Is This Floor From The Factory?

[71_bronze_gtx]

Hey - I'm back. So what? In the last year and a half I retired (forcibly), and moved twice. Didn't get much done on the GTX during that period, but now I'm back on it.

I pulled the seats, belts, trim panels and carpet to get a look at the integrity of the floor. Based on where I see seam sealer applied, I'm thinking that at least the rear foot well was replaced at some point, in two pieces.

Is this how the factory put the floor in, and where they applied the sealer? I thought the whole pan was one piece.

[sdweatherman]

Nope, that looks correct. The rear foot wells are separate from the front floor pan. If you scroll down through my resto thread, you will catch a couple glimpses of my rear floor pan - looks like yours.

http://www.roadrunnernest.com/forum/vie ... f=1&t=5152

Scott.

[mrsnicks]

I agree. Looks like the swiss cheese factory floor I cut out of my 71 charger. 2 piece rear footwell.

[71_bronze_gtx]

Thanks for the input.

My floor has 4 smallish areas where it is rotted thru. Not enough to warrant a replacement, but I'm going to lay in some mesh and bondo on 3 of them, and cement in a sheet metal patch-cover on the worst one under the brake pedal.

I didn't see repair pans at Classic or Year One. Anyone selling repops?

[moparite]

I'm going to lay in some mesh and bondo on 3 of them, and cement in a sheet metal patch-cover on the worst one under the brake pedal.

Do it the right way and weld in a replacement! If you cant find what you are looking for with out buying a complete floor you will have to fabricate it. Some offer "universal" patch panels made to a specific shape that you may make work. Since you don't have to worry about a good fitting replacement since you will be cutting out what you need you can try JC Whitney or rockauto. Try these also...

http://www.autobodyspecialt.com/cgi-bin ... splay=home

https://www.shermanparts.com/ecat/base/index.php

Quality replacements...
http://www.autometaldirect.com/

[71_bronze_gtx]

I had intended to check AMD but hadn't got to it. Good news, they sell floor pans.

For now I'm sticking with the fiberglass coverup patches. Done right will have to come later.

This car has other more serious issues that have to be assessed, and hopefully addressed.

1. The previous owner lied to me about the restoration work done while he owned it. He said all rusty areas were cut out and replaced. In fact, the lower half of the body is loaded with Bondo over the original rusty sheet metal or half-assed patches welded in just to back up the Bondo. It needs the bottom sheet metal replaced from wheel well to wheel well on both sides, as well as the wheel well lips. Maybe just complete new quarters and fenders.

2. For reasons I haven't figured out yet, the fenders have been shimmed up about 1/2" where they rest on the fender aprons. As such, the alignment with the hood and doors is good. But the hood doesn't touch the cowl seal, which sends warm air into the fresh air vents, so I had to put a 3/4" thick foam strip on the hood to mate with the cowl seal.

This is a numbers-matching car and I don't think it was wrecked. Possibly had fenders replaced once. I cleaned off all the old undercoating in both wheel wells a couple winters ago. After removing undercoating I noticed a lot of Bondo on the lower half of the fenders ON THE INSIDE, and all around the wheel opening lips. The fender aprons were in pretty good shape, but the brackets used to attach them to the firewall are badly rusted. Have new ones, but haven't put them in yet. The outer portions of the core support were getting nasty. The firewall seemed pretty good. I treated all the rust with Manganesed-phospholene (similar to rust reformer), then painted with POR-15, then sprayed with undercoat.

When I moved to the rear wheel wells to do the same things, I immediately ran into Bondo as soon as I starting taking off old undercoat, so I stopped.

A lot of other hack-job work was done to this car, and I've been slowly putting it back to factory where possible. Geez, some clown punched holes in the top front of the console to mount a vacuum gage! Drilled a hole in the top of the steering column to mount a 3-1/2" tach. Couldn't really see the speedo! The list goes on.

[moparite]

The previous owner lied to me about the restoration work done while he owned it. He said all rusty areas were cut out and replaced.

This is why you bring a magnet when you go look at it! You would think if they actually did what they say pics would have been taken to prove it. Then they could ask more for it but usually the cheap way out is what you find.

[71_bronze_gtx]

I took along a guy who, at the time, I thought was a friend, and is a body man at a Lincoln dealership. When we looked it over, there was plenty of blistering between the wheel wells on both sides - door skins, rockers, quarters, fenders. The explanation was that these areas had become that way since the last bodywork, which was supposedly done in the mid-90s. OK. What couldn't be seen was all the Bondo beneath undercoating in the wheel wells, and painted areas that weren't blistered. yada yada.

The guy who I thought was my friend said he would do the body work, then dicked me around for about a year and a half. I've been considering doing most of the sheet metal myself, but I'm not really set up to do it anymore. While I was working I had unlimited free access to a fab shop and machine shop. No more.

Since the upper sheet metal (from the crease line up) SEEMS to be in good shape, my intent was to just replace all the rotted lower sheet metal and maybe the inner rockers if needed, and have it painted from the crease line down.

If I move one more time, into a more rural area where I can have a pole barn or 4 - 6 car garage, I'd be considering tearing the car apart for a full restore. BUT, the previous owner "lost" the fender tag, and the build sheet is gone, so the car has limited value as a collectible. I don't plan to sell it, but someday might need to.....

From what I can tell, here's how it was optioned:

Base 440
Clock
Rallye wheels
Remote trunk release
Remote hood release
AM/FM radio
Regular hood with the usual stripes
NO A/C
NO strato vent
Probably standard rearend

[moparite]

Cars left the factory with more than one build sheet. Behind the rear seat is the most common, Under the carpet and behind the glove box and in some cases in the front seats. I was lucky mine had 3 of them in it untouched. Some idiot drilled a hole in the fender tag to mount something.