anyone here made their own floor in their car?? how about the floor over the trans and driveshaft? i dont mean installing new floorboards. i mean actually making them yourself from flat stock. might do this and would like to see what others have done. later.
i'm in the middle of reflooring my '54 tudor... not all that tough a job, but time consuming for a first effort i'm planning on cutting a blunt wedge shaped piece for over the trans, and simply rolling flat steel over the center for the tunnel. it'll have 1/2" tube braces welded over the driveshaft to give the flat steel a bit more strength and keep it from sounding like an empty stainless steel sink when it is finished
I made the floor for my 35. I made the firewall from 14 GA cold rolled sheet. Way too thick. I have now learned though. I made the floors from 16 GA, and if I had the bead roller, I WOULD have, and I SHOULD have used 18 GA. It gets it strengh in the bends and curved shape along with a suppot structure under the floor in the shape of a huge channel (from original floor support structure, just replaced). I now have the Harbor Freight Bead Roller, and I suggest you get it before you start to even try to make your own, and use a thinner sheet (use 18 GA) and put rolled beads in it for stiffining and strenght. My floor peices are slightly "oil canned" where they shrunk from welding them in, but its not real noticible unless you run your hands along the floor. Oh yeah, the more you make the ****** hump and tunnel, the less room you have to fit your body in the cab. Ill make my next one with a lot closer tollerances to the ****** and drive shaft. Youll really be suprised just how much a single inch gives you in foot space! You can see how I did mine on the RRT in the TECH site. Here is a link: Its pretty self explanaitve from the pictures. Oh, I made the firewall 1st, then I put the drive shaft tunnel in, then made the cone shape over ****** (tighten only one side fo the slip roller to make a cone) to match up to the two gaps. Put a 1/4" lip on the bottom, and thats what the floor peices sit on. Weld one inch long welds about every 3 inches, and fill the rest up with Automotive Seam Sealer (the stuff they put in seams like in your daily driver pick-up bed). Seal 1st, then Paint right over it. Oh, in this picture, its before I actually cut the hole for the Master cylinder, but its right there on the drivers side floor with a lip (like adding a picture frame under the hole) made from 1/8" flat stock. I havent figured out how to latch to latch the door for the M/C cover yet. http://www.roddingroundtable.com/tech/index.html
Here is a picture from the page. Yes, it is snowing in the picture, BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. There is a hole where the letter "D" is now.
Here are some pictures of a floor and transmission cover I made out of 18ga and 16ga for a 1940 ford Sedan Delivery. The first one is a before and after. This is a wireform I made to shape the transmission cover to. This is the start of making it Wheeling another shot installed morebel
Hey 61wag, ta fab your floor there's several ways to go: Cheap, cheap is the ol' van roof panel trick, ridges already formed into sheet, strong and no big money lay-out for tools ya may not use again. Down side.... well, it looks like ya used a van roof panel. Another way is ta use flat sheet metal, beaded for strength, and to prevent vibration. Use 18ga or thicker stock, unless ya have a good number of square tubes, already inplace, that will support the floor in which case ya can use thinner sheet for the floor. Cut patterns for your sheet from thin cardboard, and include all holes and areas that need to be let in, such as where the floor meets "a-post", floor meets trans tunnel, floor meets "b-post", and where the floor will meet the back panel in the cab. Be sure to include all radiuses in the pattern. If ya spend some time makin a good pattern ya won't waste good sheet metal, or your time makin mistakes, iti'll look like ya knew what ya were doin', and not like ya did it with a dull hachet and a blindfold. The trans hump is jus' a fan shaped piece of sheet, again first done in cardboard to get the shape and fit dead nuts, and don't forget to allow for some way to attach it. Form the trams hump around a large pipe, my favorite is the concrete pulls in underground parking structures, hey cruze 'round 'till ya find the perfect size. If ya decide ta spring for the 'el cheapo hong- kong fooey chineeese bead rollers for sale out there.....beaware! most of 'um won't handle anything like 18 or 16gage sheet steel without damage to the tool.
