The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Panels 'N Burbs floor pan

I got started on the passenger side floor pan and kick panel sheet metal.I have two guys mentoring me on this project and they actually cut out my sheet metal and told me to watch.This guys name is Gary,and he is really a treasure to have around. ready to cut out
Tony mapping out where to cut the rusty kick panel
. where to cut
Gary cutting the rusted section of kick panel. cutting kick panel
The other guy is Tony,some of you know him for his reputation with 1960-1966 Chevrolet trucks.He smiled the whole time they were taking my floor apart,even though it was an AD suburban. Tony thinking AD trucks
The rusted part of floor cut out and kick panel. cut out
Part of the inner cowl had some rust through,I cut it out. inner cowl
Cut out and using it as a template.I bought some 16ga sheet metal and made my own all by myself. piece cut out
Traced part onto new metal. traced
Cut out new part with a die grinding wheel. new part
Hammered the ribs into the part. hammered ribs
old part and new part side by side. new and old part
Tack welded into place. tack welded
After grinding and re-spot welding pin holes. welds ground off
Tony showed me how to cut and form the floor board sheet metal. new metal
We por 15 areas that wasn't accessible after welding in metal. por 15
Tony showed me how to spot weld the floor metal in place. floor welded in
I have to finish up the kick panel and toe board area and proceed to the drivers side floor pan and kick panel.

I want to thank my two mentors on this project,I really appreciate it.


Thanks,Tim

Tim, I know your getting excited. Each piece is one piece closer to being finished. Say hi to Tony for me.

Tim:

You are an excellent protege! I will take a person with passion, over a fellow with a load of talent, but no "want-to", anyday. Great work. The rib-method is ingenious and a good way to get the results you need/want, without the bank-account-busting metal forming tools.

Two thumbs up and an A+ from me.

Alvin, thanks for the shout-out. I hope you are doing well.

P.S. - Gary is a wealth of knowledge on this stuff and I appreciate his help and enthusiasm when he helps me, as well!

Did you do all that grinding and welding with the battery in there? I had a battery blow up on me once and the first thing I do is get it far away from any potential sparks and hot stuff.

Excellent job on the metal work guys!

Thanks guys,the rain has me at a stand still,will get back on it this weekend.

Friedtmater,we did do all the work with the battery in tact.I never even thought of removing it.Thanks for the safety tip.


Tim

Bowtietim:
Hey this is real good!! Keep the story and pictures coming!!
Thanks
Ter

Hey Tim. Where are the updated photos?

The next item to attend to was the kick panel,so I marked out what I needed. kick panel
Cut to shape and trial fitted it.I realized the horizontal beads didn't line up with my originals,and yes this is a made in the USA reproduction part.I had to cut out 7/16" and weld back together to get the beads to line up. kick panel shortened
Drilled the holes for my spot welds or plug welds.I looked at the assembly manual to get an idea whee they should be. spot weld holes drilled
Kick panel welded in and I had to have Tony help me with the corner of the toe board. kick panel and corner toe board Yes,my suburban has been violated.Tony just had to use a piece of 1964-1966 sheet metal for the corner of the toe board.
Cut the toe board to fit what I needed.We realized the after market beads are wrong on the toe board as well.I had to extend the vertical bead like the original. toe board modification
Tacked the bead back into position. extended bead to drop down further
Toe board piece tacked into place. toe board tacked into place
Tony fitting the corner toe board piece. tony
My suburban feeling fortunate to be welcome at Tonys shop. My burb at Tonys
Tony,thanks again for helping me when I got stuck.I really appreciate your help.


Tim

You guys are doing great work......

I love seeing progress pics and the stories that go along with them.

How about some updates. The work you did looks great. I hope it is progressing well. You will be ready for driver side now! Good job.

Tony,Ive been shut down for a week and will probably be a week or two longer before I'm able to get back to it.I still have some welding on the passenger side before I start the drivers side.


Thanks!!

