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Can Floor Pans be Straightened?


Sleek Z

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Looking around my ZPARTS yard I can see that I have a large collection of potential project Z car bodies to consider upgrading or customizing. While looking at the two most recent arrivals to fall into this project category, namely a well preserved 280Z NISMO racer and a very well preserved early 260Z 2+2, I am noting with frustration, how most of them have floor pans that have been pushed up significantly from underneath over time, probably from coming down too hard on road speed bumps. Other than this damage most of the floor pans are free of rust through and well worth salvaging in place.

 

I am wondering whether any of you here have insight or experience related to massaging these pushed up floor boards down to a relatively flat position without doing more damage than good to the pan and car's body integrity. Mainly I want to reduce the cramped, "raised" look and feel of the pans that reduce the spacious feeling under the dash and carpet beneath someone's feet when they get into and ride in the cars.

 

Cheap approach, I suppose, would be to get an extra heavy mall like hammer and some 8" x 5" steel plated and try to dolly the pan down to an acceptable flatness, but previous experiements have made me skeptical of this approach.

 

Also have wondered whether some of these body shop hydraulic kits at Harbor Freight could be used to achieve my objectives, but I know next to nothing about using these type of tools.

 

Can anybody here guide me toward a solution or make suggestions from experience?

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"GOOD ONE, TIM", :D Sounds like something I might resort to after a long, frustrating day of trying to do it meticulously with hammer and dolly methods while bent over on ground with my knees being gouged with gravel.

 

I'll have to give your method a whirl up the road.

 

A "Tony D" over at zcar.com had some good experience to pass along as well. He claims that a large rubber mallet of just the right rubber hardness and some carefull and steady blows has enabled him to straighten out many floor pans without the typical damage that a metal hammer would cause.

 

Is Tony D also on the Hybrid Z forums?

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