The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Cab Floor Panels

Cool. So, now I have my Lincoln mig welder. And will start perfecting the art of welding on scrap. But the first project I will attempt, following education, is to replace the floor in the 53.

Can you help me on how to get the existing panels out? Is it a one piece or two piece set up? I think that the parts suppliers sell them either way.

And then on to the back cab corners.

TIA

Dennis...I've asked the same question myself on this forum. I'm almost at the point to start replacing my floorboards also. How much of the floor are you planning to replace? Does it include the toeboard(bottom half of the firewall)? Mine includes the toeboard and floor board. I ordered a (2) piece sections for my project(left and right), which includes the toebord/floorboard. If you have to replace the entire TB/FB, I wouldn't bother drilling out the spot welds where the (2) halves meet on the existing floor. If you still have good metal to use on the floor, you can use a die grinder with a 1/16" cutting disk. It's mentioned in this forum often, "Cut the patch to the truck, not the truck to the patch". Truer words have never been said! Make sure you brace the cab with some angle iron before you start removing any sheet metal or it may collapse or twist on ya. Try and keep it as rigid as possible. They're more qualified guys in here who I'm sure can either edit, add or agree with this procedure and I would love to hear what they have to say also.

Hope this helped buddy...
~Ron

If your entire front floor isn't rotted out, then you will want to trim the new panels to only replace what you need. For the front floors, they sell a right and left floor panel that goes from the front of the seat riser to where it joins the toeboard. They also sell right and left floor panels that are combined with the lower halves of the toeboard. They also sell complete toeboards.

The front of the cab is supported by reinforcements underneath which are spot welded to the floor pans and the rocker panels. So if you are replacing that area of the floor, you will need to support the cab.

When I have looked at the floor (it is a home and I am writing this at work - I am taking a short break) I thought that I was going to have to replace both the floor and toe boards. If I read Ron's message right, that is what I was looking at. Cutting out the floor and rewelding new pieces.

It is beginning to look complicated. But I can do it.

It sounds like I need to assess what needs to be replaced, buy the pieces, and then cut out the floor and toe boards to weld in the new stuff. But reinforce it first.

What about how the cab is bolted to the frame? I had even thought of removing the cab from the frame. But it sounds like it would be better to redo the floor before taking it off the frame.

Thanks again,

I bought a *****in' products kit to replace my toe board and the front part of my floor pan. I was reluctant to spend the money at first, but I was a beginner like yourself and I wanted something that had some prefab to it to help build my confidence.

But if you don't decide to go with the kit their directions had some good suggestions. First, make sure the cab is aligned on the frame properly. Their kit then supplied some large triangle shaped metal pieces that looked like 3 inch wide by 1/4 thich flat stock bent past 90 degrees. The bend made it to where you could tack the triangle piece to the rocker panel and then to the frame. This will hold your cab in place while your cutting out the floor. Then make sure everything is properly braced!

Its been a long time since I cut mine out but I remember that I had to replace the inner kick panels to so I cut the kick panels and the floor pan out so that I could replace the inner kick panels first and then the floor pan. This way the kick panels seamed in nicely with the floor pan.

Here are some pics . Not really good pictures but you can see the change between 4 & 5 sort of. I have a ton of pictures of the inside but darn if I can find the digital camera i took them with. I'll look again tonight.

Matt

Hi Matt,

So, it sounds like you bought the entire floor and toe panel in one piece. I will check the website you suggested. I noticed that the two panel pieces are on ebay for $88. But this would not provide me with the support and alignment metal pieces you talk about.

Thanks for the website and pictures.

oldbluetruck, let me know how the Lincoln treats ya.. I need to go buy one soon.. I have to repair the right floorboard, spot weld some on the firewall and a little on one of the fenders and then I have to weld an exuast on and Lincoln was the one I was looking at.

Blake...I bought a Lincoln mig, I love it. Not a real big one, used mainly for sheetmetal but I can weld up to 1/4". I did quite a bit of arc welding but not much mig on sheet metal. First I tried fluxcore wire on sheet metal, never again. Then I used solid wire, .030, with CO2, OK. Then I swithed to .025 solid wire with 75% argon, 25% CO2, what a difference. Much cleaner welds, better penetration, less spatter.

oldblue,
HERE is the link where I ordered my floorboard. When buying mine I just did comparison shopping against buying stock replacement or aftermarket. Only reason I bought this one was because I wanted the transmission hump so I could mount the engine a little further back. Is a bit pricey but it really built my confidence up to start cutting on the rest of the truck.

Bracing was a bit tricky cuz I had to give myself room to work. I tacked a diagnal piece at the bottom of the cab on drivers side and went to the top of the passenger door. Because I was cutting out kick panels too i did some bracing across cab from door pillar to door pillar leaving it high enough where I could work. Also the kit provided the pieces to tack the rocker panels to the frame so that kept the rocker panels from pinching in or out once I cut the floor loose.

my friend got a lincoln with no gas just flux and he realy likes it