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Joined: Mar 2006
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how to brace correctly my car 69 coupe for full floor pan and rocker replacement.

Sorry a lot of questions but no experience in that field


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Here is a link to some files I have on rocker panel replacement and a frame cart you will need.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwYWE5xlEGnPZTNiYjJlN2ItOWFlZi00MTNlLWI3YjUtZDNjMzQyZmY1YzYy


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restoring my 1968 Firebird 400 HO convertible (Firedawg)
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Engine Test Stand Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwoxyUwptUcdqEb-o2ArqyiUaHW0G_C88
restoring my 1968 Firebird 400 HO convertible (Firedawg)
1965 Pontiac Catalina Safari Wagon 389 TriPower (Catwagon)
1999 JD AWS LX Lawn tractor 17hp (my daily driver)
2006 Sequoia
2017 Murano (wife's car)
202? Electric car
203? 68 Firebird /w electric engine
2007 Bayliner 175 runabout /w 3.0L Mercuiser__________________________________________________________
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 251
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Can i brace from the interior or i have absolutly to do a body cart???

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You want to brace but you need to align the sheet metal to the correct location (horizontal and verticle). Look to see how the guy did it in the pics I sent you.

I would get the complete floor pan with rear frame rails and trunk.

e.g. eBay - 69 Full floor pan

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Regular full floor pan is in the garage now so to late for this model with the trunk

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If your motivated there is no reason you can't do it yourself. There are a few pro's out there that have body jigs for this kind of stuff and could get the job done very quickly.

The nice part is you have a coup so not nearly as much bracing is needed. Your doing the right thing by researching this. I would jump on the camaro forums too and see how they are bracing things up for a job like this.

I would think that you would want to do the floor and the rockers at the same time with a bunch of vise grips. These are not NOS piecse so who knows what you might run into.

I would plan on having a bunch of square tubing on hand and make X braces on the inside of the rear 1/4s and the Cowl and a X brace between the driver and passenger side. Once things are tached in place I would put the door back on and check the bottom of the door and the 1/4 gap.

I have did a buch of metal work on my car but never rockers.


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This is what I did to brace my car. It is going on a rotisserie shortly. I am leaving the trunk till I get the new floor in for rigidity.



1969 Firebird conv't A/C 400 4-Speed
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hi. subframe is out.
I just notice a lot of dammaged to the lower part of the firewall and also to the subframe mount bracket. i have notice that the firewall extension are available but the brackets are they

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Definitely check the door fit after the rocker go in. Had mine replaced and the fit was good until I tried to put the sill plates on. It was that close. Of course by then paint and everything was all done. Not the ideal time to have to start trying to make things fit better.

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I did the exact same thing . i used tons of vise grips and did the complete floor,trunk pan and frames rails . key thing measure the height from every posiion you can think of from the top to the floor pans. i also used the rear cocktail shakers as the refernce to hold the trunk pan in he correct height. leave the inner wheel houses in until the pans are done.
On thing i noticed is the gas tank support rails are welded too far forward on the trunk pan . I removed them and move them back about a 1/4 to contact the tail panel. I clamped everything together, before touching my welder. then i still only tack welded and measured and fit several times before welding it all together. Then after all that is done do one rocker at a time. take my work for it. it took me a long time to do , but my rockers were fine.

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Oh i ended up using 4 laser levels to create a datum line to use as a referance for the lower frame rails / body to ground. 5 if you include the one for the center of the car.
I used pointed fishing sinkers taped to the frame measure points to make marks on the floor for the frame x measurments. it took me like a month on and off to set it up before welding. I was happy when i bought it to the body shop down the road and at most i was 1/16th off in any direction.

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thank you but the project change, no more rocker panel,budget is limited and firewall dammaged are above what i had expected. so i will have to replace the support (i found them) with the toe boards or a complete firewall


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