cutting out front floorpans

[AtlantaSteve]

I hope this is the right place to put this...but it has to do with metalwork, so I figured close enough.

OK so it's time for me to start replacing my front pans. Several months ago Ryan came over and helped me cut my old rear pans out and weld the new ones in, and to get the old out, basically we put a cutoff wheel in an angle grinder, and cut them straight out. However, it appears to me that this might not work so good with the front pans, due to the fact that the frame rails are under these pans, and I could cut into the frame rails.

So is there a standard "here's how ya do it" solution? I could try to cut it very lightly when going over where the frame rails are, but it just seems like too much room for cutting into something important.

Any guidance would be great. I'm very inexperienced with metalwork, so feel free to talk to me like a child

Thanks

Steve

 

[Sluggo]

There is a couple ways to go about it.

You could cut around the rails and then come back and drill the spots out on the rails and use a seam buster, or you could drill the spots out most of the way then grind the remainder until it pops loose.

There are actually more ways to do it as well. No one way is correct. You will most likely wind up using a combination of methods.

Weld cutter http://astore.amazon.com/stangfixcom-20/detail/B000JLF3YI
Weld cutter http://astore.amazon.com/stangfixcom-20/detail/B000JLJOES
Seam Buster http://astore.amazon.com/stangfixcom-20/detail/B0027JTDVO
Seam buster http://astore.amazon.com/stangfixcom-20/detail/B000W1VHPO

 

[Johnny M]

I recently undertook some metal work and i found this method fast and effective.

Mark each spot weld with a hole punch
Drill a small pilot hole through both sheets of metal in the center of the weld. (2mm-3mm)
Drill out the top part of the weld with a larger drill bit (8mm-10mm) but do not go throw both sheets of metal. Drill a little, try it, drill a little, try it, etc etc

I found this method worked best as i found a chisel ended up tearing metal rather than separating them.

Hope this helps.

Johnny