Pulled the carpeting..... feel like Fred Fintstone now. It appears as though all the cancer is in the large floorboard panel after waterleaks from the slider and drivers side. The leaks have been fixed... now onto the fun stuff. My thought was to visit a local ford recycling yard and cut out a nice floor from a like model supercab then weld it into the hole left when I delicately remove my flooring. My goal is to not create a Frankenstein. Thanks.

 

I had the same situation, but maybe not as bad. The rear floor of my SC was rusted with some quarter size holes and a bunch of pinholes. So I chose to wire wheel the entire floor front and back really good. Then I went and got a piece of 18 guage steel cut square to fit on the floor in the back. Because the rear floor is flat, the new piece of steel is able to sit flat. Before I placed that down, I sealed entire floor with black roof flashing sealant (very good adhesive and does not turn hard). I even filled all the stiffening beads with the sealant. Then sealed around the bottom edge of the new plate, then laid it down, and riveted it to the floor. I even wet installed the rivets with sealant. I let that dry for a day. Then I put three coats of bed coating (duraliner) on top of the entire cab floor. It stunk for a couple of days, but it was really worth it.

Ryan.

78 F250 Ranger XLT Supercab 4x4
460, C6, NP205, D44, D60, 4.10's, 33x12.50x16.5 tires

71 Bronco, 302, C4, PS, PDB (1/2 complete with rebuild)

 

I have done this before. Before you go and do any cutting on your truck, make sure that you CAREFULLY measure the replacement pieces before you start hacking into your truck. I then would take a grinder and knock off as much rust as I could so I and see what really needs removing. It aslo gives you a good clean surface for the weld to adhere to. (It wont like rust) Be carefull that you dont cut into a major support for the cab, patching it back up might prove to be a PITA esp. if the cab was to shift on you. Any major cancer areas I would cut out with a grinder,(cutoff wheel) I would enlist the help of the hot wrench to heat up the metal you are trying to weld in to help encourage the metal to conform to the old floor. When you are done welding inside the cab, get under the truck and weld the areas that you cut out to the new sheet metal. This will help tie in your new metal, also it will help seal out the water and such. If you plan on keeping the truck forever, sray the entire floor with the priner that converts rust into primer, then have the cab shot with some rhino liner, or line-x (not the cheap stuff). This will do several things for you. It will seal out any water, it will help the rust you do have not spread, and it will deaden any road noise. If rhino lining is out of your budget, go to wall mart and buy 6-10 cans of rubberized undercoating. spray the top and bottom of the floor, it should seal the floor just like the bed liner, but not be as durable.

Tony

'77 F250, 4X4 460 transplantee, "Flamer"
'74 F250. 460, "beater" now "1 dead ford"
'73 F250, "midnight auto" now a trailer for the flamer

 

OK...... I found a rust free supercab floor yesterday. I'm getting the whole supercab floor panel. It's easy to get out because the roof is chopped. There lies the first challenge.... how to get it in my cab which has a roof. Second this is a 2wd floor which doesn't have the transfer case cut out yet.... it's marked in the floor but not cut out. Not so hard... cutoff wheel or Sawzall and grinder would work.... since it's the whole floorboard at least till I have to cut it to get it in my cab.... I suppose it'll be fairly easy to get it level to weld in because it'll just sit on the stock tabs in the back and at each door....

After it's welded into place my plans are to Primer it and coat it with a bedliner... I was thinking Herculiner... which I was also planning on coating the underside with.... after building aluminum heat shields to keep the heat from the exhaust off the cab floor.

If I do have to cut the floorboard to get it to fit in there..... should I cut it front to back......or left to right?

 

I don't think it would matter how you cut it up to fit it in. As long as there is good metal on the joints to re-join the floor, that is all you need to worry about.

Tony

'77 F250, 4X4 460 transplantee, "Flamer"
'74 F250. 460, "beater" now "1 dead ford"
'73 F250, "midnight auto" now a trailer for the flamer