Thread: help in welding new floor

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i have a 1936 chevy sdn. if anybody has done a floor in a 1934-39 chevy's that would be great. i would like your input. what you did and how

My first ? would be how well do you weld? if you are an experienced welder then it should be a breeze, if not i would start practicing before you dig in to the new floor.

....and what type of welder do you have??? Bill

i have built steel floors for older cars i do them all about the same you need to build a frame that holds and mounts the body down to the frame and cross members to hold the seats from ripping out if some thing bad happens i use 1by1 tubing build all mounts and tie in to the rockers and body after i have cross members and all mounts i need for seat belts etc i then plug weld 18 gage steel on the 1by1 frame

If patch panels are available ,order all of those you need before you start cutting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by billlsbird

....and what type of welder do you have??? Bill

i do not have a weld as of yet. i will be getting one at the end of the month. i am looking at a lincoln 140c or 140 pro. and i am new at welding. i have bought the new floor from direct sheetmetal.

As Pat mentioned, you really need to build a subframe first out of some tubing, The stock floors usually have some supporting structures built in, but when you redo them it is easiest to build a subframe first, then spot weld all the sheet metal to that.

You can coat the subframe and underside of the sheet metal with weld through primer first to keep things from rusting in the future. Here is a picture of a typical subframe setup.


Don

the old supports on the car are still in great condition (red). the rocker panels in this year has wood behind it runs the length of the body (black). this car was built in the mid thirties. so there is alot of wood in this car

thanks

at this time you may want to add spots under the floor for seat belt mounts if you want add safety them older car they did not have much for safety. if the wood is in good shape i can see you may not want more work .but add steel would help in a side shot hit to the rocker .hate to think about that. but it can happen when building a floor i think about stuff like this

I forgot Chevy was one of the last holdouts in using wood for subframing. Ouch.

As Pat said, the correct way is to get rid of all or most of the wood, and build a steel subframe, but it isn't for the faint of heart sometimes. My Kid did his '29 Fordor and said never again, and he LOVES to fabricate stuff.

The key is to get everything VERY square before you start welding, so that doors close properly and panels line up.

Don

yes it can be tough with them old wood cars like re buiding a house holding the hoof up and building evey thing new basement and side walls but the roof. i knew a guy had a 34 internal pickup all wood said it would not pass tech in at the strip .it needed seat belts .at the time i did fab work for him. i told him for me to do it rigth it would take some time . he told me he did not need me. but two roofing nails. nail the belt ends to the back on the cab

Well maybe they were very GOOD nails.

Don