Datsun 510 Welding Rear Floorboards (Ep# 23)

Project Log (7 Oct 18):
Start Time:
Not Recorded
End Time:
Not Recorded

Welded in the driver’s side rear floorboard.
To Do (Daily):
☑ Cleaned up welding surfaces
☑ Prepped Floorboard piece
☑ Weld the floorboard in
☑Cleaned up welds
1. The surfaces were easy enough to clean with the wirewheel on the 4.5” angle grinder.
2. The prep consisted of painting all the welding surfaces with copperweld to retard rust formation in the welded sections. I did two light coats of the copper weld and punched holes for the plug welds in the floorboard
When fitting the piece I needed it to be installed with minimal gap I drilled a could holes through my plug welds to allow for some Cleco fasteners that hold the panel in place and used my small hammer to ensure the metal was touching before welding in the panels
Something I need to continue to work on is not inducing as much heat into my panels I have the habit of welding a bit to long and getting frustrated with burn through that is clearly my fault
The floorboard piece had a small hump added to it via “Hammer Power” to better fit the floorboard that it was being welded to (done in a previous video)
3. Welding the floorboard went fine, I started by welding along the inner sill, when that was complete I move from the inner sill towards the center of the car
The center of the car I made the mistake of having no support underneath the car to keep the floorboard level this meant that as I hammered the pieces they bowed downward. I realized this after about 6 plug welds which I had to cut out and do it again
I was able to keep the floorboard at the correct level with a 2x4 and a floorjack. and some gentle persuasion (aka Hammer)
I then finished welding in the pieces from the top
I added some reinforcing welds along the bottom, All of these will need to be seam sealed in the future, but the floorboard is MUCH more sturdy now.
4. Once the floor was welded in I cleaned up the welds with a ~60 grit flap disc on the angle grinder.
This makes a huge mess looking back at all of this I wish I would have more completely stripped the interior and put masking around all the stuff I couldn’t/didn’t remove I am writing this now ~1 month after I did this work and will be doing it before I move forward, but did not make this change for the next couple videos.
Note: The car is starting to come back together and it is a good feeling stay tuned!

Car: 1972 Datsun 510
Engine: L20B
Transmission: 280zx 5-Speed
Suspension: Rear Coil Overs
Minor Mods: Battery to Trunk, Electric Fans,

Camera: GoPro Hero3+
Voice Over: Audacity
Editing Software: GoPro Studio (I really don't like it)

Build Thread Information:
RATSUN: http://community.ratsun.net/topic/72953-aarons-1972-datsun-510-4-door-glory/page-1
GRM: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/datsun-510-4-door-project-name-tbd/134878/page1/