Technical EMS vs Direct Sheetmetal?

Getting ready to tackle floor repair in my '35 Ford more door. Nobody makes a full drop-in pan, so I've looked at both Direct and EMS. Both offer replacement "kits", and prices are pretty close. I guess seeing as both are kits, it probably doesn't make a difference one way or the other, but anybody have any pro's / con's on either?

 

I have used EMS panels and found them to be good quality overall. Any replacement panel will probably need to be tweaked during installation.

 

Buy a couple sheets of 18 gauge and a cheap bead roller.
If you have to modify a kit build your own

 

Either this^^^^^ OR find a roached out doner that has good floors. They are out there. Whole lotta those cars ended up as rip rap or upside down so farmer john could pick the chassis off to build a hay wagon

 

You can make a 1940 ford full floor fit or the one that stops at the rear seat riser

later kb

 

If you are buying panels, I can only say that EMS quarter panels and inner and outer rockers for my Chevy Sedan Delivery were of good quality. I didn't buy floor panels though, I did what Anthony said. Bought the bead roller from Eastwood, beefed it up, and got the stuff to motorize it for less than the floor pans would have cost me. Of course this was several yrs ago.

 

One trick I saw a long time ago was in a 40 Ford Coupe. Someone cut a "donor" floor from a later model car (Mustang) and the trimmed it to fit in the 40. It allowed him to use the bucket seats from the Mustang which then bolted to the original factory floor mounts. Pick a later model van or SUV and there should be plenty of metal to trim to fit.

 

The EMS front floor and toe panels for my '54 Ranch Wagon are almost a snap fit. Just ordered their newly released rear floor panels as well as rockers. Hopefully they will fit as well as the fronts.

 

When using any kit style floor pan the Quality of final fit and finish Totally relies on your ability to do Quality work. The pieces are just pieces, and they all take some hand work to get a good finish job.

 

I'm a huge fan of EMS, I have used their stuff on everything.

-Abone.

 

You can give this dude a holler if you need details.

ems customer service | The H.A.M.B. (jalopyjournal.com)

-Abone

 

I bought the Direct kit for my 36 five window.

All I will say is that it’s a start, but a rather expensive way to get a bunch of sheet metal that someone with a little better fab skill set than me could do himself from a raw sheet of steel. Not unhappy, but it’s nothing like the reproduction pans for sixties pony cars I am used to.

 

EMS is the one I use if I don't make my own. HRP