Help with ballpark estimate for welding in floor pans on non Mopar

[XH29N0G]

I just took my son's car in to see about having floor pans  and some of the seat rails refabricated.  It is a 1981 bmw, needs (1) passenger and (2) driver front floor pans, (3) rear passenger floor pan, and (4) work to reconstruct a box that holds a bumper shock. 

I spoke to someone today who estimated ~$1800 to do the job.  Is this about right?  High?  Low?

I will post two pix below of the front floor pans and seat rails in case that gives  I was thinking about learning to weld myself, but got cold feet because of the extend of the work needed.

[tan top]

 are you going to do most of the work , ie strip interior ?  are the floor pans available  or got to be custom fabricated ? ,   whats on the underside  any fuel or brake lines got to be moved  first ?  any frame rail rot ?
once cut out could need repairs to inner rockers 

[XH29N0G]

The interior is mostly stripped, but there are brake lines and fuel lines under the floor pans that are not.  What I can see that is rotted are the seat rails (which are structural).  The frame rails look OK to me.  The inner rockers look like work is needed. 

[Mike DC]

Step back from the table for a second and look at the bigger picture - Do you really want to pay a shop 2 grand to patch up the floors on a rusty '81 BMW? 

[JB400]

Step back from the table for a second and look at the bigger picture - Do you really want to pay a shop 2 grand to patch up the floors on a rusty '81 BMW?  

I'm kind of have the same way of thinking on this.  On a collector car, it's worth it.    Unless this is just a father/son project or some other sentimental value to the car, I'd look for a different car.


As to your question, it's seems like a fair price to me.

[green69rt]

Can you get a replacement floor??  then if not I would expect the cost to go up fast!   $1800 for a patchwork job....sounds like a patchwork job!!!

[remta1]

Step back from the table for a second and look at the bigger picture - Do you really want to pay a shop 2 grand to patch up the floors on a rusty '81 BMW? 

I'm kind of have the same way of thinking on this.  On a collector car, it's worth it.    Unless this is just a father/son project or some other sentimental value to the car, I'd look for a different car.

.......yep what they said

[Troy]

If there was ever a good candidate for learning to weld then that would be it. No way I'd pay someone that kind of money to fix that car. There are lots of nicer cars you could buy instead. On that car, you could ghetto fab something together that would be solid and strong without looking original for fairly cheap. Something like that or an old truck would be a good place to learn welding and have some father/son time together. If there's structural damage I'd walk away from the car.

Troy

[XH29N0G]

Troy and others,

Thanks for the feedback.  My concern about learning to weld is making sure those seat rails (pic below) which I think play a structural role in part were done correctly.  I believe I can learn enough with welding to put in/fabricate floorpans.  Do you think there is anything tricky about fixing these seat rails.  As far as I can tell, the main structural parts of the car look solid.  I have a copy of the service manual and it has a section on welding the various parts together. 

So Troy, for a novice like myself, you think this is possible to tackle with a low cost welder (say an eastwood MIG 135).  I was going to talk with a friend who welds as well to ask him, but he was not at work today, so I will talk with him tomorrow. 

James

[JB400]

I say the welder you have would be alright.  You'll be doing spot welds instead of one constant bead.  You just need to make sure you get the right guage metal to mate up to the existing metal.