1967 Firebird Convertible - Project "LEGACY"

[Firebird-Geek]

Between using the plasma cutter to make room and the air hammer to help seperate those spot welds... OUT comes the old.





I will be removing the rear section... just spit it into two for ease of removal.

[Firebird-Geek]

To keep the frame rails from moving when removing the floor... I already had 1" square tubing welded to the 2" tubing that runs along the rockers and then to the frame rails themselves. This should not allow any movement of the rails.

[Firebird-Geek]

Plasma + Air Hammer + Grinder... damn it was NO FUN removing this part. I broke off 2 air hammer chisels with this section. There are LAYERS of metal that make this part of the floor up.



FINALLY it is OUT!

[Tuske427]

Cool, it's looking like you're making good progress

[Firebird-Geek]

The front toeboards had a bit of pitting on them... the drivers side was worse than the passenger. But, being that I have gone this far, leaving pitted metal didn't seem right.


Oddly the floor pan was not rusted bad at all on the drivers side of the main floor. Carpet must have held more moisture on the toeboard, for it sure did have some good pitting.


Looking back, I may have been able to leave the passengers... for the pitting was not bad at all, BUT there was some junk under the panel that was good to get to and seal up.


New "show quality" drivers side toe board patch panel... not really sure if it is "show quality".


Trimmed patch panel to the contour that best worked.


Clamped and marked area to cut...


Cut out the the area to be patched... it was nice that I could alteast get in there and clean this area up before welding in the new patch.


removed all the rust, and then gave everything a few good coats of epoxy primer to both the backside of the patch panel and the floor structure.



Did the same with the passenger toeboard. Look at the junk under the toeboard. So even though the area almost didn't need to be cutout, I felt better that i was able to get in here and clean it up.



Started to tack everything back together. But welding this thin stuff can be lots of fun. A tip my dad (who taught me to weld at a very young age) gave me... if you have a large gap that is to much for your mig to easily fill, take a metal cloths hanger and feed it into the welding pool (almost like a tig welder) and it will easily fill the gap.



Welded in... just need to dress the welds a bit and hit it with primer.

[Firebird-Geek]

In goes the main floor for a test fit. It did fit pretty good... just needed to be pulled back into the frame rails (there was about a 1/4 inch gap). To remedy this, I used rachet straps and attached them to the square tubing I have attached to the car acting as a temporary jig for the body. It worked great!

[Firebird-Geek]

After numerous times of taking the floor in and out to check fit... I finally was able to scuff the e-coat (checking for rust) and apply a few good coats of epoxy primer before it gets put into place. I know I will have to do this again after welding the floor in, but it is so much easier doing the initial scuffing with the floor out, and not attached to the car.

[Firebird-Geek]

The "subframe locators" I installed worked GREAT.

I used some tubing and a flat washer and centered the subframe bolts into the existing floor location then welded 1" tubing to attach these to the 2" side tubing... this way I should be able to lay the new floor in and if I can thread the bolts... It should be in the exact same location as the old floor.

[Firebird-Geek]

Had a few gap issues with the front of the floor... nothing a little cutoff wheel and welding can't fix!


cut a relief into the corner, then a little persuasion from the hammer... brought the corner in where it needed to be.

[Firebird-Geek]

Tools of the trade you need for this... Hammer, screws. clamps and lots of patience!