That was welded solid. But that didn't take alot of time... it was the grinding and fitting that took at least 6 hours. I read that there were variations in floor pans... not sure if it was years, where they were built or what. But apparently places were correcting them type of connectors. And I did install them while on the rotisserre... I couldn't imagine trying to install them any other way. Between crawling under to get them to fit to welding up like that... definetly not for me!