What a hole???
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Freshman User
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 39
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What a hole???
I began working on my 86 and was startled by the lack of floor on the driver side. I removed the carpet, the seat and almost fainted. The drivers floor was completely rusted away and the floor behind the seat was not attached to the back of the cab at all . Someone had built a brace out of three inch channel and had it bolted to the good spots on the floor near the cab mount bolts and the side of the cab. When you shut the door the back of the cab shook for 20 Seconds afterward. I have a limited budget and replacing the cab at this point is not an option. Plus all the junk yards in my area have crushed anything before 95 ( God love the fact scrap metal is thru the roof!!!) I removed the brace and repositioned it so I could connect the back of the cab to it. That stopped the shaking. I plan on the old way of attatching some metal to the good parts of the floor and making it work. Any suggestions or insight would help
Thanks
Fred Flinstone for now
Thanks
Fred Flinstone for now
Post Fiend
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 5,871
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From: Coutts Canada
Find some good sheetmetal, a sawsall, some ball pene hammer, rivets and rivet gun, drill and drill bits, and some silicon. Then spend about a day and cut the sheet metal to fit the hole, after you have cut all the rust out, then rivet the sheet metal to the good parts of the floor still there but remember to lay a beed of silicon to keep the sheet metal from rattling and leaking. this shouldn't cost you to much if you have the tools. if you have anymoe questions feel free to ask.
Posting Guru
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,002
Likes: 1
From: Right Next to U
You can find the sheet metal at any place thats handles or does metalworks, fab. shops, look in the yellow pages for one near you, and buy a small sheet (some will even give you some if you ask nicely) have or use a small grinder to cut it and place the sheet metal where you want it and do what mustange70 suggests....
Elder User
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 517
Likes: 2
From: Texas
Limited Budget
I get my sheet metal repair panels from collision shops. A bent hood, creased deck lid are good for repairs. Again, be polite and you will be surprised at the results. A grinder will make quick work for cutting the pieces you need. Be sure to cut the original rusted metal back to good. If you do not, the repair is compromised and short lived. I know the repairs may be ugly for a while, but structural integrity is the focus for now. A radiused bend can be achieved by clamping a section of old pipe to the new material and bending it around the pipe. If you are creative, you can do the job for the cost of rivits and some time.
Hotshot
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 11,697
Likes: 3
From: Marengo, Iowa
I found some old road signs and used them for the floor in an old 74 rustang. It had reclining buckets, but not the seat... the floor was that bad. Old farm machinery has lots of good guage sheet metal too. A trip to the local junkyard can get you some material to work with. I used to work for a manufacturer that used coiled steel and automatic feeders for the presses, at the end there is always about 6 foot that won't feed through, and that kind of scrap gets sent through the recyclers, so if you can get your hands on something like that, virgin steel. Most of them don't care, but it's always best to get an ok before going through the scrap.
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Freshman User
Joined: Aug 2004
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Thanks for the advise. I have access to some old junkers at my shop and reduced a 90 Sundance trunk lid into the size piece I need. The silicone was something I hadn't thought of. My boss and I are going to go thru and fix it for now but the Cab is not worth putting the effort of putting new panels in. He is in the process of doing a custom 55 although on this site I refuse to name the make, lets just say not a Ford. His loss. For about 40 bucks for his project he bought a pair of air shears. Lets just say much quicker and easier than grinding or using the sawsall. My poor baby for the rest of this year is going to be my plow beast. Next year she'll get the star treatment.
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