Hey Everyone,

Im replacing the floor panels in my car, because they are rusted out.

Does any one know what guage of metal i should use?

Or some how to on how to do it?

Thanks

 

The body sheet metal is roughly 0.050" thick, so that's 18 gauge. Do a search for rusty floor pans for the various ways to do it.

 

Actually body metal is a lot thinner than 18 gauge. It is 20 - 22 gauge. Some of the structural pieces are thicker like 18 or 16 and the tops of the strut towers are even 10 IIRC. The floors are just the same as the outer body metal though.

I would just buy replacement floor panels and weld them in. They will be a lot stronger because of all the funny shapes to them. Otherwise you would have to go a lot thicker to get the same strength to prevent it from bowing. It would be a lot less hassle with the prefabbed ones too.

 

I'd also go with the pre-formed units for strength. This is a unibody car. The car's strength depends on the rigidity of the chassis, and that's comprimised if the floors aren't strong enough. It may not matter day to day, but if you get into an accident, you'll want that strength beneath you.

 

dont plan on getting into an accident

I was going to weld in 16guage floors and i was going to shape them myself seeing replacement floor panels are $300 out of my price rang