Well I made it through page 3 before I HAD to post.... It is simple, get a mig, a few sheets of 16 gage cold rolled, CUT THAT **** OUT and fix it right. There is nothing there worth saving... you can do better...
If you can't get the new overlaid floor out in one piece, cut it down the center beside the tunnel. Definitely leave at least 2" around the edges. One of the previous posts showed how to hammerform the beads. Take your time and good luck. I sure hope someone near you can lend a hand or at least some onsite advice
Al, I seem to remember that you were asking much the same questions a couple years ago over on a different board. At that time you also received a lot of suggestions of how to procede to make your '37 decent. The fact is that your car was in the hands of a true uninformed untalented butcher before you got it. You keep waiting for someone to agree with your short-sighted approach to fixing all these ugly areas..... the totally messed up floor, ch***is with incorrect wheelbase, engine in the wrong spot, etc. If you want to end up with something that you've got a sizable sum tied up in only to deposit it in a landfill, then procede full speed ahead. However if you actually want a decent car..... listen to the wise voices on this board (not the ones in your head). Back up. Start with a ch***is that you know is square, plumb and true with correct wheelbase. Put the body on the frame. Now make the doors fit the body. Brace the body. Cut out sections of the floor and replace them correctly. Put the engine and transmission where they should be and make the firewall look it belongs. By this time your fab skills will have improved vastly and your eye for quality will tell you how to procede from there. And like I said years ago, hook up with local hot rodders who actually get their hands dirty and hang out with them...... listen lots and say little.
First off.. The engine was set back because the other guy had the motor mounts back 9". I moved them to the front where they are suppose to be. About the bracing of the body before the cut. If I have it bolted down on the sides would that be enough bracing?? Tinman. I agree back quite awhile ago. I thought everything was going to fall into place. It didn't. I have had to do alot of work to get it straight. There are rodders in the area, but are either to busy, or have there own cars they are working on, and can't help.. I am learing everytime I go out there. From the last time I talked with you I have the engine in. Fenders are alined. Drive shaft and new center. Car runs. Just put in a new master cylinder. Now the floor.. If it wern't for the people on these sites I wouldn't have gotten to where I am now. I would have listened to some of them out there and junked it and either never built one, or saved up all of my money and put it into the house and yard. Even junk these days are going for more than what I paid when I bought this one. I wish I would have had someone with me when I found this one, but there wasn't. This is what I have, and yes I have money into it. I want the car done right, but I am the builder.. NOT someone else.. If something breaks I will be the one to fix it. Not sit on the side of the road wondering what is wrong because I bought a turn key. I will be going on one part at a time.. With or without your help. I have a hard time remembering, and comprehending things said to me, so I have hear it over again. I am Sorry. No wait I am not sorry that I might be a pain in the *** at times.. I am trying.. I want a car I can drive. Not looking for show car.. Just something the Wife and I can go out on cruises with..
It might feel like a pissaroo today, but you did the right thing. Now get every bit of rotten metal out of there, find your edges to start from and begin the process of laying down new metal. Do the hammerform for the ribs, I bet it'll come to you pretty quickly. ...and remember to be patient, Rome wasn't burned in a day
I get my sheet metal from Jamar and Company. Last time I bought it about 3 years ago it cost me $95.00 for a 8x11' piece. Electrodude.. Problem there.. There is no edge. There is no original floor at the door openings. I took a picture of that edge. The guy had hit the back of the body with a forklift, and it bent in that area. He never fixed it. That is why the door on the drivers side would never fit right. Now if I cut out that area in the door on both sides.. I could then hang the door on that side and push the body a little on the latch side untill the gap is good, then tighten the bolts back down behind it. One reason why there was such oil canning is that there was a cross brace there. It is still connected on a piece of shhet metal near the shifter.. It went higher than the frame work so there was no way to tighten it down.
Really? Really? This is the type of advice one would actually take the time to type? You made the right decision to do it right...... the first time. Cobbling it all up now will just make more work for yourself in the future.
I want to do it right, and want to learn how to make my own parts. Still where am I going to find the edge of the old floor, when there isn't a edge there?? There is an edge that he formed over, but I can't feel any thing under it all the way across the opening..
