Been away for a couple of weeks, but am back now and got some garage time the last couple of days. Good progress is being made! I've finished the fitting of the passenger side floor pan into the truck. It marries up to the rocker panel, under floor brace and the remaining floor structure nicely. It took me several days of finessing the part into place. Long story short, the existing floor structure had been bent at some time in it's past. There were both a high and low spot.... Once I finally figured that out, I massaged the old metal into better shape and the new floor pan stopped resisting. I think the low spot will require just a little more persuasion, and that's fine. Anyway, with everything fitting well enough, I got down to the business of locking it all down with sheet metal screws. As I mentioned earlier, I have no experience with doing a restoration of any vehicle. In fact, I don't even have experience in driving or riding in these trucks! So I don't know what I expected as to the rigidity of the floor or any other structure in the truck. My truck was always a little spongey feeling when I would climb into it. Those days are now gone! I am truly amazed at how rigid the floor structure became once the floor was screwed to the rocker, rear remaining floor, floor brace and remaining toe board.
So, what's next? Well, I'm going to take it all apart! As I mentioned above, there is still a little bit of fitting (low spot) left to do and the final cutting out of rusty metal. I put off the final cutting until I knew how and where the new metal would fit. After I get that work done, I'll reattach the parts, hopefully for good. I'm undecided if I'll weld them in right away or just use the sheet metal screws again and tackle the rear cab corners and hinge pillar first. Oh yeah, cab corners.... I changed my mind from my last post! I decided the floor was more important, plus I'll need to remove the bed to gain access to the full width of the cab corners. So, that'll happen down the road sometime.
Attached are a couple of pics. The first is where I started. Then, I've attached a couple with different angles of where I'm at today. As always, helpful comments, suggestions and questions are welcome.
