I've got all my new panels for the mini, but what will be the best way to weld it all up. The panels are painted?? so I should clean all the sections to be welded back to bare metal yeh? OK, which panel should I drill the hole in to plug weld?

Now, I know floor panels arn't ment to match up to ozzy cars, but no one ever said anything about a huge section next to the gear stick hole that gets in the way, is this normal?
see:
http://members.dodo.com.au/~thechairman/mini/jul/jul_04.jpg

Gday rampage,
I am currently doing a few floorpans as well, first time for me, so i am interested in how you go. I think it is advisable to weld onto bare metal but not essential. The bulge next to the gear stick I'm pretty sure was where the 850 had the starter button, it is on all of my cars , Leylands and Morris, don't know if it was used for anything else. I just cut a bit out of the new floorpan to match it. With the plug welds, I would drill the hole in the new pan and plug weld from the top. Not sure if this helps, I'm sure someone more knowledgable than me will tell you the way to go.
Steve.

Forget plug welding those pans- you want it sealed. Very best way is butt weld all round. But hard to trim that accurate.
Next best way I used is lap weld all round with a 10mm lap. I welded inside, then put the car on its side and welded outside too.
After 2 coats of tar epoxy, it was watertight... eh Anton.

When MIG welding, cleanliness is next to Godfreyness.. get rid of all the paint where you are welding first. It will give you porosity, or worse.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Woops, yeh was going to probably do the lap welding on the floor pans, I was mainly asking for the front end. Sorry I didn't specify.

That black paint on the repair panels is crap, best to clean it all off first.
And make sure the flange you are welding onto is clean, no paint.
Drill the plug holes thru the guard's flanges.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Sounds like you have quite a bit of welding to do rampage, what sort of mini is it you are doing? Hope to see some pics of the progress. Don't think I will post any of mine as the welds will probably be crap, I have 2 cars to get it right before i do my 850.
Steve.

Like Drmini says, welding will be better & easier on bare metal.
If you are worried that your new panels will go rusty before you get around to welding them in after being blasted, you can get them coated in P14 Epoxy Zinc Phosphate primer (aka "pre-weld primer"). This stuff vapourises without affecting welding.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

the replacement front floor pan comes with alot of excess on the tunnel side, this is true.

I will be cutting all my edges right down low so as to have the welds along the floor creases (hopefully that will hide it on the inside - no carpet going into my car).

If your mini is a rubber suspension model, the floor pan will line up properly.... it just needs to be pressed up HARD against the door sill side (or even trim the new floor a bit short to get it further across to the door openeing.)

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs