35 floor thickness?
 

Due to the lack of quality repop floors for my 35 Coupe, most of which are not even close to original( street rod style). I’ve decided to make my own, well on the flat ones anyway. 🙂
I made patterns from what’s left, but what is the thickness of the sheeting to match what’s there?
Most of my trunk area, and the kick up where the drive line passes through is the worst.
This car was an old Hot Rod from the 50’s, so not show quality by any means, but I want it to look right.

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

i believe most automotive sheet metal is 18 ga. , or supposed to be

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

So looking on the inter web, depending on which chart you use, it can be somewhere between .047 to .051 thick steel?

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

my antique starrett gauge no. 283 ! lists 18 gauge to be 050 thick. however, i think every piece of metal i ever checked was thinner than the gauge says. its not the gauge i suspect, its the metal they sell us now days

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

Isn't "original (street rod style)" an oxymoron?

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

LOL!
I meant the ones available are street rod style. Plus the fact that shipping floor pans to Alaska is very costly.

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

The Floor plans are 18 gauge .

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

There are a lot of different gauges. Ford went by US Standard Revised Gauge. This is close to .047" thickness at 18 gauge. Ford had their own rolling mill so they could make it whatever thickness they wanted to.

I purchase the AKDQ (aluminum killed draw quality) type steel to make it easier to form. Its quicker if a person has dies but it can be done on a steel table with various forming tools and hammers. The last sheets I purchased were from Stock Car Steel. They have a web-site. Bradley has special steel forms cut for him to do his forming process but it takes forever for him to fabricate one for a customer. His work is excellent but the complaints are just too many to trust him to get the job done.

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

Local steel supply doesn’t have anything thinner than .062, but I called a place that makes roofing and gutters and they say they have some cold rolled at 18 gauge. Have to get over there and look at it to see if it’s the right stuff. Neither one of them knew what AKDQ steel was.

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

I also would like to learn more about this "AKDQ" steel.

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

"DQAK is an acronym for Drawing Quality Aluminum Killed. The base metal is 1008 Drawing Quality Steel. As compared with sheets of commercial quality, Drawing Quality Aluminum Killed sheet has a greater degree of ductility and is more consistent in performance, using specially killed steel with Aluminum as the deoxiclizing agent."

https://stockcarsteel.com/cold-rolle...ak-steel-sheet

https://www.myalro.com/gradeinfo/Met...t.aspx?gp=0352

HAMB thread on topic: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...to-use.786599/

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

Do a web search on DQAK Steel;

DRAWING QUALITY - ALUMINUM KILLED (DQAK) - Specially killed steel using aluminum as the deoxiclizing agent. "

Re: 35 floor thickness?
 

So I found some steel, had the panels cut. They look OK but I thought I’d measure them today and I came up with .057 thickness, which is a tad on the heavy side. Hopefully it won’t be too hard to roll a bead in them. Plus side is, they did a real good job of cutting and bending them to just what I wanted. Not too bad a price either cost me I think $65 for everything, three pieces.
I would have to of paid double that for the pieces to be shipped here.

But after all the work I’ve done on my fenders I cannot believe they are the same thickness of steel. Seems like they are a lot thinner.