I need to weld some reinforcements to the floor of my 2005 Dodge Grand caravan to convert it to a cargo van.I'm not sure if I would ever use it to haul cargo for money, but having lots of tie downs in an enclosed box has lot of upsides for me.The van had stow and go seats so there were/are some very large holes in the floor.The front holes I created a false floor out of 3/4" plywood and screwed it to the floor with ALOT of #14 sheetmetal screws.I also put down a couple of E track rails that are about 4.5 ft long and screwed them into the wood/metal with ALOT of #14 sheetmetal screws as well.Doing that made the cargo area flat from the rear axle to the front seats so a major win.The hole for the rear stow and go seats I would like as a nice place to put straps,tools,jumper cables,etc.So I will make a hinged cover out of 3/4" plywood that is recessed into the cover so the entire cargo area other than 4 exposed D rings will be flat.I need to weld in a structure in that rear hole to support the cover as well provide a secure mounting point for the rear most D rings near the rear hatch. There is the problem Dodge ran the entire rear wiring harness through the center of the van in a little trough in the floor.It goes to the bottom of the rear stow and go seat hole then it splits to the lift and right side and each split wiring harness runs right through where I need to weld for the rear D ring mounts,from there it runs up each D pillar to feed the taillights,rear ac,speakers,sensors,and god know what else back there.Dodge wasn't nice enough to put in connectors so the rear harness is one continuous piece from the dash back to whatever those wires feed.Another problem is alot of those wires disappear into the voids in the D pillar and quarter panels never to be seen again.The wires are exactly where I need to weld in some 1/8" plate,with no connectors I have to weld in all that metal with the harness in place so any idea how I can protect those wires?1/8" steel requires alot of heat to be structurally sound so I can't really tack it and let it cool X 1000...Any ideas how I can protect those wires?

I ended up compromising on the location of the rear mount D ring.Its welded solidly to some angle iron I used to span the rear stow and go pocket,so I was able to burn it in without worrying about the wires. I need to stitch weld the perimeter of the rear stow and go pocket to help spread the load as much as possible. Then I need to weld in some sheetmetal from the angle iron to the sides of the stow and go pocket to brace it further.The key to make something strong on sheet metal is to spread the load as much as possible.I had an offroad vehicle of mine on a trailer and the straps holding it on managed to come loose(case of everything that can go wrong going wrong) and the car rolled off the back of the trailer and centerpunched a tree at 55 mph.Thank god it only found a tree instead of an oncoming car. Anyway the spare tire carrier was welded to floor without any plates or anything to help spread the load.The force of the accident ripped the spare tire+carrier almost entirely out of the floor with enough force that it was able to swing forward and slam into the passenger seat with enough force to break the seat and then swing back almost to where it was mounted.So now everything that I weld to sheetmetal uses as much surface area as I can possibly get. Between careful driving and having alot of tie down locations and lots of straps cargo wont move even in a worse case scenario..