Once the floor was solid, I had to start tying everything together. First, the end of the floor channel that is on the inside, which doubles as the rear seat riser, needed the end replaced. I bent a small piece of sheet metal up and welded it in.
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If you look back to entries 18 and 19, you can see where I needed to add a triangle shaped addition to the floor section. You can also see heavy pitting on the original floor.
I cut a triangle shaped piece and welded it in. The welding was difficult due to the location. The grinding was even more difficult. I finally got it done. It is solid now.
I had originally thought the pitting of the floor was superficial. However, on closer inspection, there was a soft area. I cut it out and welded in a new piece.
All the floor welds are complete on the right side of the passenger compartment at this point. I may have to do some touch up work as I grind the welds almost smooth.
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While there are parts being made for 41 Chevy bodies, there are certain items which rust out that aren't being reproduced (at least not as far as I can tell. If you know anybody who has parts, drop me a line!) Anyway, I have been making some of my own parts. I started with the window box which you can see in an earlier entry. Here are three more items that you have to have but just are not available.
The first one shows the original floor section which I replaced with a modified replacement sill plate in the previous entry. It may be a little difficult to tell what you are looking at due to the condition. The bottom of the floor is up and the inside is closest to you, the rocker is furthest away. The section I need to make to tie the inner panel down to the floor is propping this part up on the bench top.
On the floor bottom, there is a brace, an inner rocker panel, and the bottom of the quarter panel. Well, at least there is supposed to be! Anyway, I had to make the inner rocker panel (top and pretty simple) and the brace (middle and not so simple).
The second photo shows a brace that goes behind the cowl bottom and reinforces the area where the front fender bolts to the bottom of the cowl.
All of the parts need finishing, but that will be accomplished during installation. I thought I would show them now to let you see where I am headed.
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Here you can see the extension I modified from a replacement sill plate. The black at the very top of the photo is the quarter panel. The rusty panel behind that is the interior panel. I will need to fabricate a piece to drop down to the floor from that panel. There is still a lot of work to do here. I have to make a triangle to fit in the hole you can see at the left end. The original floor may need some more patching. Due to the location and the body design, I think I will do that when I have the body on the rotisserie. I also have to make the bottom of the wheel housing. I am using a stamped quarter panel section. I have made all of the other parts which still need to go on. You can see them in the next installment.
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Now that the door is basically finished, I could make sure it fit in the opening correctly. OK, there is still a lot of tweaking left to do, but I could make sure the door fit correctly. I installed the new toe board late last year. Now I have started putting the floor pan in. Here it is tacked and riveted in place. The rivets hold the pan to the body brace. Once I have the panel welded in completely, I will drill out the rivets, one at a time, and replace them with welds. The rocker is set up with the proper bottom of door clearance and tacked in place. I had to make an extension from the previous owners sill plate (improperly installed on top of rust holes on the other side of the car!). Now that the tacking is done, I will have my body guru, Don, take a look at it and weld everything permanent after he says go.
I used the stock tranny cover to make sure everything lines up. I was going to modify it to clear the Turbo 350 until I pushed my thumb through it while fitting things. I guess the undercoating is holding it together. Guess I will buy a *****in' Products unit.
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