Separating floor pan from rocker

[82Laredo]

I'm replacing the front floor pans on my CJ7 and this is my first attempt at a "body work" kind of job. The drivers side has rot all the way to the rocker so I'm going to have to separate it from the rocker. I'm assuming they are spot welded together at the lip that folds down from the floor pan and meets the rocker. The issue is I don't see any spot welds....

Are they spot welded together and if so what is the best way to find each weld to drill out? I've gotten good at drilling spot welds and using the air hammer to "pop" them but looking for some advise at finding them. Thanks for the help

 

[Colo Dean]

I'm not a body man by any means, but can you use a small screwdriver between the panels? maybe lightly pry it out so see where it is attached? The under coating was pretty much gone on mine so it wasn't too hard to see the dimples from the spot welds. Not sure I'm much help to you.

 

[Dolf]

I’m not a body man either, but this worked for me. When I removed the rear corner on my CJ8, I cut off as much as I could, as close to the welds as possible, so all that was left was a strip of metal. I then took a pair of heavy pliers and started twisting the remaining metal around the pliers. If I needed more leverage, I used a large crescent wrench to help twist it. I didn’t have to drill out any of the welds. When the metal started to peel back, either the welds broke or the metal around the welds ripped around the weld. I was able to remove the whole corner in less than an hour, and not drill out any of the welds. I had the spot weld drill, but I just didn’t need it.

 

[82Laredo]

Thanks for the advise! Sounds like there is no exact science to it and just need to get it peeled back in one spot and work from there. My primary concern is damaging/bending the rocker panel while doing this. Thanks again

 

[Hedgehog]

Some of the floor pans are actually glued in with a super duper automotive epoxy. It is said that the glue is actually stronger than welds with no heat distortion to deal with.

Here's a thought, if it isn't terribly rusty under the strip, cut it close and neatly, clean it up, paint it and leave it alone. It might actually make your job easier giving you a place to align the new panel and a place to weld or glue the new pan to. The glue can be purchased at most serious automotive paint stores, most will allow you to barrow an application gun.

 

[Dep]

sometimes if you take a piece of sandpaper and run it over the seams it highlights the "ring" of the spot weld, but if the rust or undercoating is too thick it wont work...

 

[82Laredo]

Ok thanks, I'll give that a shot as I move down the pan. It's slow going because my drill bit is almost shot, time to run to ace!

View attachment 19175

 

[Strike]

That rocker looks shot anyway. There's no good metal to spot weld to the lip on the new floorboard. Better off cutting away the rusted rocker and replacing that panel as well.

 

[82Laredo]

Yea I'm working on that as well. Here is the patch panel I made with some extra metal from one of the new floor pans. Still have to trim it up some to fit in there properly for welding:
View attachment 19193