Advice on replacing floor

Ritzy1

Ritzy1

Senior Member
So, as you can see by the attached pictures, I've got to replace the floor under the front seat of my '48 Tudor Sedan. Looking for suggestions on the best approach, words of wisdom from those who have had to do it already. I'll need to farm it out as I do not have a welder.

Thanks, Dave
 

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Best approach would be to first have the person who is going to do the work look at it and tell you the info. you want to know. DO NOT cut it apart yourself and then take it to
the fabricator. Most folks charge based on time and materials. Ask to see see samples of previously fabbed work and price. Hard to quote an exact price.
 
19Fordy said:
Best approach would be to first have the person who is going to do the work look at it and tell you the info. you want to know. DO NOT cut it apart yourself and then take it to
the fabricator. Most folks charge based on time and materials. Ask to see see samples of previously fabbed work and price. Hard to quote an exact price.
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Once you tear into it you might discover more rot. But maybe not. Best of luck!!!

granted this sign was made in the 50s.


385556
 

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Down my way the labor rate is $100 per hour. Most body shops won't touch this kind of work as it's too time consuming. Insurance work is what they do. Faster and pays better. There are fewer and fewer fabricators for this kind of work
 
Most body shops are clip replace and paint.

Just the way cars are now. $100/hr seems cheap for metal work. But I don't know.


Why I try to do what I can working on cars. But I'm a patience boy. Maybe buy a welder and give it a shot. If you have a local you trust, certainly do that!










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The worse part of 41 to 48 fords is rot in the rocker boxes. Chances are if the floor is rough the rocker boxes are too.
 
skidmarks said:
The worse part of 41 to 48 fords is rot in the rocker boxes. Chances are if the floor is rough the rocker boxes are too.
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This piques my curiosity. Does anyone know if EMS or anyone else makes repair panels for these cars? I would expect so, as they make them for shoeboxes like mine. Also, I have a neighbor that has just finished restoring a '59 Buick and a '58 Chevrolet . Both needed floor repair, which he did himself. He bought a $199 Harbor Freight mig welder and learned to weld repairing the floors. While not perfect, they are covered by carpet and are quite serviceable.
 
Most folks with this era of car just look for a donor car and cut & weld what they need. As this becomes less of an option then fabricating sections to weld in will be the only option. Getting the 18 gauge sheet metal can be done if you know where to look. There are ways to hand fabricate stuff if you find info and learn how. Metal Meet is a good forum. Just replace the stuff with holes and real thin stuff and salvage the usable parts. This is a good way to learn how to weld, drill out spot welds, and fabricate patches.

I've seen a lot worse floors & rockers on those years of cars that were repaired without store bought patch panels. Many even have the correct profiles throughout. I've also seen plenty of road signs pop riveted in too.
 
Car may not be worth it if the rot is that bad. This is what to expect from a car from MA. If you can go to a welding class at a local HS or College, might be worth it. But I have doubts being a Tudor Sedan. You can always pop rivet sheet metal in over the damage.
 
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Thanks for all of the advice so far. Did I mention I don't have a garage at my house and the car is stored 3 hours away in my brother's garage?

All of the floors I've looked at (Mac's, Absolute Sheet Metal, and all the rest) only have universal pieces. None have stamped floors like the ones available for many older and newer cars. I've contacted a couple of salvage yards that have these cars listed on EBay hoping for donor floors, but no luck. I did see that Direct Sheet Metal will do custom orders. That may be my best alternative. I am on the waiting list at 1945 Speed and Custom in Troy, NY. Hoping for the best.
 
I used the offerings from EMS on my 46 Tudor project. https://www.hotrodssheetmetal.com/19fosh.html

A couple of observations:
The rockers will likely have rust to match the floor.
The replacement panels are an ok fit - the rockers are actually the best fit.

In my case, we carefully cut the rot out and stiched in the replacement pieces - retaining anything that was worth saving. The rockers were mostly gone so the pillars became the anchors. My welder has four decades experience and needed all of it to make the welds work. The notion that an inexperienced newbie could fix this themselves doesn't get any mileage from me. Way too many variables (rust, material thicknesses, seams, positions, yadda, yadda...) to believe in beginner's magic.

If you haven't already done so, be certain to poke around on the trunk floors and the kick panel areas. Better to discover the problems now.

Good luck with your work. I'm very satisfied with the results of our efforts and the driver quality outcomes obtained.
 
Ritzy1 said:
Thanks for all of the advice so far. Did I mention I don't have a garage at my house and the car is stored 3 hours away in my brother's garage?

All of the floors I've looked at (Mac's, Absolute Sheet Metal, and all the rest) only have universal pieces. None have stamped floors like the ones available for many older and newer cars. I've contacted a couple of salvage yards that have these cars listed on EBay hoping for donor floors, but no luck. I did see that Direct Sheet Metal will do custom orders. That may be my best alternative. I am on the waiting list at 1945 Speed and Custom in Troy, NY. Hoping for the best.
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Reproduction floors for most yrs, "that are spot on" for restoration have been a soft spot in the industry for a longtime. Maybe because most don't care and they just get covered up with carpet.


Guess it depends on what you want out of the project. Keep at it.







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Those old tudors are fairly plentiful as projects. Might be cheaper to look for another body with good floors, etc. especially if you have to pay somebody to do the work.
 
If bad floors were the measure of a project vehicle, there wouldn't be much old iron actually saved in the lands of snow & salt. Rust repair is just a fact of the hobby.
 
TJ said:
Those old tudors are fairly plentiful as projects. Might be cheaper to look for another body with good floors, etc. especially if you have to pay somebody to do the work.
Click to expand...

Or find a 4dr donor.
I had a nice 46 4dr that was taken apart but not worth putting back together. It had nice floors and good fenders. I sold it to a guy who cut it apart to fix a wagon.

I cut up a 47 mercury 4dr to repair rd a rough convertible.
 
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