Passenger Floor Install

The summer is full of family activities. Beach, friends, vacation, but let’s be honest, in Coastal North Carolina it’s too hot to want to wallow around on the ground doing metal work. I set aside this next activity until after the summer drew to a close and there was some relief in the weather. It took a bit to renew my motivation for working on the car, but once I was in gear, progress is back on.

I had left off in late Spring with the floor flanges cleaned up and prepped. I had to pick up by punching holes in the flanges to prepare for plug welding the floor. I lifted the floor pan into place with a floor jack and lined it up where it needed to be along the front footwell end panel, chassis leg, and ensured the floor pan holes lined up with the holes for the rear leaf spring hanger. Before welding, I also wanted to ensure that the two jack points lined up properly as the front chassis leg could still be manipulated before the floor is attached to it. To do this, I temporarily clamped the new inner sill (rocker panel) into place. Thankfully, the alignment was spot on!

I next proceeded to plug weld the floor into place. Where needed, I would move the jack under the area I was welding to keep the panels tight. In many cases, I would put a sheet metal screw in to draw the panels tight prior to welding the adjacent hole. I would then remove the screw and weld up the hole that was left behind. This process was time consuming and not terribly interesting to describe.

The final piece of welding in the floor was the footrest at the end of the footwell. This piece serves to aid in passenger comfort as well as provide more rigidity as it forms a triangle with it, the footwell end panel, and the floor sheet metal. The cavity was painted with rust preventative paint.