73 mach 1 floor board replacement questions

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jace73

Active member
Joined
Feb 22, 2015
Messages
29
Reaction score
0
Location
Caddo Mills, TX
My Car
73 Mach 1
Getting prep done to replace floor pans, removed seat mounting risers but what do I do about inner rockers? I see where they are welded at the top but I assume they will also need to be removed to weld in replacement at rockers. I can not see how they weld in at the bottom and why would my inner rockers be mashed[hammered] in at the rear 4inches on both sides of car?

Jeff

 
That's not factory or correct at all. Obviously someone has previously worked in that area. You'll need to replace the inner rocker by patching in the end piece or replace the entire inner rocker. The inner rocker looks to be solid and only the floor pan looks rusty. Underneath the car will tell the truth about more rust. That seam where the panels meet is pretty beat up. Perhaps the car was in an accident previously and you're seeing a bad previous repair.

 
Agreed. You're going to need to get some more exposure to the floor pans to get the big picture on the total extent of the damage (i.e., pull the quarter trim panels and anything else in the area - which will also protect those pieces from collateral damage while you're repairing the rust damage).

Mine actually required replacement of the sheet metal floor pieces above the torque box extending to under the back seat. The vendor I purchased those pieces from no longer make them, but the earlier model years have the same pieces that would with some modification.

Here's the same area of mine with the new pans tacked in. You can see the "intermediate" panel on the passenger side under where the seat cushion would go. Also had to fabricate some pieces to go over the torque boxes.

11.jpg

QCode351Mach (Scott) has some awesome videos on how to replace the floor pans - it would be a good idea to check those out.

Hopefully, you're only looking at cleaning up/patching the inner rockers and dropping in some new floor pans - not too tough at all. ::thumb::

Getting a useable set of fastback seat platforms (if yours are no good, that is) will be the tough part. Be as careful as you can about getting those apart from the floor pans/inner rockers/transmission tunnel as you can if they're at all useable.

Good luck with it, and keep the pics coming. ::thumb::

 
I can't see how to get the inner rockers out. Any help would be appreciated. It's the same on both sides I have no idea why someone would do that.

 
You'll need to get the floor pans out, then repair the inner rockers. Then, the new floor pans will drop right in.

If you can find a donor car with good rockers, have the 'yard dawgs cut the rockers free, then make patches out of on the pieces you need. Replacing the rockers will be a major structural repair, requiring you to jig the car as you cut them out so it doesn't get out of shape.

If it turns out your seat platforms are bad, too (hard to tell from here with all the rust), you might have them cut out around the platforms as well (especially, if the car is a fastback).

 
jace73- I have never seen what you have on your inner rockers! It almost looks like some has put convertible-style inners into your car for some reason. Eric's picture shows what a coupe/ fastback inner looks like. I have another picture of the driver's side, where are your outer seat belts attached? I circled the factory nut insert in the inner rocker where the outer belt is supposed to go. You can also see the floor pan seam in the pic, the seat riser is on top of the floor, and conceals the pan seam.

Capture of Floor.JPG

In order to repair yours, you're going to have to get those inners out to expose the seam on the floor pan...

 
Those are convertible inner rockers. FB and Coupes do not have these.

If you have a fastback you can remove these, repair the outer rockers and then weld in new full floor sections.

If you have a convertible you will need to find a donor convert Mustang or Cougar with decent inner rockers. As of late last year these were not available as repops.

As bad as your floors look I recommend that you check the torque boxes at the front and back of the floors. If they are shot you will not not have anything to weld the new floors to.

Best of luck!

Paul

 
Btw, convertible rockers in a sportsroof or coupe are a trick to make the car more rigid.

Not a bad idea.

 
I have better close up pics of the on-going floor replacement in my 72 fastback, but unfortunately they are on my other PC. I can post later this week if you'd like more reference photos...

 
Those are convertible inner rockers as others have stated.

By the looks of that floor I would go the one piece route like I did (see build thread) cheaper, easier, cleaner, faster and you can't beat how the finished product looks.

No disrespect to anybody but mig welded together "sections" by inexperienced welders look like _________

 
As others have said you need to remove the convertible inner rockers to replace your floors.

The full 65- 8 or even the 69-70 full floor will fit

There are issues of the ribbing being incorrect. You pretty much have to hammer and dolly the ribbing flat in sections. You also end up with 8 holes for seat bolts you don't need and 2 extra drain holes.

As for the L & R correct pans, when done well the seam [ if overlapped ] or the butt weld joints are in the tunnel.

 
Back
Top