Fixing the floor

[Bob_Koch]

Got another nice idea from Sean at Basix Hot Rods here in town. His floor pans were rusted out. So to fix it he found that the floor from a '77 Ford 150 Ranger would fit with a little trimming. Looks like it's going to go in pretty nicely.

He has a site on myspace with lots of other pics of his truck. His narrative is from the point of view of the truck. Kinda interesting.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=402772551&albumId=471301

[grey beard]

Bob,

Because of a windshield leak, by B1B passenger's side floor was just about completely gone. I could literally put a six gallon bucket through the hole. After I pulled the two front floor toe boards and transmission cover, there was almost nothing left from the center on over to the r. h sill and beyond.

I spoke with Dale Uhrich on this forum, described to him what I needed, and he cut a floor piece from one of his North Dakorta parts trucks and sent it to me. It was in perfect shape, except for the fact that he cut it about six inches too short toward the seat and towards the door. What he sent was perfect, but just not enough.

I had my son in Montana cut a similar piece from one of his parts trucks, which he brought to me on a visit last year. The floor piece he brought was just what I needed, except it was badly rusted out in the very center.

By doing some measuring and careful cutting, I was able to use both the North Dakota and the Montana pieces, and weld them together into a perfect patch. Ground down the mig seam and underciated it, and the floor looks almost like new. Took a lot of time and the efforts of two other good men to get all the stuff together, but it looks like it should now.

Sure am glad I didn't use generic sheetmetal for a patch,w hich would have been my only other alternative. That Ragner floor patch is an excellent idea. It should go on a sticky note here, IMHO.

Thanks