Here's today's progress.

I started out by pulling out the shear. I marked and drilled a couple holes on the cross bar on the front of my trailer. Then I bolted the shear onto the trailer ( I unbolted it when I was done with it ).



Next I brought out the box with two 2'x4' sheets of diamond plate/tread/floor plate (whatever you want to call it ) 16 gauge steel. I bought these off the internet from Discount Steel. I also bought two 2'x3' sheets in July or August. They have great service. and the sheets were double boxed to keep them from getting damaged during shipping.

Here's a shot of my floor material.



I used the templates I made yesterday to mark out the cut lines. I started using the shear. It cut great except You can only cut about 7" deep with this shear! I knew I should have spent the extra money for the throatless shear. Oh well this will work great when I start doing the body work. I'll need to cut out a bunch of small patch panels. Since the shear wasn't going to work for cutting out my floor pieces I dug out the my hand held jigsaw.

Once I had the panels cut out I clamped the panels between a couple 2"x2" tubes. I clamped the whole thing to the tailgate of my 87 F250. Then I hammered the ends to get a bend in them. Next I checked the panels to make sure they fit. I clamped the driverside panel to the floor with a vicegrip.



Then I welded the panel in.



I went over the weld beads quick with the grinder to clean them up a little. I'm going to smooth them out a little more once all the floors are in.




I moved to the passenger side and welded it in.



I cleaned up the welds a little.




It's starting to come together. I'm hoping to get a big chunk of the floors done tomorrow.

 

looking good keep up the good work

 

Thanks.

Here's today's progress.

I started out by making some templates for my rear filler panels. It took a couple try to get them right. ops: Once I finally got them to fit right I traced them onto the diamond plate.

Then I cut them out with the jigsaw. These panels are fairly complex. So it took me a few hours to get them cut out. :roll: Once I got them cut out I did a test fit and marked out where I needed to drill the holes for the body mount bolts and where I needed to bend the panels. I used a hole saw to drill the holes. The smallest hole saw I have is a 2 5/8" that I bought to install my guages. So the holes are a little bigger then they need to be. But hopefully the seats will cover up that area anyways. :lol:

Next I clamped the panels to the cross bar on my trailer and hammered the one part of the panel over. Did a couple more test fits. That's about as far as I got today. I still have a few small adjustments to make to the panels and then weld them in. But the pictures give you and idea of what it'll look like.









I've got to fix my brother's Taurus so it will probably be a day or two before I get back to the 54.

 

Yesterday I did the final trim on the rear floor section. I did some more trimming on the transmission tunnel. And I did some more cutting on the firewall. I did some more test fitting of the transmission tunnel.




I also did a lot of clean up with a grinder, flap wheel and wire brush on the rear floor section. Then I sprayed some weld thru primer. I was just going to spray the areas I was going to cover up but I got a little carried away. I also cut out most of the cab brace I installed. I did leave the front crossbar in place until I get the front floors in.





I have some issues with those rear diamond plate panels I made. I'm still trying to decide if I want to make a couple new ones or try to work with the ones I made. I made a couple mistakes on them so they don't fit as well I want.

 

Today I welded the transmission tunnel in. It still needs a lot of work but it's welded in. I need to make some filler/trim pieces to blend it all in. But it's in.

 

Great looking project !

 

Thanks. Hopefully it will turn out ok.

 

THat's quite a project. I'm impressed with your photo journal. Thanks for all the pics. Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks. The build is on hold until spring. I'll post more on it when I start working on it again.

 

Cant wait until spring. Keep up the good luck.

 

wow i don't usually post in this section, all though i do have a 54 myself. i just looked through every page your doing a awesome job i know what its like working without a shop. keep up the good work! looks great

 

Thanks. Building it in my driveway just adds to the challenge.

 

Very impressive detail journal; As others mention, your driveway shop is producing a great ride.
Having the focus and mental plan as you do allows for others of us to live & learn as well..

Looking forward to Spring myself; just to check on your progress.

Mitch

 

Thanks. I'm getting really sick of winter. I want to get going on this build again.

My work on this isn't perfect. But I'm having fun and I'm learning as I go.

 

been noticably absent except to check in on the 48-60 forum , and i must say i'm impressed with what you got done !!!!! WORK PERFECT ?? who cares man it's your's your having fun and you should be proud of it . later , gotta go fix a small issue on the flatty in my 53 ...................