67-76 floor into a 65...
Made some progress on the floor since I last posted.
I decided not to use the part I fabbed up. Too many things I didn't take into consideration but a good learning experience so onward and upward. What I did do, was go to the boneyard and cut the part of a firewall from a wrecked 74 dart out that I needed.
The initial fit was great.
The I noticed where it is supposed to meet the firewall is a little farther back than expected. Seems the floor seem up front is not the same as the 64. To be expected I s'spose..
After 'mocking it up' I started cutting.. let me just say "pucker factor".....
and
To compensate for the gap, I would have had to "shrink" a lit of metal and I'm just not that good (yet) and so I cheated by cutting relief's and slightly overlapping everything to make it curve towards the firewall.
here is where I am at now. The "fingers" are formed and tacked and the "fit" is acceptable (to me) so far. Still need to retack the edge, remove the oroiginal tacks, cut the gaps to make the figers fit together, then finish the seems. I'll trim and form an "edge" for spot welds as well.
Once I have that weld edge/lip, I'll do a final trim of the opening I made and weld it in.
So to recap briefly.
The front half of the floor fit "OK" but the sides needed trimming and the corners need some reforming. The drivers side of the front lip has slightly different angles which are also slightly "off" from the older floor and need to be "moved" to match the lower edge of the firewall. Easy enough with some 2x4's as backing and a BFH. Some mild massaging also helped.
The tunnel opening obviously does NOT match the older firewall. Firstly and obviously, the new one is larger to accommodate the 727. Unexpectedly (to me) was the fact that the firewall on the newer cars appears to be moved back about 2 inches. Did not expect that at all (although I probably should have)... Learning all the time.
Something that just occurred to me is the possibility the heater box might have fitment issues now... huh... again, learning all the time. I'll need to check it when I get home.
Hope this helps someone. For someone with experience, this is not a big deal. Just a couple of surprises but nothing unmanageable so far.
-=C
Made some progress on the floor since I last posted.
I decided not to use the part I fabbed up. Too many things I didn't take into consideration but a good learning experience so onward and upward. What I did do, was go to the boneyard and cut the part of a firewall from a wrecked 74 dart out that I needed.
The initial fit was great.
The I noticed where it is supposed to meet the firewall is a little farther back than expected. Seems the floor seem up front is not the same as the 64. To be expected I s'spose..
After 'mocking it up' I started cutting.. let me just say "pucker factor".....
and
To compensate for the gap, I would have had to "shrink" a lit of metal and I'm just not that good (yet) and so I cheated by cutting relief's and slightly overlapping everything to make it curve towards the firewall.
here is where I am at now. The "fingers" are formed and tacked and the "fit" is acceptable (to me) so far. Still need to retack the edge, remove the oroiginal tacks, cut the gaps to make the figers fit together, then finish the seems. I'll trim and form an "edge" for spot welds as well.
Once I have that weld edge/lip, I'll do a final trim of the opening I made and weld it in.
So to recap briefly.
The front half of the floor fit "OK" but the sides needed trimming and the corners need some reforming. The drivers side of the front lip has slightly different angles which are also slightly "off" from the older floor and need to be "moved" to match the lower edge of the firewall. Easy enough with some 2x4's as backing and a BFH. Some mild massaging also helped.
The tunnel opening obviously does NOT match the older firewall. Firstly and obviously, the new one is larger to accommodate the 727. Unexpectedly (to me) was the fact that the firewall on the newer cars appears to be moved back about 2 inches. Did not expect that at all (although I probably should have)... Learning all the time.
Something that just occurred to me is the possibility the heater box might have fitment issues now... huh... again, learning all the time. I'll need to check it when I get home.
Hope this helps someone. For someone with experience, this is not a big deal. Just a couple of surprises but nothing unmanageable so far.
-=C
