240Z Project

240Z: Floor pan reinforcement panels

Recently, at the bodyshop i got asked what piece of metal this is between the original floorpan and the repair patch they put over it. I had to admit that i don’t know if it was original or not, but the welds definitely looked like OEM Spotwelds.

After asking on the Classic Z Forums, i got the information that this was a factory reinforcement plate for the floorpans. Unfortunately it was not listed in any of my parts books, so i guess, it was either added to the cars during the assembly process withohut proper documentation, or it was part of the original floor pan part and never sold separately.
A friend of mine has his car over at Romas from DCW Classic at the moment for some bodywork and told me, they currently have such plates removed from the car and he could give me the exact measures so i can replicate them:
See following photos:

So i thought it’s easy for my bodyshop to replicate them with all the photos and measures. Now while searching the interwebs for something else today, i accidentally stumbled on those ready-made replacement panels from ZCardepot for 19$ per side:
https://zcardepot.com/products/floor-pan-reinforcement-sheet-metal-240z

The only thing that makes me a bit unsecure, is the fact that they’re stainless steel. I have no clue how good it is to weld stainless steel to regular steel. I know you need a bit of a special welding technique or electrode, which any bodyshop should be able to handle. But my main concern is corrosion, as i know metals tend to have so called “contact corrosion” aka “galvanic corrosion” when two different metals are put together?  Not sure in this case however. the pieces should be easy to replicate from scratch, but hey, you need to have something to think about, right? 🙂

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