Dent floor the same as a bump?

[Ranchero50]

more pics.

I'm wondering how hard it would be to swap out the bad section of the floor anf cabmounts. Figured to cut it across the front if the seat and the firewall pinchweld and graft in the new. The door sills should be pretty easy to pop apart. I figure I'd rather spend that $300 on seals and other bits that sheetmetal.

Jamie

[snake]

My understanding is that the entire floorpan is in fact the same except that the dentsides have an extension at the back. It seems like I verified this once but it has been quite awhile ago so no guarantees. I don't recall if its actually a separate piece that was welded on at the back of the cab (~3-4") or if they just made the floor pan longer.........

Either way, you would have to splice the floor someplace under or behind the seat. I think it would be fairly simple to cut the floor straight across at the back edge of the doors and cut along the firewall seam as you have mentioned and basically replace that whole section. You will want to 'over-cut' and trim it to fit after removal etc but that shouldn't be too bad. My only question/concern would be the kick-panel and side cowl because its a 'hidden' double panel area But it should work if you measure and cut carefully. At least all of your seams will be hidden or covered so you won't have to worry about body work to hide them. Just make sure everything lines up good for door fittment etc.

[Ranchero50]

Thanks for the replies. One nice thing about using a dentside donar is I can peel away the outer layers to get to the floor and kickpanels. I noticed the floor panels are spot welded to the top of the rocker panels on my '71 and will come apart easily so I figure pop the pinchweld in the front and the rockers, then peel away the door pillar and finally cut across the seat frame. If it works out I'll try to get the rear crossmember since my ends are rotten as well.

I did the same thing to my ranchero years ago and it was harder with the front subframe tying into the floor, but everything fit nicely. Even putting aftermarket floors in my '69 mustang was a pain more because the repro stuff didn't fit as good as the factory panels I grafted into the ranchero...

I'm more concerned about the cab mount width being off or some other misalignment by mixing different generation cab parts. I'll probally put the cab on jackstands at the rocker and weld a tie brace across to the door frames to keep it solid. Flame cut the majority of the metal away and then grind or air chisel the rest. Figuring a day on each cab and final welding.

Jamie