Rusted floor

kraquen · Post by **kraquen** » May 24, 2007, 9:01 am

The PO of my 66 had done a hack job of replacing the floor pans in front of the bench with a couple pieces of 1/4" thick diamond plate. There's a huge strip of rust under the bench that he replaced with a piece of tin and some rivets.

So I want to put this floor back together. I'm not concerned with making it look as good as it came from the factory.. I just want it to be strong and safe. As this is my first and only slick, I'm not sure what the bottom of the cab is supposed to look like.. Could anyone link me a photo of the bottom of their cab?

Thanks a bunch,
jason
(now in salt lake city)

Post by **Greg D** » May 24, 2007, 10:18 am

If you are just looking for strong and not original get some 14 gauge sheet steel and just cut to fit after cutting out the rust. You also may want to take a look at your cab mounts, would be kinda rare for the floors to be badly rusted and the mounts be OK. You can buy reproduction patch panels for all this stuff too, and take a look at your cab corners while you are at it.

Slick Fan · Post by **Slick Fan** » May 24, 2007, 12:01 pm

Welcome to the site!

This makes a whole TWO of us from Utah now.

You can get replacement floorpans & cab mounts from http://www.dennis-carpenter.com/ , for example. Like Greg said, the cab mounts are probably toast, if the floors are that bad.
I haven't personally done any yet, but they are definitely on the list of things needed for mine.

I don't have any bottom side pics yet, but I bet others here do.
Do you have any pics of your truck you'd like to share?

MadMaxetc · Post by **MadMaxetc** » May 24, 2007, 5:21 pm

Greg D wrote:If you are just looking for strong and not original get some 14 gauge sheet steel and just cut to fit after cutting out the rust. You also may want to take a look at your cab mounts, would be kinda rare for the floors to be badly rusted and the mounts be OK. You can buy reproduction patch panels for all this stuff too, and take a look at your cab corners while you are at it.

Ya that.

Welcome to the site! Any pictures?

kraquen · Post by **kraquen** » May 25, 2007, 7:18 am

I'll get some pics up soon. The drivers side front cab mount looks good. The passenger side has been rebuilt using what looks to be 1/4" plate. I think the bolt requires an access hole on the front of the cab mount? on the rebuilt one, i dont have a hole.. so I'm probably going to have to cut one. My cab mounts are rock hard.

I've pulled a lot of roof flashing out of the floor and passenger side door jam.. PO was a little too handy with the pop rivets.

My cab corners are completely gone, my front passenger door jam is gone, and the floor sucks.. but the rest of the cab is spotless. My core support is gone, and i need both front fenders. I'm hoping to get her back on the road this year!

shawns fords · Post by **shawns fords** » May 25, 2007, 9:19 am

on mine the body was not rusted out anywhere but around the front cab mounts, if this is where you are tawkin bowt, underneath was spotless a little road grime, otherwise not a single spec of rust, only part that was bad was around the bolt mount, so I took two sheets of 14 ga steel and some rust inhibitor, ground out as much loose scale as possible, cleaned the heck out of it, (bolts are removed) then applyed a heavy layer of fiberglass all around the rotted part, (filled in the holes) then I marked my hole to where the cab bolt goes, set the steel sheet into the mount tightened it down hammered it flat welded it in and it came out looking pretty decent, im not worried about looks but to know its strong, prob stronger than it was new. I have pictures but havent posted them I need to get a digital camera still, scanning is for the birds anymore

The Big M · Post by **The Big M** » May 25, 2007, 9:38 am

Welcome aboard!

I'd recommend you check out Carolina Classics too. Their patch panels are top-notch stuff. Here's a thread I posted with some pics of the repairs I had done on my truck:

http://fordtruk.com/forums/viewtopic.ph ... sc&start=0

Of course, I have different door jambs and cab mounts since mine is a '62, but you get the idea. Good luck with it!

ps: Hey shawns fords, all the photos I post are taken with a film camera. I just request a photo cd whenever I get film developed. Then I can just download pics from the cd. Works awesome!

Post by **Greg D** » May 25, 2007, 9:39 am

Kraquen, the bottom side of your cab mounts where the rubber bushing is tends to be the problem area. Check it with a scratch awl and don't be gentle when you poke at it. I have seen 65/66 cab mounts that were real solid around the vertical parts and all gone at the pad area. The mount that was rebuilt does need a hole in the front, there should be a oval shaped hole about 2x3 inch for access to the bolt, should also be a cover screwed over the hole. Hey, I hope your mounts are fine, just letting you know what needs checked. Wouldn't want to see you go through the work of fixing the floor only to have to cut back into it again to fix the mounts.

kraquen · Post by **kraquen** » May 25, 2007, 10:16 am

I'll take another look at the bottoms of the mount. There's no way the vertical parts are going to be a problem anymore because its been redone with 1/4" plate.. But i do need a hole there. I'll snap a photo of the mounts too to show you what I"m working with.

killercoating · Post by **killercoating** » May 26, 2007, 4:38 pm

Big M thanks for the pics... it helps as I pulled the carpet yesterday, the crushed my dreams.

