11-02-2012, 09:51 PM
In the above picture, the floor is obviously new. The painted sections are original. Again, you want to leave a 1/2" lip around the side and rear of the floor pan. The factory originally put the floors on the underside of these edges, but it is a lot easier to leave that alone and just put your new floor on top of those edges.
To remove the floor from the cross member, I recommend the grinder with a ¼” grinding disc. Rather than drilling a million spot welds, I grind them down and air chisel the old floor off. When beginning to grind across the surface of the floors, you can often find a little depression every few inches. These dimples are the spots of the original welds. This method usually works even on extremely rusted floors. Grind the original flooring at each spot weld. If you aren’t skilled with a grinder, go a little at a time until you get through the floor. Don’t go all the way through the cross member! If in doubt, take the air chisel and try to hammer around the spot you are trying to grind through. If it is still stuck, the layers won’t separate. If they do separate, you are done with that weld. Do this for all remaining welds on the rear side of the cross member. Since you cut the original floor along it, you can easily get the air chisel between the old floor and the cross member lip.
If you want to take a break from that, you can cut the front section fo the floor out. You can cut the floor along the front edge of the cross member. Then cut along the transmission tunnel toward the front edge of the floor. Stop when you reach where the floor begins to turn up toward the firewall. At that point, you will want to cut about 1” from the edge of the floor. Stop when you get near the firewall. Do not cut along the seam between the upper section (angled portion) of the floor and the firewall. Cut about ½” down from that seam and cut across from the tunnel to the kick panel. You can cut the floor all the way along the kick panel. When you get back down to the flat portion, leave a ½” lip like you did on the rear section. This is described as cutting counter-clockwise orientation.
![[Image: 3.jpg]](http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy147/broncosbybart/Mellow%20Yellow/3.jpg)
In this picture you should get a good idea of what needs to happen. You will need to grind the front spot welds out of the cross member and carefully cut the top layer of floor from off of the cross member.
To remove the floor from the cross member, I recommend the grinder with a ¼” grinding disc. Rather than drilling a million spot welds, I grind them down and air chisel the old floor off. When beginning to grind across the surface of the floors, you can often find a little depression every few inches. These dimples are the spots of the original welds. This method usually works even on extremely rusted floors. Grind the original flooring at each spot weld. If you aren’t skilled with a grinder, go a little at a time until you get through the floor. Don’t go all the way through the cross member! If in doubt, take the air chisel and try to hammer around the spot you are trying to grind through. If it is still stuck, the layers won’t separate. If they do separate, you are done with that weld. Do this for all remaining welds on the rear side of the cross member. Since you cut the original floor along it, you can easily get the air chisel between the old floor and the cross member lip.
If you want to take a break from that, you can cut the front section fo the floor out. You can cut the floor along the front edge of the cross member. Then cut along the transmission tunnel toward the front edge of the floor. Stop when you reach where the floor begins to turn up toward the firewall. At that point, you will want to cut about 1” from the edge of the floor. Stop when you get near the firewall. Do not cut along the seam between the upper section (angled portion) of the floor and the firewall. Cut about ½” down from that seam and cut across from the tunnel to the kick panel. You can cut the floor all the way along the kick panel. When you get back down to the flat portion, leave a ½” lip like you did on the rear section. This is described as cutting counter-clockwise orientation.
In this picture you should get a good idea of what needs to happen. You will need to grind the front spot welds out of the cross member and carefully cut the top layer of floor from off of the cross member.