Floor work sucks and it's hard on the body. You probably got what you paid for- a structural fix, just not too pretty. As long as its sound, then seal it up well and good to go. I think I spent 50+ hours on some floors and charged 1000$ plus, but the floors looked pretty damn close to original.

Sure you didn't make things worse by pre cutting the floor. If I was the welder I would have taken a slight exception to that.

I say buy a decent mig welder (I paid $330 at Eastwood w/shipping) and finish it yourself. I've been using flap discs lately and they cut WAY faster than a grinding wheel. Grinding is the most tedious part.

I am under a pretty strict, though reasonable, budget. No extra money to buy a welder, which I wouldn't use again after this job anyway. The car is suprisingly solid for a car that had to get floors put in..battery tray good, rockers good, hatch deck good, etc. It didn't have a hood, but I had an extra. It did have a welded diff in it - it was going to be someone's drag car.

I used the new floor as a template, and left a good margin on all sides. I really didn't NEED to replace the whole passenger side - it just had a lot of smaller holes in it, and I thought better to replace the whole sheet of metal. This guy didn't seem to mind the hole I cut. I went back by last night, and the real pisser is that this guy didn't cut back enough on the drivers side, and just lapped over the bad metal with good, so I'll have to go back in and cut the rest out. Grr.

Be careful where you throw all the sparks they damage glass and interior panels...

C

There's an old saying my Dad used to use: You can have it Good, Fast or Cheap..........but not all at once! You chose Cheap, so you being surprised at getting a crappy job done is ironic. There's NO way anyone should leave gaps - especially of that massive size - in anything, anywhere, on a car. It's even MORE wrong to suggest you can seal it with Bondo - he jumped to the top rung of "HACK" with that comment!

If I were you - with your level of experience - I would either buy a welder and learn to do it right, or pay someone to do it right. You'll save money doing it yourself, but time with someone else (in theory).

E-tek,

the way I heard it was you "there is good, fast and cheap, you can have any two..." or "...you can only have two of the three..."

Charles

In my biz I say" cheap repair jobs ain't good and good repair jobs ain't cheap"

Funny how people who say" i'm not a good welder" have never welded or tried only one or two times, some of my first welds looked like I was not a good welder either. Now I am a good not great welder.

Edited October 12, 201311 yr by nix240z

Will do. The plan is to take the doors off, and I've already removed dash/console/seats.

I agree, but these guys are just country rednecks. The fault is mine and mine alone for taking the car to them in the first place. They feel bad, and so do I, but what is done is done.

We are not real close, but if I can help let me know. You might could drive it up and we could tighten things up...

C

Thanks for the offer. I am a ways away from driving it, but when I do, maybe a trip o Spartanburg so you can show me what I did wrong...