The floor, and toe boards are trash. That joined with the need to replace the hood, get a tail gate, replace the cab mounts,Pass lower cab corners and fix the rear drivers side beds pin holes. What that adds up to is... no restore of the truck. The cost of replacing everything thing with new parts is just too much.

Not one to give up easy, I am going to turn it into a street rod.

Does anyone have details of the frame mounts? I have the pass. front one (with a rod coming from it) looks to be bent. I'll have a pic. added tonight to show the damage of the floor and mounts.

What I'm looking for is detailed advice on replacing the floor and mounts... The trans tunnel looks good as do the seats mounts, so thats what holding everything together.

Post by **Greg D** » May 26, 2007, 5:26 pm

To start off with my Uni was and wasn't as bad as your description. There are pics in my album of some of the repair work I did. I bought sheet steel and some rectangle stock (this exact repair would only work on a straight axle truck) and you may need some thing abit different but it will kinda give you the idea. I am not restoring my Uni either so no holes and solid was sufficient for me. I still have some work to do but the rest can be done with the front clip in place so it will be done more at my leasure. maybe looking over the pics will at least give you some ideas though. If I remember right Willy did some pretty extensive rebuilding making his own panels too, maybe he can post a link to his pics for you to see also.

killercoating · Post by **killercoating** » May 26, 2007, 9:32 pm

Greg D, thanks for the info. what box tube did you use for the frame? and is it using stock body mount rubber?

I'm loading the pics to my profile right now of the floor damage, and the front cab mount.

Thanks...

Slick Fan · Post by **Slick Fan** » May 26, 2007, 10:03 pm

Man, there isn't much left of that cab mount, is there?

Most of that looks repairable with available patch panels. The floor by the seat, above the cab brace could be fixed with flat sheet metal. The cutting & welding part will of course be the hardest part.

The rest of the your truck looks really good!

kraquen · Post by **kraquen** » May 27, 2007, 12:57 pm

I posted pics of my cab mounts and my floor.. in my profile

killercoating · Post by **killercoating** » May 27, 2007, 6:23 pm

Karquen, you look to have more floor, and good mounts. Get a wire brush for a grinder and start removing the rust.

I have a mount where you seem to have square tube, right under the seat. I think I might be able to do something like that with mine to save me from having to buy floor pans. I want to use flat 16 gauge steel for the floor.

kraquen · Post by **kraquen** » May 27, 2007, 6:30 pm

That square tube is some of that U channel.. I"m not sure what it's called.. It's not C channel.. and it's not square tube...

then the PO notched it a couple of times and bent it. It's held on via pop rivets

killercoating · Post by **killercoating** » May 27, 2007, 8:53 pm

sounds like a template to make the replacement from. Take the angle iron and use it to build a box tube mount... maybe???

Post by **Greg D** » May 27, 2007, 11:46 pm

I used 2" x 3" mild steel rectangular tubing with about a 1/8" wall thickness, very strong stuff. It was easier to do than a "restoration" and is probably stronger than the stamped pieces that were in there before. The have 3" side is on the horizontal and has plenty of width for the rubber insulators.

66fordtrucknut · Post by **66fordtrucknut** » May 28, 2007, 6:43 am

This is what I had to deal with, the only parts I didn't make was lower door pillar pieces and the cab corners, I made my floors out of 16 ga and my cab mounts out of 11 ga. I made my cab mounts to not be a crap trap like the original ones.

Charlie
[albumimg]1115[/albumimg] [albumimg]1963[/albumimg] [albumimg]1130[/albumimg] [albumimg]1113[/albumimg] [albumimg]1116[/albumimg]

Slick Fan · Post by **Slick Fan** » May 29, 2007, 12:43 pm

kraquen wrote:I posted pics of my cab mounts and my floor.. in my profile

Man, you've definitely got some cancer to deal with there.

[albumimg]2060[/albumimg]
The sad thing is that if the previous owner hadn't sealed everything off like that, it probably wouldn't have rusted quite that severely.

66fordtrucknut wrote:This is what I had to deal with, the only parts I didn't make was lower door pillar pieces and the cab corners, I made my floors out of 16 ga and my cab mounts out of 11 ga. I made my cab mounts to not be a crap trap like the original ones.

Nice looking repairs!

I really like the cab mount fix, do you have any shots of them before paint? I'm just thinkin' it will probably be easier to see the details without the black paint.