So I did get the passenger side all buttoned up for now.
floor pan
firewall side

I also tackled the drivers side floor pan and kick panel.I had to cut out a bigger section.
I started out by marking the bad sheet metal to be cut out.I did remark where I needed to cut near the door opening,I don't show it in the pictures.Being careful not to cut into the inner rocker panel lip. marked the floor pan
floor pan marked
Removed the emergency brake bracket and levers.
emergency brake bracket
removal of emergency brake bracket
removal of emergency brake bracket #2
cutting the sheet metal out with a small die grinder. cutting floor pan
I used a air chisel to cut the spot welds at the kick panel. air chisel spot welds
kick panel spot welds chiseled
removed the floor pan. floor pan removed
Air chiseled kick panel spot welds
I had to cut the top of the kick panel horizontal and removed it. kick panel removed
I had to cut the bottom of the new kick panel off to get it to fit.The lower part is formed wrong on the panel.I did call jim carter and he is supposed to get the tooling fixed. fitting kick panel
fitting kick panel
The floor pan I purchased has the toe board section on it as well.The original is two piece and has the flanges where they are spot welded together.I decided to weld on some sheet metal to represent the flanges. adding the flange
adding flange #2
adding flange#3
ground the welds
cut out for emergency brake lever
fitting floor pan
fitting floor pan #2
I spot welded the brackets to the sheet metal that hold the speedometer cable and wire harness wires. speedometer cable holder bracket
wireharness bracket clips
I drilled holes in the floor pan to plug weld to floor support.I also took time to clean all edges that will be welded.
drilled for floor brace
floor pan spot welded into place
floor pan spot welded into place #2
I had to reform the lower piece of the kick panel to make it work. reform for lower kick panel
welded to kick panel
kick panel spot weled into place
kick panel plug welded
I ground all the welds and put some primer on the panels. panels primered
emergency brake bracket sandblasted. bracket
bracket painted
emergency brake reassembled
This was job,but I enjoyed doing it.


Tim

Wow! Nice work. Same stuff I have to do to my Burb and I'm not looking forward to it. I'm figuring on getting it running first.

Thanks Tim for a great write up and descriptive pictures.

Nice work, my brother!

LOTS of NICE WORK. Do you happen to have good pictures of the pass side floor where the jumper seat mounts up from what i could see your floor there looks to be OG

Tony,I took some pictures for you this morning.The sheet metal that is tack welded under the jump seat is factory.
jump seat bolted in place
floor pan under jump seat
floor pan under jump seat #2


Tim

Tim THANK YOU those pics are perfect and exactly what i needed to see

I need this portion of my floor is it made i didnt see it on jim carters site unless im blind which i could be LOL pic sure borrowed from bowtietim

FLOOR SECTION I NEED UNDER JUMPER SEAT FOR MY 49 SUBURBAN

I could not find that section either bigtony55, and had a tech hand make mine. The section only took him about 3 hours to make and I plan on putting a floor mat over it so no one will ever really know that it is not 100% correct like factory.

There enough people out there parting old suburbans out hopefully i can find one willing to sell me that part of the floor LOL

If they removed it, it would have been bad too. Unless it came from a show truck, they are all bad. All you need is a flat metal plate, the brackets for the seat and two pins used for the mat and you won't be able to tell the difference.

The floor is the same used on the truck, one difference is the truck has a full width seat riser and the suburban has a seat riser under the drivers side only. They use the jump seat to get into the back so they created the plate to cover the dip that is present under the jump seat.

So the truck floor IS the same in that are i looked at a parts truck i have real quick today to see that section and i thought HMMM it looks similar except the full length seat riser as you mentioned im going to have to look at it better and see if i can salvage that area out of it for my suburban thanks for the info

Tony, we are hijacking this thread, let's start another one or pm me.

Your pictures have helped me alot

If you're talking about my pictures,it's why I took the time to take them and show my process.Glad to hear it helped somebody.


Tim

Incredible detail, thank you for documenting this. Has anyone done a full pan documention ?

He Chipmunk,

How is your panel coming along, is it on the road yet?

Sam

Yep, the panel is at least "on the road". I'll have to drive it down to your place one day. I may want one of those AD's pickups you have...if they're cheap enough!!

Hey Alvin. See you at All Truck?