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I used 16 gauge steel. I had oil canning on the two rear sections until I welded in channels for the seats. The floor and the entire car is now rock solid.

I undercut it by ~ 1/8" and ran lots of stitch welds but really haven't connected them all yet. Even using 14 gauge I still have oil canning. I hope that once i have the seats in, i can add another tube or 2 to tie things together better.

I would like to connect the nodes at the bottom outside to where all the nodes in the transmission tunnel meet (red arrows). I really think that would add rigidity to the whole structure if it doesn't interfere with the seat mounting. There is a small piece of 3/4 connecting the inside of the transmission tunnel together at that point.

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Gavin

My build: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=16005

I think you can still do some bead rolling on your frame. I'm not the best for advice here because I haven't done it something like that yet.

Options are less with the metal on the car, but think things like a form that goes under the car and using a metal rod on top that you hit with a big hammer. For the form you could get a couple of pieces of bar stock and weld them together with a short space between them, say 1/2" - 1".

It doesn't take much shaping to make the metal start to behave as though it's thicker stock. Even if the dent you put in the metal only makes it twice as thick, that would make it many times as stiff. Run the beads crosswise on the panel every 6".

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
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Easy Peasy bead rolling for folks without a bead roller.
Draw lines on your part where you want beads. For simplicity, only pick a couple of length lines, try to go with 1, 2, or 3 standard lengths, you;ll see why in a minute.

Cut a piece of bar stock to length and tape it onto your panel.

for BEST results cut, drill or route a slot a little wider than the piece of bar stock in a 2x6

place 2x6 on other side of your panel, lay on driveway and drive over the sandwich with your car, truck or SUV.

Don't want to use the 2x6 sandwich, drive over the panel with bar underneath 3 or 4 times. you'll get a pretty nice bead

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Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

I have three beads running length wise on the floor pan on each side and it still oil-canned. But after getting in and out of the car so many times the floor has taken a set. I think the TooBusy idea might be the hot set-up, but run the beads cross car. I would have liked to put in an "X" pattern, but most DIY bead rollers would not have that kind of depth needed to C/C or an "X" pattern, but length wise is better then none at all. Dave W

After all the feedback and considering that the floor is now welded to the chassis, I wonder if the following plan will work....

Place the chassis in the floor resting on a few strategically placed 2x's. Then take a piece of solid rod about 18" long and hit it with a small sledge hammer. Making the "beads" at a diagonal. I think this is what toobusy is suggesting +\-

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Gavin

My build: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=16005