I am hoping for some advice on my cars floor. The pics giver you an idea of what I am dealing with. Nobody makes repro panels, does anyone know of another vehicle that has the same (or close) size floors? I have family that works in racing so I could have panels made but I would rather do it myself, this car is all about me learning to do this stuff myself instead of having family do it for me. These pics are all on the drivers side, the p***enger side is not nearly as bad and the trunk is rot free. Under the carpet is another story for another day (fibergl*** and what appears to be a roof shingle type material) Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Those My friend are 3/16 pop rivets. Do you do any repairs on the car? Looks to me there is a little work there.
hey, I'm doubtful anyone is making repopped tin for those or the Olds of that era. You could probably cut down repopped '55-'57 Sheiv-o-lay pans, but those look like very easy panels for even a beginner to build and weld in. There was a "tech Post" on building floor pans, check the archives. The aluminum fasterners look like aircraft riviets, or large aluminum rivets. " The ice cream truck in his neighborhood plays Helter-Skelter "
First I would like to commend you on wanting to tackle this yourself. The silver deals are rivets like already stated, probably an attempt at a previous floor repair. Even if your family helps make the replacement panels, you would have still made quite a achievment putting in the panels, nothing to be ashamed of there. In fact that would be the same as a manufacturer making panels, you purchasing them, and installing them. My suggestion would be help that family member as much as possible making the replacement panels learning all you can, and you install them. Everyone here would be very proud of your accomplishment.
I have only had the car for about 3 months. I haven't done much as it was a pretty good driver from when I got it. It needs paint, interior, and I would like to put a 215 v8 in it.
I'm guessing your Avatar picture is the same car? If so, it looks like it's worth doing the work to properly replace the floor. I'd also be really giving the entire car a good look over for rust in the lower extremities, just to see what you have. If it's mainly just the floors that have rotted you can figure the carpet was wet for an extended period of time. The rocker panels are also prone to rusting, so you might want to see if a magnet will stick to them. Bondo and paint can hide a lot of sin! I'm working on a cousin to your car, a '61 Cutl***. Mine's getting lots of new metal. In fact it is never going to be mistaken for stock when I get done! Ha You will probably have to pull the seats, carpet etc. Make templates of the metal to be replaced and have them fabricated or get yourself a bead roller with a tipping wheel and some beading dies. If you know a welder or can weld yourself the only thing left is the removal of the rotted sheetmetal, which can be done with a cut-off wheel and a grinder or a plasma cutter. Watch out for gas/brake lines! Good luck with your project! Dan Stevens dba, Steelsmith
I prefer to use original sheetmetal from a wrecking yard car, it will fit right and you will spend less time getting it to work. Also less oil canning than some of the thinner aftermarket pieces. Just off the top of my head, the early Tempest, Special, and F-85 [Cutl***] all used the same stampings. ---John
It is the same car as in the picture. From what I can tell there isn't a lot of bondo in the car, the p***enger quarter is the worst. I plan on stripping it down to bare metal pretty soon to see what I am dealing with. I would love to see pic of what you are working on. They are all the same Y-Body car. Unfortunately nobody makes anything for them.
What about the fact that this is a unibody car? I have read elsewhere that it's a tricky repair since it is structural.
Check out the guy in this thread, he repops floor panels with a chisel, hammer, and a chunk of wood... I'm thinking that with a little practice you could do the same thing. http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12661&highlight=thai Further down the thread there's a couple videos posted of the guy doing his thing: http://www.thaivwclub.com/vwrides/MVI_7103.MOV http://www.thaivwclub.com/vwrides/MVI_7104.MOV
Looks like a lot of rust. rule of thumb is what ever size the hole is that you can see you can be sure that the hole is twice as big when you clean out the rust. I think trying to fit another stile floor pan to this can be trouble. The money you will spend on panels from another car can be costly and by the time you make it fit you will have the **** chopped out of the panel. This car is a odd car to start with, make the floors yourself,take your time cut out the old floors in quarters sections,easier to work with, and try to save it so you can use it to go by while build the new pan. I done a lot of this type of repair and building scratch panels in most cases are the easy way to go.I`ll dig out some pictures of panels I made,which are on my work computer at the shop and post them tomorrow if I can.
Trick to doing unibody cars is to not hack everything out at once.do your repairs in quarter sections
There looks like there is steel on top of the floor ,Just cut the rust out and replace with steel peices ,On the bottom Just start building your own
I've got a 62 F-85, and the only floor pans that interchange are 61-63 F-85 and Buick Special. Nobody makes ANYTHING for these cars. Your best bet is to find rust-free original floorpans from a western car. Fremans Auto in Montana has several and are reasonably priced. The problem with adapting or fabricating something else is the fact that these cars are unibody. You need to properly match up with the structural rails welded to the bottom of the floor pan for proper strength. Camaro pans MIGHT be close, but they might also require a lot of work to fit.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=435411 Make em yourself ^^^^^^ For a unibody brace the frame rails to the rockers, and start cuttin. What you have left in your car is not really structural at this point a little bracing is all that required.
before you get in too deep decide if this is the car you really want and are you willing to go at it and see the project through the end. what other parts are needing to be replaced on the car if reproduction stuff is far and few between are you willing to spend the extra time in searching for what you need. Keep in mind your idea of what you want to spend on the car and if you strip the car down it might be years before it gets back on the road if ever. please start with one small project on the car and see how that works out for you before you tear in and strip the whole project way too many half started cars out there now, enjoy driving it some more. Just my two cents on the project if there is a local shop around and if they are friendly take the car into them and let them take a peek at it you might learn a lot about what they have to say and get an unbiased opinion on the condition of the car.
Check similar years of same size car. Nova - Falcon. you might get lucky. If your floors are in that bad of shape, why not connect the front and rear subframes with a square tube (similar to what camaro guys do) to stiffen the car up. you could always go with a flat floor like a rod, your trans tunnel is probably salvageable. Get creative, if no one is making repop parts you can do anything you want, interior pcs will be hard to find, so use Chevy, Ford etc of the same vintage compact car Check the rest of the body very close. if the floors are that shot I'd be surprised if you didnt have a lot of rust in the rest of the car at one time. If the same "pro" bodyman did the rest of it look for road signs / license plates etc riveted in with a coat of filler or gl***. See what your working with before you get too far, then plan accordingly.
I say just make some card board templates and make your own. I agree with Da Tinman-What you have there is offering NO structure for the uni-body so I don't think you can hurt it too much more. You may find a guy out of Michigan selling floor pans for this on E-bay, don't bother with his pieces. He only sells small, flat pieces that have been run through a bead roller, not much value if you need a whole lot more than that, which you do. Don't be shy about asking anyone for help, this could be a lot of work and to have some expertise and experience looking over your shoulder may be a good thing!
I definitely don't mind asking for help. My Father and Brother are really talented and could whip me up some floor pans real easy. I just want to try and do this stuff myself and not have to run to them for everything even though I know they would build the whole car if I asked them to. I also want my dad to work on his own car, he has a 32 5w that he has been wanting to redo for a long time, hasn't changed since the early 80's.
You better really be into this car if you are going to strip it down to bare metal etc.etc. I see people tear decent drivers like this down, with good intentions and get so far in and just quit. I would rather have a decent driver than lost intentions of perfection anyday.
The Jalopy Journal
