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Old 10-20-2011, 09:43 PM   #1
lodown2003
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Default 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

Got the body off the frame and the shell is down to bare metal.next up is the front floor pan. The floor is in good shape, except near the front kick panels and rocker panels. Should i try to save it or should i go with new floor. I think going with new is the way to go .what do you guys think, and whats a good product? Ems looks like they carry a nice floor pan,also should i weld some braces in before i remove old floor? Hope somebody out there has gone through this process.
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Old 10-20-2011, 10:02 PM   #2
Tinker
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

Interested in responses also.
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Old 10-21-2011, 08:33 AM   #3
danliveshere
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

Lowdown it really depends how extensive the corrosion is and that will only become apparent by blasting the entire floor pan. Then you can decide what needs to be replaced. Maybe a good body man on the barn in your area can advise further. I have to replace the entire floors and rockers in my 35 phaeton but i'd only replace what's rotten if i had a choice. My 2c. Good luck.
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Old 10-21-2011, 09:45 AM   #4
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

what do you want it to look like when you are finished ? i made my floor boards to be completely removable and replaced the wooden part with metal and made a subframe of square tubing for the floor to sit on. so now the floor can be taken apart by unbolting it so I have access to everything. i can show you pictures if you are interested in this route
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Old 10-21-2011, 09:53 AM   #5
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

Personally and not to answer for lodown. Pictures would be great.
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Old 10-21-2011, 10:06 AM   #6
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

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Might as well post up my floors. My floors were completely covered in sheetmetal over the original floors. All of it tarred in and bolted or riveted. From underneath the car the original floors looked good and solid.




Trunk is solid.


Many hours with a torch and a putty knife removing tar.

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Old 10-21-2011, 10:11 AM   #7
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

cutout and patched a few spots. Still need more grinding to smooth welds.



The front passenger boards and some of the cowl are bad.



So cut out the bad.



and start to rebuild.



all the pieces in and not bolted.



Hopefully the pictures are showing up. I think I did a decent job for now. I have been making my own pieces but wish I had a nice brake and bead roller. I left plenty of material if I redo the floors in a few/many years and my skills/tools improve. It is a solid floor now.

I would like to then have Bradley replacement floors.

Last edited by Tinker; 11-08-2011 at 12:45 PM.
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Old 10-21-2011, 10:21 AM   #8
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

this started out as the Bitching universal hotrod set and i customized to fit more like a stock set up. i did significant work on the trans tunnel since that was for a TH350. let me see if i can find some pictures of the square tubing subframe. the subframe basically follows the trans tunnel and goes to out to the outside frame under the top of the floor board and i think i put one more middle strut from the trans tunnel leg to the outside frame right in the middle so there was no movement in the floor board. and the subframe was made to not obstruct any of the brake rods clutch rods etc....you can see the sheet metal screws holding he trans tunnel down and then the larger threaded botls with washers holding the larger floor boards down. the subframe basically goes from bolt to bolt with with more leg in the middle








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Old 10-21-2011, 02:26 PM   #9
Don
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

Here are my Bradley full floor pans in my 36 5w ,just put the last weld in a few minutes ago everything fit pretty good iIhad to fabricate the rear corners and the sub rails were rebuilt also,I drilled the subrails and plug welded the floor pans and back corners Ihad the body on frame to aline the pand and used sheet metal screws to hold everything ,took body back off and welded everything up using c clamps to pull pieces togeather.
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Old 10-21-2011, 03:02 PM   #10
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

Wow Don, those bradleys floor pans look great! I heard there is a long wait for those floors (or so I have read) but they are about as good as it gets to real ford pans.

