floor pan advice, classiz 2 current any good?

[2sixTZombii]

Hey I had a fabricator friend come over to help evaluate my floor pans and he saif he'll do it, but for him to do it right I should order actual replacement panels. I hear alot avout Zedd findings floor pans, but I also saw classic 2 current pans on rock auto for 100 bucks a side a significant savings over Zedd findings but not significant enough that I would buy a truly inferior product. My rust goes up the trans tunnel a little ways, will either pan patch this area? And does the Zedd findings pan fit alot better? Has anyone used the classic 2 current pans? Also my front seat supports are shot, but 135 per side for new just seems really high. Are these structural at all or just to hold the seat up? Mine will hold the seat no problem but there rusted out badly on the bottom can I just reuse my rusty ones(of course after some cleaning) or are they important to the strength of the car overall? Also does anybody sell them for cheaper? BTW my frame rails are perfect, the pan appead to have rusted from the inside.

[gnosez]

I have the Zeddfindings pans in my 240 and they are quality parts made right. I don't know anything about Classic.

Your seat brackets are part of the structural support for your Z and need to be there. You can use the old ones.

[26th-Z]

Zombii,
I have Zedd findings pans and frame rails and am very satisfied with them. At the time I did the work, they were the only alternative; so I don't have any experience with others. I didn't have to replace the seat mounts as mine were still in good shape.

Couple of comments about your question...
Replacing floor pans is a big project and if you are grousing around about the price of parts you really ought to rethink your expectations. There's no cheap or cheaper fix for this issue. And I agree completely with your fabricator friend. Do it right. You'll get the most satisfaction from the result.

The Zedd findings pans have quite a bit of extra metal which should address your tunnel rust issues. Any pan you buy is going to have some trimming and fitting required before it is welded into place. Also, there is no "replacement" pan as the original floors and tunnel were all one piece.

The seat mounts are important for safety reasons. New mounts from Bad Dog are very nice, not an exact match to original, but easy to work with and well worth the price.

The location of the transmission mount brackets is important for drive train alignment. Either bolt the transmission carrier in place when you fabricate and / or do one floor at a time.

Same with the seat brackets. Be careful to accurately locate them from your original before you start cutting everything apart.

Good luck and may the welding torch grace your Z with good, stiff pans!

[mjr45]

I used a Zedd floor pan on my drivers side, but didn't need the entire pan, just the front half and my seat rails were good. It is a very good quality product and wouldn't hesitate to buy another one. Some fitting and shaping will be needed and ditto to what 26th Z said. While mine is not the prettiest job, it functions well, beats looking at the ground whizzing by under my feet.

[gnosez]

If the speedo isn't working looking through a hole in the floor can provide a fairly accurate approximation of your speed. It helps if you can do this when there are passing lane strips you can drive over without running into someone coming the other way.

[mjr45]

I always liked the Fred Flintstone way of stopping when the brakes failed.

[Blue]

I always say that when you drive a Z for a while you can smell how fast you are going.

[2sixTZombii]

Yeah I originally thought about doing them myself, then I sat and looked at them and thought, gee if I botch this and end up sending a friend down to the higway, I'm gonna be really mad at myself. So my brother called up a friend with 20+ welding and fabrication experience. He said if I drive the car up to his shop with the pans and help him with what I can, he'll do it for 150. The bad dog seat supports look like really good stuff, but honestly after everything else they would end up blowing my budget, I know most people reuse there's but mine are cracked and I feel like that if there meant for anything other than seat support than they need to go. I might call up zedd finding and see what it would be with shipping.

[mjr45]

If you've got someone who'll do the job for 150, jump on it, plus you'll learn some stuff, just my 2¢.

[2sixTZombii]

If you've got someone who'll do the job for 150, jump on it, plus you'll learn some stuff, just my 2¢.

The way I look at, I'll have a pro job in my Z, and since my assistance is part of the deal, I can learn something about properly welding, and we can do it in his shop, which is great cause I rarely have a garage.

[gnosez]

You can fab up something for the seats I'm sure.

The price on the brackets went up due to increases in material and shipping costs.

Too bad this wasn't last year as I spent nearly 6 months in Sioux City. Could have brought them with me and saved you the price of shipping.

[2sixTZombii]

You can fab up something for the seats I'm sure.

The price on the brackets went up due to increases in material and shipping costs.

Too bad this wasn't last year as I spent nearly 6 months in Sioux City. Could have brought them with me and saved you the price of shipping.

That's interesting, did you bring ny Zs with you? I've only ever seen two other Z's and neither stayed for long. One was a blue 240z that was for sale here, the other was blue/white with a SBC swap that I sae at a car show. So do you have family here? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about your prices, It's simply a matter of 300 for floor pans, totally doable, then another 270 for seat brackets puts it out of my current budget, if I had more capitol put back for this, I'd likely order them from you.

