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Dabba's First Floor Resto... (Ugh, trying again, Need input! 10/21/12....)

Dabba

Dabba

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So, ive taken it upon myself to fix my floor, learn to weld and cut and such, instead of spend the money on someone else doing it. Ive been practicing welding for a little bit, and the time has come to cut the floor out before the snow hits the ground. I did about 45mins worth of work today.. because the giants game is on and my grinding wheel turned to dust.. but this is what we have so far...

It's hard, the grinding wheel only seems to get a bit of it up at a time.. maybe because its worn. Anything better i can slap on it before i go grab two more tommorow?

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I would like to see how you get all this done. I have a similar situation im working with.
 
I wouldn't bother with any grinding till you cut out for your patch panels...
 
I wanted to see the condition of the metal.. so you think i should jusr sawzaw the bad stuff and make a template for the patch? Then grind?
 
Yes i did sir. But, The floor has a ton of good metal left.. really only the left third of it is trash, and some of the rocker (which im not even sure is going to work, it doesnt seem to fit, so I'd have to fab) So, i was just going to leave the good stuff and cut the new metal to fit.
 
It's just like a wire brush for the grinder right? All i can find for my ryobi is the discs, ill look around.
 
You can buy wire wheels that fit into electric drills. I have both the circular wire wheel and bell shaped wire brush. A small grinder like the one shown below on my Jeep with cut off wheels works excellent for cutting out panels.

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Ah okay ill take a looksee when i go to home depot tommorow. Grinder is a bit slow doing it. Yeah i got the cutting blades for it, works nice.
 
Pre or post cutting?? haha The only thing I'm seeing right now.. is there's a raised edge to hold the weatherstripping on at the edge of the floor/rocker.. which is gone. Going to have to fab and weld a little itty bitty tab in.. That and the rocker i have does not seem to fit any way i can see.. So.. Probably gonna to cut around the hold in the top of the rocker, wire wheel and clean up the inside then paint and patch it.. Got the weld thru primer on order.. no one seems to have it so right now its just grinding/cutting measuring
 
Day 2: More grinding and such... Lines drawn..

So i got another couple of hours work in today. I grinded most of what i wanted down to bare metal, and anything else is going to be post welding for the painting. I have a pretty good idea what metal i can save and what i can't. Just a few basic questions.. Can i cut and wait a few days to a week to weld? Or should i do it all in the same day? Also, my floor comes a bit short to the hump under the seat where the gas tank is.. Anyone know how to bend a peice of 16ga sheetmetal to fit the form or should i just weld in a straight peice of metal in its place? Also, if you notice in the picture, i overcut some things, circled in blue.. can i just fill that with flux and grind it smooth? The red lines are where im going to be cutting roughly, i freehanded it in paint so.. not straight. Let me know what you guys think and if you can answer those questions that would be awesome.

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you'll want the comparison of patch to floor.. so, ballpark outline with a sharpie the max the patch could cover... then back track in to your damaged areas and sharpie off where you wanna cut... you'll want to square things off... like if that bend where your heel goes is solid all the way across, leave an inch down on the flat, makes a nice flange to sit a patch on and plug weld.. and cut in 6", 8" from the post.. then come back toward the seat, etc.... you can also start to rough cut down your patches too... hand metal snips work well.. just always keep in mind that you can always cut more, harder to put back.. so leave yourself some good overlap till you get it fitting decent, then at the very end you can go in and shorten evrything up/final trim.... then drill your holes for your plug welds...

if you can't get clamps to things, there are MANY tricks... cleco fasteners being the fancy way... the backyard guy will use rivets or sheetmetal screws to hold it in place. weld... drill out rivets, undo screws, weld up holes...

just do your self a favor, if you opt for screws, drill the hole thru both, say 1/8 or so, then go back and oversize the hole in the patch, so it spins free... if not they'll bind up and be a pain...
 
Yeah thats why i have that L cut back by the seat. The line more forward is the edge of what my new floor panel would be, sadly, most of that curved sheetmetal is shot, so i dunno how I'm going to replace it.. Either find some way to bend it or weld in straight panels.. Gonna look like **** though. LMC doesnt have it
 
anything can be made... body hammers and a bead bag, bent in a vise, etc... you'd need to take good picture of where your talking about, showing the patch too.... long time since I played with a pickup cab floor...

your gonna wanna be cutting way more than that.. whatever is decent on the patch that you think will fit decent dont be afraid to use... ya need to take an ice pick to that and see what's solid and what's paper... why leave rusty metal next to a patched hole... cut all the potential bad stuff out... keep in mind you'll need solid, clean ground steel to plug weld to, welding thru rust is no fun...
 
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Blue is cut, red is patch? If so you're leaving some heavily pitted metal right under the seat. I though i was being conservative haha. I only picked my lines because everything on the inside has at least some decent pitting, theres some minor pitting toward the tranny hump but im not worried about that. Though ill follow your advice with an ice pick and hammer.

I'll attack another picture, ill circle the section im talking about, thats pitted and has a curve to it. Its the raised platform where the bench seat mounts into. I didnt see the metal on LMC and looking at it sideways its like the bottom half of a "5" This picture sucks because its looking down but tommorow if you want ill go out and snap a photo of it from the side view so you see what i mean..

Black circle is the hole, green stripes is the section of the sheet metal that curves upward.. then back to horizontal to create that raised platform for the bench.

Edit: Also, that bottom left of my red square is so pitted i can see through the little holes, ha!

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Cut big. if you try to weld the pitted old metal it will just burn through.

Then your patch will be to small, real pain in the ass.
 
a body hammer and some creativity can make that back patch.. prep for it as you prep the main patch, then when thats tacked in, you can start making the back patch...

be aware that over in that pitted corner is where the cab mount is.. the 2 top flanges of the cab support are spotwelded along the floor there.. hopefully you peel the top layer off, grind the top and plug weld the patch to it..

if you EVER wanted to do a bodylift or mounts, now's the time to start! not often your in there with that captured nut for the cap mount.... I eliminated em...
 
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