Dave, the pic happens to have caught a "dummy" piece of old pipe that's been bent into shape as a template for new ones each side

These were done "while we waited" on Saturday morning and are now wrapped and ready

I get it now, thanks

If it were me doing this sort of resurrection I would take out the carpet, and check under all the sound deadening stuff. It's a bit of a faff to remove, the worst bit I had was the bolt holding the round pad under the gas pedal not wanting to come out, plus a sneaky hidden screw on the foot rest, then when you remove the sound deadening stuff, the bitumen bit on top will likely split and the fluff stuff underneath may decide to stick to both the floor and the bitumen, leading to some sort of replacement being necessary (or just shove it all back as best you can) plus you need somewhere to put the monstrous one-piece carpet...

Indeed Dave the carpet was lifted some time ago and the floor inspected, the obstacles you describe all encountered and negotiated. There is still sound-deadening to "get out of the way" for when welding to the front wheel arches/front footwell area takes place, to avoid fire risk.