Has anyone replaces the wood floor of a suburban? Did you use Marine Grade plywood? Did you have to raise the body from the frame to do this in 1 piece? any Photos please?
I think the panel and suburban floors are different in early A-D years.?
The panel had boards and the suburban had a single piece of wide/long plywood.
"[1950] . . . the floor boards of panel and canopy express models were changed to plywood construction. In the new construction a single panel of wood and five skid strips replaced thirteen floor boards and twelve skid strips. The new floor was positively sealed against dust leakage and the plywood made the floor 25 to 30% stronger than the former construction" (from an excellent long article in the LIght Commercial Vehicles Association, 1984)
In order to remove the suburban wood floor the body has to be off the frame. There are steel cross members that the floor is bolted to. The cross members are bolted at the frame mounting points. I think the ends of the cross members are welded to the body sides.
The job to do this would be a complete frame off restoration.
The installation of the 1950 to 1955 1st series panel truck one piece wood floor is the same as the suburban one piece wood floor. The type of wood used was 3/4" 5 ply marine plywood.
Replacing the one piece wood floor can be done but is a very difficult. Because the body is built around it.
The replacement plywood needs to be cut into two pieces and then overlapped, in order for it to fit into place.
I think (someone posted) that the one-piece suburban rear floor can be removed by drilling out twenty or so rivets on one of the full-length side-wall metal angle-pieces. The new floor-wood is then put into place and that side angle-piece must be reattached (screwed?, welded, ??).
As you most likely know, there are a lot of attachment bolt holes and "pockets" for seat attachment hardware in that large piece of floor plywood. This would be a formidable undertaking.
I do not recall how that one-piece floor was put into the rear of the Suburban - from the bottom up (at an angle, as suggest above) or through the rear door opening, after removing the sheet-metal cross-piece at the rear of the floor?
I also dimly recall that someone posted that they replaced the floor by cutting the old floor out and then putting the new floor in as two pieces, with a lapped seam down the middle?
Nonetheless, replacing that plywood floor wood would require a lot of work.
The other Suburban rear floor PITA is removing/replacing the ribbed/grooved linoleum surface (in place)?
I also dimly recall that someone posted that they replaced the floor by cutting the old floor out and then putting the new floor in as two pieces, with a lapped seam down the middle?
That was Weeds that replaced his floor a number of years ago. He brought it to KC, many of us checked it out.
My floor inst too bad. A friend of mine suggested looking at JB Weld wood putty and then the wood harderner restorer epoxy over all of it. I will then redo shipyard linoleum over the top once I have a hard flat retored(ish) surface. Intent is to look stock and be solid. Anyone use the JB Weld stuff before on wood?
Yes, I used it on a wood ultralight airplane propeller. It seemed to be just a wood-colored epoxy, but it worked VERY well, blended nicely with my prop and continues to hold to this day under the severe speed and vibration of a propeller.
