Floor Pan Replacement

Jay.

Club Member
I realise I'll get a range of answers, but I'm looking to get my floor pans replaced and was curious to know how much people have been paying for the job.

Quoting in hours would be ideal, as I realise the labour rate can vary significantly.

Also, I was going to use APS Floor Pan repair, unless anyone would recommend not to?


I would appreciate feedback, even if it is in PM format if you wish to remain anonymous!
 

candy red

Club Member
I realise I'll get a range of answers, but I'm looking to get my floor pans replaced and was curious to know how much people have been paying for the job.

Quoting in hours would be ideal, as I realise the labour rate can vary significantly.

Also, I was going to use APS Floor Pan repair, unless anyone would recommend not to?


I would appreciate feedback, even if it is in PM format if you wish to remain anonymous!
As far as I know Aps floors are pretty good is it a 240 /260 ?
I would say around £1500 with floor rails to replace if interior already stripped but does depend on seat rails condition
 

Jay.

Club Member
It's a 240z


Are the seat rails typically reused? I was thinking of buying a new set as mine have been butchered
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
Still looking for first hand experience for people who have paid to have this done!

Possibly because getting floorpans replaced is usually part of other, more extensive work and is therefore difficult to isolate on a £/hrs basis.

It's quite rare that one of these cars needs only its floorpans replaced. If they are bad enough to need replacement then it is often the case that the inner and outer sills and doglegs - at the least - need doing too...
 

Jay.

Club Member
Possibly because getting floorpans replaced is usually part of other, more extensive work and is therefore difficult to isolate on a £/hrs basis.

It's quite rare that one of these cars needs only its floorpans replaced. If they are bad enough to need replacement then it is often the case that the inner and outer sills and doglegs - at the least - need doing too...

Probably correct.

My sill/dog legs need replacing, just trying to factor in how much extra I should be expecting for the floorpans as they're currently "ok" but certainly not great
 

Jay.

Club Member
Just to keep this thread going - had a bodyshop classic car expert come and look at the floorpans. He seemed to think it was an easy job - the metal on the inner sills and the transmission tunnel was still good and therefore should be fairly straightforward to weld to. However, he has quoted approx. 80hours of work to do the job (40 each side)

The Facebook brigade, who aren't always to be believed, have also helped answer this question and I've had about a dozen people respond with their experiences:

Typically (15 out of 20 responses) it seems around 20 hours per side seems to be the going rate for a good quality resto from an established bodyshop.

Some (3) have managed to do it in around 10h by hacking the old ones out and welding them in quickly.

Some (2) have had 40 hours, but this always included significant repairs to the trans tunnels/inner sills
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
Typically (15 out of 20 responses) it seems around 20 hours per side seems to be the going rate for a good quality resto from an established bodyshop.

Get one of these guys to do it for you then. Simple!

But seriously, I saw a few of the different Facebook group responses and I don't know how some of them could come up with their 'quotes' with so little information on the particular car in question. It might be worth bearing in mind that the only professional quote you have got so far from a person who has actually seen the job is the one who has quoted the 80hrs.

I saw that Romas in Lithuania pretty much agreed with that kind of hour frame, and Romas knows what he is talking about.

This is a job you need to have done just once, and done properly. Personally I wouldn't set much store on people quoting low hours for a work on a car they haven't even seen. Once you start cutting metal - especially around those rear doglegs and the seat belt anchor points - any amount of previous 'repairs' could be revealed.
 

Jay.

Club Member
Get one of these guys to do it for you then. Simple!

But seriously, I saw a few of the different Facebook group responses and I don't know how some of them could come up with their 'quotes' with so little information on the particular car in question. It might be worth bearing in mind that the only professional quote you have got so far from a person who has actually seen the job is the one who has quoted the 80hrs.

I saw that Romas in Lithuania pretty much agreed with that kind of hour frame, and Romas knows what he is talking about.

This is a job you need to have done just once, and done properly. Personally I wouldn't set much store on people quoting low hours for a work on a car they haven't even seen. Once you start cutting metal - especially around those rear doglegs and the seat belt anchor points - any amount of previous 'repairs' could be revealed.

Absolutely, and I am aware they are all annecdotal - people can have cars that require much less work than mine does, and one persons "full rust repair" is not the same as anothers. I was purely hoping for some examples to set a benchmark for what a normal job would cost, totally understanding that it can get significantly more expensive as more issues appear.

Sadly all of the answers are all USA based. The Z world is significantly smaller here in the UK.

The guy who has seen the job is the only person who has given me a quote - I would feel comfortable knowing that it is in line with what other people paying before committing
 

richiep

Club Member
Just to keep this thread going - had a bodyshop classic car expert come and look at the floorpans. He seemed to think it was an easy job - the metal on the inner sills and the transmission tunnel was still good and therefore should be fairly straightforward to weld to. However, he has quoted approx. 80hours of work to do the job (40 each side)

The Facebook brigade, who aren't always to be believed, have also helped answer this question and I've had about a dozen people respond with their experiences:

Typically (15 out of 20 responses) it seems around 20 hours per side seems to be the going rate for a good quality resto from an established bodyshop.

Some (3) have managed to do it in around 10h by hacking the old ones out and welding them in quickly.