Nice work and thanks for posting.
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Old 10-24-2011, 09:09 PM   #11
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

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Originally Posted by lodown2003 View Post
got the body off the frame and the shell is down to bare metal.next up is the front floor pan. The floor is in good shape, except near the front kick panels and rocker panels. Should i try to save it or should i go with new floor. I think going with new is the way to go .what do you guys think, and whats a good product? Ems looks like they carry a nice floor pan,also should i weld some braces in before i remove old floor? Hope somebody out there has gone through this process.
i wrote a few years ago cant remember for which type of customers car, it has alot of info in it. It is good for a general plan of how to do body work. If you need more help call customer service 216-541-4585

hope this help "the ems guy"

guys if you want to ad or change a sentance send me a pm.
======================


4-20-07

misc. Topics on automotive sheet metal body work

with the thousands of questions fielded by ems customer service every year some basic thoughts rise to the surface

the main question is to which area of the car to begin, some think it depends a lot on the condition of the body. But in reality the starting point is the same the amount of work per step changes.

To many guys start with the frame, and getting that ego boosting motor and trany in place . Well a lot of guys remove the the body to do frame and causes problems,

a rusty body that is weak will flex when removed, and even though the rust may only be the rocker panels. Movement on critical body alignments points can move.. So proceeding with a least rough in metal work would be a minimum.before removing the body. The number guys who call asking about saggy doors and what to do.

Planning is the key to a successful resto job, although i complain about guys doing the engine and trany first i would like to plan for the the engine and trany when starting there body work.

The 2 most critical area’s of a old street body is the firewall and tailpan, why?? Each of these part as often changed. The firewall on early pre 48 bodies usually is changed to handle the small block or big block motor . The changing of the firewall and tailpan can cause a twist in the body , it is best to set the firewall in place so it fits well to the surrounding front cowl. Often the lower cowl panels need repair but it is not of concern at the moment. After getting the firewall in lace

we need to jump to the rear tailpan under the trunk lid, the tailpan is a difficult job for a few reasons.

Tailpans have a trunk lid to content with and often some very shapely body line and reveals. These all must line up perfectly or the repair just looks bad..

The when a tailpan is removed a number of issue’s are in play. First the rear 1/4 panels are basically flapping in the wind cause the tailpan and often the inner trunk floor extension has been removed,

the 1/4 panel which roll around a bit to meet up with the tailpan , line up the tailpan to the body lines on the 1/4 panel. Now bring down the trunk lid to meet up with the tailpan set the height of the tailpan. We like to expect a gap between the trunk lid gap to be 1/8 of inch. Although it could go as low as 1/16 or as large as 3/16 and it may never be the same totally around the trunk lid.

If the trunk lid or body lines do match up a common issue is the height of the 1/4. The 1/4’s may need to be shimmed up or down to square the basic geometric shape of the tailpan. Now if the trunk lid still does not close or line up correctly . When can have worn trunk lid hinges allowing the trunk lid to move at every opening or closing.( more common then you think.) and now for the most unbelievable issue we have seen at ems automotive.

The trunk lid is relatively a thinly shaped panel, even a car that has had soft clean life has experienced many openings of the trunk lid the closing (slamming of the trunk lid even by the center located handle. The trunk lid can and will slowly lose the arch or side to side curve of oem production,

this means the trunk lid widens slowly as it loses its curve, even
though there has not been any body damage to the trunk lid it will flatten slightly, with only a 1/8 on each side it does not take for much for the trunk lid to not fit the replacement tailpan. With all this to consider the way we look at is that to make the tailpan and both 1/4’s fit the trunk lid . The idea behind this it make the car look good at the car show.

We have skipped the floor pans front and rear along with the trunk floor for a reason. Repairing the floors and trunk floor will lock in the body structure. Making the proper fit up of outer body difficult.

After the repairing the firewall and rear tailpan we can now move to the side of the car this would mean rockers lower front 1/4 and lower front cowl. On pre-48 cars the lower front cowl is more of a problem then the post 49 cars aswell on the post 49 cars we have lower rear 1/4 panel panel to deal with.

The replacement of the lower front cowl on pre-48 cars is difficult cause it usually includes the lower front door post and the bolt pattern for the front fenders. 2 critical area’s to align properly, the front door would be the lead issue here as the front fenders have some flex built into them. So there is some latitude.

