Seat Riser

After the floor was finished, it was just a matter of getting the seat riser welded in.  This is usually a pretty straight forward job.  Unfortunately for me, I had a small problem I didn't realize was there until I went to install it.  Apparently I was not paying as much attention to the floor install as I should have been.  It actually had a bit of a bow downward against the rocker right where the front of the riser is.  I didn't take any pictures of it, so I won't get into great detail.  I basically cut several of my welds (as in about 15) and proceeded to fix my error.  It really wasn't that far off and I could have reshaped the riser to fit, but I do feel that this was the better solution.  Now, let's get to the riser.

At this point it was a pretty simple process of matching the measurements of the drivers side, and some minor reshaping to fit the floor pan.  I proceeded to drill all my spot weld holes, and painted the underside with zero rust.  I then wire wheeled away the e-coat in the weld areas, and applied some weld thru primer.  After everything was dry, it was fitted, and clamped.  Once I was satisfied with the fit, I welded it into place.  After a little grinding, cleaning, and finally some painting, it is now what I can call finished.  Next up, I plan on replacing the transition pan.

Initial fitting.

Prepped, underside painted, and clamped/clecoed in place.

Welded and ground down.

The paint is still wet when I took the picture, that is why it looks blotchy.

Passenger toe board and floor

I have moved on to the toe board and the floor.  This post has been a couple of weeks in the making, I kinda didn't want to write anything until it was more or less finished.  Get everything in one go type thing.  Anyway, here it is.  After I had finished getting the torque box installed, it was time for the toe board.  Had some issues getting it in, but nothing that I couldn't figure out.  First thing to do was to cut it down and figure out how much was really needed.  Did a little trimming in the car, placed the toe board and made some rough cuts.  Slowly cut my way down until I had a patch for just the area I wanted to do.

I went to get it more permanently in place and noticed it wasn't lying flat to the torque box.  Turns out the rib on the right side was not exactly the same length as the one stamped in the torque box.  I made some relief cuts to the area and used my hammer to "massage" it into place.  Once I was happy with the fit, I drilled my holes for the welds and locked it into place.  After butt welding the seams, and fixing just a couple of those pesky pinholes, I welded up the relief cuts to finish sealing up the area on the torque box.  Not the prettiest grinding, but it will do.  I may revisit this later on.

With that done it was time to get the floor fit and in place.  After doing the driver side floor this one went in much easier.  First I trimmed off some of the crap that was the edges of the old floor, and then did a rough fit.  Little trimming of the floor itself for a closer fit, and then a little more trimming.  Drilled all my holes for the welds (seriously tedious, I'm thinking about finding a hole punch), and started spot welding it down around the rocker and the floor support.  Those are the areas that were pretty easy to see that it was where I wanted it.  I then pulled out the self tapping screws, clecos, and clamps.  

I basically went and screwed everything on the floor cross member down, while massaging it with my hammer.  I'm pretty sure that there isn't anybody doing these floors that hasn't had to resort to this method.  The radius on that part of the floor just isn't ideal.  After getting it flush to the cross member, I found a some buckling near the tunnel and had to cut it in order to get it to lay flat.  Next step was to screw/cleco the edge of the new floor to the edge of the tunnel in order to get a tight fit.  I then proceeded to cut through both pieces of metal to get a perfect gap for the butt welding.  Just trimmed a few inches at a time, peeled away the unwanted metal and then a few tacks here and there to hold it in place.  Wash, rinse, and repeat until I had done the entire edge from front to back.

I doubled checked the fit, and proceeded to jump around playing connect the dots on the edges, and filling in the spot welds everywhere else.  The result was a floor that went in much smoother and cleaner than the one I did on the driver's side.  Nothing like experience to make things easier.  I ran out of time, so I still need to grind it all down, but the floor is officially in.  No more Flintstones car for me!

Some judicious trimming.

Getting ready to weld it in.  If you look close on the right rib, you can see where I had to cut it in order to get it to fit in the similar area on the torque box.  It was just a little too long to settle down inside.

Welded in and ground down.

Definitely looks better after some paint.

Initial fitting of the floor.

Ugly mess has to go!

Bye, Bye!

Much better!

Don't need this part.

Gone!

Working on the final fitting.

Got a few spot welds and a lot of screws.  You can see the buckling just at the tunnel.  Had to do a relief cut there.

Trimmed and tacked together.

Same thing, only at the back.

Played connect the dots.

Front all welded in.  Just need to get it ground down and cleaned up.