This is my little jig for marking the plug welds. It's bent a little bit and I lay it next to my mark I put on the underside of the pan and then take a magic marker cause it's the width I need to end up with that 3/8" plug weld hole in the right position.
Tip of the day: You know how these drills are, they are a keyless chuck so a guy puts a drill bit in then pulls the trigger and burns the palm of your hand. I had enough of that so you can see what I'm doing.
After you drill out the holes for the plug welds just give it a quick de-burr job on the bottom of the pans, never mind the burrs on the top.
This is the welder I'm going to use. It's a Millermatic 135, 110 volt welder. Solid .023 wire, 75% argon, 25% carbon dioxide. Wire size .023 diameter, type wire ER70 S6, nozzle 169715. I checked the new pans and the old and new half supports with a micrometer. The new pans are .032, the old and new half supports average .068, so if you add the two together you come up with .100, divide the two equals .050.
16 gauge steel is .0598, 18 gauge is .0478, I'm going to use the settings Miller recommends for 16 gauge steel. I may be going a little hotter but I have good clean metal so I think I'll be okay. They recommend 4.5 voltage and 60 wire feed, this is what I'll start with. This is a waste of time for you good welders, but I need all the help I can get. Don't forget to snip the wire before you start each weld.
These are those little Eastwood clamps I mentioned before. I was going to put them by the toe boards before I start plug welding but the pans fit good enough that I won't have to bother with them until later. The toe board area almost lines itself up. I also want to mention again in an earlier post on this you can see where I braced the shifter area. After getting these pans formed I would definitely recommend bracing that before you cut the pans out. It all fits really nice.
I've only had one question about the amount of holes I drilled. I know it looks excessive but tonight after I had my plug weld holes drilled, I took the air rachet and put the screws back in. This time I didn't hand tighten them, used the air rachet and they go in fast. After I got done, I took the light and went underneath the car and looked them over good and they are perfect.
You can equate this in a sense to block sanding a car. Most of us will block sand until we get it perfect. Floor pans very few people will see so I guess it depends on the person if he wants to take the time. But putting 2 screws at a time going across will form these pans and I'm pretty tickled about how nice they fit. Now.....if I was only a better welder.