Precision Welding on a 1971 Z28

In April, I received a phone call from an old friend, John Wieslander, who I’ve known for 40 plus years. John has owned a 1971 Chevy Camaro Z28 for over forty years.

While making some upgrades to his car he found a rust hole in the driver’s side floor pan. After further investigation, he decided to cut out and replace the floor pan.

Replacement panels are readily available and there are many ways to install one. John spent hours cutting and fitting the floor pan metal into place before calling me.

When I arrived to weld the floor pan, I was amazed at how well John had it fitted in place. John had a perfect 1/16” gap around three sides of the panel. The last side was folded for a series of spot welds just like the factory. We fitted a series of butt weld clamps (which are designed to set metal perfectly level with each other) along the three sides with the 1/16” gap. We spot welded the last folded edge. Altogether we spent roughly 5 hours welding. We had to take our time with the welds to keep the metal from warping.

Once John had done some grinding to smooth out the welds and applied some factory seam sealer, the welded seams are hard to detect. No body filler was needed in this process.

I enjoyed the day catching up with an old friend and learning about these amazing butt weld clamps. Thank you John for trusting me to do the precision welding on your classic 1971 Chevy Camaro Z28.