Best way to add strenght to a new, FLAT floor?

[fortcollinsram]

I w2ill be replacing my floor in my K5 in the spring here and was wondering what the best way to as structural integrity to the floor is? The factory floor, while thin, is pretty stiff as a result of the stamping process that intoduces all the contours to the floor...I plan on using 16ga. steel and was trying to come up with some ideas to stiffen it up a bit so I don't get an "oil-canning" effect when I am down...I was thinking about welding like 1/4" angle iron to the floor from underneath the truck..I already plan on using like 1/4" or 3/8" steel reinforcement around the seat mounting holes, similar to how it is from the factory...I would like to have as few seams as possible so that means a LARGE piece of floor is going to be replace by a single piece of 16ga....

Thanks

Chris /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif

 

[burbBoy]

how large of a floor section are you replaceing? If its larger then you will have to do atlest two cross brakes but smaller peices should only need one. To get a nice apperance you can have a local sheet metal shop do the cross breaks and maybe even do a double cross break which looks really nice. Hope this helps. /forums/images/graemlins/burb.gif

 

[DukeBoy88]

I thought about doing this in the near future when I could remove the body from the frame to get at it. I've collected a large amount of 18ga stainless from work and was going to use it for my floors. I was going to attach my seats to a frame that I would tie into a cage I planned on doing at the same time. If there wasn't a cage I would tie it into the body mount locations. as far as reinforcing the floor, using angle or homemade sheetmetal "U" channels would work, or if you could get access to a metalformer and run beads across the metal like street rodders do (not sure of the exact name of this technique)

 

[Brian 89KBlazer]

Contact Kyle for a copy of my AutoCAD drawing of my Blazer. It shows a complete subframe system I made to support my new 16 ga floors.
I replaced everything but the tranny tunnel with 16 ga floors including the entire rear in 3 pieces.

 

[gtkustoms]

chris

i have a bead roller if you want to come by my shop that i will be moving into this friday...i can let you use it sometime...this is how i add strength to the floors.

travis

 

[fortcollinsram]

AWESOME...thanks Travis...you have a PM

Chris

 

[gtkustoms]

pm back at ya