[DeTomaso] Dropped floor pans

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

Rob, I helped fabricate a home-made dropped pan on a '71 (drivers side 
only).   What we did was to simply slice the pan on the two sides and the 
firewall, bent the stock pan flap down and MIG-welded filler pieces into the 
resulting 3 gaps. The pass. side was undisturbed since the likely passenger was 
much shorter; on that side the problem is the firewall bubble preventing the 
seat from going back far enough for comfort. I'd consider leaving that side 
alone on most cars.
The area between the frame rails side to side and the crossmember just in 
front of the seat pan can be dropped   about 2" in front and 3" in the back.  
 More than that and the pan bottom becomes the lowest point on the chassis: 
NOT a good thing if you encounter highway debris!   
Do not expect to butt-weld sheet metal; heat expansion of the panels will 
open up huge gaps. Tack-weld everything together before final-welding, or 
your panels & pieces will crawl away from where you want them. You can massage 
the results with your ball peen hammer afterwards.
I also didn't like cutting the front floor-stiffening crossmember. But on 
the early kits- if you don't, the resulting seat placement has no room for 
fore/aft adjustment. It sits where you bolt it. Kirk's pans apparently incude 
some sort of built-in crossmember so the resulting pan is long enough to 
allow fore/aft adjustment. FWIW- J DeRyke