Floor Replacement

[Mickmtcb]

Hi. Just about to start the floor replacement on my FB. Previous floors I have done on my MG were swaged and overlapped. That was the 'recommended way' of replacement? What is the consensus here? Do I swage (as best I can with the amount of ribs in the floor) and overlap or get very precise and butt weld? I recall seeing lots of photos of floor replacement that all looked overlapped? God knows I cant find them now!

All suggestions and opinions welcome and photos especially if anyone has them?
Thanks
M

[Errol62]

Hi Mick
Butt weld looks tidier. Overlaps give rust a chance to form. Distortion isn't too much of an issue with all the ribs. My method is to set the replacement panel in place and tek screw to floor. Then cut through with 1mm blade on the grinder bit by bit, using the little cleco clamps to get it flush and gill the gap as you go using heat sink behind if necessary. Grind flush and you would never know.
Have a look at my EK van thread.
Cheers
Clay

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[EK283]

Hi Mick,

What Clay said.

Over lapped panels start rusting the minute your weld cools. All my rust repairs are butt unless they are over lapped in the first place, I like to spot weld one on top of the other whilst still red and cool with compressed air every 3 to 4 spots, limits most of the distortion.

Greg

[Mickmtcb]

Many thanks Clay and Greg. Butt weld it is! Thos CLeco clamps? Are they the little aluminium ones that level the two areas? Like floor tile levelers?

[Blacky]

Yeah mate , thats them - and welcome to the forum even though its 6 years since you joined ! Got any pics of your build ????

[Errol62]

These babies


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[Mickmtcb]

Ive had a look. I am thinking about the butt welding clamps. I'll get a set of those as well.

[Mickmtcb]

Thanks Errol
Been busy building a business. Now that we are in lockdown 2.0 I've finally got her off the hoist. Owned it for 8 years. But have had an EK wagon in my youth. So i'm about to revisit it! I'll post some up now! Car was restored (painted then left to rot outside) I bought it and put it away to buiold as a retirement present. Floors are now pin holed from having water sit in them for years. Sill are good, fronts of them need some work, subframe is ok. Out riggers are rusty at extremities. Unfortunately they painted a Twilight Turquoise car pink?? No accounting for taste. I already had a HR front end and rear end and a 186 and M20. That is the plan. Something mild which goes ok and can be driven all day.
Shouldn't be too hard. My Stag was much worse than this and so was my Midget. Hoping it will come together ok?

[Errol62]

Nice one Mick. Bit partial to a red motor in an early Holden myself. It is the cheapest and most effective way to make them streetable and not hard to pass rego in SA at least. You would have to enlarge the tunnel. I've had an m20 and nothing wrong with them but I like the original seating and the roomy front floor now days.

Familiar story a about a car being done up then no garage. Good shed comes before good car I've realised although others make do aznd even paint in the carport. A light breeze deals with the overspray well apparently.

Anyway have fun with it and hopefully not too much rust to be repaired. Do pop the front subframe off if you want to be sure you're getting most of it. The thing I haven't done on my ute is the outer sills. You don't know what is behind there until you cut them off and then you're up for it none the less.
Cheers
Clay

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[Mickmtcb]

Thanks Clay. I like the idea of not straying too far from the original. I want it to look like an FB but have some zip! I agree with the seat. I am going to get the bench done with a cut out in it. The tunnel has been cut to accommodate an all synchro box and speco shift at some stage. I will just weld in a CRS tunnel. Floors have actually come up rough after blasting. Two fronts and half a rear need replacing. Also under the rear seat RHS is bad so Im hoping someone will have a cut I can use otherwise I'll have to fabricate and patch. I ordered 16 butt weld clamps from a mob in WA yesterday. Cheapest I could find on the net. I have been tossing up on subframe removal and will probably do that and see what's behind the outer leg. Hopefully the inner sill is ok there. Both inners and outer have no bog and seem solid from what I can see.

[Wrongway Roger]

A caution on CRS tunnels as there are big enough to take a turbo 400 box.
I run a M21 in the wagon but this was done by the previous owner.

This is the wagon with bent shifter that misses the seat, just.

wagon tunnel.JPG (169.02 KiB) Viewed 1164 times

This is CRS tunnel in the ute, whihc will have trimatic box.

CRS tunnel.JPG (116.43 KiB) Viewed 1164 times

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Roger

[Mickmtcb]

Thanks Roger. Great photos.I was worried that the CRS Tunnel was so large? I did think about fabricating my own and yes I believe that I will need a 1 tonner shifter if I dont want to cut the seat. Ill probably just modify the shifter to suit the seat I have once its in.

[Errol62]

M20 is the same size as the three speed, and trimatic for that matter. What sort of a job was done previously. May be acceptable as is?


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[Mickmtcb]

The tunnel has been cut down the centre and simply spread apart. Piece of metal.was welded in underneath where the strengthening rib used to be. They just left it split open?? Yep there's a large split down the centre of the hump. The inspection plate has been modified with a large persuader. Its all a bit a dodgy. In saying that if I was the first man to ever modify one of these for the larger box my theory would be to split the tunnel.down the middle from the bottom of the inspection plate to the end of the tunnel. Cut across the end of my longitudinal cut at 90deg and spread the tunnel. Then add a section of metal into the hump. The inspection plate would also be split and bolted in and add a section at the bottom using the same process as above to achieve the desired fit. That way it would still look ecactly like a stock fb floor albeit slightly wider. You would have to do a double take on it to realise it. Given that the work is half done i might try that? Worst outcome is i have to get a CRS tunnel if all else fails. I'll post a photo later today.

[Errol62]

It gets down to the floor covering you plan to use. It is said that the after market carpet available fits the crs tunnel ok. Might be the EK hydramatic version. I'm putting a reproduction rubber floor mat in my van so I used a cut from a hydramatic. The hydramatic cuts aren't that easy to come by.

What you describe is how I've seen tunnels done going back. Nothing wrong with it if it's tidy but you need to strengthen it to more than make up for removal of the strengthening. Some use thick flat bar but this doesn't have torsional rigidity of a box section. You can run rails back and up from the rear of the inner subframe mounts either side of the box to the floor pan seam under the seat. These also serve to mount the rear crossmember and emulate the hydramatic setup.

Obviously you want to ensure forward movement of the seat is not impeded.

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