Advice on replacing floor

Roofing cement, flashing & exterior plywood from HomeDepot is all most DIYers would need to fix that up. 8^) Jack E/NJ
 
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...

Appreciate your perspective, but too far along with this body. Too much invested in this project. It's not that bad. Can't be worth the cost of finding a donor car with a good floor. It's gotta be cheaper to patch the approximately 16" x 28" section of floor on each side. This is not going to be a judged restoration, just a daily driver. Like others have said, the carpet and floor mat will cover it once it's repaired. No one but me (and maybe the state inspector) will be under the car checking the floor.
 
Jack E/NJ said:
Roofing cement, flashing & exterior plywood from HomeDepot is all most DIYers would need to fix that up. 8^) Jack E/NJ
Click to expand...

Thanks, but looking to do something more permanent than that. No one else may ever see the repair, but I'll be more comfortable knowing it's been done right.
 
You don't need exact repro parts to repair a floor for a daily driver. Just break the rapair down into easily manageable chunks. I use steel shelving for donor steel. It's good stuff. I cut out what I want, replicate the shape in new metal and weld it in. It's surprising how you can replace what looks like devastating rot but tackling it piece by piece.

I always tackle the worst part first so I get a good bang for my buck.

You do need to get your hands dirty though. I couldn't imagine running an old car without being able to weld. Mig welders are relatively inexpensive, so is an angle grinder and discs.

You can use CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) to get the shapes you want and put as much original detail back in as you want.

Mart.
 
I wouldn't use anything but the plywood for post 21. I've made forms from plywood to act as bucks to form steel patches. It takes a lot of time to get the profile shapes and sizes down for accuracy on forming replacement patch panels but it's a good way to form metal. I purchase aluminum killed draw quality (AKDQ) cold rolled steel in the gauge I need from Stock Car Steel for the time being. The stuff is what was originally used and is easy to pound into the shapes needed. I use the old floor as patterns for the bucks. For small patches a person doesn't need a big buck since smaller lengths of different steel shapes can be used to pound stuff out on a good thick steel table top. Flat areas are easy. Braking for bends can be improvised in a lot of ways depending on size and shape. So far, I've not needed a shrinker/stretcher or an English wheel but they would be handy to speed things up. A power hammer would be good too but I can still swing a hammer and use swages to make most shapes for floors. It's the outer body skins that need the more specialized tooling. The old body coach works did it by hand for many years before the presses and dies came in to common use. I weld all my stuff with an aircraft type oxy/acetylene torch just like they did back in the day.


If I had to wait on Paul Bradley floor pans to do a job, I'd never get a job done and he never made panels for the cars I have anyway.
 
I was talking to a guy about his floors that he had to replace on his 46-48, and he said that he got a whole floor from some guy out west for $450ish shipped in sections. I looked at EMS, but they don't sell whole floor sections.
To me getting floor section might be a little costly up front, but it might end up saving in the long run with out having to do so much fab work.
 
Unless you really know what you are doing and have the equipment and space to do it I would not even think about replacing the whole floor. It is easy to get the entire body out of alignment. From your photos the floor doesn't look bad enough to require a whole floor replacement.
 
Thanks again for all the suggestions/feedback so far. Can anyone tell me how the floor was originally fastened to that floor support at the front edge? Was it spot welded, or?
 
Probably spot welded.

You can plug weld to mimic the spot welding the factory did.
No one will ever know the difference.

First step is to get access to a garage, compressor, welding equipment, and some basic sheet metal equipment like a brake and bead roller.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top