The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop bent floors

I'm in the process of welding in patch panels into the floor of my cab and I've noticed that the front bracket seems to be bent slightly up, causing the floor to buckle some. It can be seen fairly well here:

Pic 1
Pic 2

The cab is sitting on the frame with the rear mounts bolted down. The doors are removed from the cab and there is no current extra bracing (I know, could be asking for trouble) but everything I measure seems to show the cab is square, the door spacing is good, and nothing appears shifted besides the front mounts (and it's the same story on the driver's side as well). What is the best way to correct this? If this isn't corrected will it cause any other issues down the road? I also was able to find a center cover for the cab floor that will be installed sometime in the next month or so, which I'm hoping will help correct the situation. Oh, one last note - I've started to attach the front sheet metal to dry-fit everything before final body work and paint, and everything seems to be matching up well.

I took a self-tapping screw about 1-inch long through that bracket into the frame. First I lagged it into the frame before I put the pan in. I drilled a 3/4 hole in the new pan right over where it was in the bracket (socket can then be used to remove). When welding was all complete I removed the lag screw (so I could pull the cab)and covered the hole with one of those chrome push plugs from Home Depot. It makes it all come out nice and level afterwards.
You can see the plug just ahead of the battery cover.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/2273388460102454676aglcki

Neil,

I'm pretty unsophisticated, I'd just do a few trial jumps on the area to get a feel of how much 'oomph' it took to spring it back down. If you go a hair too far it would be easy to slowly jack it back up.

I just looked under my cab and there isn't much structure holding that panel. Maybe my approach is too crude for you, but that's the first thing I would do.

Stuart

3Lb hammer & 2x4.

I was gonna say, just pound it back into shape,
Scott

If the floor isn't welded in yet, you need to have something supporting the front of the cab. I used vertical 2x4s on the firewall, resting on the frame.

Thanks for all of the replies! Truckernix, that makes perfect sense now... I couldn't understand why the floor would move but everything else would stay aligned. I'll try using the 2x4s the next time I'm in the garage. Thanks again!