Some (2) have had 40 hours, but this always included significant repairs to the trans tunnels/inner sills

The Facebook brigade - i.e. Datsun Club UK group - makes me cringe on a regular basis tbh. I occasionally stick my oar in when I can't take the misinformation and brainlessness, but I think I'd just be better off blocking the group from my feed!
On FB I gave my thoughts based on my DIY experience; 80 hours as a full-time exercise seemed high to me based on that and a previous professional quote I had before I went DIY which was 28 days for ALL the fabrication work on my project shell and panels (extent of that covered in the Project Dixie thread!). I guess I was also thinking along the lines of having done it to a Z before, being 100% familiar with the specifics of that car, and how it would be easier a second time, pre-empting issues, etc.

If I can find the quote document, it will have the hours planned for the floors itemized in it - I'll report back if I find it. This was from a specialist welding business who restore and modify everything from industrial equipment to cars; I've seen stuff in progress there from a Honda CRX to a stripped-to-the-bare-frame Ferrari Testarossa.
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
Also relevant; how much does an hour cost? What's the rate?

An hour's work rate charged by a one-man-in-a-shed, non-VAT registered type business in one of the areas of the UK that has lower overheads is going to be fairly different to that of a company with several staff, high rent, meaty overheads, charging VAT and in a high overhead region of the UK.

Personally I would be more interested (worried...!) in the bottom line than whatever hours are quoted.
 

Jay.

Club Member
The Facebook brigade - i.e. Datsun Club UK group - makes me cringe on a regular basis tbh. I occasionally stick my oar in when I can't take the misinformation and brainlessness, but I think I'd just be better off blocking the group from my feed!
On FB I gave my thoughts based on my DIY experience; 80 hours as a full-time exercise seemed high to me based on that and a previous professional quote I had before I went DIY which was 28 days for ALL the fabrication work on my project shell and panels (extent of that covered in the Project Dixie thread!). I guess I was also thinking along the lines of having done it to a Z before, being 100% familiar with the specifics of that car, and how it would be easier a second time, pre-empting issues, etc.

If I can find the quote document, it will have the hours planned for the floors itemized in it - I'll report back if I find it. This was from a specialist welding business who restore and modify everything from industrial equipment to cars; I've seen stuff in progress there from a Honda CRX to a stripped-to-the-bare-frame Ferrari Testarossa.

Would be great if you could find that! Whilst I agree that the FB Group is difficult, it's hard to get a wide range of answers except for on FB! The American groups are significantly more active, but they have a pretty different idea on what they would consider rusty!

Also relevant; how much does an hour cost? What's the rate?

An hour's work rate charged by a one-man-in-a-shed, non-VAT registered type business in one of the areas of the UK that has lower overheads is going to be fairly different to that of a company with several staff, high rent, meaty overheads, charging VAT and in a high overhead region of the UK.

Personally I would be more interested (worried...!) in the bottom line than whatever hours are quoted.

Whilst I understand that the bottom-line is the important number to me, it's not necessarily a good way of finding out what I could expect cost - someone getting a professional repair in Lithuania will have a significantly cheaper invoice than if they paid someone in central London, even if the skillset was the same. If each of these examples took 40 hours, then I'd feel comfortable believing that 40 hours is roughly how long it takes. However if the Lithuanian example cost £1000 and the London example cost £10,000 then it would be hard to tell what an appropriate figure would be. For clarity, I'm being offered a rate of approx. £56/hr including VAT. The company is approx. 2 years old and they work on a variety of cars ranging from £10 to £100k, with good reviews and personal recommendations. However, the owner has made it clear that he 'does not rush' his work and whilst I can respect that, I can't necessarily afford to be that precious myself!

What will (hopefully) be universal is the time taken to do a like-for-like repair by a professional fabricator. Of course there will be differences in skill, but that's what the idea of getting responses from several people.
Rather than looking at the time it takes, you need to consider the quality of the work that the person will do

I clearly want a good job, but fundamentally it's a welding/fabrication job on metal that will not be visual to anyone but an MOT tester. I want it to be good, with strong and long lasting joins, but I'm not looking to pay twice as much to ensure it looks perfectly OEM - especially considering how the car is far from that anyway.

I guess part of the question is, are you ready for anything else that might get thrown up? Whats your gut feeling on the bodywork condition?


The metal appears to be fine - even the floorpans themselves aren't full of holes. They did have surface rust 4 years ago and I put some rust converter on it as a temporary measure - I'm looking to make a more permanent fix now that I am able to. The bodywork is in good condition, and the metal inside the sills appear fine through an endoscope. The only visible rust is the rear sill, extending slightly inwards at the back of the floor pan, and on the bottom of each door.


Thanks to all those who have answered. All opinions are valid and any discussion is productive.
 

moggy240

Insurance Valuations Officer
Staff member
Club Member
I have replaced the floors in my car and it took a fair bit of work to do. When I did mine the car was totally stripped and on a rotisserie which made it a lot easier, if I remember I had the replace some metal before I could fit the floor pans as the front floor pan seam to bulkhead had rust in it and at the rear as i welded up the seat belt pockets.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
It's one of those jobs that needs to be a DIY job really. I did one side on my first 240 for virtually nothing.
 

IbanezDan51

Well-Known Forum User
I think the responses you have had seem fair. It could easily take 10 working days to complete the work if further work was needed than just cutting out your old floor pans and replacing them (and it almost certainly will). Especially if you want a nice job.

But I'm also sure that someone could bodge them in probably a day.

Do it once, and do it right.

Dan
 

moggy240

Insurance Valuations Officer
Staff member
Club Member
You could always get some more quotes but most garages /bodyshop are going to charge atleast £60 a hour.
You could make it easier and strip out most of the interior aswell as welding sparks can do a lot of damage.
 
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