A picture being worth a thousand words:

this is the clutch pedal area:





When I converted the car to M6, I did not reinforce this area; now I can not engage the clutch anymore as the whole floor area is bending.

Access is very poor. Would it make sense to weld a piece of metal from the engine bay instead of from the inside of the car?

Besides the brake booster that's obviously in the way, is there anything else you guys think I should remove? I can not do the weld myself, so I want to make sure I remove everything needed before I take it to a shop.

 

steel reinforced epoxy, then sell the car imediatly.

 

Remove the driver seat and all plastic and carpet. Part of the lower dash area too. That's a tight area to work in. Add a piece of heavy gage sheet metal with maybe 1/8" steel strip stock stiffener on those fasteners. MIG weld. My Millermatic MIG is the most usefull tool I have. I would not sell my Camaro... it's too much fun. B. (97ss 383 - D1).

 

does it make more sense to weld on the inside or from the engine compartment?

also, is it possible to weld a small piece there, or should everything be removed (steering column, etc) to weld a larger piece?

from the inside, I removed the lower dash covers, the seats, carpet, etc; it's like a bare metal shell, but there's a plastic cover by the pedals that goes from driver to passenger seat and I can not figure out how this one goes out. Should I just cut it instead?

 

The bigger the reinforcement plate, the more the load is spread out and the less likely it will crack again... within reason, of course. Keep in mind you'll need to get to the other side of that metal to shoot a bit of spray paint on it to keep it from rusting, the heat of welding will burn the paint off.

 

but does it make sense to weld inside the car or inside the engine bay?

 

I did the same conversion on my car about 2 years ago, so you had me wondering. I went out to have a look at my car and it looks fine.

I would say it's going to be easier to weld it from the outside of the car. With the brake booster out of the way, there should be enough plenty of room to work there. I am just not sure why yours is all cracked like that.

It'd probably be best to cut out a new square piece and insert that into the car. You'll mark and cut the same size square on your car and have it butt welded back into place and basically start that part of the conversion over. I used a piece of a cereal box to make up a template that was an exact fit to what I needed. I then practiced on a scrap piece of metal and mocked it up. The only thing I can think of with your car is the holes were so large that there was no material left to support, and it's flexed away. Unless anyone else knows for sure if an M6 car is supposed to have extra structure there. Mine flexes a little bit, but I didn't see any cracks.

The other thought I had was to make up a bracket of of like 1/8" bar to mimic the existing bracket on the clutch, except have another piece tie it to one of the bolts on the steering column. This way you could put another nut on the stud to pull it back into place.

 

You bring a good point: Do M6 cars have something different there?

The metal is amazingly thin at this spot, so it got me surprised.

to make things more interesting, I'm moving in 5 days! so I've to deal with this very quickly

 

That's terrible luck having to move as well. I'd look into that bracket then. I assume the clutch is pivoting off the top left bolt? If you make a c shaped bracket and weld another piece to tie it to the steering column, it should stabilize it enough till you can get it properly fixed. It's hack, but temporary.

Definitely post up if you find out anything on the reinforcing. I'll modify my car to prevent the same misfortune.

 

I've disassembled the whole inside, I'm trying to figure out how to remove the $%(@ brake booster now

once this is done, I'll take more pics and I've a shop that will do the fix. they quoted 200-300 to fix it but over $1k to disassemble / reassemble everything around, so I'm doing the grunt work now

I'll definitely post more pics as this unfolds!

 

There should be 3 nuts on the inside and a clip at the top of the piston tying it to the brake pedal. You may want to separate the master cylinder from the booster before hand (2 nuts). Unless I am forgetting something, I don't think it was tied to anything else.

 

I saw the clip, but I fail to see where the booster's attached.
I already removed the master cylinder though.

my understanding is that the booster's attached from the inside; is that correct? I just see 4 bolts holding the brake pedal and I assumed they hold the booster too; unfortunately it is so tight I can not fit any tool there.

 

When you swapped out the pedals for the conversion, you would've have to remove the 4 nuts to pull the automatic pedals out. The 4 nuts also hold the brake booster against the firewall. Use a 3/8" ratchet with a deep socket and a universal joint and some extensions. You'll find a combination that works. I vaguely recall being able to use an air tool to speed that process up.

 

it's been so many years I don't remember

Since I moved into an apartment, I just have a little crappy toolbox, so that doesn't help either, but I'm moving back to a house this week-end, so I'll be able to get decent tools again.

I will spend more time on this in the next few days though