The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Floor advice

Ok so I'm looking for some advice on doing the floors in my bolt . I'm not looking to spend 600 for a new floor as this is going to be a low budget build . Kids , bills and other stuff have to come first . So I'm thinking about just laying some 16 gauge flat sheet metal . Any advice on what to do or not to do when putting my floor in . It needs to go from the toe board back to back wall .and why is one floor section 48.00 and the whole floor 600.00 how many different pieces are there?

Not sure the year of your truck. For the AD I'd say there is two pieces for the floorboard sides, a tranny cover in the middle of the floor, and a one piece toeboard. This gets you to back against the seat riser.
Since the toeboard is usually only bad just a little above the floorboard I bought the two pieces of floorboard that comes as one piece but has "half" a toeboard all in one piece. That way you only but across half the toeboard. Its been a while but those two pieces of floorboard was only about $55-$60 each but may have went up a few dollars. Can you replace the floorboards and repair the section under the seat area? Its flatter and would be easier to do.
Here is a pic of the two pieces of the floorboard I used. (the two big pieces)
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r19/LutherParris/52Panel/PanelBodypics005.jpg

Not sure this help but maybe someone else will chime in later.

Oh, and IF you get into the side cowling there is a inner cowl, inner to outer cowl, and an outer cowl piece. IF your lucky maybe you will only need the lower outside piece?

Im in the process of doin all the metal work on my cab.. I waited until classic industries had a sale and bought the two pieces of floor board and the transmission cover.. Saved some money doing that.. For under the seat i am using 16 gauge sheetmetal and installing one whole piece from the seat back.. You wont have the recessed area under the seat but i dont plan on ever storing anything under there anyways.. Thats my plan and its working good so far..

The $40-50 halves don't include the part under the seat and the $600 floor is the entire floor from the rear inner corners to the firewall and it might include the trans panel. I think I've even seen some that include a seat riser too.

On my panel I bought the outer cowls, cowl fillers, inner kick panels, the one piece
toe board, the two floor pieces, floor supports, and a new trans hatch. Everything was toast.

IF your floor supports are rusted out , make sure you at least replace those.
The body attaching bolts pass through the floor board and this support, and the
body mount pad to bolt to the frame.

Also, make sure your inner rockers and door posts are solid. The floor and floor supports are attached these to provide rigidity. You'll find that "one thing leads to another", when doing these AD floors. My advice is to buy the pieces you need and take your time lining it all up and start welding!! Have fun
squire

ONe more thing on toe board & floor replacement.

I got this advice from Dave, the tech advisor at Jim Carter's ...

Put in your radiator support and square it 90 degrees to the frame. Then attach the inner fenders to the firewall with the rods and loosely attach the inner fenders
to the "about to be welded" toe board; ensure that your new floor pieces are clamped to it AND that you have a drift or a bolt right through the floor pieces and supports to ensure it is all aligned correctly. All this will ensure that the angle of the toe board is correct as you begin to weld all this stuff to each other

Since I had cut away ALL the metal from the top of the toe board, everything attached to the door posts (outer cowl, filler, inner kick panels,) and the whole floor
there wan't much preventing the old panel body from collapsing! I had no point of reference, so the above advice came in handy for me. Everything lined up great and even the Chinese replacement fenders bolted right in afterwards (although you gotta make ALL the holes BIGGER!)

Thanks chipmunk. That's the way I've been looking to go with mine. It's a 51 5 window. I'm going to get on their site and look around. Thanks for the feedback that's why I love this site.

Great advice Squire maybe the mods should sticky this since most of us need floors

All the deviations from a flat floor in these cabs adds strength. The seat riser provides some stffness across the floor. Also, the seat assembly is designed to carry the seat weight to the outer ends of the seat near the edge of the floor.