My floor pan cracked yesterday and I was reaching out to anyone who has made their own floor plan out of sheet metal. Any recommended thickness, cutting tools?
Dremal, Scissors etc?
Always used metal shears. I used a pneumatic one, but there are battery operated ones and have seen some that can attach to a drill. Radius any inside 90 degree corners.
If your crack is at a screw hole, use fender washers above and below the hole. Use JB Weld to hold them in place. Or use a piece of aluminum and patch the area of the crack. Hold the patch in place with pop-rivets and re-drill the hole.
If you want to repair a crack, Drill or Punch a hole in the end of the crack. Doesn’t matter if you glue, weld or just leave it. The hole stops the crack from continuing.
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I bought 6061 AL and used a jig saw.
Agree with doing a stop drill hole if you decide to repair (option 2)
Add in some washers at the mounting points to distribute the load and you should be good to go for a while.
Depending how bad it is, you could drill a stop hole and keep the tray as a spare.
You could probably find a local shop to cut the basic shape and finish it any number of ways.
I have multiple ways of doing it or can sub it out to any degree.
With the right router bit you could even trace the original one. Similar for a nibbler.
Tin snips would relatively inexpensive option. (Aviation snips) You just need to be patient and learn a little about them. There are several different snips with different colored handles. One major tip for using is to adjust them so they don’t close all the way - which no one seems to know.
I you post up some pics & you may get more specific advice.
I have replaced several floorpans over the years and have built them by myself. If your floorpan has gotten to the point of replacement, here is what you can do. I took the old floorpan to a sheet metal retailer so they could get a similar thickness of metal. You want the thickness to be as close as you can get as the floorpan is a stress member of the chassis and can change the handling of the kart. By the same token a floorpan that has a blown out bolt hole is affecting the chassis’ handing as well.
I used the old floorpan as a template for the shape and bolt holes. I cut it out with a jigsaw using a metal specific blade. Finished the edges with a straight file. I also was able to tilt the edges up along the straight side sections of the foot well area using a vice. I put some aluminum pads on the vice jaws to prevent them from marking the pan up. The latest floorpans I have made had more of a triangular winglet going up to fill in the A arm section. With a little ingenuity you can make a replacement floorpan for a quarter of the price of a new one. Slap a floorpan decal on it and it will look OEM.
John K
Floorpans are usually thin enough to be cut with aviation snips. I like to use left-turning snips and work to a Sharpie line (NOT a scribed line). Ideally you’d get your hands on magnesium sheet of roughly 1.3x the thickness of the original aluminum, to match the stiffness, because it won’t suffer the fatigue failures under light loads that aluminum will.