the floor? check their welding and like as not it was with everything in the car. you have the chance to make it really neat and MOT inspectors like to see neat welds, means your careful and they dont have to look so hard if your getting bothered or stuck give me a bell and we will go from there. 07962005712
the great thing about your shell is the ability to move it around, you can weld where you want.
a steel stock holder if you go to a motor factors shop they will add thier bit (can be quite expensive) they can also cut it for you into a managable size
that bitumen like covering you have scraped off looks origiinal to me they are put in as a sheet when new and heated up to follow the contours f the floor its used as soundproofing to stop the drumming effect
I take it you haven't come across this site as yet http://vwrides.com/viewtopic.php?t=77
Have a look through some of the posts there, you will be a while reading I should think.
Another way you could do the ribs is to make folds working from the centre outwards; though this would obviously require you to make some kind of folding fixture first.
Or you could use your vice as a press, but you'd only be able to do panels of a depth that is twice the throat of the vice, plus you'd have to make up a simple bit of tooling.
Its not for a restore its just to get it through a mot. I would just weld in the flat sheet if it would pass but wanted to try and do the ribs. How would I do the vice method do you mean I would need some kind of template ?
Basically, a plate on one jaw that fits into a channel on the other. Gradually feed the metal between the two, using the vice to press it together as you go.. does that make sence?
My 6" vice must have something like a 4" throat, so i can put a form in the middle of an 8" panel.
For MOT stuff, and even restoring my mini, i've generally just blended with what's on the car and not bothered with lots of forming. Takes me long enough to get my repair patchs to fit!