S30 Sheet Metal - Body and Chassis Panel Thicknesses

[240260280]

@HS30-H probably has gauges for 432-R (not including the FPR parts) ?   It could make another column.

[Namerow]

A key panel not reported on yet is the floor pan.  Anyone?  Easy to measure by pulling one of the drain plugs, but requires a vernier set up like CanTechZ's in order to measure properly.

[CanTechZ]

1 hour ago, Namerow said:

A key panel not reported on yet is the floor pan.  Anyone?  Easy to measure by pulling one of the drain plugs, but requires a vernier set up like CanTechZ's in order to measure properly.

Couldn't get it with my vernier but a micrometer worked for the floor pan, to sound metal through a rust hole. The drain holes were not large enough. Measured .044" (1.12mm).

 

[dutchzcarguy]

always handy to have a rust hole to measure through..  ?  well done!

[grannyknot]

11 hours ago, CanTechZ said:

The drain holes were not large enough. Measured .044" (1.12mm).

Strange, that makes it 17gauge which is an odd gauge.

[Namerow]

10 hours ago, CanTechZ said:

Measured .044" (1.12mm)

We'll probably never get a better measurement of the factory floor thickness than that.  Closer to 1.1mm than to 1.2mm, so let's call it 1.1mm then.  BTW, both 1.1mm and 1.2mm are, according to a modern supplier of rolled sheet steel (Parker Steel / MetricMetal.com), legitimate standard sheet thicknesses for bulk metric rolled sheet...

                                                                            

Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where the measured thickness doesn't align very well with American gauge standards...

•  0.044" places the floor panel right at the lower (thinnest) boundary for 18-gauge. 
• Conversely, the upper (thickest) boundary for 20-gauge is just 0.0389". 

So, we can consider the factory floor panels to be either thin-ish 18-gauge or way-out-of-spec 20-gauge. 

We can also say that the floor panels are the same thickness/gauge as the main outer body panels (which, interesting to note, are commonly considered to be "20-gauge" but are, per my notes above, closer to 18-gauge than they are to 20). 

In the end, 1.1mm is probably the correct representation.  

Comments welcomed.

[grannyknot]

I still think in gauge but we should probably just stick to Imperial or Metric measurements since Nissan almost certainly didn't use gauge standard.

But just as an aside, my American Standard Gauge gauge reads 20ga as .032", 19ga as .036", 18ga as .040", 17ga as .045", 16ga as .051 all of which are different from the table you posted John. All the more reason to stick to in" or mm.

Edited April 6, 2020 by grannyknot

[Captain Obvious]

12 hours ago, CanTechZ said:

Couldn't get it with my vernier but a micrometer worked for the floor pan, to sound metal through a rust hole. The drain holes were not large enough. Measured .044" (1.12mm).

It looks like the top side of that sheet was uncoated (but rusty). Is the underside coated with anything? Paint? Tar?

I'm thinking that maybe between a rust hump on the top side and maybe some coating on the underside, you're measurement is a couple thousandths too thick. It would only take five thousandths less to make that a 1mm thick sheet. In the end, however, I don't think it matters... People will (should) use what they can get, and although I haven't checked, I suspect finding 1.0mm thick sheet isn't the easiest thing to do in these parts.

[ConVerTT]

23 minutes ago, grannyknot said:

I still think in gauge but we should probably just stick to Imperial or Metric measurements since Nissan almost certainly didn't use gauge standard.

But just as an aside, my American Standard Gauge gauge reads 20ga as .032", 19ga as .036", 18ga as .040", 17ga as .045", 16ga as .051 all of which are different from the table you posted John. All the more reason to stick to in" or mm.

I believe that Gauge is for wire and cable, not carbon steel ...

Edited April 6, 2020 by ConVerTT

[ConVerTT]

50 minutes ago, Namerow said:

 

•  0.044" places the floor panel right at the lower (thinnest) boundary for 18-gauge. 
• Conversely, the upper (thickest) boundary for 20-gauge is just 0.0389". 

So, we can consider the factory floor panels to be either thin-ish 18-gauge or way-out-of-spec 20-gauge. 

We can also say that the floor panels are the same thickness/gauge as the main outer body panels (which, interesting to note, are commonly considered to be "20-gauge" but are, per my notes above, closer to 18-gauge than they are to 20). 

In the end, 1.1mm is probably the correct representation.  

Comments welcomed.

I would agree with "thin-ish 18" as a practical answer given readily available replacement stock in North America.  Zeddfindings replacement floors are 18 ga also.

[CanTechZ]

24 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

It looks like the top side of that sheet was uncoated (but rusty). Is the underside coated with anything? Paint? Tar?

I'm thinking that maybe between a rust hump on the top side and maybe some coating on the underside, you're measurement is a couple thousandths too thick. It would only take five thousandths less to make that a 1mm thick sheet. In the end, however, I don't think it matters... People will (should) use what they can get, and although I haven't checked, I suspect finding 1.0mm thick sheet isn't the easiest thing to do in these parts.

I did my best to take the measurement where it was clean bare metal on both sides. Here is a picture from the underside. No sanding has been done, just solvent cleaning after removal of undercoating and the tar mat inside.

[CanTechZ]

Here are a few references regarding Japanese cold finished sheet steel thicknesses and tolerances.

JFE CR Steel Sheet [Japan].pdf