Peter,
you are Lucky! In my case there wouldn't be any paint on the car!
Dave,
I think most of us have limited space to work and store car(s), parts and tools for our Porsche hobby. I'm lucky to have a workshop/garage for three cars with a lot of space in the attic to store parts. And still I'm looking for a possibillity to get more...
One of my most valuable investments is a scissor lift, which can vanish completely into the floor. It takes about a quarter of an hour to take the wooden floor off to use the lift. I can lift the Porsches just enough to take the engine out and work more or less comfortably under the car. Perfect for restoration and future service.
Now to your floor pan question. Basically replacing the floor can be done with limited space under the car. First decide which part of the bottom has to be replaced. I guess you want the whole floor pan to be replaced.
Important is that you put the car on stands on a flat surface. The floor pans are partly responsable for the stiffness of the car - for a coupe less important than for a Targa but still important. Don't ask me how I know. Luckily it was not my Targa ...
Drilling most of the spot weldings from the original floor pan can be done from inside the car. Near the footwells you should cut the old pan. It's common that the sheet under the pedal unit is also gone. Some practising with sheet metal, hammer and welder should make a new part here.
Realize that the new repro pans will not fit perfectly. You will need a lot of clamps to testfit the pans and to decide where to cut and what to leave from the old pans, test fit again until you are satisfied with the result. I decided to weld the left and right part of the flor pan first and then spot weld it under the car. Welding the seam from below - it's under the tunnel - is not an easy job.
As with all the resto work, be patient and take your time for the job. Better check and check again than redoing the job. And realize that the resto will take you twice the time and money than you first expected to invest in the project.
Otto
