2010 RTV 1100 floor repair

[tom39]

A recently picked up a new-to-me 2010 RTV-1100CRV. Overall the machine is in great shape but is in need of a few repairs and service to get it to a point where it will be around for years to come. The biggest and most intensive repair was removing the rusted floor pan and and welding in a new panel. The driver's side had the most rust but fortunately I was able to catch it before it got to a point that it jeopardized the cab frame.

Anyway here are a few pics of the repair.

This is what I was starting with. It dosen't look that bad until I started removing the unsuitable material.

Started to remove material. At this point, I was still hopeful that I could save the curve of the floor pan.

Unfortunately the rust was just too far along and the metal was way to thin to weld so I had to cut a bit more than I had hoped I would have to.

View from the underside

Made a template out of cardboard. Not sure why this one came out upside down, sorry about that.

I picked up a 2'x4' piece of 16 guage sheet metal at a local supplier, traced the cardboard template to the metal and cut the pattern out. To cut the metal I used my angle grinder with a cutoff wheel and to make the bends in the metal I simply scored the back side with the cutoff wheel and bent it in my vise.

Here is the cardboard template for the passenger side. Fortunately it was not as far gone as the drivers side.

Here is the patch installed in the passenger side. Not sure why I didn't take a pic of the floorboard with the removed material but this is all that I had. The corner at the apex of the rolled bend of the original floor was quite thin and I had kept blowing through with my welder, the weld was not pretty but I made it work. Note that I had to spot weld stitch the entire piece as I was trying not to put too much heat in the metal to avoid it warping on me.

Here is a pic of the drivers side welded in.

Thanks for looking,
Tom

 

[SidecarFlip]

Looks good.

Too bad you don't live closer. I could have cut t out with the CNC plasma and broke the angle in my sheet metal brake and I'd have Tigged it in for you. No problem with blowing through the thin metal at all.
.

Lesson to be learned there, keep it dry under the rubber floormat. I restored my other M9 2 years ago (open station) I bought used from a diary farmer and when I took off the old rubber mat, both metal floorboards were in bad shape and I had to fab up new ones. Not so much from water, but water mixed with cow poop.

With thin metal (or thick), it's always prudent to tack it together. Thermal expansion from welding impacts all thicknesses, not just light gauge.

Have an old beat on chopper coming in next week I have to rebuild for a customer. There will be quite a bit of metal forming and welding on that as well.

If I were you, I'd put a couple drain holes in the bottom with soft rubber plugs with a slit cut in each one so if any water collects, it can drain out through the slit but still keep it dry under there. Just like the excluder works on a Kubota air cleaner.

 

[tom39]

I then ground and scuffed the entire area and added 2 coats of POR-15. The only thing I hate about POR-15 is that it runs on vertical surfaces. Fortunally I did not yet scuff the paint on the frame rails and I was able to use a razor in the morning to remove almost all of the running drips.

I don't have any pics but to prep it for paint, I scuffed the POR-15 areas and any painted surface I was going to repaint , removed the running drips from the frame rails and applied automotive seam caulk where I had removed it. I don't have any pics of the seam caulk but I will be honest, it will not be considered some of my best work. But it mostly gets covered by a mat so I am not going to fret it too much.

Here is a pics of the first coat of paint going on.

Right wheel well

Left wheel well

Right side floor pan

Left side floor pan

Thanks for looking,
Tom

 

[tom39]

Looks good.

Too bad you don't live closer. I could have cut t out with the CNC plasma and broke the angle in my sheet metal brake and I'd have Tigged it in for you. No problem with blowing through the thin metal at all.

If I were you, I'd put a couple drain holes in the bottom with soft rubber plugs with a slit cut in each one so if any water collects, it can drain out through the slit but still keep it dry under there. Just like the excluder works on a Kubota air cleaner.

Thanks for the kind compliment.

I have often thought of purchasing a plasma cutter and hope to do so one day. A CNC would certainly be amazing but I think that I would have a hard time trying to convince my wife that it is a must have for the garage. I have however tried my hand at tig welding and envy those that have that talent, I just cannot get the hang of it and what I have tried to tig turned out very poorly. Honestly, I consider my welding skills with my mig mediocre at best (thank goodness for a grinder) so I never pursued trying to adding another skill set with a tig.

I thought about adding holes to the center wire chase area but there is a foam seal at the end and I think that I may just add a drain hose to release any water that collects.

Thank you,
Tom

 

[SidecarFlip]

Tom: The best practice for learning how to TIG properly is a Oxy-Acetylene gas outfit with a welding tip and some metal to practice on. TIG and gas welding are virtually the same except the localized heat with TIG is much less. The only difference is, instead of using filler rod in the flame, you use filler rod in the flame the Tung makes. I cut my teeth welding with a gas outfit and coat hangers for filler rod.

The transition to TIG is simple once you master the addition of filler rod in the flame, the flame is in essence the inert gas envelope of a TIG torch.

Lots of people start out in TIG and attempt to 'stack dimes'. All well and good but staking dimes is reverse feeding filler rod, you can achieve a good weld without that, the 'dime' look is mostly just that, asthetics.

Really, the two disciplines are essentially the same, 2 handed welding. My suggestion is start gas welding (use coat hangers. they make good filler rod), get proficient with that and start Tigging. Stuck everything from car frames to exhaust systems together with coat hangers.

I have a couple MIGS as well and I especially like the ESAB pulsed MIG. Gives you a TIG appearing weld with the speed of a glue gun.

Hard to justify a large table for a home shop but I cut parts for my business and for customers however I still have some jobs water jet cut. 5 x 12 table with a HyperTherm computer plasma and Jim Colt's software.

Just a hobby, an expensive hobby......

 

[wgator]

You should be very proud of the job you did. You did a great repair.

 

[tom39]

One thing that I noticed after I painted everything was that the Kubota ROPS spray paint doesn't have the same gloss sheen as the factory paint. Looking at the can, it is labeled semi-gloss. Is there a Kubota ROPS gloss spray paint and if there is, does anyone happen to know the PN#.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[SidecarFlip]

Not that I know of. You can buy it from the dealer in a pint can and add a bit of hardener to it and that will increase the gloss.

 

[GeoHorn]

That is BEAUTIFUL WORK, Tom... Thanks for sharing with us. (Don’t know if it will encourage me to improve .... or encourage me to just give-up and have professionals do that kind of work when I need it.).

 

[lugbolt]

thanks

for reminding me why I hated living up north

everything steel rusts in no time and I do not miss that one bit!!! can't own anything nice for any length of time. If one has a rust-free vehicle, that vehicle is in high demand up north