The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop AD Cab floor question and my attempt at building a form

Anyone know what the purpose of the small triangular depression in the floor just outboard of the seat riser would be for besides stiffening the floor a touch? See pics 1 (top) and 2 (bottom).

Anyway, I need to replace that portion of the floor on the driver's side and pics 3-5 show my attempt to create something to form that depression in the patch panel. Took the piece I cut out (the depression was pretty much intact) and stuck a box around it, lined it with painter's plastic tarp and filled the box with epoxy resin and a couple layers of fiberglass fabric. One glitch in the process was that the painter's tarp leaked and stuck the whole mess to my work table. After getting it loose, I think I came up with a reasonable form. Whether it will stand up to hammering the depression in remains to be seen. The fallback position is to cut the original depression out and weld it into the new patch panel, but that's a last resort. Anyone think I'm being too anal about it in trying to reproduce that depression, or have a better suggestion on how to go about it?

You're right twice: 1) It's for no other reason than to stiffen the floor, and 2) you are being too anal.

.... but you could have added to 2) ", but good work in being inventive".
I had that can of epoxy resin sitting around for ages and was wondering if it would still set up. Not a big loss if it didn't. We'll see if my form is stout enough.

I think I would just go with a flat piece of metal and weld a piece of angle underneath for reinforcement. Having a flat floor makes for easier fitting of mat/carpet

Not a bad idea. I doubt the small depression would interfere much with mat installation, but I may go that way if my form doesn't work out.
Thanks

sometimes its useful to practice being anal about details so that you have experience and motivation later on when it really does matter, even if it's not related to this topic
and if you have fun by all means do so right!?

my goal is to fix my trucks in an authentic manner while trying to keep them mechanically sound,
if someone could and would have done in the 1950s the same fix i'm doing now then i'm not being untrue to the originality of my truck even if it isn't OEM.
however i have a conflicting goal to not destroy originality for future generations
so my home made farmer fixes should be obvious and undoable with the least resistance possible.
-s

Call me all of the names which you feel you must, but I would not feel right if those "fancy little swimming pool" divots were not there.
I also like clutch head screws where they belong.

"Call me all of the names which you feel you must, . . "

You conservative, anal-retentive, purist.

(Will those words do you justice, Carl? I am in the same club, with no apologies.)

Thank you Tim.
I am not accurately described by most of those terms, but I do not offer any apologies for what accurately describes me concerning the topic of the "tiny floor board swimming pools", which falls under the category of "I'm just a weirdo."
Carl