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I'd like y'all's opinions and advice on replacing my floorboards. I've done almost everything on my truck before, but welding in new floorboards is a first for me.
I got the front patch panels that go from the first rib in the floor up to the toe board. The panels have a lip that turns up.
My question is about cutting and joining to the original floor board.
Would you
(1) cut at the top corner of the rib, shape the new piece to match and weld at the corner? Make the cut at the red line.
(2). Cut at the bottom of the corner and trim the new piece to match at the inside of the corner. Like a traditional fillet weld. Cut at the yellow line.
(3). Cut at the green line about an inch in front of the rib and trim the new piece back accordingly and do butt welds to attach it?
(4). Cut at the yellow line and drill holes in the new piece to allow for spot welds to hold it in place and then seal the seam? The orange dots represent the spot welds. It will make the patch forward the thickness of the sheet metal
I'm leaning towards (4) but like I said, I've never done this before and was curious if y'all had any advice or learning.
Thanks in advance for your time and answers. I'm sure I'm asking a stupid question and missing something obvious but before the ziz wheel started making sparks, I thought I'd ask
I would make the cuts where you can get a flat butt weld that will be easy to grind down and finish. Also only replace what is needed, save as much original solid metal as possible.
When I did my floor I used some 16 gauge. But anyways I had to make a new rib, and I butt welded the floor to that rib. If I had to again I would use the lip on your panels to weld to the front lip of the rib. I guess cut at the yellow line and put your patch lip against the rib lip.
I think it will be stronger in the long run.
I braced the cab so it wouldn't get out of shape while I was rolling it all around and up and down. Remember to tack a spot, move a ways down the line. do it again. don't want to warp the metal. Don't know if this helps but that's my 2.
Option 1 is the way that I do it...it joins the new metal at one of the strongest points on the OEM floor, it maintains the flow of the new panel, and it is very easy to weld without a lot of warpage. I am not as familiar with the F1 series as the F100 but on the F100 cabs there is a cross member/brace under the floor in this area. If there is a brace here on your truck then that may influence your plan of attack.
Getting a curve to match up right in the peak of it will be troublesome. If you can go even half an inch past it it will make things a lot easier in my opinion. Curves add strength.
If part of the floor is good I suggest keeping it and not replacing everything. It might seem like more work but it's easier in the long run because everything else you fit to the floor is exactly where it should be. My ideal is leaving as much as possible and being about 1/2" or so away from a curve or the damaged area. Much easier to clean up with an angle grinder and tends to warp a little less since the curved area is more rigid.
When I did my mustang some people overlapped them and welded both sides to make things a bit stronger.
Personally I'd do the green line just because it looks the easiest to clean up and saves the most amount of original metal. Whatever you do, clamp it down very solid and tack it about every 6", then go back and tack it again and again. If you run a solid bead you will warp the crap out of it and there is no fixing it with a hammer. You can expand and contrast steel with heat like that, it will put major warps into sheet metal. Don't get impatient with it, might take you 5 times as long to weld that way but it will save you twenty times the amount of time it takes to try to fix a warp.
A lot depends upon the condition of your floor and the shape of your patch panel. The patch panel that I got had an upstanding flange in the back, so I cut my floor between your yellow and green lines and then rested the new panel on that flange and welded it to the riser at the top of the flange. Your idea of drilling holes for spot welds in the patch panel flange would work too. Dimensionally that may not be correct but since I am adding sound deadener and carpeting I was going for strength. I had a bad spot at the LF seat anchor and if the full floor panels had been available for a reasonable price then I would have considered using one of them.
I cut it Monday night. I laid a 1 1/2" wide straight edge against the front of the rib and drew a line. I made the cut leaving that much of the original Floor Board in front of the rib. The Green Line. About 3" in front the original floor board rust and pitting started to get really bad.
I'll trim the new floor pan to match and butt weld it end.
I got my new MIG machine spooled up, gassed up, and powered up last night.
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