Then lets jump to the lower front rear 1/4 and fill in with the rocker panel, here again we want the door to fit the door opening we do this by making the opening fit the door, this is the time we can adjust the panels to achieve the desired 1/8 inch door gap. Why do we do this, well when we are at the cruise night every one will see and judge how well the doors fit and the trunk lid, nobody will be lifting up the carpeting to measure to see if you have equal distance in floor ribbing.

Now if you have a post 49 car then we add the lower rear 1/4 panels behind the wheel opening , this section is put on after the lower front 1/4 , for these years of cars the lower front 1/4 is the lead part on side repair. The rear section is just line up the wheel opening and go. If fender skirts are used then they must be check for fit before final welding.

We have talked about alot of fitting and adjusting and there have been much talk on how to do this. I like the simple and unconventional method , we use steel pop rivets, it is easier to fit the panel put a few pop rivets in and check for fit, the problem with tack welding is it requires cutting or grinding to change and could make your weld edge a mess when final welding begins and then there are the method of cleco’s or some other fancy system.




Well pop rivets are cheap and if you need a 100 rivets well it only $3 bucks. Why i like the steel rivet is when i go to weld i can weld right through the rivet. Rivets that are welded over can be drilled and spot welded to finish also the cleco clamps can get in the way welding making mistakes easier,.

The old timers say gas welding, well there called old timers cause there in the stone age and hammer welding was invented before gas welding and is more about bragging then good welding, we recommend m.i.g welding with a covering gas like co2. Any 110 volt can do the job, just get the biggest and most name brand you can afford. The cheaper ones only take a lot longer to do the job then the bigger ones. This applies to sheet metal only frame work well that is a another story.

Now that the outside sheet metal is in place it is time to finish the floor and trunk, pretty much drop it and go now if you need to fit and trim the floors to fit so what your car is gonna look good on the outside.

All floor pans are held up by some type of floor brace or stiffener, many of
these are available some are not depending on your car. If there are none available angle iron can work but is not great looking underneath some type of square or rectangular tubing is strong and looks good, dont forget to beef up the area where your seat will bolt to the floor, it is best to bolt the seat to the floor brace but it may not line up, some heavier steel plate 1/8 thick is good for this and make it big enough to grab your seat belt bolts too!

When setting the trunk floor make it look good , but have some planning done for the gas tank. If change the gas tank check with the mfg. To see if any special mounting requirements are needed it is much better to weld them on
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Old 12-14-2011, 05:31 AM   #12
nitrohonkey
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

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Originally Posted by Tinker View Post
Wow Don, those bradleys floor pans look great! I heard there is a long wait for those floors (or so I have read) but they are about as good as it gets to real ford pans.

Nice work and thanks for posting.
I agree. I understand they will have another run started by the end of this year(2011)...anxiously awaiting a return email! Looks great!
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Old 01-30-2014, 02:13 PM   #13
celderton
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Default Re: 1936 ford coupe floor pan help

I am rebuilding the rear body (and more) of a 35 cabriolet. Years ago it was cut from the rumble opening straight down each side to the floor pan to make a homemade pickup. The cut exposes remains of some structure below the body skin; some reinforcement directly below the rumble cover, and a shaped horizontal rib. The structure for the spare tire mount was also cut off just above the upper mounting holes. The inner and outer tail pans were also badly rusted. I am looking for some information on what this rear body structure looked like. I have the inner and outer EMS pans, with the inner pan fitted to the car, and the spare tire mount also fitted. I will need to fabricate the section between the outer EMS pan and the rumble lid, the lower half of the badly rusted lid, and the reinforcement structure. Does the top of the spare tire bracket tie to the horizontal rib below the rumble lid? Was any of this structure shaped to the body skin, or was it straight and separate from the skin? Any advice is greatly appreciated, pictures are even better. Thanks, Chuck
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