Something has to be holding that old floor on. You may have to rebuild the whole upper rocker panel and possibly fab the whole thing on one side of the car. Make yourself a sheetmetal brake and start bending pieces up to match. I know there are some threads on here about homemade tools, check in those to get some brake ideas. I think you can do this, it's just gonna take some patience and experimenting, just try to do things that make the most sense, if it's easy then it's probably not right. You definitely need an experienced eye to walk over this with you. Try offering a case of beer in trade for some pointers, you'd be suprised what a little "grease" will get you in the way of help
You might be right there.. I do have a 30" brake form Harbor Freight. Made my own before out of angle iron.. As far as holding the old floor on.. What there was of it on the inside.. He stick welded to it. Still though.. Looking at the side picture I posted.. Does it look like the lower back of the door may have been pushed in some by looking at the crease in that part??
Okay, I'll play this virtual rod build game just one more time........ Questions........ I'm ***uming the doors are full of bondo and bad rust repair..... are they even close to the same dimensions as a good original? Have you had a good look at the door hinges? If they need straightening, now is the time. Do the doors fit their openings? If any of these answers are "no" then it isn't time to take any more floor out. If the doors don't fit now they sure as hell won't fit after you cobble a new floor in. Once doors fit, brace the body with a ****load of angle iron or 3/4" square. Then you have a chance of maintaining fit. I'm all finished playing now.
Gee.. I thought maybe you'd ask if I had the right doors for it. NO!! The doors are not filled with bondo. Just a couple of small dents. The door hinges fare in good shape. The door gap in the front is great. The gap in the back top of the door is there. It is also good at the bottom.. Not much at all at the center of the door.. Now.. Tell me what the heck caused that??
M*** produced early Ford sheetmetal caused this. Everyone thinks the stuff was perfect back then , when in fact the gaps were all over the place.
True. I heard that after ***embly the car was sent to the bodyman right away. So if you didn't have the original sheetmetal on the car that the bodyman made fit.. You end up like me.. Getting a front end from another doner car..
Well after really looking at the door openings and trying to figure out just why they don't seem to fit. I asked the guy who owned it before me. I could see a couple of reverse creases on both sides of the roof.. He told me he moved the body around a lot using a tow strap around the body with out doors on it and hooked it to a forklift in the center. I think it pushed the sides in a little.. I cut a pice of 2x4 and wedged it in between both latches, and pounded them untill it was level with both latches.. Both doors close very easily. On the p***engers door everything looks good.. On the drivers door.. It is very tight. My question is: I left enough material of the floor to weld the new floor to. Should I bolt the body down threw the sub rails now??, or threw the new floor when I put it in?? Thanks..
What you're dealing with here could be about the same problem that one would run into trying to put a channeled body back up in the stock location on the frame...Kind of hang it in the air and put a floor back under it...T'aint easy but nothin's impossible...Keep on using your head and think about what will work...might even loose a little sleep over it but I believe YOU can do it! My suggestion would be to get the doors lined up ( like your 2X4 idea ) Brace from side to side with angle iron or box tubing and across the door openings so nothing can move when the doors come back off....Then start fabricating new rockers with your break or if the break can't make them long enough maybe fab up some kind of rocker from box tubing etc.,cause you need the strength there and also something to weld to....I know that Wescotts puts out frame dimension prints with all the body mount locations which might be a help for you to locate your floor mount holes....Just THINK about each step of what needs to happen to attach the floor to the body to the frame......I think you're doing a GREAT JOB progressing on this project....I'm glad you ask questions and then try to do the right work...IT ain't easy to build a car, raise a family, and make a living; but there are lots of guys out there doing it...POOR FOLKS HAVE POOR WAYS...But you know what....We get'er done;it's the American way !
Do you think that maybe the other owner wasn't sure where the other sub rail sat, and guessed?? A Friend sent me the measurements from his 37. I'll put both side by side. His first. Then mine.. His MINE Top edge= 50 3/4" 50" 3" down from the top edge 51 3/4" 50 3/4" at the reveal line 55 1/4" 53 7/8" Latch 55 3/4" 54 1/2" across driveshaft hump 53" 53" The 2x4 I had wedged in helped some, but how do I keep that shape??
The Jalopy Journal
