No kidding, its not usually enforce unless somebody complains. my exwife's friend was going through a divorce, she had the 3.0 minivans that pulled the valve guides and smoke like hell. i offered to fix it for her. her ex wrote a letter to the zoning board because he didnt want me "helping" her. Luckily all my neighbors would bring their lawn mowers , snowblowers, flat tires etc. id fix things for free just to be a good neighbor. The zoning officer spoke to them like i asked him to because not one of my neighbors would turn me in ever. finally just said , well try not to make it so obvious. YES SIR clean this stuff right up! wew, that was close!
Can anyone draw a schematic for me that shows the relationship of a) the outer rocker, inner rocker, floor b) rocker, toe board, floor, torque box c) rocker, frame rail, floor
Is there a Firebird specific body book that I can see this in? Or would any body book work to show this?
in what respect do you mean ? you want excact dimesions from one to the other ?Its sooo easy to do in a rag top. Like i said earler, i can do one but how detailed do you want it?
STRIP the interior, including removing steering column. Things to look for check the frame rails where they meet the torque boxes. While you’re there drill out the spot welds. Are they solid? if so continue. BUY a spot weld cutter and extra bits. i had the Blaire, it worked great. What you will find is the spot welds in areas are 3/8 not 1/4 Take the doors off, weld a brace from the bottom front to upper rear door on both sides.
Measure from bottom pinch welds the rockers to pinch weld under the car in front of floor pan and right in front of the torque box. At this point you can spot weld two square tubes across the bottom at the pinch weld to hold the rocker distance correct.
Before you start removing any metal level the car in all directions, I used a laser level (4 they are cheap) to create a datum line to use as a reference. I used the screw jacks that are used for leveling small campers. One at each corner of the frame rails. Then remove carefully the seat mounts on both sides. Once those are off remove the bracket under the seat bracket with the captive nut for the sub frame. You will find two braces across the front of the rear seat hump. You can just torch those off; they come on the complete floor pan. Now just remove all the sheet metal carefully. You will be left with the two oval shaped supports under the front floor on the inner rocker. Leave those on just clean them up good.these are on verts only they dont come with the new floor.
In the middle of the car will be the h-brace mark it very well as it needs to line up with the captive nut support under the front seat support. Then remove this has many large welds in it. Still use the spot weld cutter, it will leave a hole and a dimple you can use to line the h-brace back where it came from. Now move onto the torque boxes, you will need to drop out the front leaf spring support. The torque boxes are included with the complete floor pan. Now everything should be out of the way to test fit the floor pans, mine fit pretty well. Use sheet metal screws to temporarily hold it in place while you temporarily reinstall the h-brace (vice grips) trace around everything. Now take the floor pan out and drill spot weld holes where the pan needs to be welded to the rockers-brace, front toe panel support.
Lastly clean every spot you’re going to mig weld as clean as possible. I can’t over emphasize this, mig welding dose NOT weld well on rusty metal, which in turn is a weak weld. I used a wire brush, grinder, and my die grinder with scotch bright for a week to make sure BOTH parts are clean. You really can’t weld through the black coating well.
in what respect do you mean ? you want excact dimesions from one to the other ?Its sooo easy to do in a rag top. Like i said earler, i can do one but how detailed do you want it?
PCI, I meant now the different parts relate to another. Dimensions mean nothing to me now if I don't know where one part begins and another ends. For eample, in a cross-section, where would the outer rocker end and the inner rocker begin. Then where would the inner rocker end and the florr begin (ie, if you cut the rockers horizontally from left to right).
From what I gather, the torque box is near the rocker and frame rail, but how do they relate to one another?
How about the toe board, floor, rocker? Someone mentioned the cowl as well.
See, I am new to this and want to do this. But I will not do it unless I know the arrangement of ALL the panels relative to eachother. Otherwise, I will have to save up for someone else to do it
i can draw one up. i see what you mean. Also if you can get a helper it will be easier. You will take the floorpan in and out a few times. Dont do the mickey mouse cut and rivet.
You do have a good mig welder?
to begin with the inner and outer rockers are mated at the pinch weld that runs along the top and bottom of the rocker.
if you have all the carpet out of your car if you look carefully at the floor just below the dash you should be able to see where the floor pad was welded from the drivers to the passengers side toe panel in the cowel section. then the floor pan runs right along the inner rocker panel, you can see this better from under the car. it will be the thin metal welded to the rocker. in the rear the floor pan is welded to the trunk pan just below the back seat support. the torque box you can see better from under the car also. it is the triagular metal piece that the front of the spring bolts into. While your under there you will see right about where the seats would be is the H brace runs from left to right to tie the rockers together.
PM me with your email and i'll send some pix of what each is on my empty shell.i stripped mine down to nothing but the shell.
I did the 2 full lenth floor pans, my rear floor under the rear seat was solid, I had a couple of spots on the wheelwells needed attention. I got a wheel grinder and put a cutting wheel init and cut only what i needed to remove. I used a spot weld cutter to remove the spot welds and save all the panels I had for reference when installing them. Get a good mig welder too. expect to it to take awhile, mine took 2 months, I was working full time also. Try this site for a idea on how to replace them correctly: http://www.chevelles.com/techref/tecref6.html floor pan replacement by Wes Vann
