7 replies to this topic

[Mito]

I've just been working on lining the new floor up.

Before I removed the old floor I put both subframes back on the car and moved the axle stands under them. After cutting the floor out I removed the bolts from the rear subframe that attach to the floor and left the rear bolts in place and tight.

I'm just starting to second guess myself as to whether or not I have the floor lines up well enough before I start welding it back in.

So far I've put floor in and bolted it back up to the rear subframe. I also put in a couple of drop bars from the bracing bars to the cross member, so in theory this should be in the correct place. Unfortunately one of the cross member drop bars moved so only one of them is reliable.

So, I'm in the position now where the floor is tightly bolted to the rear subframe, which hopefully hasn't moved, and I've lined the front of the floor up to the ends of the door steps and the for slid into the drop bars from the bracing easily enough.

It appears to line up quite well with the passenger side of the toeboard but the drivers side looks a bit off as you can hopefully see in the pics below. The drivers side of the toeboard was previously repaired, so not sure how reliable it is. Should I worry about this? I'll be replacing the toeboard with a new one once the floor is back in.

The new floor is a complete heritage MPI floor and the car is being fitted to is a 91 may fair. I'm not bothered about originality, just want a solid car!

Is there anything else I should check? Are heritage floors good enough that I can trust it and it I align everything to it, then I should be okay?



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[Mito]

Okay, so the lack of responses is slightly concerning...

I've decided that to tackle this, I will do the following...

1) use self tapping screws to secure the floor to the good parts of the toeboard. I've already done this at the back to secure the heelboard to the boot floor.
2) replace the passenger side door step. This will allow me to weld the floor pan at both sides before cutting out the toeboard. I would have replaced before removing the floor but it didn't look bad enough from the outside!
3) put in the toeboard ensuring that the features all line up correctly with the floor, bulk head, and subframe.

Hopefully this will ensure correct alignment before I weld it all in.

Edited by Mito, 17 March 2019 - 11:16 AM.

[AndyR]

It looks pretty good to me from the pics.  The floors are a really good panel, and line up well.  Its a shame you took out the drivers side door step as that would have allowed you to line up the inner sills with the door step for spot on alignment.  You should be able to do a pretty good job with what is left of the A post though.  Then i would just check for alignment by checking the dash rail, cross member and top of the rear bulkhead are all parallel with each other.  I replaced my toe board before i put the floor in, but it should work fine if you weld the floor in before moving onto this as your subframe is keeping this in place. And it would be wise to put some bracing in before you remove your subframe and toe board as you have no lateral support as the inner wing/flitch have been removed. The angle of my floor to toe board had to be tweaked ever so slightly to get good spot welds.  Also, if in doubt, run some measures up from the floor to the roof rail to check for congruency.  Measure measure measure.

 

Good luck

 

Andy

[Mito]

Thanks, that's reassuring.

I did the drivers side door step before the floor was cut out and I lined the new door step up to the old floor.

How do you go about making sure the dash rail, cross member, and rear bulk head are all parallel to each other? I had a go by putting a long length of box section through the car, resting on the dash rail and rear bulk head, and measured from that down to the cross member at both sides of the car. Measurements came out at 600 and 602mm.

[AndyR]

Oh ok, door step should be good then. I did mine with a digital level.  Your method tests the position of the cross member, but assumes the bulkhead and the dash rail are good, if they are out your cross member will be too irrespective if the measures are bob on. 

 

Andy

[Mito]

Do you just measure between dash rail, cross member, and rear bulk head at various points?

[AndyR]

You could reference them with each other, if you put the cross member on yourself.  But i think the subframe and the toe board is going to determine the position of the floor relative to the others.  I used the bulk head and the dash rail to level up the shell, then put the floor in and used the cross member to reference back to the the bulk head and the dash rail, all should be level when looking front to rear. You can then check your subframe mounts too and they should also be level.  The door steps, boot floor and toe board will determine the height of the floor within the shell.

 

Andy

[Mito]

Okay, so I've leveled it all up using a spirit level across the bulk head, cross member and parcel shelf. All are as level as I can possibly get them.

Now I'm onto bracing the front cross member before removing the toe board. I'm using the front shock mounts for this and welding box section between these and the bracing in the main section of the car to hold it steady.