Floor pans: thick or cheap?

[Bugged]

Hey guys,

I am about to purchase some floor pans for my 1303. I'm debating getting the Wolfsburg West pans or the cheap brazilian pans. The WW pans are 18 gauge and come with separate braces and seat mounts for cheaper shipping. The brazilian are easy to find, 22 gauge... well thats it.

I was thinking of using the 71-72 pans because they don't have the seat hump and since I'm not going to be using stock seats I can weld my own rails on there. Seems like most agree they will fit in a 74' and the only difference is the seat rails. Is this certain?

My main question is whether I should get the cheapo pans or the expensive pans. I plan on putting a 4 point roll cage in the car, so the added stiffness of the thick pans would probably be negligible. This is what my local shops recommend, probably because they stock the cheapo's. But I can save 200+ bucks by getting the cheap pans, and put that into a nice roll cage.

What do you think, cheap or expensive?

Also, are most of you making your roll cages or buying pre bent tubing? I love the heigo cage but its a bit... ahem... out of my price range. I don't really want to spend 700 for the Ron Lummus cage.

LETS GET SOME RESPONSES SO I CAN ORDER THIS STUFF AND GET MY BUG GOING!!! Thanks!

[B-rock]

Where are you going to bolt/weld the main points for the roll cage? If they are going to be attached to the floor pan, I would definitely go with the WW 18 gauge pans. You're basically taking what is considered to be largerly a non-structural part of the chasis and turning it ito a structural piece in the event of a rollover which would definitely justify the thicker metal.

[wrenchnride247]

I vote 18 ga. also. CIP1 has the same pans as WW http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails....701%2D061%2DQT

The 71-72 pans have a different jack point set up than other years, but work on earlier and later cars.

[Bugged]

Thanks! I actually just ordered them from Wolfsburg... I got the 55 and earlier pans because they have no seat rails, but are the same as all the other pans. Tony at WW hooked me up with a great price after I told him I wouldn't need the jacking point, seat rails, or rear frame piece. A GREAT DEAL!!!

[B-rock]

Oh cool. Let us know how the install goes.

[Bugged]

will do... You should be seeing a build thread from me any minute now, when I find some time from school.

[evilC]

I fitted the cheap Brazilian pans to our '03 for two reasons:
1) They were very easy to get.
2) I saw no advantage in the extra weight of the 18g ones since the pans don't contribute very much at all to the o/a strength.
In respect of the roll cage - A 4 point cage is next to useless IMO and the minimum should be 6 point but better still multi-point. If you fit a cage then it should contribute to the overall stiffness of the shell and therefore ought to be welded or at least connected to the shell at various additional points such as halfway up and at the top of the A and B pillars. The bodyshell is actually quite good as a torsional member that will resist impacts so rather than relying on the cage on its own in this respect it is better to use the cage and the shell as a single integrated unit. As the beetle body is bolted onto the floor pan I would weld the cage legs to the upper shell (heater channels) and bolt roll cage to the floor with spreader plates.

Clive

[Bugged]

EvilC, thanks for the input. My WW pans should arrive tomorrow!! Now I am preparing the pan for welding. I am looking at the remaining edge that I am going to weld to, and I know I should remove the spot welds and remove the remaining pan, but it seems like a lot of work. Anyone have opinions? Do I need to get this out, and how did you do it?

[evilC]

I found the once you get under the first few spot welds and air chisel between the two panels makes short work of the rest. The flanges that they are fixed to are stiff enough to take a bit of abuse and I found that only a little fettling was necessary to straighten them up. I would hate to think how long it would take drilling each spot weld out and how anal!

[Bugged]

So I received a package today...

I placed my order by phone on monday evening and I received my order early Friday morning. Awesome service from Wolfsburg... Will definately do more business with them.

The pans fit perfect, but I needed to trim off that leftover pan. So... a quick trip to my local harbor freight to pick up an air chisel for 15 bucks. The thing kicks ass! I got all the leftover spot welds out pretty easily. It helped a lot to sharpen the chisel a lil' bit with the grinder. Hopefully it will last more than a few uses.



My buddy brought his mig welder over today too! DId some practice welds on some spare tubing and the old pans. Not too bad, but lets just say I'm not laying down beads just yet. I'll try and get some more pictures up soon, as of now my camera battery is dead...

When I weld the pan in, I should drill holes through the pan so that when I lay the pan on the frame all I have to do is fill the holes. Right? Is this the best way? Any tips before I start welding this up.

[wrenchnride247]

You have the right idea to practice, practice, practice first. As for welding the pans in you can stitch it, or plug it. Make sure your ground clamp is on bare metal, and area to be welded is bare metal (top and bottom)

Stitch welding involves doing short beads about an inch long and four to six inches apart. Careful around that factory tar board it burns easily

Plug welding involves drilling holes and filling hole with weld. If you want it to look like the factory spot welds you can grind the welds down and hit each one with a round blunt ended punch.

Regardless of which welding style used the front out side corners must be fully welded (you should remember this from grinding the old ones off) Then, when all welding is done use a good seam sealer on TOP and BOTTOM of the seams. This will get you rolling in the right direction, and back on the road for a long time.

[dub_crazee]

good choice! i recently fitted some WW pans and they are awesome! the quality is leaps ahead of any other pans ive used. unfortunately when i did my chassis only the red HD ones were available but id never fit the cheapo ones as the quality of them seems to get poorer an poorer every year lol! The ones made by centuro are the worst!