THUMPIN455

The floors are both butt and lap welded, its just a driver for the father in law and he doesnt want nor need it perfect. So I went for strength and ease of repair. Whatever worked best for the spot and how much metal I had to trim to get it to fit was the criteria.

Dont worry you are doing great, and I am amazed at how much rust your Mustang has, it makes my 71 look down right clean. Check the link in my sig for pics of the Mustang. Funny thing, had someone stop by last year, showed him the Mustang and he commented on how I have a nice solid car to start with, then I told him it took me 450 hours to get to that point. :P

I need some of your tools, I end up hammer forming everything, its extremely time consuming but I am getting better at it.

bent metal

Ok, I gotta' catch up the pictures here. The trunk floor is in, the quarteres are on. Nothing fit right out of the box. I had to do something to every part. What I found dissapointing was that the pieces that were new didn't fit together. I had new doors, new quarters, from the same company, they didn't fit together. Same thing with the rear bumper mount holes. The brackets on the trunk floor didn't match the tail light panel, and on and on. ....While I was looking around at everything I noticed that one box said made in Taiwan, another, made in Canada, another, made in USA. Hmmm, I think that might be the problem. All of these suppliers might be within' specs but one guy is to the big side, the next guy to the small side? Maybe? One thing I've got to say though is nothing was so bad I could not fix it. And all of the panels were a good thickness and seemed to be a good workable alloy. Good parts, but I'd like to see them fit a little better. IMO.
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bent metal

For anyone thinking of doing this. I have to mention all of the seat brackets. I don't really see anyone mentioning them. But those little guys took a lot of time. You have to clean them up, fix um', then try and get them back where they were. With those and the back end, I had pages of notes and measurements. If you ask me in a month or two I'd probably say it was not big deal. But while it's still fresh in my memory, it was a lot of measuring. Also, I'm glad I made all of the bracing in the back. It looks like a mess but it's all triangulated and one side is reinforced more because I took out the inner fenders on that side. It worked well and I didn't see any movement when I cut things apart. The reference points stayed good too. I was worried about all of that. The last thing you want to happen is you get all done and the back window doesn't fit. But I think I'll be good.
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Some of my notes. Even more were written on the car itself.

bent metal

Ok, back seat floor. I didn't like the way these fit. They didn't fit tight around the round wheel house. Although it doesn't show up very well in the pictures, the whole panel looked like it needed to move to the outside of the car. So I flattened out and rebent the outside flange. (See tipping from earlier) Then they fit pretty good. I know some people would of just clamped the heck out of it and welded it up. But I couldn't do that. I don't think it's a good idea. I'm afraid if I do that the car would be under stress, maybe twist the body or form stress cracks later. Maybe I'm over-doing it? But so far every panel I've welded in fit pretty close without clamps. My rule of thumb was if I couldn't push it with one finger to make it a tight fit, then I needed to work the panel more. I stayed pretty close to that rule, not perfectly, but close.

So, here it is. I had to make a small patch on the drive shaft tunnel too.[IMG][/IMG]
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bent metal

These are the floors after welding.
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THUMPIN455

I had fitment issues with the Mustang also, the drivers side quarter had the wheel opening about half an inch out of place, that left a gap in the door jamb, and overhang at the rear. Its just one of those things, they stamp the basic shape and we have to make it work.

I agree that its worth the effort to flatten it and rebend the flanges. Some would say its too much work, but it makes for a better final product if nothing is being pulled off center or out of line..

Oh yeah they fit great....

bent metal

Next thing, the front floors. I didn't like the way these fit either. This might be hard to explain. They fit ok in the back if they were slid back. But that left about a one inch gap at the toe board. If you slid them forward, they left a one inch or so gap in the rear. One side was worse than the other. But didn't think either side was acceptable. You could of slid them back and leaned forward the toe board enough to weld it. But I just couldn't do that because when you looked up from underneath (where the toe board transitioned to the floor) it left an inch gap. Big enough you could of pushed your finger in the gap. Let me show you in a drawing.
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So what I decided to do was to make a seam and install it more like what the factory did. That would allow me to add an inch to the floor length so that the corner where the toe board and the floor meet would be tight to the frame rail with little gap. To do that I had to remake the front piece (toe board) and add a seam. Like it was from the factory.
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The front toe boards are the new ones, the back ones are what I replaced. A little better fit too, not just longer.
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Then the typical stuff under the floors. But they look solid, only needed straightened.

bent metal

Patterns for new toe board piece.
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Fit up and flatten out the ribs on the pass. side.
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Much better fit under the car, both sides.
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Almost done with the floors.
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bent metal

OH NOOOO! That's got to be frustrating. I know a few times I thought there is no way that anyone could be selling this stuff for years and years and have these issues. I must be doing something wrong. But after checking and double checking measurements, it is what it is. I guess you just have to move a flange or two. The poor folks that don't know how to do that are really going to be in trouble.

THUMPIN455

I filled it with metal strips, welded down both sides and ground it smooth. Yes its very annoying to say the least. The floors are always mucked up like the toe boards you have, they know cars move around over time and they just give you a general shape that you can make fit. A quarter panel being mucked up means lots more precision and time consuming work, a floor can be close enough, a quarter has to be right.

I got it closer, still needs work though. The GTO is getting the attention lately.