis just for kicks... with the motor on the floor and the chassis on jack-stands it is at least starting to look like a car.

On a thread tangent anyone going to the Moultrie car swap meet this year?   It's not really a speedster type event a it's mostly American older cars and car stuff.  But still cool for gear-heads in general.

How do you quote someone?

See the little gear in the lower right hand corner?  Hover over that and you'll see "Reply with quote.  Alternatively you can do a simple cut and paste.

@DannyP posted:

Flat sheets are absolutely nowhere near as strong as rolled, dimpled, or corrugated.

VW pans may be thin, but they are stamped increasing the strength.

@TreyG.

Danny is correct.  the forming on the pan's floor panels make them much stiffer than flat sheet.

I have created my car's  (CMC)  "frame" in CAD (solidworks) from rough (tape measure) measurements.  I have also made a pan/chassis in cad from internet dimensions.  The 2 actually lined up pretty well with what I see in reality on my car.  If you want some help with drawings for the fabrication, I may be able to give you some starting points.   A good Fab shop that does metal forming would be able to put dimples and features into the floor panels that would add the stiffness Danny is referring to.  (or you power out with thicker sheet and secondary ribs.) 

I wouldn't put those thin floor panels in my car. The dimples add NO strength to support the seat. None. ZERO. They keep the floor from sounding like a drum. VW's seat rails are removed during the build. Unless you reinforce the bolt holes,  that you have to drill to mount the seats, they will stress fracture if you use the car.

If you're just going to look at it the dimples will be fine.

When I rebuilt my IM, I added 3/16ths flat steel rectangles between the seat bolts (front to front and rear to rear). The idea was to make sure the seat belts couldn't pull the seats out of the floor. A coat of truck bed liner and Bob's your uncle.

When I bought my CMC project from the previous owner it had a shortened pan with fabricated floors included.  The pans are framed from 1x2 thin walled tubing and floorboards are  sheet metal that is about 3/32" thick.  It is very rigid, the only thing that I wish I had changed would be to weld in recessed areas about 1 1/2" deep for the seats.

We’ll the time to do it is now .

Thanks guys!

James, those are great pics and almost exactly what I was thinking of doing, and recessing for the seat similar to a stock VW pan.

I also plan on reinforcing the seat and seat bolt mounting points as Jim suggested. 

You will need to recess the floors a little; otherwise your head will hit the convertible top frame when driving with the top up and will stick over the windshield frame when driving with the top down.