Now finally, the floor, where it all started

Finally we're ready for the floor.  I had installed the outer rocker panels, inner/outer wheel housings, both quarter panels and the toe boards on both sides of the lower firewall.

In prepration for the floor we installed the cross braces and also insered the inner rocker panels.  I was able to use the dimensions on the frame to layout the cross braces since two of them have body bolts going to them.  Another trick I started using at this point in the project instead of the cleko's were sheet metal screws.  They are stronger and easier nearly as easy to put in, they also provide a nice size for plug welds.

This is the new floor including the toe boards which required a bit of work since the entire area at the bottom of the firewall was missing. 

The piture speaks for itself.  The new floor is in and overall fit quite well and I think the best thing is that it's a one-piece item so it really makes life easy when you do have to replace the entire floor.  I did have to use a strap to bring the width of the body at the rocker panels together to the point where it was consistent. Other than that it went together much easier than I expected.  I think the key was replacing the entire floor including braces and rocker panels, this simplified the work.

The Driver Quarter Panel

The drivers quarter went much faster than the passenger.  I learned a lot about how to efficiently remove the rocker and quarter panels so that I was able to preserve the inner structure but also not waste time drilling spot welds. It's much quicker to use a air chisel and sawzall to remove the large section you see below and then work on the edges carefully to preserve the necessary parts that will remain after the quarter is removed.

Since we're replacing the trunk floor and rear panel it's not necessary to preserve much other than the end location for the rear panel.  The most effort removing the quart panel went into the area adjacent to the roof.

Here again you can see a number of braces were needed to maintain the overal shape. Once the quart was removed there were limited remains of the previous structure

Here's one of the first test fits for the new quarter panel.  The drivers quarter panel was actually completed over the 4th of July weekend which made me feel much better since the previous one took over a year :)