Major-Restore: Replacement Floor Pans

Page 2

So, it's Saturday morning.  As I recall my father and I waited for Mike Huelsman to come by.  Mike had the honors of taking the first cuts to this mess and outlining our plan.  It was decided to do one side of the car, complete the install and then go to the next side.  Also, do to all the braces for the center console and the fact it was solid, it was decided to keep the transmission tunnel in tact (also gave good structure to hold the new pans in). 

NOTE: The factory floor pan appears to be one big piece (driver side and passenger side, going from the front of the front wells, to the back of the car).  The restore pieces are in 2 sections (due to shipping needs) and span from about 1 foot above the original pan in the front foot wells (onto the firewall piece) and right below the bolts that holds the back seats in.

As you can see in the pics below, we ran into some frame members.   After Mike made the cuts and left for a while, my father and I spent some time on removal of the old pan (based on the outline Mike made).  They had to be pried from the frame members.  At one point we thought we destroyed a structural member (it was actually where GM over lapped the metal of the floor pan with the metal for the firewall).  With all the rotting in that area, it was hard to tell.

If you're doing this at home, it may be a good idea to remove the heat shield from the catalytic converter.  Also, as we did, you'll want to come up with a strategy to remove the seat braces and mark where they go (you'll have to re-install them later).

After the removal of much body putty/seam sealer, and a lot of watching Mike eyeball and trim the passenger side pan, things started shaping up on this half.   Huelsman pounded it into place and put in the first tact welds.  My father spent the later part of that night "playing" with his welder and made a complete weld around the floor pan and re-welded the braces in.

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Floor Pan Project Pages:
Floor Pan Page 1
Floor Pan Page 2
Floor Pan Page 3
Floor Pan Page 4
Floor Pan Page 5 (Materials List)

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