Morebel. NICE job. i've been helping Bucket~Boy build the floor in his 40-somethin Ford hot rod pickup. we used 1/2"x1 1/2" tubing for a frame work then used some pieces of aluminum we got from the s**** yard (honest ) for the flooring. it'll be sheetmetal screwed down. the trans tunnel and drive shaft tunnel will be sheetmetal. the trans tunnel will not be as large as the bracing would elude to. we don't have any special shaping tools. no English wheel, no power hammer, no sheet metal brake no beed roller (though we wish we did). we coulda just as easily used sheet metal for the entire floor and welded it in but young Jacob (Bucket~Boy) wanted to use the aluminum. it gives it some more character.
morebel, That floor looks awesome! Any chance you got a pic of your bead roller and the dies that you used to make the larger bead with the round end that really looks like a pressed bead? Or did you press those?
An old trick I learned from an old HAMBer, use a mail box for the driveshaft tunnel. Cheap and already in the right shape. r
Hey morebel, Is that you Keith? thought I recognized the work bench I mutilated at your place last Month! If you guys think that the floors are top notch you should see the whole panel truck. morebel does awesome work and is a great teacher too.
I'm reflooring my shoebox right now. I replaced the underfloor bracing with a small subframe of 1" square tubing. A 6' piece of tubing also runs along the inner rocker panels on both sides. I used 16ga for the floors because I don't have a bead roller. It is very strong now and hasn't warped from welding.
Thanks, I used a pullmax to do the beading work, but a bead roller would do the same thing the only problem might be throat dept.. You would want to use what is called a stepping die. It does half of the bead then you turn the panel around and do the other half. The bead can be any width . morebel
Wife found a VW front fender in a trash can one evening when we were out for a walk. She carried it home about a mile because "one of us might be ale to make something out of it some day" It's the trans hump in my truck now. I cut it out a scosh big and set it on the driveway and hammered the edge of it flat, cut a hole for the shift lever, and screwed it to the marine plywood floor with trim screws. Looks great, it's under the marine hose it off when it's dirty carpet...
I just finished up the floor in my model a. I used 1/2" X1/2" angle to make a "frame" for the panels to sit in and be welded to. I used 18 g. For the trans tunnel I just bent it on my knee, the light post, around some wood blocks until it fit. The panels around the pedals and m/c are removeable.
I put a new floor and trans cover in my A pickup, I got some ¼ inch rod and made a template- Starting at the firewall. I laid a piece of rod on the floor from firewall to were the bell housing bolts to the gearbox; put a sharp bend so the next run went from the bell housing/ gearbox to the end of the gear box. So far you have 1 bend with 2 straight runs, do the same for the other side and lay it on the floor. Next, I bent a bit of rod around a 5-gallon drum and used this for the shape of the bell housing at the firewall end, tack it to the rods you made for the outline of the gearbox. Next make another ½ hoop for were the bell/gearbox bolt up- MIG bottle is useful size to make the right size ½ round.- tack to the rod. Make a small 4inch ½ round for the very end of the gearbox. I fully welded all the joints. I got some card and wrapped it around the firewall hoop and the bell/gbox hoop and held it in place with masking tape. Mark around the rod bottom and 2 hoops. Take more cardboard and go from the middle hoop to the small one at the end of the gearbox, tape and mark. Cut cardboard to the shapes you have marked out and use these to mark sheet and cut out. Starting with bigger piece, place it over the 5-gallon and push it around the drum to get the shape (start at firewall/bell housing end), you will need to use something smaller- say a Mig or Oxy bottle for the shape of other end (bell/gearbox) Use the ¼ rod frame to check the shape, once it fits tack it to the frame *just 4 small tacks. MIG bottle and a 4 inch round bit of wood worked to shape the gear box part. Tack it to the ¼ rod frame, sit it over the bell/trans to make sure it has enough clearance. MIG weld the 2 parts together at the bell/gearbox a lot of small welds and give it time to cool ( you dont want to put too much heat into it). Remove it from rod frame; place it over the gearbox and tack it to the floor and firewall. I cut the end part of the hump on an angle and welded in a flat filler piece to blend the end part of the hump into the floor. hope this helps. .sorry replied before I looked at morebel's post.
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