[gnosez]

I was working at MEC and came in from Boston so I flew back and forth every month or so.

No problem re cost. We all operate on a budget.

[Kurbycar32]

I used a Zedd floor pan on my drivers side, but didn't need the entire pan, just the front half and my seat rails were good.

Same here. The front of the floors near the firewall were wasted but the metal was nice and solid towards the back so I didn't need to mess with the seat brackets. i took pictures of the whole process:
https://sites.google.com/a/thecomput...or-replacement

[2sixTZombii]

You know looking at your pics, those pans do fit rather nice. I think I'll do the zedd findings pans. I think A new seat support could be made pretty easy, maybe not one as nice as John's but functional.

[Kurbycar32]

Yes they do fit pretty darn good. My only fabricating experience was high school metal shop about 15 years ago now and i didn't have trouble putting it together. A pro could knock this out in a few hours with perfect welds, it took me a whole weekend. On the plus side the welds are all ground down and then covered with seam sealer so you cant see my mediocre welding skills.

While drinking a beer and staring at the rusted floor before doing any actual work (as i start all projects) i considered building a support beam/seat bracket to stiffen the chassis. The plan was to use a piece of square tubing from the frame sides, across the inside of the car in place of the seat bracket, into the transmission tunnel under the car and then the same on the other side. That beam could also be tied into a set of bad dog or equivalent frame rails. After three beers and finding my seat brackets intact I gave up on the idea.

[grannyknot]

By the time you finish welding floor pans in, fabing up some seat brackets will be childs play, just measure off the old ones.
Then you can take that extra money and p/u the Bad Dog rails, beautifully made and will add real stiffness to the body.
I also used Zedd findings pans and love them.

[John Coffey]

I would be leery of someone replacing floor pans for $150 in labor. It a big job with at least 8 hours work for each side from start to finish (I've replaced at least two dozen floor pans in S30s). At $150 flat rate his effective hourly rate is $18.75 an hour. For a fabricator with 20 years experience that's very low. You're either getting a fantastic deal, he has under estimated the work involved, or he's going to hack the car up.

[2sixTZombii]

I would be leery of someone replacing floor pans for $150 in labor. It a big job with at least 8 hours work for each side from start to finish (I've replaced at least two dozen floor pans in S30s). At $150 flat rate his effective hourly rate is $18.75 an hour. For a fabricator with 20 years experience that's very low. You're either getting a fantastic deal, he has under estimated the work involved, or he's going to hack the car up.

He's a good friend of my brothers who knows I'm poor and in need, part of the deal is that me and my brother will help him with the grunt work when we drive it to his shop.

[The Janitor]

We bought Zedd Findings floors for our restoration, but they are a bit of a dissapointment. I was certainly not expecting to have drop in floors delivered, but I was also not expecting to have to redo most of the floor panel to make it fit.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.







Keep in mind, that was with the hump in the middle aligned 100% with the chassis, the bends that are supposed to lead up to the rocker are wrong. Keep an eye on the first and last pictures, the spacing between the first bend and the oval shaped drop in the pan had to be virtually removed in order for the pan to fit, I also had to relocate the pocket. In order to redo the bends, I had to flatten that side of the floor pan entirely up until the 90 degree flange.

I don't know whether we got a bad set, or if all of them are equally as incorrect, but expect some work for $400 with ZF.

[EhlersRS]

Daniel,

I also bought a pair of Zedd Findings floor pans and support rails from MSA. I haven't started work on the car yet, so I can't speak to how difficult they are to replace, however the construction is high quality and close to the originals. As others have said, these pans will require some additional work to fit properly, but there isn't a quick solution to replacing floor pans. After you check the pricing from Charlie at Zedd Findings, I would also check with MSA since they sell the same floor pan kit from Zedd Findings. The shipping costs might be less from MSA since you won't have to pay duty from Canada. Right now they run $364.95 from MSA (Motorsport! Premium Floor Pan Kit, 70-8/74 240Z-260Z Coupe - The Z Store! Nissan-Datsun 240Z-260Z-280Z-280ZX-300ZX(Z31/Z32)-350Z-370Z Parts) and they will give you a car club discount if you tell them your CZCC member id. Generally they give you around 10% off.

From the other side of Iowa...I hope things are going well for you in Sioux City.

Robert S.

[bartsscooterservice]

Make sure you put them in the correct height. Don't rush, look carefully how the old floor pan is seated, to weld in the new one correctly. By the way I found the main reason why all the floor pans rust out: the water in the cowl area is leaking through the seam ( which dries up and doesn't seal anymore over time ), into the car on the floorpans, rusting them out slowly, make sure you tackle that problem to. I had my floor pans reapaired, only to find water in the car again.. if not tackled this problem, your new floorboard will be rusting out again. I used a rubber brush on sealant in my cowl to stop the leaks.