65 Mustang Restoration
This week we concentrated on the driver's side floor. Brent got all of the excess metal ground down & out of the way, but before we could start the fitting process of the new floor pan, we had to also remove & install the new floor support. Once that was done, the exciting process of fitting the new floor was started. This can be a pretty time consuming process, but a little time here, will make a big difference when it's time to weld it in.
Once we thought we were ready for the final fit & install of the floor, we once again removed it, cleaned out the frame & transmission cross member, and gave them a healthy coating of Eastwood's Rust Enhancer.
Before we did the final install of the floor,, we figured that it would be a good time to patch in a small section of metal on top of the LR torque box (which is under the rear seat). This is located in kind of a tight spot, but I got it cut out, and made a patch panel, welded it in, and ground off the excess welds, and,,,,
Vwola, it was done! One less rusty panel.
Finally it was time for the floor's final fitting. It takes a lot of time and a bit of persuading to get everything to fit like it needs to. For this side of the floor, we opted to install the floor by overlapping the edges 1/4"-1/2" instead of the extremely tedious butt-welding that we did on the passenger's side floor pan.
I was a bit hesitant on doing it this way, since the previous, floor install had been overlapped when it was done, but in that case, they had as much as 3" of overlap,,, and it was just a terrible job. However,,, with the small overlap that we have this time,,, both the seams/edges on both, the top & bottom sides of the floor, look great.
We used several self-tapping screws to hold the panel in place. This worked extremely well, especially in the areas where the floor needed to be securely held against the floor supports. The screws will be removed once the panel is welded into place & the holes will be tacked shut. Sounds like a good project for this coming week.
Till next time,,,,
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