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Since my last project update I've finished the installation of the left side floor pan, the left side kick panel, and the left side inner cowl piece. For this post, I'll add a photo of the finished floor pan, and talk about the left kick panel a bit.

The replacement of the left kick panel was pretty straight forward for the most part. I used the old piece as a pattern to get the new one close to where it needed to be, then trimmed it as necessary. Where things didn't go according to Hoyle was with the bottom of the new piece. The frame rail under the cab floor angles inward towards the center of the cab, starting just past the door pillar. Why, I don't know, doesn't the new kick panel piece? I'm sure it's because it's quicker and cheaper to press them out of flat sheet. So needless to say, you have to do some 'cut and paste' work to get the bottom of the panel to meet up with the floor panel. In the photo of the old and new pieces lying on the table, you can see one of the cuts I made at the lower right corner of the new one. I also had to take a very long and thin pie shaped piece out of the bottom, parallel to the bend. This allowed the flange at the bottom to bend and meet the floor. In the third photo you can just see the sliver of light coming up through that cut. Once all of that mess was welded back together, I had to make a funky jigsaw puzzle shaped piece to fill in the gap between the kick panel and the lower left corner of the toeboard where it curves in to meet the floor. There was plenty of grind, fill, grind, fill, etc. And yes, that welding along the door pillar is pretty gnarly. I misjudged the width of the new piece so had to cut little slivers of new metal to place between the new and old, so double the spot welds. I also discovered an interesting thing. I was using a small piece of magnet to hold each sliver in place while I tacked it in. The weld would be very erratic until I removed the magnet, as though the gas shield was turned off. Lots of careful grinding later and it all cleaned up pretty well.

The last photo shows the installed kick panel from the outside. Next up, the inner cowl piece.